Talking about the world's industrial robots, we can't get around the four big families represented by Fanuc, Kuka, ABB, Yaskawa Electric, and in the Asian market, they are also important, and occupy more than 70% of the market share of China's robotics industry. So, what are the respective characteristics of the products of the four families of robots, and what are their strengths and weaknesses?
The four families have their own strengths in each technology area, ABB's core area in the control system, KUKA in the system integration application and body manufacturing, Fanuc in the CNC system, Yaskawa in the servo motor and motion controller field.
ABB Switzerland
ABB is headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland. ABB's business covers five areas: power products, discrete automation, motion control, process automation, and low-voltage products, and is best known for its power and automation technologies.
ABB emphasizes the integrity of the robot itself, and in the case of its six-axis robots, the speed of a single-axis robot isn't the fastest, but the six-axis joint operation after the accuracy is very high.
Core areas
ABB's core technology is the motion control system, which is also the biggest difficulty for the robot itself. With motion control technology, ABB can easily realize the performance of robots in terms of trajectory accuracy, motion speed, cycle time, programmability, etc., and dramatically improve the quality, efficiency, and reliability of production.
Technology: the best algorithms, but slightly more expensive
ABB first started from the inverter, in China, most of the power station and inverter station are done by ABB. For the robot itself, the biggest difficulty lies in the motion control system, and ABB's core strength is motion control. It can be said that ABB's robotics algorithm is the best of the four main brands, not only a comprehensive motion control solutions, product use of technical documentation is also quite professional and specific.
It is reported that ABB's control cabinet randomly comes with Robot Studio software, which allows 3D operation simulation as well as online functions. Connection with external equipment to support a variety of common industrial bus interfaces, but also through the labeling input and output interfaces to achieve a variety of brands of welding power supply, cutting power supply, PLC and other communications. In addition, ABB's control cabinet can also be freely set up to start the arc, heating, welding, closing arc section of the current, voltage, speed, swing and other parameters, can be set to realize a variety of complex swing trajectory.
ABB also pay attention to the overall characteristics of the robot, in the emphasis on quality at the same time also pay attention to the design of the robot, but as we all know, equipped with a high standard of control system ABB robots are very expensive. In addition, a number of companies responded in the four main brands, ABB's delivery time is the longest.
Domestic market analysis
ABB in the domestic implementation of high-profile strategy, focusing on cooperation with large Chinese customers. Huawei, Changhong, and Topstar are the leaders of the application side and integrators in the 3C home appliance industry, respectively, and have a wind vane role in the industry, which shows that ABB attaches great importance to the 3C industry. Its future products will be more integrated with intelligent, connected, big data and other advanced technologies. The body of the enterprise began to move towards the application side, and the relationship with the system integrator will be closer; at the same time, the body of the enterprise itself began to focus on the development of integrated applications.
KUKA
Core Areas
KUKA robots are used in material handling, processing, spot and arc welding in industries such as automation, metalworking, food and plastics.
Technology: simple to operate, but with a high failure rate
The acquisition of KUKA by Meitai can be considered to have set KUKA on fire. If ABB is a car in the Mercedes-Benz, then Kuka is a car in the BMW, although the same high-end car, but the BMW repair rate is higher than the Mercedes-Benz.
It is reported that, relative to ABB, Fanuc and other robots, Kuka robot repair rate is higher. Some people in the know reacted to having used Kuka's robots, almost every day there is a robot out of order.
Kuka in the domestic sales of the advantages of secondary development to do a good job, even if there is no technical basis of the white people within a day can get started; in the human-machine interface, in order to cater to the habits of the Chinese people, Kuka do very simple, like playing a game machine as well as the use of the robot, in contrast to the Japanese brand of the robot's control system keyboard is a lot of slightly more complex to operate.
It is worth mentioning that KUKA is doing better in the field of heavy-duty robots. KUKA and ABB have the majority of the market share in robots above 120KG, while KUKA has the most sales in heavy-duty 400KG and 600KG robots.
Domestic market analysis
KUKA is currently accelerating the layout of the Chinese market localization services, to open up new territories in Southwest China, the future in the field of automotive equipment will continue to force. The acquisition of KUKA by the United States has been in the history books, the influence of the two brands and the market response has had a significant impact on the future of the United States + KUKA to produce the joint effect is also worth looking forward to.
Japan Fanuc (FANUC)
FANUC was founded in 1956, three years after the first launch of the electro-hydraulic stepper motor, into the 70's, thanks to the microelectronics technology, power electronics technology, especially the rapid development of computational technology, FANUC company resolutely abandoned its home to make electro-hydraulic stepping motor CNC products and began to transform. Motor CNC products and began the transition. 1976 FANUC company developed a successful CNC system, followed by the joint development with Siemens with a high level of CNC system, and gradually become the world's CNC system, design, manufacturing strength of one of the strongest enterprises.
Core areas
FANUC is the world's professional CNC manufacturer, industrial robots and other companies compared to the unique characteristics of: process control is more convenient, the same type of robot base size is smaller, and has a unique arm design.
Technology: very high precision, but not overload
Fanuc's research on CNC systems can be traced back to 1956, with the foresight of the Japanese technologists foreseeing the arrival of the era of the 3C, and set up a research team. In addition, Fanuc's industrial robots are unique compared to other companies in that the process control is more convenient, the same type of robot base size is smaller, and has a unique arm design.
It is worth mentioning that Fanuc more CNC machine tool finishing blade compensation function applied to the robot, from the algorithm implanted blade compensation function, which makes the robot in the process of finishing cutting can be realized in a circle to the inside, and Yasukawa's robot body itself does not have this function, to achieve this function can only be achieved through the secondary development of the function of compensation, which is the very some customers reflect Yasukawa robot. This is the place where some customers reflect that Yaskawa robots are not very convenient.
But Fanuc in the stability of the robot, do not do the best, in the process of full load operation, when the speed reaches 80%, Fanuc robot will be alarmed, which also shows the overload capacity of Fanuc robot is not very good. So Fanuc's strength lies in light-load, high-precision applications, which is why Fanuc's miniaturized robots (those under 24KG) are selling well.
Domestic Market Analysis
FANUC's strategy is slightly different from others, its strategy is to find and enter the market with high demand, targeting the Chinese market with huge growth potential. In the Chinese market, FANUC sales of 55% of industrial robots used in the general manufacturing industry, ranking the top three were home appliances, logistics and electrical and electronic industries. FANUC is currently the largest total market sales of robotics brand, do not rely on the sales of large customers, the use of open market strategy.
Core areas
YASKAWA ELECTRIC mainly produces servo and motion controllers are the key parts of the manufacturing robot, and has developed a variety of automated work robots such as welding, assembly, painting, handling, and other core industrial robot products, including: spot welding and arc welding robots, painting and handling robots, Its core industrial robot products include spot and arc welding robots, painting and handling robots, LCD glass panel transfer robots, and semiconductor chip transfer robots, etc. It is one of the earliest manufacturers to apply industrial robots to the field of semiconductor production.
Technology: good stability, but slightly less accurate
Nearly 100 years of electrical motor technology heritage, Yaskawa's AC servo and inverter market share is firmly in the world's first, as early as 1977, Yaskawa developed Japan's first all-electric industrial robot.
Yaskawa started with motors, so it can maximize the inertia of the motor, so the biggest feature of Yaskawa's robots is that they have large loads, high stability, and do not cause alarms during full-load, full-speed operation, and can even overload operation. Therefore, YASKAWA has a relatively large market in heavy load robot applications, such as the automotive industry.
Compared to Fanuc's robots, Yaskawa's robots are not as accurate, and at the same price, if the customer requires high accuracy, they will often choose Fanuc's robots. But Yaskawa robot price advantage is obvious, can be said to be the four major brands in the lowest price, cost-effective, Yaskawa's welding robot including welding package, the offer is only 13/14 million, compared with Panasonic's welding robots, Yaskawa went to the road of batch.
Domestic market analysis
Yaskawa in recent years in the domestic market, the big action is frequent: the establishment of new robotics centers, increased investment in factories, and the United States to establish a joint venture, etc., intended to accelerate the realization of localized services. China is a demand-side market, and Midea is also a home appliance giant with a huge demand for robots, which can help Yaskawa realize increased sales.
Yaskawa has been researching service robots, especially in the field of medical robots, but the Japanese market is not progressing well, and the domestic market for service robots may bring new growth. At present, major robotics companies tend to seek cooperation with larger application-oriented enterprises, with the increasingly fierce competition in the market, such strategic cooperation will be more frequent in the future.
Industrial robot body is the best when the European products, to Kuka most top. And when the four big families into the Asian market, ABB robot localization quality has declined, Japan's Yasukawa, Fanuc and Europe and the United States compared to the product is higher CP value, more in line with the needs of customers in China.
Nowadays, robot manufacturers usually prefer to cooperate with well-known brand car manufacturers to bind, such as Fuchs Automotive only KUKA, General Motors mainly with Fanuc, the European brand is more fond of ABB, etc., which is closely related to the adjustment of the strategy of the industry's four major families.
The start of the four families are engaged in the robotics industry chain related business, such as ABB and Yasukawa Electric engaged in power equipment motor business, Fanuc research CNC systems, Kuka initially engaged in welding equipment. Ultimately, they can become the world's leading integrated industrial automation enterprises, are because of the robot body and its core parts of the technology, and committed to invest in research and ultimately realize the integration of development.
Whether it is historical reasons or the influence of cultural concepts, from the four main robotics companies in the product we can see the enterprise in the face of changes in the market and choose a different path of development, and who can go further, will ultimately be determined by the market.