It can be seen that China's domestic CNC machine tools, especially in the high-grade CNC machine tools still lack of market competitiveness, the main reason for this is that the depth of research and development of domestic CNC machine tools is not enough, the manufacturing level is still backward, the lack of service consciousness and ability, CNC, system production and application of poor promotion and lack of CNC personnel. We should see the situation clearly, fully familiar with the shortcomings of domestic CNC machine tools, and strive to develop advanced technology, increase technological innovation and training services, in order to shorten the gap between the developed countries.
The United States, Germany and Japan are the world today in the research, design, manufacture and use of CNC machine tools, the most advanced technology, the most experienced countries. Because of their social and historical conditions and different government development strategies, each with its own characteristics.
The development of CNC machine tools in the United States
Successive U.S. governments have attached great importance to the machine tool industry, the U.S. Department of Defense and other departments due to its military needs and constantly put forward the direction of the development of machine tools, scientific research tasks, and to provide adequate funding, and at the same time, the network of the world's talent, in the development of especially pay attention to the "efficiency" and "Innovation", emphasizing on basic scientific research. Machine tool technology continues to innovate, such as the development of the world's first CNC machine tools in 1952, 1958 created a machining center, the early 1970s developed into FMS, 1987, the first open CNC system. As the United States first combined with automobile, bearing production needs, the full development of a large number of mass production automation required by the automatic line, and electronic, computer technology in the world's leading, so its CNC machine tool host design, manufacturing and CNC system based on solid, and has always attached importance to scientific research and innovation, so its high-performance CNC machine tool technology in the world has been leading. But its shortcomings lie in favor of basic scientific research and ignore the application of technology, coupled with the relaxation of government guidance in the 1980s, resulting in a slowdown in the growth of CNC machine tool production in 1982 by the upstart Japan more than, and a large number of imports. From the 90's, the government corrected the past bias, CNC machine tools from technology to practical, and production gradually rebounded.
The U.S. machine tool industry started 50 years later than the United Kingdom, but in terms of manufacturing technology soon exceeded the United Kingdom, jumped to the top of the world. 1896 Ford manufactured the first car, in order to tie in with the mass production of automobiles, the Gleason Company developed a complete set of equipment for gear machining, measuring equipment and cutting tools, and other companies have also developed a number of new high-efficiency automated machine tools. 1934 developed the world's first combined machine tool automatic line. In 1934, the world's first combined machine tool automatic line was developed. 1948 established the world's first annual output of 30 million sets of bearings of the automatic line, so that the rapid increase in automobile production, automobile production in 1950 reached 8 million (compared with China's automobile production in 2000 was 2.07 million). Since then, the U.S. machine tool industry has developed rapidly, and has long ranked first in the world in terms of technological sophistication, output, and production scale of machine tools. Although in the mid-1980s, the U.S. economic recession, the machine tool industry was once in decline, was Japan, Germany has overtaken, but soon by the government to take measures to reverse the situation.
At present, the U.S. machine tool manufacturing industry in the high-efficiency automated machine tools, automatic production lines, NC machine tools, FMS and other machine tool technology and industrial production is still in the world's leading position. Mainly distributed in the Midwest and Northeastern states, the main consumer users are the automotive manufacturing industry, the aviation industry, the construction industry and medical equipment manufacturing, etc..
The United States of America's machine tool technology to maintain long-term leadership in the world, the government in guiding the strengthening of research and development and continuous innovation has played a crucial role. Mainly in:
First of all, the direction of major scientific research issues to set out plans, measures and provide adequate funding. For example, for the research and development of NC machine tools to provide substantial funding. For a new generation of NC system research and development to provide 100 million U.S. dollars in funding.
Secondly, the organization and guide the relevant scientific research units and scientific research cooperation between enterprises. For example: the development of a new generation of NC systems, by the National Center for Manufacturing Sciences and the U.S. Air Force collaborative development; the development of CIM, the government organized General Motors, Boeing Aircraft Company and the machine tool industry companies *** with the research and development.
Once again, the new product development, the organization of the order to promote the use, while accelerating the further deepening of scientific research. For example: in 1952, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed the first NC milling machine, immediately after the organization of the military sector ordered 100 units for production and continuous improvement, thus accelerating the NC machine tool technology continues to improve. Another example: in 1994, the United States G & L developed the world's first VARLA4 parallel mechanism of machine tools, timely organization of the relevant universities to study and analyze and use in the enterprise in order to further improve the technology.
Because of the lack of skilled workers in the United States and the relatively high wages of workers, machine tool users require machine tool manufacturers to use the performance of the machine tool is more flexible and can be repeatedly programmed to reduce the need for skilled workers. As the automotive industry is becoming more and more competitive, the car model update cycle is getting shorter and shorter, the automotive industry requires machine tool performance flexibility, wide range of use, commissioning cycle is short to adapt to the automotive production batch size is small, the requirements of the rapid replacement. The demand for high-speed machine tools in the U.S. aerospace, automotive and mold manufacturing industries is increasing. Due to environmental reasons, many customers require machine tools to reduce the use of coolant. All of the above shows that technological progress is the main factor affecting the development of the U.S. machine tool industry.
For example, the current electronic, high-speed, precision has become the mainstream of the development of the U.S. machine tool industry: such as the U.S. companies through the network of business-to-business services, the effective integration of suppliers and customers of procurement and inventory systems; large automotive companies (General Motors, Ford, Daimler/Chrysler) and aerospace companies (Boeing, Lockheed) are through this network of services in the global context with the relevant System synchronous design and development; machine tool industry manufacturing process governance, remote monitoring, troubleshooting and after-sales service is becoming increasingly popular; milling machine spindles using hydraulic bearing molds, the use of non-contact instead of ball bearings; linear motors out of the application limitations, and enter the commercialization.
Looking to the future, the United States machine tool manufacturing has the following obvious development trends:
One, the pursuit of higher processing efficiency of the machine tool. Because improving the efficiency of machine tools is the same as shortening the parts processing cycle, shorten the processing cycle has two ways, one way is to increase the cutting speed, that is, to increase the spindle speed. At present, the lathe and turning center spindle speed are more than 8000r/min, machining center spindle speed are generally 15000 ~ 20000r/min, there are 40000r/min and 60000r/min. Similarly, the speed given to a substantial increase, up to 20m/min, or even 60m/min. With the increase in cutting speed, the structural rigidity of the machine tool and the dynamic characteristics of the machine tool have significantly improved, high-speed spindle and tool system dynamic balance design has also gained a corresponding improvement; another way is to reduce the non-processing time. Because there is a large amount of useless time consumed in the parts machining process in the workpiece handling, loading and unloading, installation and adjustment, tool change and spindle speed up, down, therefore, the composite machine tool R & D has developed very quickly in the recent past, the core of which is in a machine tool to complete the turning, milling, drilling, boring, tapping, reaming and reaming and other operational processes. The main trend in the development of lathe technology is a multifunctional machine tool, the current multifunctional composite machine tool is actually a machining center with turning functions. In grinding, the current technology focus on the development of PC-based grinding control system, a grinder can carry out internal, external and step axis grinding, or to the machine tool with different cycles to speed up the production process, both grinding fast and ensure dimensional accuracy and surface roughness.
Two, the pursuit of more secure and reliable and environmentally friendly machine tools. As the machine's operating speed increases, the operator's safety and health is also mentioned as a priority position. The current U.S. development of high-grade machine tools in the place of possible injury are almost all added safety warning devices. Dry cutting and micro-lubricant cutting method because it can greatly reduce the volatility of the lubricant has been more and more widely used, and, almost the entire machine tool is closed up, some machine tools can not even see the chips, so that even if there is an excessive amount of oil mist and smoke is also easy to collect. At the same time, the machine operator's working environment and position will be considered very comfortable. In addition, clean processing technology without pollution is also greatly emphasized.
Third, the rapid development of machine tool parts industry. Machine tool supporting parts are developing rapidly, a full range of varieties. The main products are ball screws, precision bearings, a variety of rotary table, tool changer, a variety of pneumatic, hydraulic devices, linear guides and spindle components and so on. The development of these ancillary parts industry strongly promote the development of machine tool hosts, not only help to improve the speed and performance of the machine tool, but also can greatly shorten the production cycle of the host, reduce production costs.
Four, the pursuit of a more perfect control system. Higher-speed processors and more accurate control equipment to make the function and performance of machine tools perfect and powerful. Technology-intensive has entered the stage of hyper-speed development, and the key to integration is the open structure. the application of PCC technology, began to change the way machine tools work, the CNC pushed to the control center and is not limited to the scope of the machine tool controller. The control software develops even faster, and even improves several times a year.CNC manufacturers have provided some open structure CNC systems. Currently, open architecture CNC controllers account for 10% to 20% of CNC controllers in machine shops. The part program can be developed offline, and then transferred to the production floor programming system, running on the CNC controller, the operator can observe and detect the tool operation and machining process, but also the necessary corrections to the machining process. The United States GEFANUC company sells 30% of the controller is open, realizing the real CAM / CNC integration, and tends to intelligent control, but also on the Internet. Virtual manufacturing and paperless production of the technical basis has been available, with the help of information technology, the application of such software will develop at a faster rate.
Fifth, the pursuit of higher quality machine appearance. At present, the machine tool manufacturers pay more attention to the beauty of the shape of the machine tool and color coordination and soft, machine tool boutique more to the direction of the development of handicrafts.
Development of CNC machine tools in Germany
The German government has always attached importance to the strategic importance of the machine tool industry, in various aspects of strong support. Although the German machine tool industry development than the United States late, but because of the United States, the United Kingdom's advanced technology, and strengthen the scientific experimentation and research and analysis, especially in advanced technology research, so the machine tool industry is developing very rapidly. First of all, pay attention to the "actual" and "effectiveness". Germany pays special attention to scientific experiments, theories and practical combination of basic scientific research and applied technology and scientific research. Second, adhere to the "people-oriented", and constantly improve the quality of personnel. Enterprises and universities work closely with scientific research departments, user products, processing technology, machine layout research and CNC machine tools **** and characteristics of the problem of in-depth research, quality excellence. Germany's CNC machine tools of good quality and performance, advanced and practical, exports throughout the world. Especially large, heavy, precision CNC machine tools. Finally, Germany attaches great importance to the host of CNC machine tools and ancillary parts of the advanced and practical, its mechanical, electrical, hydraulic, gas, light, tooling, measurement, CNC systems, a variety of functional components, in terms of quality, performance are among the world's leading. Such as Siemens CNC system, for the world-famous, become the majority of users supporting the unquestionable choice.
Likewise, the German Machine Tool Association (VDW) provides German companies with all possible marketing support, from market information and statistics to reports on various products and speculations on key areas such as the automotive industry. VDW provides direct contact to German companies interested in seeking partners in China; provides import certificates and other trade information for all types of equipment and services; organizes technical training activities in Germany for Chinese personnel as needed; organizes delegations of German companies to participate in major metal working exhibitions in China; and contacts the German government for official support.
Japan's development of CNC machine tools
The Japanese government attaches great importance to the development of the machine tool industry, on the one hand, through the planning and enactment of laws and regulations (such as the "Machine Vibration Law", "Electromechanical Law", "Machine Letter Law", etc.) to guide the development of the machine tool industry. On the one hand, through the planning and enactment of laws and regulations (such as "machine vibration law", "electromechanical law", "machine letter law", etc.) to guide the development of the industry, on the other hand, to provide sufficient research and development funds to encourage scientific research institutions and enterprises to vigorously develop CNC machine tools. In the emphasis on human resources and machine tool components supporting learning Germany, in the quality of governance and CNC machine tool technology to learn from the United States, and the combination of the two countries' experience, the formation of their own development characteristics and later on.
Since the development of the first CNC machine tools in 1958, Japan's 1978 production (7,342 units) exceeded the United States (5,688 units), and in a long period of production, exports ranked first in the world (2001 production of 46,604 units, exports of 27,409 units, accounting for 59%). Strategy to imitate and then create, Mr. production of large and wide range of mid-range CNC machine tools, a large number of exports, to occupy most of the world market share, and in the 1980s began to further strengthen scientific research, to the development of high-performance CNC machine tools. Japan FANUC company is to take this strategy, under the guidance of the Japanese government to encourage the targeted development of the market needs of a variety of low-medium-high-grade CNC system, leading in technology, the world's largest machine tool CNC system supplier. With 3,674 employees, over 600 researchers, and a monthly production capacity of 7,000 sets, the company accounts for 50% of sales in the world market and about 80% in Japan, and has played a major role in accelerating the development of CNC machine tools in Japan and the world.
With FANUC company at the same time the development of a large number of other machining parts companies, under the guidance of the government of these Japanese companies are extraordinary emphasis on the development of key technologies and core products. This division of labor partnership to improve the efficiency of Japan's CNC machine tool industry, to avoid the U.S. CNC machine tool industry due to the manufacturers want to become the industry standard and triggered by internal strife, thus preserving the external competitiveness. In addition, the Japanese government also encourages a number of small but has its own unique technical advantages of CNC machine tools and automation equipment manufacturers to develop their own patented technology.
China Taiwan
Modern CNC machine tool companies rely more and more on the development of the supply chain, which has been confirmed by the world's countries and regions of the machine tool industry development experience. For example, the machine tool industry in Taiwan, China is a good example.
The machine tool industry in Taiwan, China belongs to the assembly type. In addition to spindles and other precision components, machine tool manufacturers basically do not carry out other mechanical processing. Casting, sheet metal, heat treatment, painting and other processes are handed over to collaborative factories to complete, for example, Youjia has about 70 collaborative factories located in the Taichung area.
See the advantages of Taiwan's machine tool industry development has been the formation of a complete package, a full range of machine tool parts (ancillary parts) industry, these parts manufacturers are concentrated in the machine tool factory around less than a hundred kilometers within the scope of the supply of parts on time, complete. China's Taiwan machine tool industry, more than 90% of the manufacturers are concentrated in Taichung area, there is not too long a distance between each other, almost one next to one, so that can achieve accurate supply, but also to reduce inventory, and even in some manufacturers or some parts of the realization of zero inventory. Developed machine tool parts industry and convenient and perfect supply chain, is Taiwan's machine tool industry's advantage and pride in the convenience of obtaining parts and even better than Japan and Germany.
In addition, with the intensification of market competition, machine tool companies in Taiwan, China generally attach importance to research and development, the annual R & D investment in turnover of more than 4%. Good foundation, strong financial strength of the company's annual R & D investment can reach more than 5% of turnover.