Key technology breakthroughs in the numerical control machine tool industry must advance toward the high end

CNC machine tools are compared to equipment manufacturing industry, "working mother machine", with basic, versatile and strategic features. In the industrial society, the manufacture of aerospace, automobiles, ships, agricultural machinery, power equipment, and railway locomotives is inseparable from it.

During the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, under the guidance and support of national major scientific and technological special projects, China's CNC machine tool industry is advancing toward the field of high-end CNC machine tools, and has achieved continuous breakthroughs in key technologies, and is expected to achieve its goal from the “big country” to “powerful country” at an early date. leap.

The transformation of an old factory's innovation

"One" - the first No. 1, the industry first.

"One" - from the beginning, never satisfied.

"One" - consistently, perseverance.

"One" - meticulous, conscientious.

The employees of Beijing No. 1 Machine Tool Plant called themselves “one person in the North” and “One” was full of determination and aggressiveness, winning the first ambition. With the strong support of the country's major technical special projects, “Northern One” has made major breakthroughs in succession, and striving for top-notch development has become more vigorous.

——The investment in technological transformation was nearly 300 million yuan. The expansion of the Gaobeidian Foundry Company was completed, and a single piece of 150 tons of nodular cast iron was cast. The company has the capability to manufacture ultra-heavy-duty machine tools.

——Introduction and absorption of technology, mastery of self-developed technologies and capabilities for super-large super-heavy-duty laminating machine tools and key functional components, fully self-developed two types of gantry widths of 9 meters and 8 meters, and formed sales, will soon be in Longmen There is a major breakthrough in the width of 10.5 meters.

——The ability to develop large-scale double-speed rotary tables and large-torque angle milling heads and long-stroke rams on key functional components.

"The implementation of major special projects and scientific and technological innovations has enabled enterprises to truly become the mainstay of innovation and R&D. As an industry-leading enterprise, investment in technological transformation will be concentrated in the direction of national demand, and it is our responsibility to provide key basic equipment for the development of key industries of the national economy." A chief engineer Liu Yuling told Xinhua News Agency reporters.

Under the light of science and technology, this old factory, established in 1949 and the same age as the new China, has undergone transformation and transformation in innovation and has rejuvenated its youth.

The prestigious Bertelsmann Foundation in Germany described the successful acquisition of Valdrich Coburg as a “North American” company from the “Customer” to the “China Enterprise in Germany - Opportunities and Challenges” research report. The story of "Brothers", which turned into a "boss", praised the "new club" for its new competitive advantage of multinational operations and overall collaboration.

The success of "North One" is just a microcosm of the "takeoff" of the Chinese CNC machine tool industry. Looking at the country, Jinan No.2 Machine Tool Group and Jiangsu Xinrui Machinery Co., Ltd., which are known as the “New Eighteen Arhats” in the machine tool industry, are also actively undertaking major special projects to expand their independent innovation capabilities.

Rushing up under severe challenges

In this century, the rapid economic development has made China the largest machine tool consumer and importer in the world for many years. In 2009, driven by the central government’s response to the international financial crisis package, China's machine tool industry has grown in a contrarian fashion and for the first time it has become the world’s largest manufacturer of machine tools. The total industrial output value for the year was 401.4 billion yuan.

However, "big" does not mean "strong." For a period of time, China's machine tool industry has faced many challenges such as the lack of self-developed capabilities, specialized support systems that have not yet been formed, the lag in functional component development, the low level of product automation, and poor reliability accuracy.

During the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, the development goals and breakthrough focus of the CNC machine tool industry have long been clear: the development of large-scale, sophisticated, high-speed CNC equipment and numerical control systems and functional components, to change the status of most of China's large, high-precision CNC machine tools relying on imports.

In order to reverse the situation of “big but not strong” as soon as possible and better adapt to the needs of changing economic development methods, the “high-end CNC machine tools and basic manufacturing equipment” was included in the “National Medium- and Long-term Scientific and Technological Development Planning Outline” in 2008. One of the 16 major projects has shouldered the mission of developing high-end numerically-controlled machine tools for aerospace, shipbuilding, automobile manufacturing, and power generation equipment, and meeting the needs of major domestic industries.

Chen Bin, Director of the Industry Coordination Department of the National Development and Reform Commission, called for vigorous support for independent research and development of new products and encouraged the machine tool industry to take the lead in using new products developed independently. "The high-tech CNC machine tools and basic manufacturing equipment," a major science and technology project, is not easy to come by and is an important opportunity to enhance the overall level of the machine tool industry." He said.

In fact, CNC machine tools specialization is not only a research project in the general sense, but also a national-level system engineering.

Du Zhanyuan, vice minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology, said that in the implementation of major projects, the exploration of mechanisms is very important. The strategic alliance for industrial technology innovation should be used as an important tool for institutional innovation, promote the deep integration of production, education and research, and guide all parties involved in production, education, and research to explore and establish mechanisms for sharing results and sharing risks according to industrialization goals, and innovate diversified investment and financing channels. To ensure the implementation of special funds.

In 2020, 80% of high-grade CNC machine tools will be self-sufficient

According to the person in charge of the Major Special Program Office of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the CNC machine tool project officially launched in 2009 will continue into 2020, and it is expected that the total investment of the central government, local finance, and enterprises will reach several hundred billion yuan.

With the breakthrough of a series of key technologies and the formation of independent innovation capabilities, China has entered the ranks of the world's high-speed CNC machine tools and high-precision precision CNC machine tool manufacturing countries, which indicates that domestic CNC machine tools have entered a period of rapid development.

At the 6th China CNC Machine Tool Fair held this year, more than 800 Taiwan (sets) domestic CNC machine tools and large-scale measuring instruments exhibited, and independent innovation products accounted for more than 60%.

High-speed horizontal machining centers, five-axis linkage precision electric machining and forming machine tools, precision numerical control one-way wire drawing machine tools with automatic threading devices, CNC laminating machine, double-swinging CNC universal milling head and a series of domestic CNC machine tools have independent innovation achievements. Available. Product specifications range from small, medium, large to heavy and super-heavy.

"CNC system" is equivalent to the "brain" of CNC machine tools. During the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, Wuhan Huazhong Numerical Control Co., Ltd. conquered a number of key technologies for high-end CNC systems. The five-axis linkage high-end numerical control system developed by the company fills the domestic gap and breaks the foreign blockade. These new technologies will receive the most rigorous inspections from the market and authoritative departments.

Wu Bolin, executive vice president of the China Machine Tool Industry Association, believes that China's machine tool industry has further strengthened independent innovation and made positive progress in industrial restructuring and product upgrading.

According to the special plan, in ten years, China will form the independent development capability of the main products of high-end CNC machine tools and basic manufacturing equipment, the overall technical level will enter the international advanced ranks, and some of the products will be internationally leading; the complete functional component research and development and supporting capabilities will be established; A technology innovation system combining the enterprise as the main body, production, study and research; training and establishment of a high-quality research and development team; about 8 sets of high-end CNC machine tools and basic manufacturing equipment needed for aerospace, shipbuilding, automobile, and power generation equipment manufacturing are established. .

Accelerating the transformation of economic development methods, the fundamental way out lies in independent innovation. With more and more breakthroughs in key technologies, self-sufficiency in high-end CNC machine tools is no longer a dream. The days when China enters the ranks of innovative countries are no longer distant.