How to realize the import substitution of "elbow joint" reducer, the core component of domestic robot
2019.11.11

Recently, the domestic robot manufacturers of Wuxi hengyitong Machinery Co., Ltd. ("Wuxi hengyitong" for short) gradually began to try and accept the domestic reducer, and reached cooperation agreements with the domestic reducer manufacturers, planning to implement the import substitution of the reducer.

According to experts, from the perspective of order number, since 2018, the localization process of the reducer has accelerated significantly, and it can be seen that the high-precision reducer is about to usher in the turning point of import substitution.

Intelligent robot, an important part of artificial intelligence, has such a small component, which seems inconspicuous, but the materials and processes it needs have become the technical barriers restricting the development of robot industry. It is all kinds of high-precision reducers.

The reducer is equivalent to the elbow joint of the robot. Among the three core parts of the industrial robot, the cost accounts for the highest proportion, usually more than 30%.

2019 is destined to be the first year of 5g business. Its breakthrough not only indicates the iteration of interactive technology, but also promotes the innovation of artificial intelligence and Internet of things technology, bringing earth shaking changes to the development of human society.

Due to the late development of industrial robots in China, the demand of domestic research institutes and large industrial and mining enterprises for robots has been monopolized by foreign brands for a long time. Similarly, because of the thin technical foundation and backward material technology in the robot parts industry, the "core parts hollowing" of domestic robots, especially the various precision reducers required by robot joints, has also been caused It is basically monopolized by Japanese enterprises, among which nabtesco (nabtesk) and harmonic (hamenaco) are the only ones in RV Reducer and harmonic reducer Market, which leads to high integration cost and poor quality stability of Chinese industrial robot manufacturers, and restricts the orderly development of robot industry.

With the upgrading of material technology and processing technology, more and more domestic enterprises are investing in precision reducers. However, many entrants choose to turn their business when they can't see the benefit output because the technology accumulation is not enough and the investment in the early stage is too large. Therefore, there are not many people who can stick to their original intention and commit to breaking the situation. Wuxi hengyitong Machinery Co., Ltd. is one of the few.

Zheng Zhiyi, chairman of Wuxi hengyitong Machinery Co., Ltd


Zheng Zhiyi, the chairman of Wuxi hengyitong helmsman, has been devoting himself to the research of reducer materials and processing technology. Starting from the development and manufacturing of small precision planetary reducer, and through more than ten years of experience,now he has achieved a comprehensive technical breakthrough in the field of integrated central control rotating platform and precision harmonic reducer. He took the lead in calling out his oath to fight the imported reducer to the bottom With 60% of the price of foreign products reaching more than 90% of its performance parameters, it provides high reliability system solutions for the domestic robot industry.

If you want to break the situation, you must enter first.

Zheng Zhiyi is a typical technical man. He has been fond of drum beating machinery since childhood. Because his father brought him to stamp the diesel engine when he was young, and he had a high understanding of mechanical structure, so he was responsible for the maintenance of mechanical and electrical equipment at home at a very young age. After returning from the army, he was assigned to do sales. However, Zheng Zhiyi thought that his character was not suitable for sales. "I think I should study mechanical technology." In Zheng Zhiyi's heart, as long as it is what he thinks can be done, there is a tenacity in his bones that he dares to rush and fight, and does not admit defeat.

From a person who buys equipment and studies mechanical products, to a person who sells well run processing plants and goes to Taiwan funded enterprises to study product development and enterprise management, Zheng Zhiyi knows his ideal and ambition in his heart, not for the immediate benefit.

In the mid-1990s, Zheng Zhiyi first went to the first joint venture factory opened by a Taiwanese enterprise in Yuqi Town, called "Taiwan Dagong tool Wuxi Co., Ltd. (now called Shengfeng tool (Wuxi) Co., Ltd.). In this company, Zheng Zhiyi worked from the project team to the director of the research and development Department of pneumatic tools. This experience laid a good foundation for his later development of a series of precision reducers Material processing and enterprise management.

Generally, the number of reducers needed for an industrial robot is 4-6. According to the sales volume of industrial robots in China, the market demand will reach 650000 in 2020, and the number of matching reducers will exceed 2.92 million. Before 2016, due to the limitations of production technology and process, there were many problems in the performance and capacity of domestic reducer, which was not widely used. In order to break the market of precision reducer under the long-term monopoly of foreign brands, we must first open a gap, find a focal point, and then take advantage of the situation to consolidate the achievements.

In the field of RV and harmonic reducer, domestic manufacturers are still in the position of catching up. To be fair, the gap between domestic RV Reducer and Japanese products is larger than domestic harmonic. The patent of harmanaco has expired, so domestic reducer enterprises have a good catch-up opportunity in harmonic reducer.

After several trade-offs, Zheng Zhiyi aims at the breakthrough in the high-precision harmonic reducer which is easier to achieve transcendence.

Entrepreneurship and innovation, responsibility first, entrepreneurs should have the spirit of idealism, and the ideal and distance matched with this society and era. In order to provide the domestic robot system integrator with a more cost-effective domestic core component assembly, Zheng Zhiyi led his team to devote ten years to studying the materials and processing technology of Japanese reducer, and then three years to make a breakthrough in technology and production capacity on the soft wheel and wave generator of harmonic reducer, creating a series of constant wing KMI precision reducer. Through the summary and iteration of their own R & D experience, and constantly focusing on the gap between themselves and advanced enterprises, Wuxi hengyitong can finally stand out in the long-term foreign monopoly of the precision reducer Market.Now, in some index parameter fields, the gap with foreign products has been leveled, and it has also been recognized by industry insiders including Kong Bing, the former president of KUKA in China.

With the continuous maturity of domestic reducer production technology, especially since 2016, with the significant expansion of robot demand and consideration of cost, domestic robot manufacturers have gradually started to try and accept domestic reducer, and have reached cooperation agreements with domestic reducer manufacturers, planning to implement the import substitution of reducer.

Zheng Zhiyi dare to challenge foreign brands, because hengyitong has no distractions and adheres to its original intention, bringing out a technical and management team that can produce high-quality and low-cost parts, as well as more domestic supplier cooperation resources. Now Zheng Zhiyi's biggest wish is to come up with Mechatronics solutions, establish brand alliance with domestic robot system integrators, and fight with foreign brands to the end.

The dawn of hope for China's robot industry has been lit. It is because of the support of domestic technology innovation companies represented by Wuxi hengyitong that China's high-end manufacturing will start a prairie fire, and China's manufacturing will also have a continuous drive towards high-end. With the rapid development of China's economy, they will surely grow into a number of domestic "unicorn" enterprises.