Is the machine “stuck”?Today, “China Intelligent Manufacturing” has been developed, and Europe and the United States have strongly hoped to buy

Text: Wei Wei Machine tools are known as the “mother of industry”. The quality and price of modern industrial products are closely related to machine tools. As the world’s largest industrial country, my country must continue to improve the global competitiveness of domestic products. Get started. For a long time, my country’s machine tool import and export trade has a large deficit. In short, the import volume is greater than the export volume. It was not until June 2019 that it began to gradually turn into a surplus, but the amount of the surplus was not obvious. According to statistics from the China Industrial Research Institute, the localization rate of China’s high-end CNC machine tools in 2018 was only 6%. Similarly, China is also in a monopoly on the core parts and key technologies of machine tools. For example, more than 90% of my country’s existing high-end CNC systems come from Japan and Germany. Not only that, due to the technical blockade of foreign companies, the development of domestic machine tools failed to usher in a major breakthrough. Previously, Shenyang Machine Tool announced that it had 4 overdue bank loans with an amount of more than 100 million yuan, and the company was facing bankruptcy at one time. It is worth mentioning that among these 4 loans, 3 were overdue and the smallest was only RMB 1,839,900. A company that once had billions in sales is now unable to pay the millions in interest. Seven years ago, people might not have thought that Shenyang Machine Tool would be where it is today. In February 2012, Gardner announced the ranking of the world’s machine tool industry, and Shenyang Machine Tool became the world’s first with a sales revenue of US$2.783 billion. “It’s booming, and its death suddenly.” Since 2012, Shenyang Machine Tool has begun to fall at a faster rate than its rise: 7 years of operating profit loss, high debts, insolvency, and executives have resigned. Even the “high-tech product” that the company had high hopes of, the i5 intelligent machine tool, eventually became the last straw to overwhelm listed companies. You may think that China’s machine tool industry is not working, but it is not. The good news now is that the “Analysis Report on the Economic Operation of the Machine Tool Industry in the First Quarter of 2021” recently released by the China Machine Tool Industry Association shows that in the first three months of 2021, machine tool imports were 3.28 billion U.S. dollars and exports 4.03 billion U.S. dollars. The trade surplus reached At 750 million U.S. dollars, the surplus is the best quarter in history. So, what are the new changes in China’s machine tool innovation? As an important part of the competitive advantage of high-end manufacturing infrastructure, CNC machine tools are included in the strategic focus of “Made in China 2025” to accelerate breakthrough development, which is related to the safety and strategic guarantee of basic manufacturing. Even in today’s global integration, European and American countries and Japan still impose restrictions and controls on the import and export of my country’s important equipment and CNC machine tools, and they are more stringent. It can also be seen that my country must transform and develop its national industry and improve the overall competitiveness of domestic CNC machine tools. The scientific research project focusing on “high-level CNC machine tools and basic manufacturing equipment” undertaken by Zhang Haiou’s team from the School of Mechanical Engineering of Huazhong University of Science and Technology has an outstanding case this year. The CNC machine tool developed by Dr. Zhang Haiou’s team has successfully become a high-end machine tool with core technology, and has even been included in China’s restricted export list. This leading European and American machine tool is the world’s first 3D printing CNC machine tool developed by Huazhong University that integrates casting, forging and milling. It has obtained a number of international patent certificates. Even the United States and Japan, which have been far ahead in the field of machine tools, have also given it. Highly praised, an international authoritative magazine announced that my country’s first synchronous arc volume forging technology, which is different from the distributed technology widely used in the world, can obtain engine parts with performance far superior to forgings. This machine tool is a breakthrough led by Dr. Zhang Haiou. It is the world’s first integrated machine tool. Once a breakthrough was made, the country was included in the list of restricted exports. Seeing domestic breakthroughs, European and American companies have purchased equipment in China one after another, most of which are American aero engine manufacturers. They even said that the price was not a problem, but they were ultimately rejected by Chinese companies. What is the power of this machine tool? This machine tool is mainly used in a very special field, mainly in high-end industrial fields. These include aerospace, transportation, shipbuilding and nuclear energy. At present, in the research and development of domestic maglev trains, there is a key support component that is completed by this machine. The key support part of the light-printed maglev train suspension can support the maglev train to run at a speed of more than 600 kilometers per hour. In fact, 3D printing technology has existed for a long time, but it is still in the verification stage. In 2010, Zhang Haiou led a team that produced a mold made from the outer layer of a large aircraft. In follow-up research, this technology was used to print important equipment such as titanium alloys for aircrafts and deep-sea submersibles. It has been verified that the parts and equipment produced in this way are more stable. In other words, this machine can directly improve the manufacturing technology of airplanes and other high-speed transportation equipment, which is very envied by foreign companies. Zhang Haiou wants to add 3D printing technology to the forging process. After 15 years of hard work, the team finally developed a metal 3D printing CNC machine tool for casting, forging, and milling. But in fact, at the beginning of the successful development, domestic and foreign people were not very attractive. They believed that the technology could only be applied to small parts. As for large parts, it was still very difficult. But then China used this technology to perfectly print out the length of 2 meters. 260 kilograms of metal forgings, successfully hit the face for people who were not optimistic about this technology. Now the maximum size that can be printed by this technology has risen to 4 meters, and it can be said that the future can be expected.