The hottest exploration behind Foxconn's involveme

Exploration: behind Foxconn's involvement in the robot industry

recently, various media reported that Foxconn plans to invest and build a robot industrial park in Harbin Hanan industrial new city, which once again pushed it to the forefront. While watching, people inevitably wonder why Foxconn, a super OEM enterprise, does not directly buy robots, but invest huge human, material and financial resources to personally engage in the production and manufacturing of robot products? In fact, Foxconn is not the only one in the traditional industry but also in the industrial robot industry. With a little attention, it is not difficult to find that there are such representative enterprises at home and abroad, covering automobile manufacturing, elevators, motorcycles, CNC systems and many other fields

KUKA: 40 years ago, it turned gorgeous and became a giant.

as one of the four giants in the field of industrial robots, KUKA robot Co., Ltd. was not born as a robot. KUKA, founded in Augsburg, Germany in 1898, initially focused on indoor and urban lighting, and then set foot in the fields of welding tools and equipment, large containers, etc. in 1966, it became the market leader of European municipal vehicles

afterwards, it was proved that the decision at that time was right: forty years after the launch of famulus, KUKA has become one of the leading suppliers of industrial robots in the world

Foxconn: voice, manufacturing power, new markets

Foxconn Technology Group is a high-tech enterprise specializing in the R & D and manufacturing of 3C products such as computers, communications, consumer electronics, and widely involved in digital content, automotive components, access, cloud computing services, and the development and application of new energy and new materials

on January 15, 2007, Foxconn's AR (Automation Robotics) business office was officially established in Shenzhen, specializing in the research and development of industrial robots. In the first year of operation, this unit belonging to Hongchao quasi business group produced the prototype of three robot series, A-05, A-16 and S-05. By 2009, six series of foxbot, including a, B, C, P, s and F, have been rapidly developed from the three series, and nearly 15 specific industrial robots. In 2010, green foxbot began to be manufactured in batches in Jincheng, Shanxi Province, and officially became a member of Foxconn

as the core parts need to be purchased, the cost of manufacturing and purchasing robots is almost the same in terms of cost. The cost of each robot is at least more than 100000 yuan. With peripheral equipment, the investment of 1million robots is hundreds of billions, and the financial pressure of Foxconn can be imagined. In addition, although the service life of a robot can reach more than ten years, in fact, with the upgrading of the production line products, the robot needs to be constantly debugged, upgraded, or even eliminated. This objectively increases the use cost of robots and reduces the cost advantage of robots replacing labor

however, Foxconn's ambition is not limited to empty talk. This manufacturing giant has 15 business groups in Shenzhen Longhua park alone, equivalent to 15 enterprises. Its great advantage lies in the integration of internal resources. In addition to assembly, the testing force of Foxconn double column tensile testing machine is much larger than that of single column tensile testing machine, and Foxconn has the ability to manufacture and produce some parts. Foxconn has been building its own voice, and has achieved a turn from simple order taking to joint manufacturing and joint participation. Perhaps, Foxconn's robots are one of the factors for Gou to speed up this turnaround

in technology, Foxconn never publicly shows weakness. One of Gou's rare words to describe the research and development status of Foxconn's industrial robots is to tell the media that robot manufacturing is based on hardware, key components, software, system integration and remote control, and Foxconn now has all these five technologies

for Foxconn and Taiwan funded manufacturing enterprises that have long been rooted in Chinese Mainland, industrial robots or automated production equipment are opportunities for them to improve their manufacturing capacity and develop new markets

Chery: cross border research and development, grinding a sword in four years

as early as 2007, Chery Automobile established Anhui evert Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd. on the basis of its equipment department, specializing in the R & D and manufacturing of industrial robots. At present, Chery has built the first batch robot assembly line in China, with an annual production capacity of 500-1000 units. As a landmark event in China's automotive equipment manufacturing industry, Chery's large-scale application of self-developed robots once attracted great attention in the industry

then, how did Chery think of developing robots independently? What difficulties have you experienced in the research and development process? After large-scale application, what long-term vision does Chery have in developing industrial robots

Chery's independent research and development of industrial robots can be called a sword in four years. In 2005, Chery automatic welding line needed to add a new model. Because the industrial robots and corresponding welding lines used at that time were purchased from abroad, the company invited foreign engineers to debug the program, and the cost for this was as high as several hundred euros per hour

the high cost of after-sales service of imported products forced Chery to consider independently developing robots. In addition, there are also considerations based on its own needs: due to multiple factors such as the expansion of automobile production lines, the improvement of product quality, the demand for automation, and the consideration of labor costs, Chery finally decided to devote itself to the field of industrial robots. Automation, even large-scale automation, has become the development trend of automobile manufacturing. Independent research on industrial robots also has strong strategic significance

for the long-term planning of independent research and development of robots, Chery's goal is not limited to the automobile manufacturing industry, but to build the production of industrial robots into an industry and realize the transformation from product strategy to industrial strategy. A more important consideration is that generally speaking, there are only two kinds of experimental machines: the direction of motion (or the direction of force) human automation has become a trend. If robots are used as an industry, they can be expanded and become a new growth point in the future

Guangzhou CNC: Jianzhi complete industrial chain

Guangzhou CNC Equipment Co., Ltd. is a professional complete set of machine tool CNC system supplier with leading technology in China. Relying on the accumulation of CNC technology for more than 20 years, the company has carried out the research and development of industrial robots since the end of 2006. Now it has developed a series of industrial robot products with independent intellectual property rights. With three models of 8kg, 20kg and 50kg, it mainly focuses on the small specification market. In 2012, Guangzhou sold more than 100 CNC robots, which are mainly used for loading and unloading machine tools in the processing industry. Since Guangzhou CNC itself is a CNC system and has a close relationship with the machine tool industry, the promotion of robot application has received the response of many manufacturers

there are three advantages for Guangzhou CNC to get involved in the industrial robot industry: first, since 1991, CNC system has been developed. So far, more than 80% of machine tool hosts in China have been equipped with its CNC system. Industrial robots also need control systems. Although they are different from the applications on machine tools, their basic principles are the same. With nearly 20 years of technical accumulation in CNC products, Guangzhou CNC has more advantages in the research and development of industrial robot control systems. 2、 Taking advantage of the existing brand advantages of Guangzhou CNC, building a complete industrial chain in the industrial field, extending upstream and downstream, and manufacturing industrial robots are the embodiment of this strategic idea. 3、 The main core components of Guangzhou CNC industrial robot, such as control system and motor, are all independently developed, and the products have obvious cost advantages. D. systematically review the factors affecting the results; The overall price may be only half or even one third of that of foreign products

why expand the emerging field of industrial robots? In 2007, Guangzhou CNC, located in the hinterland of South China machining center, keenly felt some changes in the external market environment, including the rise in labor costs, the improvement of factory automation, etc. if it still only made CNC systems, it would be difficult to expand its scale. Building a complete industrial chain in the industrial field and increasing the added value of products are exactly the strategic thinking of Guangzhou CNC

xinshida: strategic growth point

Shanghai xinshida Electric Co., Ltd. is the largest supporting supplier of elevator control system in China, providing two series of products, elevator control system and elevator frequency converter. The industrial robot project of xinshida company has been included in the special project for the development of major technical equipment in Shanghai in 2012, and the total support fund approved by the government is 3.3 million yuan, and the first support fund of 1.65 million yuan is recognized as the deferred income of the company

at present, xinshida has developed industrial robots that are used in the manufacturing workshops of complete elevator control systems and elevator machine factories. The first batch of robot production lines of xinshida will be formally assembled in the company's elevator control system manufacturing workshop and the production site of a small number of elevator machine manufacturers in the industry this year. At present, the series development of xinshida robot products is proceeding in an orderly manner. 16 kg robots have been developed, and 20 kg and 25 kg robots are being developed. It is expected to achieve mass production and sales in the first half of 2014

xinshida company is very optimistic about the development of the robot industry and takes robot products as the company's new strategic growth point. At present, tens of millions have been invested in research and development. Due to the series development stage, the production capacity of the company's robots has not been quantified in detail

at present, industrial robots are mainly used in the automotive field in China, and foreign brand robots occupy most of the market. Xinshida robot products will look for new fields for differentiated development, and will not compete with foreign enterprises in the automotive field

Qianjiang Motorcycle: transformation and upgrading

Zhejiang Qianjiang Motorcycle Co., Ltd., formerly known as Wenling motorcycle factory, was founded in 1985. It specializes in the R & D, manufacturing and sales of complete motorcycles and engines. It has the largest engine and motorcycle production base in Asia and the most advanced equipment in China. It is one of the leading enterprises in the domestic motorcycle industry

Qianjiang Motorcycle announced on March 26 that it had received 5million yuan of government support for strengthening the research and development of industrial robots. As early as the board meeting held on November 23, 2012, the meeting considered and passed the proposal on strengthening the research and development of industrial robots. The company said that according to the relevant requirements and the company's transformation and upgrading strategy, the company will take advantage of the situation and strengthen the research and development of industrial robots on the basis of the construction of existing enterprise research institutes. The development of domestic industrial robots is still in its infancy, and there is still huge room for development in the future. With the strong support of the government, the company is expected to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of the company in the future

conclusion: seize the opportunity and develop rationally

at present, the overall environment of China's robot industry is improving. On the one hand, the disappearance of demographic dividends and industrial upgrading have led to a sharp increase in the demand of the robot market. On the other hand, the emerging robot industry has received full support from the government. In 2012, the Ministry of science and Technology issued the 12th Five Year special plan for the development of intelligent manufacturing technology, and issued《