Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

Dongying's breakfast is very good.

Although Cao Yang ate a lot last night, he still went to the hotel's cafeteria early in the morning to taste the local delicacies.

What impressed him the most was that there were several people responsible for making breakfast, all of whom were grandma-level characters.

The kind of grandma who is at least seventy years old, maybe even eighty years old.

This discovery still surprised him.

Are Japanese people already so curly?

Seventy or eighty-year-old grandmas are still working?

Decades later, could it be that Huaxia will become like this?

Thinking about all kinds of messy things in his head, Cao Yang followed the big team to the scene of the World Robot Conference.

As soon as you enter the venue, you can feel the warmth of the atmosphere.

Naturally, Cao Yang was in no mood to think about other messy things.

Different from some later exhibitions where exhibitors are more than customers or visitors, this year's World Robot Conference, in addition to attracting hundreds of professional robot manufacturers to participate in the exhibition, there are many auto industry, People from the medical industry, food industry and other fields participated.

Coupled with some local people in Kyoto, the whole venue is quite lively.

Even in the process of going to the Nanshan booth, Cao Yang met several teams of beautiful girls playing cosplay.

The atmosphere was definitely created very hot.

"Robots are very popular in Japan."

"I think half of the people who participated in the exhibition are ordinary people."

Li Shigui, as a professional, naturally sees problems from a different perspective.

Whether a certain industry in a country is developing well or not, sometimes has a lot to do with the atmosphere.

Just like animation, the atmosphere in Dongying is very strong, and the development is naturally very good.

"Dongying people often have their own uniqueness in making precision parts, and they are good at keeping improving."

"But the robot is such a thing that pursues excellence."

Cao Yang's understanding of Dongpu's overall situation is definitely no lower than that of Li Shigui and Mi Ying.

However, because of this, he paid great attention to the development of equipment in the process of developing Nanshan.

Because the equipment cannot be developed, if everything has to be purchased at that time, it is impossible to have core competitiveness.

At that time, it will not be so easy for someone to get stuck in your neck.

And when the equipment is developed, a series of materials and parts will have the foundation for development and the possibility of becoming stronger.

Because these devices can not only be used by Nanshan, but can also be sold to the outside world, so that the industry can follow suit.

"Mr. Cao, many companies will hold their own product launches this morning. The organizers have shared the major event schedules of each company with you, trying to let everyone stagger the time as much as possible."

Soon, Nanshan and his group arrived at his exhibition hall.

Li Shigui took a list from the employees who came to the scene in advance, which roughly listed the schedule of various company press conferences.

"Since many manufacturers are holding new product launches this morning, let's just wait until the afternoon."

"Especially the demonstration of the new robot, let's talk about it in the afternoon."

Cao Yang came to kick the hall, so he naturally hoped that the Nanshan robot press conference would attract more audiences and media.

Only in that way can it have the greatest publicity effect.

Since everyone agrees that morning is good, he chooses afternoon.

"In the afternoon, some media might have already left the exhibition."

Li Shigui reminded him next to him.

These media also came with missions.

Often the task is completed in the morning and slipped away in the afternoon.

As for whether they have returned to their respective companies or are free to move about, only they themselves know.

"It doesn't matter. Whether the media reports or not is not the most important thing. The important thing is to let the customers who come to participate in the conference see how powerful we are."

"At that time, they will naturally help us promote it."

Cao Yang was full of confidence, but Li Shigui didn't want to get entangled anymore, so he changed the subject and said, "Then why don't we go to other exhibition halls in the morning to see what's going on with the latest robots released by our competitors?"

In addition to promoting your own products, participating in the exhibition is also a very important job to understand the dynamics of your competitors.

"Go and see!"

"Know thyself, ever-victorious!"

"After figuring out the opponent's situation, our research on the next robot will be targeted."

...

"Mr. Cao, this is FANUC's showroom. They released the latest Spirit series robots today."

Li Shigui took Cao Yang and Mi Ying around the exhibition hall.

Then, taking this opportunity, he fully showed off his professional knowledge in front of Cao Yang.

As long as Mi Ying simply translates what the other party said at the press conference, he can explain the past situation of the other party's robot more clearly.

Although the information he has is not necessarily the latest situation of the opponent, but it is enough to educate Cao Yang.

"Although FANUC was hit a bit by us in China, their strength is still there."

"Just like this Spirit robot, it is a full-degree-of-freedom high-performance robot with high degrees of freedom and flexibility, and can perform various complex tasks."

"It uses FANUC's unique joint drive technology, which can achieve extremely high degrees of freedom and precision."

"In addition to the automotive industry, Spirit series robots are also used in aerospace, electronics, medicine and other industries, and can perform various high-precision tasks, such as assembly, welding, spraying and inspection."

In front of professionals, Cao Yang did not pretend to be big, but listened to Li Shigui's introduction very seriously.

"Now in this pavilion, Yaskawa Electric is showing their AXIS series robots."

"AXIS series robots are also multi-degree-of-freedom robots, mainly used in industrial automation, logistics, medical and other fields."

"It uses Yaskawa Electric's unique control technology and sensor technology, which can achieve a high degree of flexibility and precision."

"Speaking of which, Mr. Cao, I think the company may need to consider arranging personnel to study sensors in the future."

"Otherwise, if we have been relying on outsourcing all the time, not to mention the price advantage, it is impossible for the technology to be higher than these companies in Japan."

"After all, Dongying is the world's leading company in terms of sensors."

Li Shigui took this opportunity to make a suggestion to Cao Yang.

He is now the deputy director of the Robot Division, so he naturally hopes that Nanshan Robotics can grow and develop.

Although Nanshan has now mastered the technology of several large parts of the robot, such as bearings, numerical control systems and motors, a robot does not only have these three parts.

In the future, more and more robots will use a large number of sensors.

Otherwise, there are many functions that cannot be realized at all.

"Sensors are definitely going to be made, but this thing is more biased towards electronic components, and we need to do it step by step."

Not to mention sensors, even chips and memory, Cao Yang wants to do it.

But this naturally requires a process and an opportunity.

"Indeed, the company has quite a lot of research and development projects now, and it's okay to talk about it after a while."

Seeing that Cao Yang did not object, Li Shigui's goal was achieved.

It's impossible for Cao Yang to do exactly as he mentioned it!

"Mr. Cao, the next thing we see is the German Kuka (Kuka), this company has been widely used by Modu Volkswagen and Spring City Volkswagen, and we have already had direct contact with them on welding robots. competition."

"Kuka is a German robot manufacturing company, and its most famous robot product is the Lion series of robots."

"The Lion series robot is a multi-degree-of-freedom robot, mainly used in manufacturing and logistics industries. It uses KUKA's unique robot control technology and sensor technology, which can achieve a high degree of flexibility and precision."

"However, the price of German robots is too high. I think they can't beat us, and even Japanese companies will continue to squeeze their share in the future."

Obviously, Li Shigui is not particularly optimistic about the future of Kuka.

What you make is not unique in the world. If the price is so expensive, there will definitely be fewer users.

"If we want to enter the European market in the future, it is estimated that we will inevitably compete with KUKA. At that time, those customers will not only look at the price, and the robotics department will also need to buy a few KUKA robots. We will study them carefully and focus on their selling points. Fight back."

Cao Yang naturally knew Kuka's name.

He even knew that Kuka's later generations were acquired by Midea.

"Mr. Cao, don't worry, the world's mainstream robotics companies, we all have dedicated people to study their products, do disassembly analysis and benchmarking."

"This is what all robot companies are doing. We will definitely be able to find Kuka's weak current to attack."

In the auto industry, after buying a competitor's car, disassemble it and analyze it to see what technology is used in the parts that the opponent cannot see. This is what all car companies are doing.

The robot industry is naturally similar.

"ABB is also exhibiting today?"

When it comes to KUKA, Cao Yang will naturally not forget ABB, which is also the representative of European and American robots.

The company has a wide range of products, and its robots are also very good.

It can be regarded as one of Nanshan's powerful opponents.

"The first point is ABB's booth. It is rumored that the production, R\u0026D, and engineering centers of ABB's robots are all going to be transferred to China for localized R\u0026D and production in Shanghai."

"ABB robots run fast, especially ABB's QuickMoveTM dynamic self-optimizing motion control technology, which makes each axis always move at a very large acceleration without any adjustments, which is 25% faster than other Dongying robots. .”

Li Shigui said while speeding up his pace towards ABB's booth.

Obviously, Cao Yang paid more attention to ABB as an opponent. Li Shigui felt that he also needed to arrange personnel to focus on researching ABB's products in the future, so as to find a way to win orders from ABB.

"Mr. Cao, look, the robot in the center of the ABB booth is composed of three basic parts: the main body of the robot, the drive system and the control system."

"The main body of the robot is the base and the actuator, including the arm, wrist and hand, and some robots also have a walking mechanism."

"Most ABB industrial robots have 3 to 6 degrees of freedom of movement, of which the wrist usually has 1 to 3 degrees of freedom of movement, and what is being displayed now should be an advanced product with 6 degrees of freedom of movement."

When he arrived at ABB's booth, Li Shigui immediately began to introduce.

It has to be said that the professional appearance made the technicians in the booth look at it frequently.

"Which company is the showroom next to ABB? Why haven't I heard of it?"

When Cao Yang listened to the introduction of the ABB booth and continued to walk forward, he saw a name he did not recognize.

Although Cao Yang is not considered a professional in the robot circle, he knows all the mainstream robot manufacturers.

"This is a reducer supplier in Japan called Nabtesco, which translates to Nabtesco in China."

"At the same time, he is also our reducer supplier."

As soon as Li Shigui said that, Cao Yang was stunned.

Nanshan's welding robot actually has a Japanese supplier?

Now that Nanshan is in such a stalemate with FANUC and Aisin, they have united with a group of robot manufacturers to make a decision not to sell robots to Nanshan.

If they go any further...

Cao Yang couldn't help but gasped.

If people really want to get stuck, there is still a way.

"Why don't I have the impression that there is such a manufacturer in our supplier list?"

Cao Yang frowned, and Li Shigui hurriedly explained beside him.

"Mr. Cao, we purchased their products through domestic agents, so he is not included in the supplier list."

"The precision reducers used by industrial robots in the world are almost monopolized by Dongying."

"Their precision reducer technology is far ahead, and it is difficult to replace it in the short term. Therefore, the reducer in the Chinese market generally relies on imports, especially Japan's imports."

"Although we are also looking for suppliers in China, Nabtesco is in a leading position in the world in terms of products, materials, design level, quality control, precision, power density, reliability and service life."

"In the short term, it's going to be a bit difficult to get rid of them completely."

At this moment, Li Shigui was aware of another consideration in Nanshan's supplier selection.

It seems that in the future, I will avoid importing parts as much as possible, especially avoid importing parts from Japan.

"Is this reducer so difficult?"

Cao Yang realized that he might have been careless before.

I didn't notice that there are such critical parts on the robot.

Otherwise, I must have personally participated in the "research and development".

Fortunately, it doesn't seem too late to know now?

"In the field of mechanical transmission, the reducer is an intermediate device connecting the power source and the actuator. Generally, the high-speed running power of the electric motor and internal combustion engine is used to achieve the purpose of deceleration through the small gear on the input shaft meshing with the large gear on the output shaft. , and transmit greater torque."

"Especially in aerospace, robotics, medical equipment and other fields, the demand for high-performance precision reducers with simple and compact structure, high transmission power, low noise and smooth transmission continues to grow."

"Among them, the RV reducer and the harmonic reducer are two very important reducers in the precision reducer."

"Maybe everyone will be very curious. It is also a reducer. What is the difference between a precision reducer and other reducers?"

In order to let Cao Yang understand why he bought parts from Dongying, Li Shigui also tried his best to popularize relevant knowledge for Cao Yang there.

"As a power transmission mechanism, the precision reducer uses the speed converter of the gear to reduce the number of revolutions of the motor to the desired number of revolutions and obtain a larger torque."

"Although the purpose of the precision reducer is to reduce the speed and increase the torque. It seems that there is not much difficulty, but there are very limited manufacturers of precision reducers in the world that can provide large-scale and reliable performance. Most of the precision reducer market The share is occupied by Japanese companies.”

"In addition to the Nabtesco just mentioned, there are also Harmonica's harmonic reducers and Sumitomo Heavy Industries, which are also Dongying companies."

"Dongying's precision reducer has become a pinnacle of the precision machinery industry."

"In fact, the technical threshold for entering the reducer is extremely high, especially in the RV reducer, which is completely composed of high-precision components and gears meshing with each other, especially for material science, precision processing equipment, processing accuracy, assembly technology, and high-precision testing. Technology places extremely high technical demands."

"The reducers of the world's mainstream robot manufacturers such as ABB, KUKA, FANUC, and Yaskawa are also provided by Nabtesco and Harmonica."

Hearing what Li Shigui said, Cao Yang made up his mind.

This precision reducer, Nanshan also has to make it.

Otherwise, the Nanshan robot in the future could be stuck in the neck at any time.

After touching the cake of the Japanese people, he did not believe that the giants of FANUC would not unite to make Nabtesco and Harmonica cut off their confessions.

Even if the supply is constant and you get a big price increase, it can completely eat up your efforts on other parts.

After all, in articulated robots, reducers are required for heavy loads such as the base, upper arm, and shoulders, as well as forearms, wrists, or hands.

"After going back, in the robotics division, a group of people were arranged to set up a precision reducer research team."

"Strive to research our precision reducer within the next year."

When Cao Yang said this, Li Shigui became a little tangled.

However, it is better to say some things earlier than later, so he still couldn't help but said: "Mr. Cao, the equipment for processing and manufacturing precision reducer parts is very expensive, such as the Megaler surface grinder, which is worth nearly ten million yuan. Therefore, In the absence of large-scale production, the cost of equipment after amortization is staggering."

"And if we use Nabtesco and Harmonica's reducer for reverse research and development, many places know it but don't know why."

"So even if a major breakthrough can be made in the technical level of the reducer next year, there are many issues in the maintenance of the accuracy of the reducer, the life of the reducer accuracy and the product life."

"Various technical difficulties will lead to poor consistency of our domestic reducers, and the reproducibility between products is also very low."

"It will be a bit embarrassing to spend a lot of money but fail to produce qualified products."

Although the precision reducer is very important, it is inconspicuous.

The key is that the research and development is successful, and the possibility of successfully surpassing the opponent is very low.

That's why Li Shigui was more entangled.

At least he felt that it was not suitable for him to develop these parts in a short time.

In the future, if the output of Nanshan Robotics goes up, it will be possible to succeed only if its own factory consumes a large amount of products.

"The Dongying equipment giant will never die. If we delay it for a few more years, we may drag ourselves to death by then."

"This precision reducer is a must."

Cao Yang gave his reply very positively.

Regarding this, Li Shigui naturally did not dare to say anything more.

And at this moment, there was a sudden noise from a booth somewhere in front of him.

Many people trotted over.

This naturally attracted the attention of Cao Yang and his party.

"Mr. Cao, it seems to be Honda Giken Industry Co., Ltd., which is the showroom of Honda Motors."

Seeing Cao Yang's curious expression, Mi Ying immediately interjected.

"Honda?"

"Are they also coming to the World Robot Conference?"

Cao Yang was a little surprised, "Come on, let's go and have a look!"