Interpretation of "Made in China 2025": Promoting the Development of High-end CNC Machine Tools

"Made in China 2025" lists CNC machine tools and basic manufacturing equipment as "strategic areas for accelerated breakthroughs," proposing to strengthen forward-looking deployment and key technological breakthroughs, actively planning to seize future technological and industrial competitive manufacturing points, and enhancing the level of international division of labor and discourse power. The proposal of this strategic goal is determined by the strategic characteristics and developmental stage characteristics of the CNC machine tool and basic manufacturing equipment industry, and we should earnestly study, comprehend, and implement it.

1. CNC machine tools and basic manufacturing equipment have strategic industrial characteristics that are essential to compete.

1. Anchoring China's global competitive position in the equipment manufacturing industry.

CNC machine tools and basic manufacturing equipment are the "mother machines" of the equipment manufacturing industry. The technological level and product quality of a country's machine tool industry are important indicators of its equipment manufacturing development level. "Made in China 2025" lists the CNC machine tool and basic manufacturing equipment industry as one of the strategic areas of contention in China's manufacturing industry. The main reason is that they play an "anchoring" role in the international division of labor in manufacturing, especially in the equipment manufacturing industry: CNC machine tools and basic manufacturing equipment are the foundation of value generation in manufacturing and the fulcrum for industrial upgrading. Only with solid basic manufacturing capabilities can advanced equipment products be produced, thus achieving the production of high-value products.

2. Strategic demand supporting national defense and industrial security.

In terms of national defense security, CNC machine tools and basic manufacturing equipment have a strategic position that transcends economic value for manufacturing advanced national defense equipment. Many key components in modern national defense equipment have certain special materials, structures, and processing difficulties. Ordinary processing equipment and traditional processing techniques cannot meet the requirements; multi-axis linkage, high-speed, and high-precision CNC machine tools must be used to meet processing requirements. Even in today's global integration, developed countries still impose technological blockades and restrictions on China. In terms of industrial security, as the pace of domestic manufacturing upgrades accelerates, high-tech, high-value-added industries represented by equipment manufacturing are facing intensified competition with developed countries. Engineering machinery, electrical machinery, and transportation equipment are in a critical period of entering the international high-end market, while domestic machine tool products still have certain gaps in processing precision, reliability, efficiency, automation, intelligence, and environmental protection, leading to overall weak industrial competitiveness.

3. Important support for the transformation and upgrading of user fields.

Currently, the demand structure of downstream users in the machine tool industry is showing a trend of high-end development. Multiple industries will undergo extensive and in-depth structural adjustments and upgrades, leading to an urgent demand for high-quality, high-tech machine tool products. Overall, the market demand for mid-to-high-end CNC machine tools is rising rapidly, and users require more high-speed, high-precision, composite, flexible, multi-axis linkage, intelligent, high-rigidity, and high-power CNC machine tools. For example, the automotive industry shows a trend of producing large quantities, multiple varieties, and rapid model updates, accelerating the development of new energy vehicles, which requires processing equipment to continuously evolve towards precision, efficiency, and intelligence. In the aerospace industry, with the surge in demand for civil aircraft and the cross-generational development of military aircraft, the new generation of aircraft is developing towards lightweight, high reliability, long lifespan, high stealth, multiple configurations, rapid response, and low-cost manufacturing. The new generation of technology urgently needs more advanced processing equipment to support it, and aerospace manufacturing equipment is evolving towards automation, flexibility, digitalization, and intelligence. For example, in the "Two Aircraft Special Project" focused on breakthroughs in aircraft engine manufacturing, typical parts such as engine blades, complete machine casings, and disks are gradually developing towards larger sizes, more complex shapes, lighter structures, and more precise manufacturing. The extensive application of new lightweight materials such as high-strength, high-temperature-resistant alloys poses new and higher requirements for high-torque, high-precision CNC machine tools. The portability or movable multi-axis linkage CNC equipment required for the maintenance of large structural components and large equipment in gas turbines presents greater challenges for the structural design, process specifications, and high-efficiency processing technology of new CNC equipment.

4. A strategic high ground for the new technological revolution.

The new round of technological revolution, which includes elements such as intelligent manufacturing, energy internet, and innovations in new generation information technology, provides driving force for technological breakthroughs in China's equipment manufacturing industry and offers a vast market for the equipment manufacturing industry, especially high-end equipment manufacturing. The machine tool industry is an important intersection of information technology and industrial technology, and the industry itself has a strong sensitivity to new technologies, serving as a major source for the diffusion of emerging technologies. Driven by the wave of the new technological revolution, the machine tool industry shows a clear trend of integrated innovation. World-leading companies are accelerating the integration of new technologies into the machine tool industry, and networking and intelligent technologies are rapidly being integrated into machine tool products. More and more internationally renowned machine tool component and complete machine enterprises are accelerating the integration of new technologies into CNC machine tools.

5. A strategic pivot for the adjustment of the global manufacturing landscape.

Entering the post-crisis era, developed economies are increasingly focusing on the development of their own real economy: either continuously promoting the integrated development of emerging technologies to enhance the high-end of industrial technology; or restructuring the industrial chain to bring more high-value-added production and manufacturing links and matching jobs back to the homeland. The United States has successively proposed the implementation of the "Advanced Manufacturing Partnership Program" and the "National Strategic Plan for Advanced Manufacturing" to develop advanced manufacturing and technology; Germany has proposed the development blueprint for Industry 4.0, aiming to develop German Industry 4.0 with CPS as the core and smart factories as the carrier, positioning it as a technological platform for a new round of industrial revolution; Japan has announced a blueprint for industrial structure, identifying ten cutting-edge technology fields to strengthen domestic manufacturing; regions such as the UK, South Korea, India, and Taiwan, China, have also proposed proactive strategies and policies to accelerate the integration of emerging technologies in the equipment industry, such as CNC machine tools. The machine tool industry has always been an important strategic layout point for major countries and leading enterprises. In the future, changes and adjustments in the manufacturing landscape, especially for high-strategic industries such as global automotive, aerospace, and high-end equipment manufacturing, will make the machine tool industry an important strategic pivot, significantly influencing future competitiveness. China should strengthen its attention to the machine tool industry, layout key strategic areas in advance, and strive for a favorable position in global manufacturing competition.

2. The trend of industrial upgrading is obvious.

1. Breakthrough key core technologies and form a batch of landmark products.

In the aerospace field, we have independently developed heavy forging equipment such as the 800MN large die forging press and the 120MN aluminum alloy plate tension stretching machine, filling the domestic technological gap in the overall forming of large key components in the aerospace field, providing strong support for the cross-generational development of military aircraft and the development of large passenger aircraft. Among them, the 800MN large die forging press has achieved the overall forming of more than 30 types of key titanium alloy components in the aerospace field, and the high-quality aluminum alloy thick plates produced by the 120MN aluminum alloy wide thick plate tension stretching machine have been applied to main load-bearing structural components such as aircraft wings, breaking the complete dependence of China's large passenger aircraft on imported aluminum alloy thick plates.

In the automotive manufacturing field, large, fast, and efficient fully automatic stamping production lines have won bulk orders for production lines from American automotive factories in international bidding against world-class enterprises, gaining recognition and respect from international peers. Currently, the domestic market share of automotive body stamping lines exceeds 70%, and the global market share has surpassed 30%, significantly promoting the localization of automotive equipment.

In the field of power generation equipment, a 36,000-ton black vertical metal extruder has achieved the independent production of domestically produced high-end heat-resistant steel large-diameter thick-walled seamless steel pipes used in 1000MW ultra-supercritical thermal power units; large open-close type heat treatment equipment has produced Asia's largest nuclear power forged rotor forgings, forming a mass production capacity for large rotors; ultra-heavy CNC vertical lathe-milling composite processing machines, CNC heavy bridge-type gantry five-axis linked lathe-milling composite machines, ultra-heavy CNC floor milling and boring machines, ultra-heavy CNC horizontal boring lathes, and special CNC axial wheel groove milling machines developed for the third generation nuclear power nuclear island and conventional island equipment have solved the processing difficulties of nuclear power pressure vessels, lifting baskets, heat exchangers, steam turbine cylinder bodies, generator rotors, etc., and have been installed and applied on multiple nuclear power equipment.

2. Product structure optimization and adjustment, steady improvement in technical level

First, the level of mid-to-high-end equipment has rapidly improved. Currently, more than 10 types of equipment, such as large automotive body automatic stamping lines, have reached international leading levels, fully capable of achieving import substitution. More than 20 types of products, such as high-speed gantry five-axis machining centers, have basically reached international advanced levels, capable of replacing imported products. The precision horizontal machining center has formed core technologies of flexible manufacturing systems with independent intellectual property rights. High-speed, composite, and other high-end CNC machining centers have completed phased R&D, but there is still a certain gap in functional performance and reliability compared to international advanced levels. Secondly, the CNC system has been gradually advanced. China has made significant progress in the research and development of mid-to-high-end CNC systems. Since 2010, over 35,000 domestically produced mid-to-high-end CNC systems have been applied in key areas such as aerospace, energy, shipping, and automotive, achieving import substitution. High-performance CNC system series products, such as multi-channel and multi-axis linkage, have broken foreign technology monopolies, and the main technical indicators have basically reached the level of international mainstream high-end CNC systems, achieving compatibility with various high-speed, precision CNC machine tools. High-end CNC systems have achieved small batch applications in key military enterprises. The developed standard CNC systems have achieved mass production, with the domestic market share increasing from 10% to 25%. Several industrial production bases have been formed, among which Guangzhou CNC Equipment Co., Ltd. has formed a production capacity of 100,000 various CNC systems per year, ranking second in the world. China's CNC systems have initially possessed competitive capabilities with similar foreign products and have achieved batch exports of CNC systems, with a cumulative export of more than 9,600 sets of various CNC systems from 2010 to 2014, including nearly 700 five-axis linkage CNC systems. Finally, the product quality level of functional components has steadily improved, and the variety series has been continuously perfected. Domestically produced functional components have achieved batch compatibility with machine tool mainframes; tool products have basically possessed the ability to provide modern cutting tools for the automotive industry. The application demonstration and batch compatibility of CNC systems, functional components, and tools with CNC machine tool mainframes help form a complete industrial chain and promote the structural adjustment of the machine tool industry.

3. Significant improvement in independent innovation, ensuring sustainable development

In recent years, the foundation of machine tool manufacturing and the research of common technologies have been continuously strengthened, with product development and technology research advancing simultaneously. The maturity of several key technologies, such as reliability design and performance testing technology for machine tool products, multi-axis linkage processing technology, etc., has greatly improved. The research results of digital design technology have been practically applied in the design of high-precision CNC coordinate boring machines, vertical machining centers, etc.; multi-error real-time dynamic comprehensive compensation and embedded CNC system error compensation and other software and hardware systems have been demonstrated in multiple enterprises and products, significantly improving the precision of CNC machine tools.

3. The high-end development of the industry has a long way to go

China's machine tool industry occupies an important position in the world machine tool industrial system and global machine tool market, but it still cannot be considered a strong machine tool country. Compared with the world's strong machine tool countries, China's machine tool industry still has certain gaps, especially in the competitiveness of mid-to-high-end machine tools. In addition, affected by the complex domestic and international economic situation, the development of China's machine tool industry has returned to a new normal, and the demand for transformation and upgrading to mid-to-high-end is urgent.

1. International competitiveness needs to be improved

According to consulting firm Gardner's statistics, in the world machine tool consumption market, China's machine tool export value in 2014 was 3.3 billion USD, accounting for less than 5% of the total world machine tool consumption; while Japan and Germany both accounted for over 10%. At the same time, a considerable portion of the mid-to-high-end CNC machine tools urgently needed domestically relies on imports, with the import share of equipment in the automotive sector exceeding 40%.

2. The development of key components in the machine tool industry urgently needs to be strengthened

Domestically produced functional components cannot meet the requirements of mainframe compatibility in terms of variety, quantity, and grade; the market share of domestically produced mid-range compatible functional components still needs to be improved; high-end products rely heavily on imports. The competitiveness of the supporting functional components industry needs to be rapidly enhanced.

3. Process verification and demonstration applications need to be strengthened

CNC machine tools require extensive experimental verification in manufacturing processes, reliability, precision maintenance, engineering, etc., from prototype development to actual production application, continuously improving, while also requiring users to provide process verification. However, process verification and application demonstration are also a shortcoming in the development of China's CNC machine tool industry.

4. The pressure of industrial development remains high

Global machine tool production and consumption continue to show a shrinking trend. According to data released by Gardner, the global machine tool consumption amount in 2014 was 75.3 billion USD, only increasing by 0.3% compared to 2013, and global machine tool production has declined for three consecutive years, with the global machine tool output value in 2014 being 81.2 billion USD, down 3.1% from 2014. China's CNC machine tool industry is also under continuous pressure, overall in a downward range. In 2014, domestic metal processing machine tool output decreased by 2% year-on-year, among which, the output of cutting machine tools decreased by 1.7% year-on-year, and the output of metal forming machine tools decreased by 3.3% year-on-year. At the same time, the domestic market's demand for imported machine tools has not decreased but increased. In 2014, the total import value of machine tools and tools was 17.78 billion USD, an increase of 10.8% year-on-year, among which, the import value of metal processing machine tools was 10.83 billion USD, an increase of 7.6% year-on-year. This indicates that the domestic machine tool industry is struggling to meet the high-end needs of enterprises, facing both cyclical and structural pressures, urgently needing to find new breakthroughs for development.

4. Accelerate the promotion of the strategy for the industry to become stronger

1. Promote the focus of advantageous resources on development

Based on enhancing the independent innovation capability and market competitiveness of domestically produced CNC machine tools and basic manufacturing equipment, focus advantageous resources on the two major fields of aerospace and automotive, concentrating on core equipment and key technologies, and focusing on solving the bottleneck issues of key technologies such as performance reliability, stability, and completeness of the developed equipment.

2. Promote the demonstration application of advanced products

Increase investment in user demand that is representative and can concentrate on verifying key technologies and core equipment of machine tools and basic manufacturing equipment, selectively supporting market-oriented products with strong compatibility, high flexibility, and intelligent projects, focusing on solving the efficiency and intelligence of equipment.

3. Meet the new strategic needs of the country

Accelerate the development of national strategic needs for CNC machine tools and basic manufacturing equipment, further focus on the core equipment of national key projects, develop major products, and break through key technologies. Strive to improve the technical level of CNC equipment and break the constraints of dependence on imports for national strategic equipment.

4. Build a complete machine tool supporting industrial chain

Encourage and support the establishment of long-term stable strategic partnerships among related units in the CNC machine tool and basic manufacturing equipment industry chain, such as mainframes, CNC systems, and functional components, to establish long-term supporting relationships between CNC systems, functional components, and machine tool enterprises, and build a complete supporting industrial chain for CNC machine tools and basic manufacturing equipment.