At the beginning of August, at 6 o'clock in the evening, the trucks of the logistics company arrived at the Harmony Harmony Plant in the Ganlin Industrial Park in Ganzhou City on time. Hundreds of boxes of robotic speed reducers produced overnight were loaded onto the train. Soon after, they will be loaded into the joints of industrial robots, going to the manufacturing line, replacing the manual, performing cutting, welding, handling, spraying, packaging and so on.
At the beginning of August, at 6 o'clock in the evening, the trucks of the logistics company arrived at the Harmony Harmony Plant in the Ganlin Industrial Park in Ganzhou City on time. Hundreds of boxes of robotic speed reducers produced overnight were loaded onto the train. Soon after, they will be loaded into the joints of industrial robots, going to the manufacturing line, replacing the manual, performing cutting, welding, handling, spraying, packaging and so on.
There are two main types of reducers installed in industrial robots: RV reducers and harmonic reducers. "Big joints, like the hip joints and elbow joints of the human body, use RV reducers; small joints, such as wrists, fingers, harmonic reducers." And the double-loop transmission produces RV reducers.
Zhang Jing took the reporter through a gear production area, and the RV reducer production workshop was on the other side of the plant. Stepping into it, I only feel a cool, actually more comfortable than the summer air-conditioned room. “One thousandth of a millimeter is one micron, and the processing precision of the robot reducer is micron.” Originally, in order to ensure the processing precision, the humidity in the workshop is controlled at 50%-70% all the year round, and the room temperature is controlled at 20%. °C to 22 °C.
The precision requirements of the robot reducer are not only in the production and processing, but also in the performance test of the finished product. In the performance test area, the reporter saw that several industrial robots are repeating the same action. “The robot guides the movement of each arm through the rotation of each joint. For the standard international product, the instantaneous error of this rotation angle is not allowed to exceed 30 seconds.”
The angle unit "1 second" is 31.6 percent of "1 degree". Such a small error range must be guaranteed in every movement of an industrial robot around the clock. “The performance of the robot reducer is dynamic and needs to maintain a certain rotation accuracy for hundreds of thousands of hours.” Zhang Jing said that the gap between the original domestic reducer and Japanese products is here.
In June 2013, Shuanghuan Transmission launched the RV reducer project; in July 2015, Shuanghuan Transmission undertook the development of the robot RV reducer under the theme of “National High-tech Research and Development Program (863 Program) “Industrial Robot Core Components Application Demonstration” And application demonstration" sub-topics. "The 863 project acceptance, we have made everything ready." Zhang Jing has a well-thought-out. "Now, if you compare the double-ring RV reducer with Japan, I am confident that there is no gap in basic performance."
R&D relies on its own exploration
Compared with the RV reducer of the double-loop transmission, it is heavy and hard, and the harmonic reducer of the Rifant harmonic which is complementary in operation is small and light.
Speaking of research and development experience, Peng Shengliang, deputy general manager of Raffles Power, sent a similar feeling to Zhang Jing: "There are no mature and reliable standards to refer to, nor any reference, and everything depends on oneself."
“In fact, the principle and application of harmonic transmission are still being explored internationally, and each country has its own method, which results in different designs.” He explained that even different manufacturers in the same country design The concept is not the same.
“The initial exploration of the project is the most difficult.” From the beginning, the process of building the first generation products step by step, Peng Shengliang still remembers. In 2013, “Laifu” was established, and cooperated with the professor team of Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology to carry out the parameter design of the harmonic reducer. “I live in the company every day, dreaming about problems.” Peng Shengliang recalled that in order to achieve the accuracy of the movement within 30 seconds, the R&D department has been conducting experiment theory and communicating with the university team. Improve, retest, and improve the 'work cycle'. As the person in charge, he often receives a call from the duty tester in the middle of the night to report the sudden problems in the night tracking test. “You must be on call, quickly locate and troubleshoot.”
In 2014, the first generation of products was launched; in 2016, the operational accuracy of the Laifu harmonic reducer reached the same level as that of Japanese products.
“Without standards, we will look for standards.” Peng Shengliang said that in order to benchmark the advanced level, “Laifu” had bought mainstream products for testing. “We found that the Japanese harmonic reducers have a long working life with high precision, and some of them depend on the materials used. But they can't buy them.” Realizing the gap, “Leifu” immediately formed a company. The research and development department, external experts, materials science professors, and steel mill team formed a research team to improve the material formulation and continue testing. Today, the basic materials of Laifu's exclusive brand have been successfully developed.
“The high-precision life-time breakthrough has been broken. At the end of the year, we will officially launch a new generation of harmonic reducer, which is currently in the final stage of the final test.” Peng Shengliang said that all aspects of the new products are consistent with the mainstream products of the current market. Competing on the same stage."
The market is rushing to explode
All the way through the smashing, deep-cultivation robot reducer research and development. As a core technical technician and manager, Zhang Jing and Peng Shengliang mentioned it in the same way. The biggest gain in catching up is to gradually improve the right to speak in the domestic brand industry.
"A few years ago, there was no choice. No matter the harmonics or RV, you can only ask Japan to buy it. A small reducer, asking for 12,000 yuan, the order delivery time is also dragging long." The pain point of domestic robot manufacturers, Zhang Jing feels the same. "Imagine five or six speed reducers in each robot. The price of a single component is only 70,000 yuan." The manufacturing cost and price of domestic industrial robots remain high, and the development of China's robot industry is greatly restricted.
"Now it is different, the domestic reducer has been successfully developed and entered the market to participate in the competition. The Nissan reducer has been reduced to five or six thousand yuan, which is less than half of the original price."
The gradual popularization of the first-line "machine substitution" has caused the Chinese industrial robot market to erupt. “Orders are constantly coming out, which is beyond our expectation.” Peng Shengliang said that the successful listing of domestic robot reducers is like opening up a period of industrial development that has been blocked for a long time. “In the first half of 2017, the whole industry has been in short supply. The monthly production is full, and now the order is placed, and the delivery must be scheduled for more than two months."
The enthusiasm of the market response made Raffa harmonics and double-loop transmissions feel the urgency of mass production and capacity expansion. Last year, Laifu Harmony realized a production value of 22 million yuan and carried out a new round of financing. "The production capacity improvement is continuing. At present, the four production lines of Rifley Harmony have reached an annual output of 60,000 to 70,000 units." Peng Shengliang It is revealed that it will be expanded to 120,000 units a year in a month. "There will be 10 production lines at the beginning of the next year, with an annual output of 200,000 units."
"After last year's 8,000 market trials, this year will reach an annual output of 60,000 units." Zhang Jing said that the current domestic RV reducer manufacturers' monthly shipments, the double-loop transmission is the largest. Compared with Japanese companies that have been in development for more than 30 years, Chinese companies have a long way to catch up. "The people are already towering trees, we are still seedlings. But at least we have broken ground."