How are the four major families of robots made?

Affected by the trend of China's manufacturing transformation and upgrading, the boom of "machine substitution" has arrived. Since 2013, China's industrial robot market has begun to develop rapidly. From the perspective of robot purchases, China has become the world's largest application market.

However, more than half of the dividends generated by China's huge market are captured by the "Four Families" of robots (Japan's Yaskawa Electric, Fanuc, Germany's Kuka, and Switzerland's ABB).

According to Zhiyan information, China's industrial robot market is dominated by foreign brands, and in 2017, the domestic market share of the "Four Families" reached 57%. In the field of high-end industrial robots, the share of the four major families of multi-joint robots with more than six axes is 95%, the share of the four major families of the automotive industry with concentrated downstream high-end applications is 90%, and the share of the welding field is 84%.

It can be seen that the oligopolistic competition pattern in the high-end field is basically established. Correspondingly, the market share of domestic robots still needs to be improved. There is still a long way to go for self-owned brands to catch up with foreign brands in terms of core technology and user services.

On the other hand, the development of the "Four Families" of robots can be world-renowned, and it is inseparable from decades of intensive cultivation. The growth path behind it is worthy of study and exploration by domestic ontology companies.

1. Build unique advantages with core technologies

For robot manufacturing, the four major families firmly hold the key technologies of core components.

Especially when it comes to servo motors, Yaskawa Electric Co., Ltd., which is dominated by servo drives, cannot be avoided. In the process of Yaskawa Electric's development and growth, this key step is inseparable, and it is also a pioneering work in the field of motors - the development of the world's first DC servo motor Minertia.

As the company that developed the world's first servo motor, Yaskawa Electric, founded in 1915, has been leading the trend with ultra-high-speed and ultra-precision motion control technology for many years.

The biggest advantage of its robot is its high stability, which can maintain normal operation even under overload conditions. Therefore, Yaskawa Electric is very popular in heavy-duty applications such as the automotive industry.

Combining the market demand with the focus and investment in technology is the key for Yaskawa Electric to achieve major breakthroughs. The development of servo motors is based on the urgent needs of major Japanese manufacturers to improve production efficiency.

At that time, the motor took a long time to start and stop, so the production efficiency could not be further improved. Undoubtedly, if this technical difficulty can be solved, huge market potential will be released.

Yaskawa Electric has keenly captured this market pain point and devoted itself to research and development. However, success is not achieved overnight. In the early stage of technological breakthroughs, there will always be countless experimental failures.

Fortunately, the hard work paid off. With the advantages of advance layout and technology accumulation, Yaskawa Electric was able to obtain this major innovation. The method of attaching coils to the surface of the rotor reduces the diameter of the rotor and minimizes the moment of inertia of the motor. It is understood that the response speed of this motor is almost 100 times that of ordinary motors at that time, which makes Yaskawa Electric widely welcomed by the market.

Of course, this milestone technological leap did not stop Yaskawa Electric. Since then, Yaskawa Electric has continued to polish its own technology with the spirit of craftsmanship, in order to develop products that are more in line with user needs. Products are constantly innovating. Every technological breakthrough means leading the entire industry to progress.

According to 2018 (March-November), Yaskawa achieved revenue of 361.3 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 6.3%. As of September 2015, the cumulative number of robots sold by Yaskawa Electric has exceeded 280,000 units, becoming the global robot sales champion.

Similarly, the founder of FANUC, known as the "Microsoft of Robotics", is also very sure of the power of technology. He believes that continuous trial and error Innovation has always been the creed of FANUC.

In order to be ahead of its peers in technology, Inaba has established a basic development research institute and a commodity research institute. The former is mainly responsible for the commodities that the market needs after five or ten years; the latter is responsible for the commercialization goals established by the awards and delivering the results within one year. FANUC, which has a sense of crisis at all times, has a team atmosphere in its research institute that is always full of fighting spirit.

The most prominent competitive advantage of its industrial robots is the extremely high precision. It is reported that the repeated positioning accuracy of Fanuc's multifunctional six-axis small robot can reach plus or minus 0.02mm. Therefore, it is very popular in the market for light-load, high-precision applications.

KUKA has always been fond of "black technology", technological innovation is a daily subject, and continuous improvement is the daily routine of KUKA's research and development. Andreas Bauer, Vice President of KUKA Marketing Strategy and Operations and President of the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), once said that the detection error defined by KUKA is between plus or minus 0.01 mm.

"This error is thinner than a human hair. Only with such an arm swing deviation can a large robotic arm hold a car part and precisely install it on other zeroes. Moreover, each robotic arm has its own standard that needs to be calibrated.”

This robotics giant from Germany controls the accuracy of the robotic arm to within milliseconds with a rigorous attitude, and It can ensure that the error can still be controlled within the controllable range after tens of thousands of hours of operation. Bauer also said, "If it fails, we will find the reason and make a summary, and KUKA wants to eliminate these mistakes 100%."

2. Synergistic growth with users to increase volume

As the invisible champion of Japan's manufacturing industry, FANUC's growth has also faced the blocking of the United States. At that time, the United States had the right to speak in the industry, and Fanuc had been unable to enter the American market.

However, Fanuc eventually entered the US market through cooperation with GM. Although it was not smooth at the beginning, with the financial support of its partners, FANUC completed the "counter-attack on the myth" and surpassed its competitors with technical iterations.

Fanuc, which has grown together with its partners, became the world's largest supplier of industrial robots in the late 1990s. It is reported that in June 2008, the sales volume of FANUC robots exceeded 200,000 units; in 2015, FANUC's global robot installed capacity exceeded 400,000 units, and its market share was firmly in the forefront. Until now, Fanuc's industry status has remained unshakable.

Similarly, ABB, another Swiss company from the four major families, has always pursued the strategy of "holding high and fighting high" and attaches great importance to cooperation with major customers. In the Chinese market, ABB cooperates with Huawei, Changhong, Fangtai and other benchmark companies in the 3C home appliance industry to customize products and solutions for customers.

Cooperation with industry representatives means that ABB can grasp the development direction of the industry more quickly. While providing solutions for customers, ABB has gained more opportunities to penetrate into the market and understand users.

For example, in 2008, ABB cooperated with BMW and provided it with industrial robot solutions for many times. In the following years, after deeply understanding the needs of users, ABB provided BMW with a package of solutions for the construction of spraying production lines, and provided it with 2,400 robots, mainly for material handling, gluing and electric welding.

It is understood that ABB currently has four complete process technologies for automobile manufacturing (stamping, welding, painting and final assembly), and has developed a flexible and fully automatic automobile production system.

These customized solutions have attracted more well-known users to cooperate with ABB, and the cooperation with industry benchmarking companies has allowed ABB to better understand the needs and pain points of the industry, and develop products suitable for more industries. The company's products and solutions have effectively improved the productivity and highly flexible production requirements of car companies.

The growth of KUKA's market volume is inseparable from its integration experience in multiple fields. KUKA's Bauer once clearly stated that "cross industries can collide with new sparks".

Whether it is technically striving for the top level, adhering to ingenuity for continuous improvement over the years, or in-depth cooperation with users in actual combat, accumulating a lot of rich application experience, the respective advantages and expertise of the four families All fields have been perfected in focus and extension, thus becoming an important robot supplier in their respective fields for a long time.