Europe has always been the center of high-end manufacturing. However, the sudden COVID-19 pandemic has caused many European high-end manufacturing companies to accelerate localized R&D in China and accelerate their presence in the Chinese market. After the impact of the pandemic, China’s manufacturing industry is accelerating into a more intelligent and innovative new era. Chinese companies and Chinese engineers have increasingly made these European companies look at them, and Chinese technology has begun to feed back the world.
The needs of Chinese users are different from the past, and even different from other markets
“The needs of Chinese users have long been different from the past, and even more different from other markets. On the basis of trust in the reliability of German products, they have put forward a stronger demand for flexible manufacturing. The traditional German R&D model can no longer keep up with China’s high-speed and diverse demand changes.” Du Shangjian, general manager of SCHUNK China, said in an interview with reporters.
SCHUNK is a “hidden champion” company in Germany, and has always been a global leader in gripping systems and clamping technology. In 2003, it officially landed in China. In the nearly 10 years since 2010, SCHUNK China’s annual sales performance has maintained a growth rate of about 20%. Under the impact of the pandemic and the development of multiple industries in 2020, SCHUNK China will continue to grow against the trend, with an increase of more than 10%, and sales of 280 million yuan, a record high.
According to reports, SCHUNK China has been vigorously cultivating users’ awareness of automation since 2015, researching and developing solutions for different user needs and different industries, and starting to provide more in-depth non-standard customized products in 2018.
The Danubate Group, also from Europe, is Spain’s largest manufacturer of mechanical processing equipment and is also an innovative technology leader. Danobat, which has been rooted in the Chinese market for nearly 30 years, not only has a branch in Beijing, but also established a manufacturing center of excellence in Shanghai. There is also an experienced localization team that can provide comprehensive and customized services for many Chinese users.
Danobat Group China General Manager Joe Santens is very optimistic about the Chinese market. He believes that China’s related machine tool market will grow at an average rate of 5%-6% per year in the next five years. This year, Danobat will establish a new wholly foreign-owned entity in Shanghai to lay a solid foundation for the localization strategy.
Set up a Chinese R&D center to speed up localized R&D
In recent years, in order to better serve the Chinese market, more and more foreign companies have begun to set up research and development centers in China, and even put the most cutting-edge technology in China for research and development. This year, SCHUNK and Danobat also chose to establish R&D centers in China.
It is understood that Danobat plans to establish an application research and development center of more than 4000 square meters in Shanghai. While providing users with a variety of sample processing, process optimization, and application program customization services, it will also become the company’s future localized product research and development. base. “We have seen China’s rapid response and open vision in many emerging fields such as digitalization and composite materials, and we have also felt the innovative thinking and technical strength of Chinese technicians.” Joe Santens said.
SCHUNK also made the same choice-setting up a research and development center in China, and the location is also in Shanghai. According to reports, SCHUNK’s China R&D center project investment will be divided into two phases, the first phase is 200 million yuan, and an additional 300 million yuan is expected in the later period. The reason for this choice is that SCHUNK has tasted the sweetness of localization research and development in China over the years. Adopting a joint research and development production plan with local partners, supplemented by partial optimization of the German headquarters, SCHUNK has created many successful cases in 3C, automotive, aerospace, construction machinery, high-speed rail and other fields, and even completed Germany in one year. A research and development process that takes five years to achieve. This speed surprised SCHUNK’s headquarters in Germany.
From input to output, Chinese technology feeds back the world
According to a report by French La Echo, the growth of the three indicators, the year-on-year growth rate of industrial added value above designated size, the year-on-year growth rate of national fixed asset investment and the year-on-year growth rate of total retail sales of consumer goods in China in the first two months of this year, is impressive. The Chinese economy has maintained a recovery trend this year. In China’s high-end manufacturing sector, intelligence and digitalization are even more of a bright spot.
Du Shangjian said in an interview: The sudden attack of the COVID-19 pandemic has pressed the accelerator key for the digital transformation of many companies. Digital technology is reconstructing every link in the industrial chain. This change is particularly obvious in China.
Joe Santens also expressed a similar view. He said: “China is currently an “open-view” market. Chinese engineers can accept new technologies with a more open attitude, without overly considering traditional norms and standards. We need This kind of open thinking is because the market is moving in a new direction. Machine tool manufacturers will quickly shift from only producing hardware to producing software to improve the ease of use of machine tools. Chinese engineers are open to new machine control methods, no country in the world embraces robotics and automation like China.”
“Some people say that many technological leaps in China in the past were achieved through reverse engineering. This may be true, but now, I can say with certainty that Chinese technology and Chinese engineers have left a deep impression on my European friends. Chinese technology has now begun to go out of China, to the world, and feed back the world.” Du Shangjian said.
Source: Science and Technology Daily