China's Cnc Machine Tools: The Road To Rise From Following To Leading

In the field of "industrial mother machines" in the manufacturing industry, CNC machine tools (CNC) are hailed as the cornerstone of modern industry, and their technical level directly determines a country's high-end manufacturing capabilities. In the past, China's machine tool industry has long been subject to the technical monopoly of Germany, Japan and other countries, but in recent years, with the support of policies, technological breakthroughs and market demand, domestic CNC machine tools are ushering in a leapfrog development, gradually breaking the long-term monopoly of foreign manufacturers.

1. The rise of domestic CNC: from low-end to high-end

Early Chinese CNC machine tools were mainly concentrated in the low-end and mid-end markets, relying on imported core components (such as servo motors, CNC systems, high-precision bearings, etc.), resulting in high-end machine tools still dominated by international giants such as DMG and Mazak. However, in recent years, companies represented by Shenyang Machine Tool, Huazhong CNC, Guangzhou CNC, etc. have gradually broken through technical bottlenecks. For example, Shenyang Machine Tool's "i5 Intelligent Machine Tool" adopts an independent CNC system to realize intelligent production management; Huazhong CNC's "Huazhong Type 8" system has reached the international advanced level in five-axis linkage technology, and some performance even exceeds similar foreign products.

2. Core technology breakthrough: intelligence and high precision

The progress of domestic CNC is not only reflected in the growth of market size, but also in the breakthrough of key technologies:

CNC system: In the past, it relied on Siemens of Germany and FANUC of Japan. Now, Huazhong CNC, Guangzhou CNC and other companies have been able to independently develop high-performance CNC systems, and the accuracy of some products can reach 0.001mm (micrometer level).

Five-axis linkage technology: This is the core competitiveness of high-end machine tools. Companies such as Kede CNC and Beijing Jingdiao have been able to produce high-precision five-axis machine tools for use in aerospace, precision molds and other fields.

Intelligent upgrade: Combining industrial Internet and AI technology, domestic machine tools are moving towards "smart factories". For example, i5 machine tools support remote monitoring and predictive maintenance, which greatly improves production efficiency.

3. Challenges and the future: How to truly achieve "domestic substitution"?

Despite significant progress, domestic CNC still faces some challenges:

Low market share in the high-end market: In the field of ultra-high precision machine tools, domestic equipment is still difficult to completely replace imports.

Key components rely on imports: Some core components such as high-end bearings and grating rulers still need to be purchased from abroad.

Insufficient international brand influence: German and Japanese machine tools still dominate the global high-end market.

However, with the support of the country's "14th Five-Year Plan" for high-end equipment manufacturing, and the continuous investment of domestic enterprises in research and development, China's CNC machine tools are gradually shifting from "following" to "running side by side", and even achieving "leading" in some areas. In the future, with the in-depth development of intelligent manufacturing and Industry 4.0, domestic CNC machine tools are expected to occupy a more important position in the global high-end market.