China's cutting tool industry still needs to "grind"

"In the 12th Five-Year Plan period, the high-end market share of domestically-made high-efficiency cutting tools should be increased from the current 15% to 30% to 40%. From the modern manufacturing industries such as aerospace, energy transportation, and national defense industry, several top-level brands should be selected. The production line provides full-service in terms of processing technology and cutting tools, which in turn improves the competitiveness of China's cutting tool companies.” Hao Ming, president of China National Machine Tool Corporation proposed this at the first Chinese metal cutting tool industry summit held in Beijing recently. blueprint.

As an important component of the equipment manufacturing industry and an important process equipment in cutting processing, the cutting tools determine the processing efficiency, precision, and quality of parts in the manufacturing industry. According to the data provided by China Machinery Industry Metal Cutting Tool Technology Association, the total amount of metal cutting tools in China has increased in 2011, while the consumption of imported tools has increased by 25% compared with 2010; from the perspective of consumption structure, domestic tools consumed in China In the medium- and high-speed steel tools, about 69%, cemented carbide tools accounted for only about 28%. In the world-wide industry, the proportion of tool consumption is probably: high-speed steel tools account for 35%, diamond and cubic boron nitride tools account for 10%, while welding cemented carbide tools, solid carbide, etc. accounted for the rest.

"This proportion shows that although China is the world's largest consumer of cutting tools, our overall level of metal cutting is still not high, and its consumption structure cannot even reach the world average." Yang Yong, executive director of the China Machinery Industry Metal Cutting Tool Technology Association Xiao Xiao believes that, for the moment, the upgrading of materials in China's cutting tool industry is necessary. For example, if we use high-speed high-speed steels containing cobalt and even powder metallurgy high-speed steels to replace the common high-speed steels that are now commonly used, our high-speed steel The level of tool making can go up to a big level."

It is understood that in developed countries in Europe and America, since the 1970s, the market share of high-speed steel cutting tools has gradually been eroded by cemented carbide tools, but with the advent of powder metallurgy high-speed steel cutting tools, the market share of high-speed steel cutting tools It has picked up. This is because the powder metallurgy high-speed steel cutters have higher hardness, better toughness, and higher wear resistance than ordinary high-speed steel cutters, and therefore are more popular among users.

In fact, along with the development of economic globalization, the boundary between manufacturing and services is becoming increasingly blurred. Wang Zheng, vice president of the Central Research Institute of Dongfang Electric, also deeply feels that: "At present, the demand of metal cutting tool users is not limited to the product itself, and the demand for services and solutions has become increasingly prominent."

“The data shows that nearly 60% of companies in the United States have combined manufacturing and service products. As a manufacturing giant, China, this trend has become even more obvious.” Hao Ming said that more and more Chinese and foreign manufacturers believe that The traditional manufacturing industries that have won imports through production efficiency are now more service-added to increase value. Services have been regarded as an indispensable part of the production process.

Yang Xiao pointed out that if domestic tool companies want to gain a place in the competition with international manufacturers, it is a must to attach importance to user experience. From his point of view, many domestic tool companies have insufficient attention to user experience in all aspects of product development, production, sales, and service.

Yang Xiao revealed that he had visited several domestic tool manufacturing companies, including both old state-owned large-scale cutting tool companies, and joint-stock companies with leading sales, as well as some private enterprises. When they introduce their company to users, they often do not describe what kind of services they can provide for their users and what problems they can solve. Instead, they tend to focus on what kind of equipment they have, and often also the equipment manufacturers and equipment. The models are introduced one by one. In fact, most user companies do not understand what the manufacturer's equipment represents.