In recent years, with the rapid development of China’s manufacturing industry, “machines replacing people” has begun to reshape industrial automation. During an industry visit to 36 Kr Anhui, it was found that robots participate in important division of labor, whether in the welding workshop of automobiles or in the production of commonly used gloves.
On the production line, industrial robots, also known as robotic arms, can perform precise grasping and other operations through rapid steering and deceleration. To complete this series of operations, they require the support of three core components: reducers, servo systems, and controllers. These three together determine the important performance indicators of robots, such as accuracy, stability, and load capacity.
The so-called servo motor mainly refers to the motor that precisely controls the operation of mechanical components in the servo system, in order to achieve precise control of the speed and position of mechanical components. According to OFweek data, servo motors account for approximately 20% of the total cost of industrial robots.
Qingchuan Electric’s product line
Wuhu Qingchuan Electric Co., Ltd. (referred to as “Qingchuan Electric”) was established in 2020, mainly providing core components of electronic control systems for industrial robot enterprises, including servo motors, integrated mechanisms, servo drives, drive control integration, and other products. Its customers include enterprises such as Qianjiang Robot, Weika, and Jizhijia.
Servo motors are a system engineering that combines software and hardware. Compared to the large and comprehensive product lines of Japanese and German series, Chinese enterprises need to understand and solve the pain and difficulty of customers in order to break through.
Xu Xiwen, General Manager of Qingchuan Electric, told 36 Kr Anhui that in order to achieve high-precision and high-speed, fast, accurate, and stable industrial robots, servo motors need to achieve high speed, high torque output capacity, low torque pulsation, and minimal mechanical jumping, while also having a large moment of inertia. Currently, products in the market generally cannot meet these requirements simultaneously.
In order to address the market pain points mentioned above, the 40/60/80 motor developed by Qingchuan Electric can achieve a maximum speed of 8000 rpm, while the 130/180 motor can achieve a maximum speed of over 5000 rpm. Moreover, the motor has a large moment of inertia and has achieved high-precision and high-speed performance upgrades for multiple domestic industrial robot enterprises.
In addition, according to the needs of industry customers, the company launched a combined multi axis servo drive product in 2023. This product combines the operating habits of traditional servo drives and the characteristics of robot drives requiring multi axis common bus, adopting a higher hardware platform and the latest servo drive technology.
The domestic servo motor market is not large, with only about 18 billion yuan in 2021. However, in this narrow market, foreign investment, state-owned assets, and private enterprises are fiercely competing. During a visit to industrial robot body manufacturing enterprises, 36 Kr Anhui learned that in order to supply manufacturing enterprises, the stability and reliability of products are one of the key considerations for body manufacturing enterprises.
The founding team of Qingchuan Electric is from Tsinghua University and has been engaged in the development of software and hardware products such as motors, power electronics, and embedded systems for a long time. The good maturity of the team provides a good guarantee for the maturity of the products developed by the company, and the company has established a strict and standardized quality management system to ensure the maturity and consistency of the company’s products Xu Xiwen told 36 Krypton Anhui.
In terms of research and development, Qingchuan Electric has invested nearly ten million yuan in the development of robot specific servo motors, integrated mechanisms, combined multi axis servo drives, and integrated drive control products over the past three years, with R&D personnel accounting for over 20% of the company’s total personnel.
When it comes to why they settled in Jiujiang District, Wuhu, Xu Xiwen told 36 Kr Anhui that Wuhu Jiujiang District has the advantage of a domestic first-class industrial robot industry chain, gathering numerous industrial robot bodies, components, application integrators, and other enterprises. There are many customers in the park, which has a good industrial synergy effect. At the same time, the government also provides nanny style services for enterprises in transitional factories, talent services, and other aspects, Very suitable for entrepreneurship in robotics related enterprises.
Data shows that as of April this year, the Wuhu Robot Industry Base located in Jiujiang District has gathered about 220 upstream and downstream enterprises, including 72 enterprises on the designated scale, establishing a complete industrial ecosystem. In 2022, the base achieved an output value of 25.39 billion yuan. In the first half of 2023, the output value was 14.3 billion yuan, with a growth rate of 23.28%.