CNC grinding machine production and sales are booming, and market demand continues to expand.

The production and sales of CNC grinding machines are booming: As one of the important industrial mother machines, CNC grinding machines are the basic equipment for grinding and processing various materials and complex surface components, and there are numerous downstream sub industries. Numerical control grinding machine is a key equipment for processing important components of industrial machines such as engines and internal combustion engines. In addition to automobile manufacturing, core components such as crankshafts and piston rings need to be processed using numerical control grinding machines in fields such as engineering machinery, railway locomotives, and shipbuilding. In cutting-edge fields such as aerospace and national defense, the development, processing, and application of various new materials, technologies, and products, such as crystals, ceramics, superhard materials, special wear-resistant materials, and metal new materials, all require investment in CNC grinding machines. Therefore, the market demand for precision, intelligent, and new types of CNC grinding machines in this field continues to expand.

The domestication rate is gradually increasing: With the widespread recognition of domestic high-end CNC grinders in the market and the significant improvement of comprehensive competitiveness, national brands are beginning to rise, and the domestication rate of high-end CNC grinders will gradually increase. In 2021, China produced 4006 CNC grinding machines, sold 4043 units, and generated sales revenue of 1.66 billion yuan; The production in 2022 is approximately 4232 units.

High end CNC grinding machines urgently need domestic substitution, and the value gap between imports and exports is still significant

The import value of grinding machines is showing a downward trend, with a significant difference in import and export value. According to statistics from the General Administration of Customs, the import value of grinding machines in China has declined from about 1.29 billion US dollars in 2018 to about 830 million US dollars in 2022, and the overall import value of grinding machines is showing a downward trend; However, there is still a significant difference in the average import and export prices of CNC grinders in China, and it is worth noting that the difference between the export and import prices of CNC crankshaft grinders is relatively small.

The import substitution of high-end CNC grinding machines is accelerating, and the self-sufficiency of core components is improving: China's manufacturing industry is currently transforming from a "manufacturing power" to a "manufacturing powerhouse". In the future, "high-end, high profit" will replace "low profit, high sales" as the development trend of China's manufacturing industry. The proportion of demand for high-precision, high-efficiency, and high-value high-end CNC grinding machines will also increase in the future. The "Made in China 2025" also explicitly states that "by 2025, the domestic market share of high-end CNC machine tools and infrastructure equipment will exceed 80%; the domestic market share of mid to high end functional components such as spindles, screws, and tracks will reach 80%; and high-end CNC machine tools and basic manufacturing equipment will overall enter the ranks of world powers.

Leading high-end grinding machine manufacturing in Germany and Japan, severe homogenization of domestic grinding machines

Germany and Japan hold a dominant position in the high-end grinding machine market: Germany and Japan are among the most advanced and experienced countries in the research and development, design, manufacturing, and application of grinding machines, and have a high degree of influence in the high-end grinding machine product market. There are a large number of domestic grinding machine manufacturers with serious homogenization, and the overall market concentration is not high. The products are still mainly in the mid to low end. Currently, the leading domestic grinding machine enterprises are mainly state-owned enterprises and private listed companies. As a universal equipment, grinding machines have a wide range of customer distribution fields and a large number of customers, with a high degree of marketization on the demand side. The competition among grinding machine manufacturers mainly focuses on technical strength, product grade, cost-effectiveness, delivery time, and other aspects.

The demand for titanium alloy processing is increasing, and the demand for grinding equipment is expanding

Titanium alloy is gradually being introduced into consumer electronics, and its application scope is gradually expanding: the currently released iPhone 15 Pro/Pro Max and Xiaomi 14 Pro Titanium Special Edition use aviation grade titanium alloy for the first time in the frame; According to the Unwire website, the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra phone is expected to use titanium alloy material; Apple Watch Ultra2、 The Samsung Galaxy Watch 5 Pro and Huawei Watch 4 Pro both use titanium alloy cases.

The difficulty of processing titanium alloys has greatly increased, and the demand for grinding has greatly increased: titanium alloys have low thermal conductivity, severe work hardening, high affinity with cutting tools, and small plastic deformation. These characteristics make titanium alloys extremely difficult to process, thus increasing the requirements for titanium alloy processing equipment. After the rough machining process of titanium alloy is completed, it needs to be ground and polished to improve the accuracy and smoothness of the workpiece. Therefore, the processing time of the frame in titanium alloy is about 3-4 times that of aluminum alloy. When titanium alloy is widely used in 3C electronic products, the demand for grinding equipment will increase synchronously, and it is expected to continue to benefit from the processing of titanium alloy materials.

The barrier to precision machining of threads is high, and the precision screw opens up the growth curve

Grinding machine as the core equipment for screw machining, humanoid robot opens up growth space

Grinding is the main processing method for high-precision screw threads: Currently, commonly used screw thread processing methods include cold rolling, cyclone milling, and grinding, among which grinding has the highest processing accuracy. Cyclone milling and cold rolling are mostly used for rough machining, so grinding is the main processing method for high-precision screw threads. Grinding is the high-speed cutting of the workpiece surface using a forming grinding wheel that rotates at high speed on a thread grinder. The ball screw used for grinding can reach up to P1 level. According to the processing case data of "Research on Intelligent Manufacturing Unit System for Precision Threaded Screw", the grinding process accounts for about 38% of the total screw processing time. The machining of various internal threads accounts for 50% of the hole machining workload in mechanical processing, and with the development of related industries, the requirements for the machining accuracy of internal threads are becoming increasingly high.

Cold forging process: metal cold forming process, rolling processing or becoming a new mainstream

The most commonly used methods for thread machining are cutting and rolling: cutting methods have mature technology and are easy to operate, but their efficiency is low and they cut off the metal fibers, reducing the quality of the parts. Therefore, they cannot meet the demand for a large number and high quality of bolted connections. Rolling thread is a chip free machining method, which essentially utilizes the plasticity of certain materials in a cold state for processing, causing plastic deformation of the workpiece under the pressure of the rolling tool, and rolling the corresponding thread; Without cutting the fibers of the metal, the metal undergoes plastic deformation to form threads.

Rolling processing has the following advantages over cutting processing: 1) better surface quality of threads and lower surface roughness values; 2) Improve the hardness and strength of the surface metal of the workpiece, especially the surface hardness of the tooth base, which has been greatly improved; 3) Economic efficiency is several to tens of times higher than cutting threads, making it easy to achieve automation; 4) Rolling threads is a chip free machining process that can save raw materials; 5) Can process slender screws that cannot be machined by cutting methods; 6) It has higher corrosion resistance than cutting threads.

Whirlwind milling: advanced thread processing method, higher processing efficiency

Whirlwind milling is a high-speed milling thread device that is compatible with ordinary lathes. It uses a hard alloy forming knife mounted on a high-speed rotating cutter head to mill threads from the workpiece; Due to its high milling speed (up to 400m/min) and fast processing efficiency, as well as the use of compressed air for chip cooling, it is named after the cutting splashes that resemble a whirlwind during the machining process - whirlwind milling. Whirlwind milling can achieve dry cutting, heavy-duty cutting, difficult to machine materials, and ultra high speed cutting. Typical parts include medical bone screws, implants, feed screws, worm gears, and other micro parts.

High efficiency of whirlwind milling: Thread whirlwind milling is similar to thread milling technology, with the difference being that the blade is installed inside the cutting disc rather than outside the milling cutter; The spiral whirlwind milling cutter rotates around the cylindrical part and cuts out threads in one pass. Spiral whirlwind milling is a high productivity method commonly used for machining special thread profiles with strict tolerance requirements and the need for rapid production; The surface roughness can reach Ra0.8 𝜇 m, and the machining accuracy is improved by 2 levels. Compared with traditional machining, the efficiency can be increased by more than 10 times, and compared with grinding process speed, it can be increased by 3 times. In addition, dry cutting machining does not require the use of expensive cutting fluid.