Since the lifting of ABB's patents in 2012, a large number of domestic teams have entered this field and begun to show their strength. Although after several years of market cleaning, some manufacturers have chosen to withdraw, while others have made parallel robots a part of their product line. However, some companies that focus themselves on the field of parallel robots are still left behind. From the outside world, parallel robots are only a very subdivided niche field, and even call it a "corner temporarily forgotten by international manufacturers." However, in 2018, when the overall growth of the robot industry fell short of expectations, many domestic parallel robot manufacturers In terms of shipments, gratifying results have been achieved. Some people think that since the industry has experienced a "cold winter","spring" will come soon. So will the "spring" of domestic parallel robots come in 2019? Facing the shortcomings At present, the application of domestic parallel robots has become more and more mature, especially in application fields related to people's livelihood such as food and fast-moving consumer goods. Since most of the relevant manufacturers are labor-intensive enterprises, the demand for automated transformation is also getting stronger and stronger, and such companies have a considerable degree of room for transformation. Some domestic parallel manufacturers have also actively cultivated the market in response to this situation, and have begun to show results. Wu Jiangfeng, deputy general manager of Astro Boy Robot, said that in the past, because the demographic dividend had not disappeared, many processes were still completed by hand."For example, some dairy factories and pharmaceutical factories, the front section was full of machines and the back section was full of workers. Nowadays, more and more manufacturers realize that the demographic dividend has disappeared, and rising labor costs have forced manufacturers to carry out automation transformation. More and more manufacturers of parallel robots and related system integrators are also cutting into applications such as food and drug packaging. In the field of application, the subsequent market growth of parallel robots is alarming.
However, it should be pointed out that although the current market situation seems to have begun to benefit domestic parallel robot manufacturers, existing problems in some industries also need to be paid enough attention. A person in the robot industry who declined to be named said that the performance of domestic parallel robot products at this stage is somewhat "uneven", especially the stability of the products is not good enough, and some failed transformation projects have also damaged the confidence of the application side. He said: "Many domestic manufacturers like to instill into application-side companies the concept that their products 'although they can only achieve about 80% of the performance of imported products, the price is extremely cheap and the after-sales service is also very thought', while ignoring the fact that the application-side really needs high-quality and high-performance robots. The loss from shutdown of the production line is far greater than the price discount they get when purchasing equipment. Creating good robots with high stability and low failure rate is the goal of domestic parallel manufacturers." In addition, although the degree is not serious, domestic parallel robot manufacturers have also begun to do some "small tricks" with each other. Wu Jiangfeng said: At present, domestic manufacturers are generally relatively weak in strength. They should not compete with each other. Instead, they must unite closely and work together to upgrade the technology of parallel robots to a higher level. "The domestic market is big enough to accommodate three to five relatively powerful manufacturers to play together." In 2019, what is the growth rate of parallel robots? Previously, Gaogong Robot had interviewed many parallel robot manufacturers. Most of the companies interviewed believed that although they would be affected by the macroeconomic environment, domestic parallel robots could still maintain a relatively ideal growth rate in 2019. Chen Dunjian, deputy general manager of Ruhua Shengkong, said that looking forward to the market of parallel robots in 2019, if they can be applied in new industries and widely promoted, national sales will rise to 10,000 units. Wu Jiangfeng said,"Shipments of parallel robots will continue to grow in 2019, and are expected to be 30% to 50%, which is higher than the average level of industrial robots." He said that because the application fields of parallel robots are still increasing, the demand for parallel robots in some developed industries is still increasing, and investment in equipment will also increase. Wang Yuechao, chairman of Bokent Robot, believes that the increase in shipments of domestic parallel robots will be between 35% and 50%, and the share of domestic parallel robots will exceed 70%. Some research institutions also said that as a group of once-popular Internet companies announced that they had entered a "cold winter" at the end of 2018, this year's capital may return to the real economy. This is really good news for domestic industrial robot manufacturers, including parallel robots. Yang Jian, deputy general manager of Qingkong Ginkgo Nantong Company, said: "Whether it is the country that has created a science and technology innovation board for the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and helped with direct financing, or some social security funds, as well as some channels that have begun to open up to some direct investment businesses, you can see this trend. From the perspective of investment, the Science and Technology Innovation Board also requires capital investment to involve import substitution as much as possible, which can actually improve the national economy and people's livelihood, as well as directions related to manufacturing. These measures can help channel capital into the real economy, especially manufacturing and hard technology." Being prepared for danger in times of peace, domestic parallel robots also need to have a certain sense of danger at this time. Although Yang Jian admitted that he was not authoritative in the field of parallel robots, he personally believed that it was not appropriate to be too optimistic now. He said that the main application areas of parallel robots are 3C and some products that are lighter and have less precision requirements on production lines, such as food picking and handling. "In fact, the overall profitability and market conditions of these industries have been declining in the past two years. Therefore, specifically speaking, whether we can achieve a relatively good market performance and make such a judgment on the premise that the situation of relevant industries tends to decline, I personally think it is a bit optimistic and not very cautious." Chen Dunjian said that as far as the robot industry is concerned, risks will definitely be encountered under the macroeconomic slowdown. "The first to bear the brunt is naturally slowing market demand. However, risks always coexist with opportunities. While developing steadily, we must actively expand the application of parallel robots in some new industries, such as the traditional packaging industry, and seek new growth points.