The automotive parts industry is the foundation of the development of the automotive industry and a prerequisite for the sustained and steady development of the automotive industry. With the continuous advancement of economic globalization and the increasingly detailed division of labor, large international automobile manufacturers have gradually shifted to a streamlined organization and a specialized production model that focuses on vehicle development: while expanding production capacity, vehicle manufacturers have cooperated with external high-quality professional automobile parts manufacturers to form a supporting supply relationship, thereby promoting the rapid development of the automotive parts industry and generating huge and continuous market demand.

At present, the global automotive parts industry is mainly dominated by developed countries with developed automobile industries such as Europe, the United States, and Japan, and the comprehensive strength of parts companies in developing countries in the international market is relatively limited. According to the list of the top 100 global automotive parts suppliers in 2014 published by Automotive News, Japan and European and American countries accounted for the vast majority. However, with the global expansion of the industrial chain of the automotive parts industry, automotive parts manufacturers in developing countries have also ushered in a good development opportunity. In some automotive parts sub-industries, the superior parts companies in developing countries have gradually formed a pattern of competing with large international automotive parts companies through years of technical reserves and market experience accumulation.

In order to vigorously develop gear anti-fatigue manufacturing technology, build China into a gear industry power, and reverse the passive situation of high-end gears relying on imports, at the “China Gear Industry Development Conference” held in Tianjin in early spring this year, nearly 100 backbone enterprises in China’s gear industry, such as Beichi, CITIC Heavy Industries, and Tianhai Synchronous Group, jointly established the “China Gear Industry Alliance (hereinafter referred to as the Alliance)” with Peking University, Henan University of Science and Technology, and raw materials, machine tools, cutting tools, measuring instruments, oil products and other industrial chain-related enterprises.

This is undoubtedly a pioneering move. However, it must be admitted that the research and development of common technologies related to the development of the industry in the form of an alliance is still a newly reclaimed virgin land in China’s scientific and technological innovation model. From sowing to harvesting, there is still a process of careful cultivation. If there is a problem in any link or any aspect, the expectations of the alliance will be greatly discounted, and it may even be a lively opening and a hasty ending.

In this regard, Lv Chao, chairman of Tianjin Tianhai Synchronous Group Co., Ltd., talked to reporters about his views from the perspective of an active advocate and enthusiastic participant of the alliance.

The alliance is needed to build a platform for the development of anti-fatigue manufacturing technology

China is now a major gear production country, but it is not yet a gear manufacturing power. In terms of the research, application and promotion of anti-fatigue manufacturing technology, there is still a blank. How to reverse the passive situation of high-end gears relying on imports, Lv Chao agrees with the view of Zhao Zhenye, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, that is, “vigorously develop anti-fatigue manufacturing technology.” However, in Lv Chao’s view, it is not the responsibility of any college, scientific research unit or enterprise to completely overcome the difficulties of anti-fatigue manufacturing technology. Because anti-fatigue manufacturing technology involves multiple disciplines such as chemistry, physics, mechanics, friction, metallurgy, and measurement, it is an extremely complex and huge system engineering that requires a lot of manpower, material resources and financial resources. Take the automotive synchronizer produced by Tianhai as an example. The number of gear shifts is far higher than the national standard of 100,000 times, reaching 200,000 times, but there is still a clear gap compared with the world’s leading level of 300,000 times. For such a small synchronizer, if it wants to achieve a leap in service life, it must rely on breakthroughs in nine core manufacturing technologies: surface hardening, anti-fatigue machining, surface tissue reconstruction, anti-fatigue assembly, long-term corrosion protection, integral blanking, precision heat treatment, anti-fatigue evaluation and test detection. It is obviously not enough to rely on Tianhai’s single-soldier breakthrough.

Common technologies need to be tackled together. This is the conclusion drawn by Lu Chao. Under market conditions, forming an industrial alliance, combining the power of government, enterprises and scientific teams, and overcoming common technical problems that are difficult for one or several companies to solve is not only the best but also the only choice. Moreover, the United States, Japan, Europe and South Korea have mature experience and successful examples in this regard.

The success of the alliance depends on the same desire of the government and enterprises

The China Gear Industry Alliance, in terms of its nature, is only an innovation community spontaneously organized to overcome common technical bottlenecks. It is a new type of industrial cooperation organization in exploration, with neither economic ties nor legal constraints. Lv Chao believes that under this mechanism, if the alliance is to truly become an important force that takes enterprises as the main body, combines production, education, research and application, and gathers industry forces to overcome common technical difficulties, it is inseparable from entrepreneurs with a sense of social responsibility in the industry, the joint participation of a large number of engineering and technical personnel, and the strong financial support of the country.

The support of the country and the government is the first. In Lv Chao’s view, the quality of common technology is related to the strength of national industry. The seemingly ordinary gears are not only the basic industry of China’s equipment industry, but also an indispensable key part of a variety of high-end mechanical equipment such as automobiles and machine tools. For a long time, due to the three major problems of short life, poor reliability and heavy structure of domestic gears, China’s independent brand automobiles and major equipment have been seriously hindered from moving towards high-end. To solve these common technical problems, it is not enough to rely on one or two enterprises alone, and it is not realistic to rely entirely on the strength of the enterprises to support the alliance’s cause. Especially today when enterprises are facing transformation, rising costs and thinning profits. Therefore, Lv Chao called on the country and the government not only to play a leading role in the alliance’s research and development process, but also to provide policy and financial support for the research and development of common technologies and key components. For example, in order to solve the shortcomings of the automatic control system of independent brand automobiles, enterprises have begun to develop AMT, DCT, CVT and AT transmission assemblies, automobile automatic transmissions, key parts of energy-saving and environmentally friendly automatic transmissions, high-precision, low-noise, long-life large and medium-sized spiral bevel gears, high-precision and special automobile gears, etc., which should be included in the key development projects of the national “12th Five-Year Plan” gear industry, and should also be included in the national major scientific and technological projects.

Lv Chao particularly emphasized that enterprises that voluntarily join the alliance should regard the construction of a “gear manufacturing power” as their own responsibility, have a sense of social responsibility to sacrifice small profits for the greater good, and give up their own position for the overall situation. They should pay money and work hard, actively participate in and enthusiastically support the cause of the alliance, and support the common technology research and development platform with personalized creation, and do their best to overcome the difficulties of gear anti-fatigue manufacturing technology as soon as possible.

Tianhai is willing to be a pioneer in overcoming difficulties

Lv Chao said that as an active advocate and enthusiastic participant of the alliance, Tianhai is willing to take the lead, take the lead in trial, and be a pioneer in overcoming difficulties, and help the alliance overcome the difficulties in common technologies with breakthroughs in personalized technologies.

Today, Tianhai has built a high-end innovation platform, a national-level technology center, and created a first-class high-quality innovation team in the industry, with the ability to take a step ahead in the research and development of gear anti-fatigue manufacturing technology in China. With this advantage, since last year, Tianhai has included “anti-fatigue manufacturing”, “using rare earth carburizing steel to improve the service life of synchronizer parts”, “stress-free concentrated assembly”, “the influence of precision forging of thin-walled rings on heat treatment deformation”, “the cause and countermeasures of BW modulation cracking”, “the cause of failure of precision forging dies and improving life” as key research projects, and strives to achieve a synchronizer life of 500,000 times in three years, ranking at the international leading level.

In order to complete the transformation from manufacturing development mode to creative development mode as soon as possible, and realize the strategic goal of “high-level leapfrog development and taking the international road”, Tianhai will increase the research and development of anti-fatigue manufacturing technology, and will also strengthen cooperation with German and domestic research institutes, make full use of global research and development resources to carry out high-end product innovation, and occupy the domestic and international high-end market to a greater extent. This year alone, Tianhai will complete the development of many new product projects, including high-precision synchronizers such as DCT automatic transmissions, ZDF mixer truck transmissions, clutch hubs, small-diameter ring blank forging, rolling, isothermal normalizing, DCT automatic transmissions, ZDF mixer truck transmissions, automatic transmission clutch hub parts cold processing, and radial forged hollow shafts for heavy-duty commercial vehicle multi-speed series transmissions. Thus, a complete industrial chain dominated by high-end products such as precision forged gears, synchronizers, planetary gears, anti-slip differentials, gearboxes, AMT, hybrid systems, TCUs, and HCUs is formed.

Strive to build Tianhai Group into a technologically advanced, industry-leading, world-renowned technology-based enterprise, and make greater contributions to conquering gear fatigue resistance manufacturing technology and building China into a gear manufacturing power as soon as possible. This is Lv Chao’s wish.

There is a very important device inside the structure of the manual transmission, that is, the “synchronizer”. The role of the synchronizer is very obvious. That is, when shifting gears, the speed of the gear at the power output end is faster than the gear that is about to be shifted into this gear. It is a mechanical device that solves the problem of the inconsistency between the engine speed and the gearbox speed during the gear shifting operation of the car. It can effectively avoid the inability to shift gears and eliminate the gear noise during gear shifting. If there is no synchronizer, forcing a slow-rotating gear into a high-speed rotating gear will definitely cause the phenomenon of tooth knocking.

In fact, the synchronizer is a friction plate arranged on the coupling sleeve and the gear set. Unlike ordinary friction plates, its friction surface is conical. The role of this group of friction plates is to rub in advance before the spur teeth and the vertical teeth of the disc come into contact, so as to transfer the energy of the side with a higher speed to the side with a lower speed, so that the side with a lower speed can increase the speed and achieve synchronization with the side with a higher speed. This not only ensures normal gear shifting, but also plays a buffering role, and the number and material of the conical friction plate group directly affect the performance of the synchronizer.

Nowadays, the operation of cars equipped with synchronizers is simple. You only need to: 1. Depress the clutch; 2. Shift the gear to neutral, and then push it to the gear you want to change; 3. Release the clutch. [It should be noted that when the car shifts between forward and reverse gears, you must use the brakes to shift gears and release the clutch after the car stops, otherwise it will damage the transmission equipment. ]

In old cars, when there is no synchronizer, the car shifts gears in the following steps: 1. Depress the clutch; 2. Shift the gear to neutral; 3. Release the clutch, and then depress the clutch; 4. Push the gear to the gear you want to change; 5. Release the clutch, otherwise it will be difficult to shift gears and you will hear the gear noise when shifting gears.

Among the many policies proposed by the government for the auto parts market, the opening of auto repair data has become a symbol of breakthrough development in the industry. After the maintenance data is made public, the more dimensional big data formed by the integration can make the entire aftermarket form a whole, thus breaking the information asymmetry barriers caused by the industry monopoly.

Based on big data, merchants in various links such as maintenance and repair in the entire industrial chain can focus more on their own industry, and the relevant data required can be connected with merchants specializing in data, so that the entire industry can be lightened, and the era of competition and cooperation in the automotive aftermarket will begin.

From the perspective of the industrial chain, the current Chinese automotive aftermarket can be basically divided into seven categories: including maintenance, repair, modification, used cars, auto parts, related e-commerce and financial insurance. These seven categories can actually be further subdivided. For example, maintenance includes car washing, beauty, oil and parts replacement services.

The seven major categories of automotive services can be divided into three types: automotive services, Internet of Vehicles related, and tool communities. At present, many merchants in the automotive service category are changing from heavy to light, and are beginning to transition from the lower level of the industrial chain to the middle level, becoming service providers for “serving automotive service providers”. This type of merchants, whether they are platform or vertical service providers, are transitioning to “big data” in terms of informatization.

Because merchants have found that competition in the automotive aftermarket service does not lie in the number of maintenance personnel, but more in the adaptation of data such as original accessories, brand accessories, working hours, and maintenance information. For example, the oil filter needs to match the customer’s car model, but the original oil filter is very expensive. Generally, O2O companies use MANN brand. Which MANN brand oil filter is suitable for this customer’s car model? This requires the use of a database for matching support. In terms of data acquisition, merchants with accumulated data can obtain information through more channels, while those without accumulation will cooperate with professional database companies. The entire industry chain has a heavy demand for big data services.

Big data can bring more to the industry in terms of merchants’ management of customers and businesses. When these data are specific to the automotive aftermarket, they are comprehensive management of automotive aftermarket service merchants in communicating with users and commercial marketing. In particular, the flexible retrieval and application of data such as models, accessories, brands, and maintenance can allow merchants to get close to car owners. Even without asking, you can understand the owner’s car information, and further provide the owner with a one-stop car service solution.

So, what data does the automotive aftermarket need? A qualified data service provider should do the following:

Data information of all brands, all models and all accessories. There should be a universal architecture for all models and all accessories based on VIN. The accessories database includes: VIN code identification library, model configuration library, maintenance rule library, accessories original part number brand part number universal database, etc.

Database association structure synchronized with foreign countries. Real-time synchronization of information from foreign parts suppliers can ensure that the latest models of parts fill the database.

Internet-based API data service. Ensure that every merchant cooperating with it can connect to and retrieve the required database information through the API interface.

1. Current status of forging machinery manufacturing industry

1. Market size

According to data from Shangpu Consulting Group, in 2022, the market size of my country’s forging equipment industry reached 50 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 14.25%, of which rolling and forging equipment revenue was 2.5 billion yuan, accounting for 5% of the total revenue. It is expected to be 42.25 billion yuan by 2025.

2. Regional distribution

my country’s forging equipment companies are widely distributed in various regions, but the Northeast and the Yangtze River Delta are the most concentrated. Among them, the number of forging equipment companies in East China is the largest, accounting for 43.31% of the country; followed by Northeast China and Central China, accounting for 15.15% and 14.56% respectively.

3. Upstream and downstream industrial chain

The upstream raw materials of the forging equipment industry are mainly steel plates, forgings, castings, etc. If the price of steel rises, the production cost of the industry will increase accordingly. At the same time, the technical level and supply capacity of upstream raw materials also have a certain impact on the operation of this industry. The downstream industry has a wide range of application areas, and its product applications involve almost all industries of the national economy, mainly concentrated in the automotive, shipbuilding, aerospace, rail transit, energy, petrochemical and other industries.

2. Competitive landscape of forging machinery manufacturing industry

1. Head enterprises

In the field of global forging equipment, a few countries such as the United States and Germany have mastered the most advanced equipment manufacturing technology and are in a leading position in the world. Major foreign forging equipment manufacturers include Germany’s West Mark Meer, Germany’s Muller Weingarten, Germany’s LASCO, the United States’ Ajax, Italy’s Vaccari, Russia’s Voronezh Heavy Machinery, and Russia’s heavy forging machinery.

In terms of technological innovation and equipment manufacturing technology, my country’s forging equipment industry is still in a state of tracking and catching up. For example, major innovations and breakthroughs in the field of forming technology all come from abroad, including 3D printing technology, hydraulic forming technology, and ultra-high-strength steel plate hot stamping technology.

The main domestic heavy forging equipment manufacturers include Jinan No. 2 Machine Tool, Shanxi Taizhong, China First Heavy, China Second Heavy, Hefei Forging Group, Yangli Group, AVIC Heavy Machinery, etc.

3. Technical Trends in Forging Machinery Manufacturing Industry

1. Precision

Precision means that by adopting precision forging technology, raw material consumption can be reduced, processing waste can be reduced, product precision can be improved, the service life of the mold can be increased, energy consumption can be reduced, and costs can be reduced. Germany, Japan and other developed countries use precision forging equipment such as hot die forging presses, warm forging, cold forging presses and fine stamping presses and precision forging technology to produce forging products with a high level of precision. They can produce high-quality and high-precision products such as automotive precision connecting rods with a tolerance of less than ±1%. The precision of the forging diameter direction can reach more than 0.02mm, and the machining allowance of the parts is only 0.3mm of grinding, which truly realizes near-net forming.

2. Efficiency

Efficiency means improving the processing efficiency of products by combining high speed and compounding. In order to achieve efficient production, developed countries such as Germany and Japan have developed forging machines with faster beats and higher speeds. For example, the production beat of the small high-speed punching machine produced by Nidec Jingli Machinery Co., Ltd. can reach 4000spm; second, they have developed forging equipment using composite processing technology, effectively combining die punching and laser cutting, and completing multiple processes such as punching, punching, shallow drawing, flanging, and cutting by loading the workpiece once, saving auxiliary operation time to the maximum extent and greatly improving production efficiency. For example, Germany, Japan, and the United States have successively developed laser punching and cutting composite machine tools and put them on the market.

3. Green energy saving

Green energy saving refers to reducing energy consumption and environmental pollution while ensuring product quality and performance. Energy saving and emission reduction is a common topic in the world at present, so energy saving of forging machinery is of great significance. Forging forming requires overcoming huge deformation resistance. Traditional general presses are large in size and high in energy consumption. Electric servo-driven presses bring new hope for energy saving of forging machinery. Electric servo-driven presses remove flywheels, clutches and brakes, and their structure is greatly simplified. Not only can the motion characteristics of the slider be adjusted arbitrarily, but also the energy saving effect is obvious. At present, foreign countries have applied electric servo direct drive technology to various presses such as screw presses, stamping machines, hydraulic presses, wedge rolling mills, bending machines, etc.

IV. Development prospects of forging machinery manufacturing industry

1. Equipment upgrading

With the changes in domestic and foreign market demand and technological progress, the forging machinery manufacturing industry is facing the need for equipment upgrading. On the one hand, downstream users have higher and higher requirements for product quality, precision, efficiency, etc., which require more advanced, smarter and more environmentally friendly forging equipment to meet; on the other hand, the manufacturing equipment owned by domestic industrial enterprises is mainly general machine tools, and the overall CNC rate of equipment is less than 10%, which is far below the world average. It is necessary to accelerate the transformation and upgrading of digitalization, intelligence and networking.

2. Import substitution and export growth

Since foreign forging equipment manufacturers have great advantages in technological innovation and equipment manufacturing technology, my country’s high-end forging equipment market still relies on imports. However, after a long period of technological accumulation, the basic conditions for my country’s forging equipment manufacturing industry to achieve import substitution are already in place. Import substitution will become one of the main driving forces for industry growth. By 2022, more than 80% of high-end CNC machine tools required for aerospace, shipbuilding, automobile and power generation equipment will be based on domestic production, and domestic CNC machine tool products will replace imports, which has a broad market space.

At the same time, with the advancement of industry technology, the improvement of product quality and performance, domestic forging equipment replacing imports and exporting abroad is also a future development trend. According to the forecast report on the development prospects of China’s forging machinery and equipment industry, in recent years, my country’s forging machinery volume forming equipment and sheet metal processing equipment have developed in parallel, and various small and medium-sized forging machinery have complete specifications and varieties, and the number has increased. The overall level and CNC rate have improved rapidly, meeting the needs of national economic development and have been exported in large quantities.

V. Based on the above analysis

The forging machinery manufacturing industry is an important part of the equipment manufacturing industry and is of great significance to the development of the national economy. With the rapid development of my country’s economy and society and the advancement of industrialization and urbanization, the demand for forging machinery products will continue to grow.

There are still some problems and challenges in the forging machinery manufacturing industry, such as oversupply of low-end and medium-end products, lack of high-end products, weak technological innovation capabilities, and serious environmental pollution. These problems and challenges need to be solved and improved by strengthening scientific and technological innovation, improving product quality and performance, and achieving green energy conservation.

The forging machinery manufacturing industry has good development prospects in the future, mainly with the following opportunities: equipment upgrading, import substitution and export growth, application and promotion of new technologies, development and utilization of new materials, etc. These opportunities will bring new growth points and competitive advantages to the industry.

Conclusion

To sum up, this paper analyzes the development status, market size, competition pattern, and technological trends of the forging machinery manufacturing industry, and gives some prospects and suggestions. This paper believes that the forging machinery manufacturing industry is an important part of the equipment manufacturing industry and is of great significance to the development of the national economy. With the rapid development of my country’s economy and society and the advancement of industrialization and urbanization, the demand for forging machinery products will continue to grow. There are still some problems and challenges in the forging machinery manufacturing industry, which need to be solved and improved by strengthening scientific and technological innovation, improving product quality and performance, and achieving green energy conservation. The forging machinery manufacturing industry has good development prospects in the future, mainly with the following opportunities: equipment upgrading, import substitution and export growth, application and promotion of new technologies, development and utilization of new materials, etc. These opportunities will bring new growth points and competitive advantages to the industry.