Where Exactly is the 'Bottleneck' in Robot Core Components?

The most noteworthy core component is the joint reducer. It has the highest cost proportion, the highest technical difficulty, and the highest gross profit margin. As for the current domestic reducers, what is the actual situation regarding the products and markets of several major manufacturers? Compared with relevant international competitors, what are the specific advantages and disadvantages? What are the current difficulties in taking the next step forward for domestic core components? Can the currently popular strategy of using low prices to gain market share for reducers break the strange cycle of domestic sales? This article reveals China's core component issues from these perspectives.

Policy and R&D

The localization of robot core components has always been a trend emphasized by the state and is what many people expect and envision. China must and will find its own path. However, from a macro perspective, the difficulties in solving core component problems continuously emerge with research, while the effectiveness of policy and funding support has been relatively small.

The industrial market circle is neither too large nor too small, and it's always the same group of familiar faces coming and going; the robot industry is the same. Those who can stably influence national policy and guide commercial direction are just that group of people. However, those who actually execute, research implementation, and enter the market are often not the same group, leading to a disconnect between industry and research.

For core component enterprises, although funding support is largely influenced by policy direction, and strengthened national policy support undoubtedly provides more backing for enterprises, companies cannot rely solely on policy. They must still focus more on resolving the technical contradictions of the core components themselves. Core component enterprises all hope for sustained and targeted national support that can increase relevant investments. For example, from the initial development of domestic components, the difficulties faced ranged from raw material challenges, to processing equipment issues, then to assembly technology, and further to product evaluation and testing. It was only through continuous learning and research by Chinese enterprises that these problems were gradually resolved. After 7-8 years, core components have now achieved some success.

Looking at the overall component situation in the current market, these previously critical technical challenges are no longer major problems for production enterprises; they have been continuously resolved over time and through deeper research. The problems now lie more in the influence of the macroeconomy. The focus on translating major policies into application remains insufficient, forcing enterprises to rely on their own exploration. This leads to severe homogenization in component industry applications, with little difference between enterprise products, easily resulting in vicious competition.

However, if policies and industry leadership could provide stronger, application-oriented, market-facing guidance, enabling enterprises to make targeted performance adjustments and optimizations, and if each robot industry segment had specialized and differentiated elements, it would undoubtedly better align with the overall marketization process of the robot industry.

Market and R&D

Core components are an unavoidable hurdle for robot enterprises. When discussing domestic robots, core components are invariably criticized. Although everyone verbally expresses support for domestic components, enterprises mostly still believe domestic core components are currently in a growth phase. To ensure more stable product quality, domestic robot manufacturers unsurprisingly tend to choose foreign components, making market trials for domestic components extremely difficult.

At the same time, although everyone is optimistic about the market potential of domestic components and holds high expectations, the current phase is one of fluctuation and upward struggle for domestic core components. The key obstacle to further ascent is the limited support from domestic brand volume. "People are unwilling to use them" leads to the current difficulties of core components still lying in market instability and volatility.

(Zhenkang Reducer Products)

How to overcome this perception barrier during the market ascent phase is the biggest bottleneck encountered by many core component enterprises wanting to catch up with and surpass international standards. How to break through in volume and market application, penetrate the market, and make the robot core component field deeper and more specialized is a current difficulty to be solved. Given the attention and investment in robots, marketization efforts have not achieved the expected effect, making subsequent R&D increasingly difficult.

However, relatively speaking, current domestic robot component enterprises are doing more down-to-earth work. At least in terms of cultural differences and product after-sales service, the geographical advantage of domestic products needs to be immediately evident. China's vast market is undoubtedly the biggest advantage for domestic core components. Regardless of market conditions, persisting in product development and refining quality will inevitably narrow the gap. Relying on the significant alignment between local enterprises' understanding of the market and the products themselves, the cooperation and targeted focus between core component enterprises and domestic robot enterprises will undoubtedly increase, making it easier to close the gap with foreign counterparts.

Benchmarking Against Foreign Competitors

The 'Big Four' robot manufacturers have always been a hurdle in the minds of robot industry practitioners and a barrier for domestic core components. The difference between domestic products and those of the Big Four can be likened to a small boat versus an aircraft carrier, but this is more in terms of market scale. Currently, in the reducer market, the main players are two Japanese companies: Harmonic Drive is the leader in harmonic reducers, and Nabtesco Motion & Control is the leader in RV reducers. Together they occupy over 75% of the high-end reducer market share, holding a very strong position. For example, relying on long-term cooperative relationships, the Big Four procure components at half the price offered to Chinese customers, while Nabtesco's reducer prices for Chinese customers are relatively higher.

However, in terms of craftsmanship, domestic related technologies, such as precision machining and heat treatment, are not weak in actual market applications, especially considering the personnel's focus on process. Therefore, the core gap between current domestic components and foreign components is not large. Instead, because they can reduce investments in transportation, assembly, and other aspects, the advantages of domestic core components lie more in price and market.

(Shaanxi Fast Gear Drive Reducer Products)

Therefore, gaps and shortcomings between domestic and imported brands still exist, but not in fundamental craftsmanship. What is more needed is the support of large market volume to compensate for the more extensive application software functions and directions accumulated by foreign brands over time. This would allow for continuous improvement of core processes across various industry applications based on broad market needs.

For RV reducers, Nantong Zhenkang and Shuanghuan Driveline have also received orders on the scale of tens of thousands of units (in March 2018, Shuanghuan Driveline – EFORT 10,000 units; in 2019, Nantong Zhenkang – Shanghai Huanyan, EFORT 18,000 units), indicating that domestic brands are gradually gaining trust. Therefore, their R&D journey remains long and challenging.

Price Wars Are Not Advisable

Due to the current world economic situation and industry downturn, China's robot sales growth has also slowed. However, this is not the main trend. The domestic reducer market will undoubtedly continue to rise because the genuine development of domestic robots still requires domestic components. Although there are currently fluctuations, in the long run, component manufacturers remain very optimistic about the production and continued growth trend of robot core components.

Archive Document Number: 20446. Content organized from the old site database.