Development Trends of CNC Machine Tool Informatization in China
Numerical control technology is the core of advanced manufacturing technology and the foundation for the manufacturing industry to achieve automation, networking, flexibility, and integration. The overall level of numerical control equipment signifies a country's level of industrial modernization and comprehensive national strength.
The development of numerical control machine tools largely depends on the performance and level of numerical control systems, and the development and technical foundation of numerical control systems rely on microelectronics and computer technology. With the rapid development of computer hardware and software technology, the hardware platforms of numerical control systems tend to unify, while competition in control system software intensifies. China's numerical control systems have gradually formed an industry centered on Aerospace Numerical Control, Blue Sky Numerical Control, Central China Numerical Control, and China Numerical Control through the introduction during the "Sixth Five-Year Plan," development during the "Seventh Five-Year Plan," application technology research during the "Eighth Five-Year Plan," and main numerical control system software development and application during the "Ninth Five-Year Plan."
Sustained and stable development
In recent years, China's production of numerical control machine tools has continued to grow, and the numerical control rate has significantly increased. On the other hand, the technical level and quality of China's numerical control products have also continuously improved. Currently, the production of some popular numerical control machine tools in China has reached a certain scale, with mature technical performance indicators and reasonable prices, possessing certain competitiveness in the international market. The five-axis linkage numerical control technology mastered by China's numerical control machine tool industry is relatively mature, and mature products have already entered the market.
China has made certain breakthroughs in the production of high-end numerical control machine tools. Currently, China can supply networked, integrated, and flexible numerical control machine tools. At the same time, China has also joined the ranks of the world's producers of high-speed numerical control machine tools and high-precision precision numerical control machine tools. China has successfully developed a batch of numerical control machine tools with spindle speeds above 8000 to 10000 revolutions per minute.
In recent years, China's numerical control machine tool industry has vigorously promoted the application of information technologies such as CAD. Many enterprises have begun or plan to implement ERP, MRPⅡ, and e-commerce applications. For example, Jinan Second Machine Tool Group Co., Ltd. has a 100% CAD adoption rate, is a national-level "CAD Demonstration Enterprise," and its MRPⅡ system application is also very successful, with a high level of modern management.
Three shortcomings exist
However, compared with developed countries, China's numerical control machine tool industry still has many deficiencies in the application of information technology.
1. Weak foundation in information technology and high dependence on foreign technology. The overall technical development capability and technical foundation of China's numerical control machine tool industry are weak, and the degree of information technology application is not high. The existing information technology in the industry mainly relies on the introduction of foreign technology, with a high dependence on foreign technology. The digestion of introduced technology remains at the level of mastering existing technology and increasing localization rates, without rising to the level of forming independent product development capabilities and technological innovation capabilities. High-performance numerical control machine tools characterized by high precision, high speed, high efficiency, composite functions, and multi-axis linkage still basically rely on imports.
2. Low product maturity and low reliability. The average mean time between failures (MTBF) of foreign numerical control systems exceeds 10,000 hours, while domestically developed numerical control systems only reach 3,000 to 5,000 hours; the average MTBF of complete machines abroad exceeds 800 hours, while the best domestic is only 300 hours.
3. Low innovation capability and weak market competitiveness. Although there are more than a hundred enterprises producing numerical control machine tools in China, most have not formed scale production, with insufficient utilization of information technology, low innovation capability, high manufacturing costs, and weak product market competitiveness.
Current development direction
With the rapid development of flexible manufacturing systems and the continuous maturity of computer integrated systems, higher requirements are being placed on numerical control machining technology. Today's numerical control machine tool informatization is developing in the following aspects.
-- High speed and high precision. Speed and precision are two important indicators of numerical control machine tools, directly related to processing efficiency and product quality. Currently, China's sixth-generation numerical control machine tool systems all use processors with higher bit counts and frequencies to improve the basic computing speed of the system, making high-speed computing, modularization, and multi-axis group control systems possible. At the same time, the new generation of numerical control machine tools will adopt very-large-scale integrated circuits and multi-microprocessor structures to enhance the system's data processing capabilities.
-- Intelligence. The intelligent development of modern numerical control machine tools will detect, model, extract features from physical quantities affecting machining accuracy and efficiency, automatically perceive the internal state of the machining system and external environment, quickly make intelligent decisions to achieve optimal goals, and control the machine tool's process parameters in real time, keeping the machining process in the best state.
-- Automation of numerical control programming based on CAD and CAM. With the development of computer application technology, interactive graphical automatic programming of CAD/CAM has been widely applied and is a new trend in numerical control technology development. It uses part processing drawings drawn by CAD, calculates and post-processes tool path data within the computer to automatically generate numerical control machine tool part processing programs, achieving integration of CAD and CAM. With the development of CIMS technology, a fully automatic programming method integrating CAD/CAPP/CAM has emerged, where the processing technology parameters required for programming do not need manual participation but are directly obtained from the CAPP database within the system, promoting further automation of numerical control machine tool systems.
-- Maximizing reliability development. The reliability of numerical control machine tools has always been the main concern of users. The new generation of numerical control systems will adopt higher integration circuit chips, using large-scale or very-large-scale dedicated and hybrid integrated circuits to reduce the number of components, thereby improving reliability. At the same time, through various diagnostic programs such as automatic operation diagnosis, online diagnosis, and offline diagnosis, fault diagnosis and alarms for hardware, software, and various external devices within the system will be realized.