Rebirth 99 to become a car giant.

Chapter 202 Taking a breath of air, Cao Yang realized that he had been careless.

Japanese breakfast is very good.

Although Cao Yang ate a lot last night, he went to the hotel's buffet restaurant early in the morning to taste local delicacies.

What impressed him most was that there were several people responsible for making breakfast, all of whom were grandma-level figures.

The kind of grandma who is at least 70 years old, maybe even [-] years old.

This discovery still surprised him.

Are Japanese people already this way?

Is the 80-year-old grandma still working?

In a few decades, could China become like this?

With all kinds of messy things in his mind, Cao Yang followed the troops to the World Robot Conference.

As soon as you enter the venue, you can feel the warm atmosphere.

Naturally, Cao Yang was in no mood to think about other messy things.

Unlike some exhibitions in later generations where the number of exhibitors is greater than the number of customers or visitors, this World Robot Conference not only attracted hundreds of professional robot manufacturers to participate in the exhibition, but also attracted many exhibitors from the automotive industry, People from the medical industry, food industry and other fields participated.

Coupled with some local people in Kyoto, the entire venue was quite lively.

Even during the process of going to the Nanshan booth, Cao Yang met several teams of beautiful girls playing cosplay.

The atmosphere was definitely created to be very exciting.

"Robots are very popular in Japan."

"I think half of the people participating in the exhibition are ordinary people."

As a professional, Li Shigui naturally looks at problems from a different perspective.

Whether a certain industry in a country develops well or not sometimes has a lot to do with the atmosphere.

For example, animation has a very strong atmosphere in Japan, and its development is naturally very good.

"Japanese people often have their own uniqueness in making precision parts and are better at striving for excellence."

"It just so happens that robots are such a thing that pursues excellence."

Cao Yang's understanding of the overall situation in Japan is definitely no lower than that of Li Shigui and Mi Ying.

However, precisely because of this, he paid great attention to the development of equipment during the development of Nanshan.

Because the equipment cannot be developed, if you have to buy everything by then, it will be impossible to have core competitiveness.

When the time comes when people try to choke you, it won’t be that easy.

When equipment develops, a series of materials and parts will have a foundation for development and the possibility of becoming stronger.

Because these equipment can not only be used in Nanshan, but can also be sold to outsiders, allowing this industry to develop along with it.

"Mr. Cao, many companies will hold their own product launches this morning. The organizers have shared the main event schedules of each company with everyone, so that everyone can stagger the time as much as possible."

Soon, Nanshan and his group arrived at their exhibition hall.

Li Shigui took over a list from the employees who came to the scene in advance, which roughly listed the schedule of each company's press conference.

"Since many manufacturers are holding new product launches this morning, let's just wait until the afternoon."

"Especially the demonstration of the new robot will be discussed in the afternoon."

Cao Yang came here to compete, so he naturally hoped to attract more viewers and media during the Nanshan Robot Conference.

That way it can have the greatest publicity effect.

Since everyone thinks the morning is good, he will choose the afternoon.

"In the afternoon, some media may have left the exhibition."

Li Shigui reminded him from the side.

These media also come with missions.

Often I finish my tasks in the morning and then leave in the afternoon.

As for whether they will return to their respective companies or move around freely, only they themselves know.

"It doesn't matter. Whether the media reports or not is not the most important thing. The important thing is to let the customers who come to the conference see how powerful we are."

"When the time comes, they will naturally help us publicize it."

Cao Yang was full of confidence, but Li Shigui didn't want to dwell on anything anymore, so he changed the subject and said, "How about we go to other exhibition halls in the morning to see what the latest robots released by competitors are like?"

Participating in exhibitions, in addition to promoting your own products, is also a very important task to understand the dynamics of competitors.

"Go and see!"

"Know thyself, ever-victorious!"

"After understanding the opponent's situation, our research on the next robot will be more targeted."

……

"Mr. Cao, this is FANUC's exhibition hall. What they released today is the latest Spirit series robot."

Li Shigui took Cao Yang and Mi Ying around the exhibition hall.

Then he took this opportunity to fully demonstrate his professional knowledge in front of Cao Yang.

As long as Mi Ying simply translates what the other party said at the press conference, he can explain the past situation of the other party's robots more clearly.

Although the information he possesses may not be the latest information about his opponent, it is enough to clear up Cao Yang's knowledge.

"Although Fanuc was a bit badly beaten by us in China, their strength is still there."

"Just like this Spirit robot, it is a high-performance robot with full degrees of freedom. It has a high degree of freedom and flexibility and can perform a variety of complex tasks."

"It uses FANUC's unique joint drive technology to achieve extremely high degrees of freedom and precision."

"In addition to the automotive industry, Spirit series robots are also used in aerospace, electronics, medicine and other industries, and can perform a variety of high-precision tasks, such as assembly, welding, spraying and inspection, etc."

In front of professionals, Cao Yang did not pretend to be big, but listened carefully to Li Shigui's introduction to him.

"In this exhibition hall now, Yaskawa Electric is displaying their AXIS series robots."

"AXIS series robots are also multi-degree-of-freedom robots and are mainly used in industrial automation, logistics, medical and other fields."

"It uses Yaskawa Electric's unique control technology and sensor technology to achieve a high degree of flexibility and precision."

"Speaking of which, Mr. Cao, I think the company may need to consider arranging personnel to research sensors in the future."

"Otherwise, if we have been relying on outsourcing, we will not have any advantage in price, and our technology will not be higher than those of these Japanese companies."

"After all, Japanese companies are leading the world in making sensors."

Li Shigui took this opportunity to give Cao Yang a suggestion.

He is now the deputy director of the Robotics Division, and naturally hopes that Nanshan Robot can develop and grow.

Although Nanshan now masters the technology of several large parts on robots, such as bearings, CNC systems and motors, a robot does not only have these three parts.

In the future, more and more robots will use a large number of sensors.

Otherwise, there are many functions that simply cannot be implemented.

"Sensors must be developed, but the properties of this thing are more towards electronic components. We need to do it step by step."

Not to mention sensors, Cao Yang wants to do all these things, including chips and memory.

But this naturally requires a process and an opportunity.

"Indeed, the company has quite a lot of research and development projects now, and it will be possible to do more after a while."

Li Shigui saw that Cao Yang had no objection, so his goal was achieved.

There's no way he just mentioned it and Cao Yang just followed it!

"Mr. Cao, the next thing we see is Kuka from Germany. This company is widely used by both Modu Volkswagen and Spring City Volkswagen. We also have direct relations with them on welding robots. competition."

"Kuka is a German robot manufacturing company. Its most famous robot product is the Lion series of robots."

"The Lion series robot is a multi-degree-of-freedom robot, mainly used in manufacturing and logistics industries. It uses KUKA's unique robot control technology and sensor technology to achieve a high degree of flexibility and precision."

"However, the price of German robots is too high. I think not only will they not be able to beat us, but even Japanese companies will be able to continue to squeeze out their share in the future."

Obviously, Li Shigui is not particularly optimistic about Kuka's future.

What you make is not unique in the world. If the price is so expensive, there will definitely be fewer users.

"If we want to enter the European market in the future, we will inevitably have to compete with KUKA. At that time, those customers will not only look at the price. The robotics division will also need to buy a few KUKA robots and study them carefully to target their selling points. Fight back."

Cao Yang naturally knew Kuka's name.

He even knew that Kuka was later acquired by Midea.

"Don't worry, Mr. Cao, for the world's mainstream robot companies, we have assigned dedicated people to study their products, conduct disassembly analysis and benchmarking."

"This is also what every robot company is doing. When the time comes, we will definitely be able to find KUKA's weak electricity to attack."

In the automotive industry, all car companies are doing something like buying a competitor's car and disassembling it to see what processes are used in the parts that are invisible to the naked eye.

The robotics industry is naturally similar.

"ABB is also participating in the exhibition today, right?"

Speaking of KUKA, Cao Yang will naturally not forget ABB, a representative of European and American robots.

This company has a wide product line and its robots are also very good.

It can be regarded as one of Nanshan's powerful opponents.

"A little ahead is the ABB booth. It is rumored that ABB's robot production, R&D, and engineering centers are preparing to move to China for localized R&D and production in Shanghai."

"ABB robots run very fast, especially ABB's QuickMoveTM dynamic self-optimizing motion control technology. Without any adjustments, each axis always moves at a very large acceleration, which is 25% faster than the production cycle of other Japanese robots. ."

As Li Shigui said this, he quickened his pace and headed towards ABB's booth.

Obviously, Cao Yang paid more attention to ABB as a competitor. Li Shigui felt that he would also need to arrange personnel to focus on studying ABB's products in the future, and find ways to grab orders from ABB.

"Look, Mr. Cao, the robot in the center of the ABB booth consists of three basic parts: the robot body, the drive system and the control system."

"The main body of the robot is the base and actuator, including arms, wrists and hands. Some robots also have walking mechanisms."

“大多数ABB工业机器人有3~6个运动自由度，其中腕部通常有1~3个运动自由度，现在展示的应该是有6个运动自由度的先进产品。”

Arriving at ABB's booth, Li Shigui immediately began to introduce it.

I have to say that the professional appearance made the technicians in the booth look over frequently.

"Which company does the exhibition hall next to ABB belong to? Why haven't I heard of it?"

When Cao Yang listened to the introduction to the ABB booth and continued walking forward, he saw a name he didn't recognize.

Although Cao Yang is not a professional in the robotics circle, he knows all the mainstream robot manufacturers.

"This is a local reducer supplier in Japan, called Nabtesco, which translates to Nabtesco in China."

“At the same time, he is also our reducer supplier.”

As soon as Li Shigui said this, Cao Yang was stunned.

Nanshan’s welding robot actually has a Japanese supplier?

Now Nanshan is in such a stalemate with companies such as Fanuc and Aisin that they have united with a group of robot manufacturers and made the decision not to sell robots to Nanshan.

If they go one step further...

Cao Yang couldn't help but take a breath of air.

If someone really wants to get stuck, there is still a way.

"Why don't I have the impression that there is such a manufacturer in our supplier list?"

Cao Yang frowned, and Li Shigui hurriedly explained.

"Mr. Cao, we purchase their products through domestic agents, so he is not in the supplier list."

“Almost all precision reducers used by industrial robots in the world are monopolized by Japan.”

"Their precision reducer technology is far ahead and difficult to replace in the short term. Therefore, reducers in the Chinese market generally rely on imports, especially imports from Japan."

"Although we are also looking for domestic suppliers, Nabtesco is a global leader in terms of products, materials, design level, quality control, precision, power density, reliability and service life."

"In the short term, it's a little bit difficult to completely put them aside."

At this moment, Li Shigui was aware of another precaution in Nanshan's supplier selection.

It seems that in the future, I will try my best to avoid importing parts, especially parts from Japan.

"Is this reducer that difficult?"

Cao Yang realized that he might have been careless before.

I didn't notice that there were such critical parts on the robot.

Otherwise, I must have personally participated in the "research and development".

Fortunately, it seems it’s not too late to know now?

"In the field of mechanical transmission, the reducer is an intermediate device connecting the power source and the actuator. Generally, the high-speed running power of the electric motor, internal combustion engine, etc. is passed through the small gear on the input shaft to mesh with the large gear on the output shaft to achieve the purpose of deceleration. , and transmit greater torque.”

"Especially in the fields of aerospace, robotics, medical equipment and other fields, the demand for high-performance precision reducers with simple and compact structure, high transmission power, low noise and smooth transmission is constantly growing."

“Among them, RV reducer and harmonic reducer are two very important reducers among precision reducers.”

"You may be curious, it is also a reducer. What is the difference between a precision reducer and other reducers?"

In order to make Cao Yang understand why he wanted to buy parts from Japan, Li Shigui also tried his best to popularize relevant knowledge with Cao Yang there.

"As a power transmission mechanism, the precision reducer uses the speed converter of the gear to reduce the number of revolutions of the motor to the required number of revolutions and obtain greater torque."

"Although the purpose of the precision reducer is to reduce the speed and increase the torque. It does not seem to be too difficult, but there are very few precision reducer manufacturers in the world that can provide large-scale and reliable performance. The vast majority of the precision reducer market The shares are all occupied by Japanese companies.”

"In addition to the Nabtesco I just mentioned, there are also Harmonica's harmonic reducers and Sumitomo Heavy Industries, which are also Japanese companies."

"Japan's precision reducer has become the pinnacle of the precision machinery industry."

"In fact, the technical threshold for entering the reducer is extremely high, especially the RV reducer, which is completely made up of high-precision components and gears meshing with each other, especially for material science, precision processing equipment, processing accuracy, assembly technology, and high-precision testing. Technology puts forward extremely high technical requirements.”

"The reducers of the world's mainstream robot manufacturers such as ABB, KUKA, Fanuc, and Yaskawa are also provided by Nabtesco and Harmonica."

After hearing what Li Shigui said, Cao Yang made a decision in his heart.

This precision reducer needs to be built in Nanshan.

Otherwise, future Nanshan robots could be choked by someone at any time.

Having touched the cake of the Japanese, he did not believe that the giants of Fanuc would not unite to ask Nabtesco and Harmonica to cut off their supply.

Even if the supply continues and a big price increase is given to you, it can completely eat up all the efforts you have made on other parts.

After all, in articulated robots, reducers are needed at locations with heavy loads such as the base, arm, and shoulder, as well as at locations such as the forearm, wrist, or hand.

"After returning, a group of personnel were arranged in the Robotics Division to set up a precision reducer research group."

"Strive to develop our own precision reducer within next year."

When Cao Yang said this, Li Shigui became a little confused.

However, some things should be said sooner rather than later, so he couldn't help but said: "Mr. Cao, the equipment for processing and manufacturing precision reducer parts is very expensive, such as the Megale surface grinder, which is worth nearly [-] million yuan. Therefore, In the absence of large-scale production, the amortized cost of the equipment is staggering."

"And if we do reverse research and development on Nabtesco and Harmonica's reducers, many places know about them but don't know why."

"So even if there is a major breakthrough in reducer technology next year, there are still many issues in maintaining the accuracy of the reducer, the accuracy life of the reducer, and the life of the product."

"Various technical difficulties will cause our domestic reducers to have poor consistency and low reproducibility between products."

"It would be a bit embarrassing to spend a lot of money but not produce a qualified product."

Although precision reducers are important, they are inconspicuous.

The key is successful research and development, and the possibility of successfully surpassing the opponent is very low.

That's why Li Shigui was more confused.

At least he felt that it was not suitable for him to develop these parts in a short period of time.

In the future, if the output of Nanshan Robot increases, only if it has its own factory that consumes a large amount of products will it have the possibility of success.

"The Japanese equipment giant is determined to destroy me. If we delay for a few more years, we may be dragged to death by then."

"This precision reducer must be built."

Cao Yang gave his reply with certainty.

In this regard, Li Shigui naturally did not dare to say anything more.

At this moment, a loud noise suddenly came from the booth somewhere in front.

Many people trotted over.

This naturally attracted the attention of Cao Yang and his party.

"Mr. Cao, it seems that there is something going on at Honda Giken Industrial Co., Ltd., that is, the Honda car showroom."

Mi Ying saw Cao Yang's curious expression and immediately interjected.

"Honda?"

"They are also coming to the World Robot Conference?"

Cao Yang was a little surprised, "Come on, let's go take a look!"