The Current Situation and Future Prospects of China's Cutting Industry

　　The current situation and future prospects of the cutting industry. Since the establishment of the China Welding Society and the China Welding Association, the two associations have made outstanding contributions to the development of the cutting industry and the promotion and application of cutting technology. In recent years, in particular, the two associations have organized various forms of domestic and international academic exchange activities, welding and cutting exhibitions, and on-site exchange meetings on new products and technologies in the cutting industry. A series of national new standards and product grading standards for welding and cutting equipment have been formulated. Through this work, we have gained a certain understanding of the development trends of the domestic and international cutting industry, and it has also provided a good opportunity for technical exchange and information sharing among enterprises in the industry. This has effectively promoted the technological progress and development of the entire cutting industry.
　　In today's industrial field, welded structural components are widely used in various industries. Plate cutting is the first step in the processing of welded products and is also an important process for ensuring welding quality. The use of advanced modern cutting technology not only ensures the welding quality of products and improves labor productivity, but also significantly reduces the manufacturing cost of enterprise products and shortens the product production cycle. With the widespread application of new products, new processes, and new technologies, intelligent precision cutting will become the future development trend of the cutting industry.
　　1. The Current Situation of the Cutting Industry
　　China's cutting industry is mainly composed of the following types of production enterprises: 1) gantry cutting machines; 2) trolley-type cutting machines and cutting nozzles; 3) plasma cutting power supplies and cutting nozzles; 4) manual welding and cutting torches and nozzles, etc. After decades of development, the products of the cutting industry have developed from single manual torches into a relatively complete industry. Products can basically meet the needs of the domestic market, and some products have entered the international market. In recent years, the development of gantry CNC cutting machine production technology in China has been particularly rapid.
　　1.1 Gantry Cutting Machine
　　Modern contour cutting is still mainly based on gantry CNC cutting machines, because only this type of CNC cutting method can effectively ensure the complete automation of the cutting process. China's CNC cutting technology developed relatively late, but its development speed is very fast. Before the 1980s, in China, plate material blanking was mainly based on manual or semi-automatic trolley blanking. Entering the 1980s, with the continuous deepening of enterprise reforms, people realized that the use of advanced cutting technology is not only the key to ensuring the welding quality of products, but also significantly improves the utilization rate of plate materials. In some enterprises with large plate material consumption, due to the improvement of plate material utilization rate, the equipment investment recovery period of CNC cutting machines has been shortened, and good economic benefits have been achieved. Therefore, the market demand for CNC cutting machines has been increasing year by year, thus promoting the rapid development of China's cutting industry.
　　At present, the main domestic CNC cutting machine joint venture or wholly-owned enterprises are Shanghai Yisa Cutting Machinery Co., Ltd., Messer Cutting Welding Co., Ltd. (Kunshan). These enterprises have received strong technical support from foreign countries, so their product technology is in a leading position in China. Harbin Sihai CNC Equipment Co., Ltd., Harbin Huawai Welding and Cutting Complete Set Equipment Co., Ltd., Harbin Electric Motor Co., Ltd. Mechanical and Electrical Equipment Manufacturing Plant, CSSC Shipbuilding Technology Research Institute, Shenzhen Boli Chang CNC Cutting Equipment Co., Ltd., Wuxi Hualian Welding and Cutting Equipment Factory, etc., utilize their own advantages and have developed rapidly in technology. Their products have complete specifications and good performance, meeting the needs of different users. In addition, they have also developed some special CNC cutting equipment, and some products have reached or exceeded the level of similar foreign products in terms of technology.
　　The annual market demand for CNC cutting machines in China is about 350-400 units, and the products are still mainly flame and ordinary plasma cutting machines. The market demand for advanced cutting equipment such as large underwater plasma cutting, fine plasma cutting, and laser cutting is showing a year-on-year upward trend.
　　CNC fine plasma cutting equipment has developed rapidly in recent years. Using fine plasma technology to cut plates not only makes up for some shortcomings of ordinary plasma cutting, but also its cutting accuracy and surface roughness have reached the lower limit of laser cutting. Because the investment in laser cutting equipment is very large, and the maintenance and operation costs are high, it is difficult for general enterprises to bear such a large investment. Therefore, as a substitute for laser cutting, fine plasma cutting equipment, due to its superior cutting performance and much lower equipment investment than laser cutting machines, has been favored by many users in the market. At present, Shanghai Yisa Cutting Machinery Co., Ltd., Messer Cutting Welding Co., Ltd. (Kunshan), Harbin Huawai Welding and Cutting Complete Set Equipment Co., Ltd., etc., have launched this product to the market. In the next few years, the sales proportion of this product in the market will increase year by year.
　　The development of products in China's cutting industry has broken the traditional boundary between welding and cutting, and its products have spanned the two processes of welding and cutting. In recent years, many traditional building structures have been gradually replaced by steel structures, and coupled with the large investment in national infrastructure construction, this has promoted the rapid development of the steel structure industry. H-beam production lines and multi-axis CNC pipe cutting machines have become another hot spot in the industry's technological development. H-beam production lines mainly consist of gantry cutting machines, assembly machines, automatic welding machines, and straightening machines, and this production line has become the main production equipment for steel structure factories to produce H-beams. The annual market demand reaches dozens of sets.
　　Among them, the CNC gantry automatic welding machine, using the weld seam synchronous tracking system, has been successfully used in the automatic welding production of trailer variable-section bottom beams. This has enabled the trailer variable-section bottom beam to be continuously welded into shape in one go, instead of the original segmented welding. This not only greatly improves the welding quality of the product, but also doubles the production efficiency. At present, nearly ten trailer manufacturing enterprises are using this equipment, and have achieved good economic benefits. As a new product with a large market, it will be greatly developed in the next few years.
　　At present, various CNC cutting machines produced by domestic enterprises can meet the needs of various industries in China, and a certain number of products are exported. Compared with the 1980s, at that time, large-scale precision CNC cutting machines in China mainly relied on imported products. Since the 1990s, the number of imported products has been declining year by year. At present, the CNC cutting machines imported by China are mainly some technologically advanced products, such as large underwater plasma cutting machines, fine plasma cutting machines, and laser cutting machines, and the import volume accounts for only 10% of the total market volume of cutting machines in China.
　　Entering the new century, the cutting industry has developed again. In the past, the CNC cutting machines exported by China were mainly sold to some developing countries. This year, two 11-meter gauge large CNC cutting machines manufactured by Shanghai Yisa Cutting Machinery Co., Ltd. successfully entered the internationally renowned enterprise HHI (Hyundai Heavy Industries Co., Ltd., South Korea) through international bidding. Messer Cutting Welding Co., Ltd. (Kunshan) has also introduced some CNC cutting machines into the South Korean market. The export volume of products from other domestic cutting machine manufacturing enterprises has also gradually increased, which also marks a new stage in the manufacturing level of gantry cutting machines in China's cutting industry.
　　In terms of CNC control systems, most domestic CNC cutting machine manufacturers use general-purpose CNC systems, which are applied to the cutting field after secondary development. The research and development costs of these control systems are relatively low, and their functions can basically meet the requirements of conventional cutting processes. However, for some cutting processes with special requirements, control software needs to be redeveloped, which brings many inconveniences to product upgrades and maintenance. Foreign dedicated control systems have very powerful functions, such as cutting process parameter libraries, fault self-diagnosis, and fault recording functions. These functions make cutting work more convenient and the degree of automation higher.
　　Looking at domestic CNC cutting machine manufacturers, technological development has been rapid, with considerable comprehensive strength, and the overall trend is positive. In particular, the demand in the domestic market continues to rise, improving product quality, and continuously improving and developing new products, the development prospects of the cutting industry are very good.
　　1.2 Trolley-type cutting machine and cutting nozzle
　　As a traditional plate material cutting equipment in the cutting industry, the trolley-type cutting machine is widely used in various industries due to its simple operation and flexible use. Although there has not been much development in technology and variety in recent years, the overall product quality has become stable. In China, a considerable portion of the plate material is still cut using trolleys, so the current market demand will not fluctuate significantly. The leading product is still represented by the CG1-30 trolley-type cutting machine, with an annual market demand of about 10,000 units, and the annual sales volume of other models of trolley-type cutting machines is about 5,000 units.
　　Most of the domestic manufacturers of trolley-type cutting machines and cutting nozzles are old enterprises with relatively backward processing equipment and low overall automation level. The production form is still mainly single-piece multi-process processing, with low production efficiency and difficult-to-control product quality. Developed countries, however, use automated or semi-automated equipment for the production of such products. In particular, the production of cutting nozzles mostly uses automated production lines. Therefore, product quality is strictly controlled during the production process. Enterprises should accelerate equipment upgrades, reduce labor productivity, continuously develop new products, and improve product quality.
　　Currently, the trolley cutting machine market is very active. In order to cope with the market and participate in competition, some enterprises reorganize their existing technology, capital, and personnel based on their own characteristics. Products are developing in the direction of "specialization, refinement, and specialization," and have achieved success. A typical example is the Shanghai Gas Welding Machine Factory, an old enterprise facing numerous difficulties. In order to overcome these difficulties, in recent years they have continuously improved the product quality of trolley-type cutting machines, reduced production costs, and enhanced the market competitiveness of their products. At the same time, they make full use of the company's own advantages and develop new products such as the CNCG series CNC pipe cutting machines, multi-station automatic flame brazing machines, and steel plate heaters according to market demand. They have also developed and supplied a batch of special cutting and welding equipment for some key national projects. This has not only saved a large amount of foreign exchange for the country but has also enabled the enterprise to achieve good economic benefits, exploring an innovative path for the development of the industry.
　　In recent years, the production scale of cutting nozzles in China has developed significantly, with an annual output of more than 2 million units nationwide, of which hundreds of thousands of cutting nozzles are exported to the Middle East and Southeast Asia each year. Due to the many processing procedures and complex production processes of cutting nozzles, there are many factors that affect product quality, so product quality is difficult to control. After technological transformation and process improvement by various production enterprises, product quality has improved to a certain extent. Coupled with the price advantage, the output has increased year by year, and the export volume has continued to increase. Domestic cutting nozzle production is mainly represented by enterprises such as Ningbo Jinfeng Welding and Cutting Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
　　1.3 Plasma cutting power supply and cutting nozzle
　　Plasma cutting technology has a short history of development, but its development speed is very fast. Due to the advantages of plasma cutting, such as good cutting quality, small thermal deformation, and fast cutting speed, especially in the cutting of non-ferrous metals and thin plates, its advantages are more obvious. Using fine plasma cutting technology, the surface quality of material cutting has reached the lower limit of laser cutting quality. With the continuous promotion and application of plasma cutting technology, people have a new understanding of plasma cutting technology, so plasma cutting machines are becoming more and more widely used in various industries.
In recent years, domestic plasma cutting power supplies have developed significantly. Thyristor inverters are gradually replacing the original leakage inductance plasma power supplies. Currently, the product specifications are relatively complete, especially in high-power plasma power supplies, which have made great breakthroughs in recent years. Wujin Hongwei Electrical Equipment Co., Ltd., Changzhou Fanyang Electrical Equipment Co., Ltd., and other enterprises have launched high-power plasma cutting power supplies to the market. Currently, China can produce 1000A high-power plasma power supplies, with an annual output of more than 10,000 plasma cutting machines of various specifications and nearly one million sets of various specifications of electrodes, nozzles, and other accessories.
　　Domestic plasma power supplies are mostly used for manual cutting and are equipped with trolley cutting machines. There are not many plasma power supplies equipped with CNC cutting machines, while foreign products account for a considerable proportion. Compared with foreign products, domestic plasma power supplies have poor stability, a higher failure rate, and low processing accuracy of electrodes, nozzles, and vortex rings, resulting in a shorter service life of plasma consumables. In the industry, due to the lack of a mechanism for converting plasma cutting theoretical research and production practice, the speed of new product development is not fast, and the application of new technologies is not widespread. This has restricted the further development and application of plasma cutting technology. Currently, there is no relevant information on the research and development of fine plasma power supplies in China.
　　1.4 Welding and cutting torches and nozzles
　　Due to China's relatively weak industrial foundation, manual welding and cutting torches have a large market in China and are widely used. The technical content of manual cutting torches is relatively low, and the market demand is large. Therefore, there are many domestic manufacturers of this product, and they are widely distributed.
　　With the restructuring of enterprises and product structure adjustments, coupled with the continuous promotion and application of new gas, it has brought vitality to production enterprises. The previous situation of market oversupply has improved, and some products have been exported abroad. However, in terms of the overall industry, enterprises generally have backward processing technologies, relatively single products, and unsatisfactory operating conditions. With the entry of some foreign products into the Chinese market, market competition will become more intense. Currently, the primary task is to research and develop new products, create精品 (high-quality products), establish a new corporate image, and further improve the internal and external quality of products. The successful development experience of Shanghai Jierui Company and Longxing Group Company is worth learning from by their peers.