Machine tools are known as the "mother machines of industry and core national equipment". As machines that manufacture other machines, they are essential for processing components that require high machining precision and surface finish. China leads the world in terms of machine tool output value; however, there remains a gap between China's mid-to-high-end machine tool products and those of leading machine tool manufacturing countries in aspects such as overall machine reliability, precision, precision retention, machine tool service life, and efficiency. With the continuous advancement of science and technology and the rapid development of the manufacturing industry, CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machine tools, as one of the core pieces of equipment in modern manufacturing, are undergoing profound transformation and development. In the future, the CNC machine tool industry will provide strong support for the transformation, upgrading, and high-quality development of the manufacturing industry.
Dr. Omer Sahin Ganiyusufoglu, academician of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering, is one of the pioneers of automation of CNC-machine tools with robots. He graduated from Technical University Berlin with Ph.D. degree and realized the first fully automated CNC-lathe. Dr. Omer Sahin Ganiyusufoglu used to be CEO of Yamazaki Mazak GmbH, CEO of Index Dalian Machine Tool Ltd and Special Consultant to Chairman of Shenyang Machine Tool Group. He is also honorary professor of Tongji University and Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and won the Friendship Award of the Chinese Government in 2018.
Nanjing Innovation Investment Group
Dr. Omer Sahin Ganiyusufoglu is one of the pioneers of automation of CNC-machine tools. What do you think about the development trend of machine tool industry worldwide?
Dr. Omer Sahin Ganiyusufoglu
Machine tools are so called“mother machines”. For everything in the world what is not coming from nature, we need machine tools for their production. Therefore, every country which wants to have a strong industry also needs a powerful machine tool industry. Besides the developed countries with a high-level machine tool industry, emerging countries will try to establish their own machine tool industry. These machines will become more commodity machines, thus leading to a tough competition in the world markets in future. As of today, machine tool industry is at the limits in terms of technologies they comprise. The future developments will focus on automated systems and digital transformation.
Nanjing Innovation Investment Group
What are the key factors to achieve high precision and high stability of machine tools?
Dr. Omer Sahin Ganiyusufoglu
First key factor is well-trained staff and skilled workers. As next, designers who are experienced in machine tool design and the necessary software tools for design. Furthermore, a stable tempered factory environment and precise tools and measuring equipment. The process of assembly must be defined by experts and each step must be executed according to work instruction and confirmed.
Nanjing Innovation Investment Group
What is the main technical threshold of five axis (or more axis) machine tools?
Dr. Omer Sahin Ganiyusufoglu
Five-axis machining is like the “Champions League” of machine tools industry. First of all, a dedicated design of machine tool is needed depending on the industry where the machine tool will be used. As an example, for machining aluminum, another design is necessary than for machining titanium. For a reliable five-axis machining, precise rotary components are very essential as well as a dedicated 5-axis control. Developing 5-axis control needs decades.
Nanjing Innovation Investment Group
What impact may AI or other emerging technologies have on the machine tool industry?
Dr. Omer Sahin Ganiyusufoglu
AI will help machine tools to be more intelligent and to make decisions autonomously and to optimize processes. Consequently, AI will help speeding up processes and maintaining a continuous production process without the need of human interaction.
Nanjing Innovation Investment Group
What are the opportunities for Chinese machine tool enterprises?
Dr. Omer Sahin Ganiyusufoglu
Machine tool market is a big global market. Developed countries have the problem of high costs and limited working times. Nevertheless, they can be competitive in high technology segment. Chinese companies are more flexible and have cost advantage. So, they could be competitive in middle class segment globally. As to domestic market, Chinese companies should improve their capabilities and become independent from foreign supplies steadily. Being digital talented and digital oriented Chinese companies should also elaborate how they could establish new digital based business models.
Source: Bai Yang (Fifth Investment Department)
Reviewer: Xue Yao
Publisher: You Yi
