With the rapid development of China's economy, the continuous improvement of industrial machine tools, and the increasing demands for improving the quality and efficiency of machined products, China has imported high-quality precision tools for foreign countries.
With the rapid development of China's economy, the continuous improvement of the level of industrial machine tools and the increasing demand for improving the quality and efficiency of machined products, China's demand for imported high-quality precision tools has also increased. As the price of imported tools is generally higher than that of domestic tools, its application is greatly limited. However, there is no doubt that at present, in the high-end market for cutting tools, compared with imported tools, domestic tools have a certain gap in terms of specifications, quality and after-sales service.
The author made an introduction to the advantages and characteristics of foreign tools for domestic reference.
1. Main application fields of imported tools
At present, imported tools are mainly used in industries and enterprises that require high tool life, performance, efficiency, and stability.
(1) The automotive industry's processing characteristics of the automotive industry are high-volume, assembly line production, and second, processing conditions are relatively fixed. In order to optimize production and improve quality and efficiency, the automotive industry places very stringent requirements on the efficiency and service life of tools. At the same time, due to the use of assembly line operations, in order to avoid downtime of the entire production line due to tool change and huge economic losses, a mandatory uniform tool change method is usually adopted. This also puts a unique high demand on the stability of the tool quality.
(2) The processing characteristics of the aerospace industry in the aerospace industry Firstly, high processing accuracy is required, and second, the material is difficult to process. Most of the parts and components that are processed in this industry are high-temperature alloys and nickel-titanium alloys (such as INCONEL718), which have very high toughness and strength, making imported tools extremely useful.
(3) Large-scale turbines, steam turbines, generators, and diesel engine manufacturing companies are required to process parts that are bulky and expensive. In processing, it is crucial to ensure the precision of the parts being processed and to reduce waste. Import tools are also used in the industry.
(4) Companies using more CNC machine tools say that “good horses have good saddlesâ€. In order to improve processing efficiency and product quality, and make full use of the efficiency of CNC machine tools, imported tools are often used to more easily achieve the desired results.
(5) Foreign-funded enterprises often pay more attention to the guarantee of production efficiency and quality among these enterprises. Since many foreign-funded enterprises' equipment is imported from foreign machine tools and equipment, the use of cutting tools in their importing country is a matter of course.
In addition, there are many other industries, such as the mold industry, military enterprises and other applications of imported tools are also very common.
2. Advantages of imported tools
2.1 Quality advantages
First of all, the most important thing is quality. From a general sense, the quality advantages of foreign tools are mainly manifested in the following aspects:
(1) Long service life: that is, under the same processing conditions, the tool life can be increased several times or even tens of times, especially in the case of harsh processing conditions (such as cutting of difficult-to-machine materials, high-speed cutting, dry cutting, and high precision Processing, etc.), imported tools show a very long life;
(2) High processing efficiency: The main purpose is to increase the cutting speed of the tool and increase the production efficiency.
(3) Good quality stability: that is, the products of the same specification variety have the same tool life under the same processing conditions;
(4) High processing precision: Including high machining surface accuracy and high part product qualification rate.
It is of great significance to explore the reasons for the excellent quality of imported cutting tools to improve the quality of domestic cutting tools. According to the author's experience, there are mainly the following aspects:
(1) years of experience accumulation and technology leadership. Most of the tool manufacturers in Europe have a history of several decades or even hundreds of years. Many unique experiences (Know-how) they have developed in long-term production practices are the most fundamental guarantee for their product quality, and they are also the core competitiveness of a company. The embodiment.
(2) High-precision, modern equipment and instruments, and skilled worker operation. These are effective guarantees to improve the quality of the tool products and production efficiency, especially the high precision of the precision grinding machine, which plays an irreplaceable role in ensuring the quality of the tool.
(3) The methods, means, instruments, and frequency of sampling tests are also important aspects for ensuring quality stability.
(4) The selection of raw materials, the latest coating technology, and the application of heat treatment processes are also essential to ensure quality.
2.2 Variety of species
Germany's famous thread processing tool supplier can provide standard products with more than 110,000 kinds of specifications and types. In addition to the complete specifications and sizes of the tools, the more important is the diversity of its varieties. As we all know, due to the customer's processing conditions, such as machine tools, chucks, parts of materials being processed, lubrication conditions, the shape of parts being processed are all ever-changing, in order to use the same tool in different customers under different processing conditions are best The effect is obviously impossible, which is the basic reason why foreign manufacturers produce multi-tools. In other words, foreign manufacturers adopt a multi-species strategy to seek out the best tool and machining solutions for customers under a variety of different processing conditions to win customers.
2.3 Application leader
In addition to the above-mentioned product quality and variety of production hardware, foreign manufacturers attach great importance to the application of cutting tools. Because the length of the tool life, the efficiency is not only dependent on the quality of the tool itself, but more important is the rational application, that is, only the use of different types of tools and different processing parameters under different processing conditions in order to achieve the best results . Knowing and understanding the type of tool that should be used under which machining conditions, and developing and manufacturing it and using it correctly, forms the core of enterprise application technology. The tool application technology is closely related to the diversity of varieties mentioned above. Together with the production technology, it forms two indispensable and important aspects of the tool product. Unfortunately, at present, many tool manufacturers in China do not have such a deep understanding of the tool application technology, and they do not pay enough attention and investment in tool test development. In fact, application technology is a mineral deposit with the largest amount of gold. Developing it not only can greatly enhance the company's core competitiveness, but also can greatly improve product quality and reduce production costs. However, it is undeniable that the mastery of advanced application technologies cannot be accomplished overnight. It requires not only a lot of manpower and material resources, but also the constant emergence of new materials and new processes.
2.4 well-equipped marketing
As a whole, the current domestic brands of imported knives are mainly concentrated in a few large companies. The range of choices available to customers is relatively not very smooth, and there is little room for maneuvering on prices. With the great changes in the domestic market, many foreign companies have changed their marketing strategy for the Chinese market from being the first agent to becoming direct sales, which has made the survival space of many small and medium-sized import tool agents increasingly narrow. In recent years, many small distributors have sprung up all over the country, making the contradiction between market supply and demand increasingly prominent.
To resolve this contradiction requires new ideas and new models. As we all know, in foreign countries, especially in Europe, there are a large number of excellent small and medium-sized cutting tool manufacturers. They have strong professionalism. In their professional fields, they have superior quality, complete varieties, rapid response and reasonable prices. Their products and technologies can make up for many gaps in domestic demand. They can also provide a wide range of supply channels for many domestic small and medium-sized distributors. . According to the experience of developed countries in Europe and the United States, in the near future, between major customers and large-scale suppliers, direct sales channels that do not pass any third party will be established. In this regard, for small and medium-sized distributors, Their main target customers are small and medium-sized enterprises, and their suppliers must also be small and medium-sized manufacturers. This is an inevitable trend of market development. It can be fully confirmed from the current market situation in Europe and the United States.
However, for a long time, due to information, marketing channels and other reasons, the products of these foreign small and medium-sized enterprises have not yet been able to enter the domestic market with a wide range of convenience. Because many obstacles will be encountered in realizing this new idea: A small distributor must face many foreign small and medium suppliers at the same time, the process will be extremely complicated, and the cost will be astonishingly high. Therefore, the emergence of a cooperation platform connecting multiple foreign small and medium suppliers and numerous domestic distributors has become a strong market for the tool market.