The land of Southern Guangdong, the two sides of the Pearl River, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan, these four cities are closely clustered in the core area of the Greater Bay Area. They are remarkable economic cities, ranking the top four in the GDP ranking of all cities in Guangdong Province. They are also strong industrial centers, according to the “Advanced Manufacturing Top 100 Cities (2022) Research report”, four cities not only ranked first, but also Shenzhen and Guangzhou won the champion and third place respectively.

When four cities unite, what kind of chemistry will happen? In recent years, the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Buddha-Dongguan intelligent equipment industrial cluster jointly built by four cities may be able to provide an answer. In the first batch of 45 advanced manufacturing industry clusters released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, a total of 7 clusters in Guangdong Province were shortlisted, among which Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Buddian-Dongguan intelligent equipment industry cluster is the cluster with the most cities involved in in-depth cross-regional cooperation, and is also the largest intelligent equipment gathering area with the most categories and the most complete industrial chain in the country. Covering intelligent robots, precision instruments and equipment, laser and additive manufacturing and other fields, supporting Guangdong’s 16 trillion yuan industrial production system.

Data show that in 2021, the total output value of Guangzhou-Foshan and Dongguan intelligent equipment cluster is about 981.69 billion yuan, and the industrial scale accounts for 78.87% of the province and 10.59% of the country.

Securities Times reporters recently visited and investigated Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Buddhas Dongguan intelligent equipment industrial cluster, and launched several rounds of dialogues with government departments, promotion agencies, cluster enterprises, experts and scholars, hoping to take this cluster as a cross-section to observe how cross-city industrial clusters concentrate regional advantages and give full play to the effect of industrial agglomeration.

Gather —

Market driven, forming a “starry sky”

Equipment manufacturing, popular understanding is “the manufacture of production machines”. From CNC machine tools on factory lines, to laser tools for manufacturing auto parts, to lithography machines, the core equipment for the production of chips, all belong to the equipment manufacturing industry. In recent years, with the rise of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, intelligent equipment has gradually become an important development direction of the equipment manufacturing industry.

Into the production workshop of Shenzhen Mu Exciting Technology Co., LTD., the reporter saw that an ultra-precision five-axis double laser tool processing machine is working. This processing equipment named “530DH”, is a star product of Muji Technology, is processing a polycrystalline diamond (PCD) four-edge molding knife. After the staff selects the parameters for one-click processing, the 4K monitoring system on the left side of the equipment can observe the processing process in real time: first, the fine cutting laser cuts the PCD part, and then the coarse cutting laser is used to cut through the tungsten steel layer… In a “sharp” laser processing, the tool gradually formed.

Sun Yalan, assistant general manager of Mu Exciting Technology, told reporters that Mu Exciting Technology is a national high-tech enterprise specializing in the development of precision laser equipment, which can provide super-hard tool industry with full laser solutions, laser grinding and ultra-sharp tool technology is in the leading level of the industry.

In Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Buddha-Dongguan intelligent equipment industrial cluster, Mu exciting technology is a very representative enterprise. The size of the company is only 54 people, is a small and medium-sized enterprise, but in the field of high-end cutting tools has excellent technical strength, selected in Shenzhen special new small and medium-sized enterprises, currently has 105 national patents.

“Congenital deficiency, nurture, starry sky, strong toughness”, when talking about the development characteristics of Guangzhou-Shenzhou-Foshan intelligent equipment industrial cluster, Wu Zhiheng, president of Guangdong Machinery Industry Quality Management Association (hereinafter referred to as “Guangdong Machinery Quality Association”), described. According to reports, at present, Guangdong Province has gathered more than 17,000 related enterprises, including 6,949 enterprises above scale; There are 32 individual champions in the intelligent equipment industry with independent core technologies and focus on subdivisions, 130 specialized and special small giant enterprises, and 4503 national high-tech enterprises.

It is many “stars” like Muji technology gathered together, and eventually formed a bright star river. “The cluster has basically formed a complete intelligent equipment industry chain from upstream key parts, midstream complete machines and complete sets of equipment, to downstream application integration, covering robot ontology, numerical control system, intelligent sensors, electric spindle, reducer and automotive welding, assembly, light industry, etc., is one of the domestic intelligent equipment industry chain is very complete.” Wu Zhiheng said.

Market-driven and industry-driven, this is an important reason for the gradual development and growth of Guangdong equipment manufacturing industry and the formation of agglomeration. Professor Chen Xindu of the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering of Guangdong University of Technology pointed out that in the early days of reform and opening up, the food and beverage industry led the development of light industrial machinery and equipment such as food packaging; In the 1990s, the rise of small appliances such as electric fans brought about the prosperity of plastic machinery and equipment. Relying on the processing and assembly links in the middle and lower reaches of the industry, Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Buddha-Dongguan four cities have gradually formed a large-scale and diversified equipment manufacturing system.

“The reason for the formation of stars in the sky is precisely because cluster enterprises have a very sensitive sense of the market, aware of what kind of market demand, no matter how big or small, do everything possible to meet, and continue to develop and grow in the process of adapting to market demand.” Said Gong Xiaofeng, director of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Emerging Industry Development Institute at Shenzhen University.

With the transformation of the manufacturing industry to high-end and intelligent, changes in market demand and industrial upgrading have brought a new climate to Guangdong equipment manufacturing. Chen Lihui, director of the fifth Institute of Electronics of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, analyzed in an interview with reporters that in recent years, the transformation and upgrading demands of key industries such as enterprises to reduce costs and increase efficiency, and machine replacement continue to improve, providing a broad market application space for equipment manufacturing, and a number of equipment manufacturing enterprises in the fields of woodworking equipment, ceramic machinery, and electronic products precision processing equipment have emerged in Guangshen, Foshan and Dongguan.

Driven by the market, the four cities are like four “star groups” with their own characteristics, and each has its own focus on the industrial layout. Guangzhou leads the development of the cluster, focusing on intelligent complete sets of equipment and key components; Shenzhen has achieved the leading level at home and abroad in the field of UAV and laser processing equipment; Foshan has traditional advantages in light industry intelligent equipment and metal processing equipment, and accelerates the transformation around the application direction of industrial robots and intelligent technology; Dongguan is good at electronic manufacturing equipment and industrial robots, focusing on building a robot industry chain from core components to system integrators.