With the intensification of competition in the global industrial field, industrial automation has become the only way for enterprises to move towards the high-end of the industrial chain. And in the end of the 2023 fair, a number of domestic new technology enterprises rise with the trend, launched the latest research and development results and new products to the market, especially in the field of micro server, in the domestic market size of the average annual growth rate of 30% of the opportunity, the new “disrupter” to overseas leading enterprises to challenge, and accelerate the development of domestic and overseas two markets.

“Manufacturing automation continues to set off a boom, with industrial upgrading, equipment processing accuracy requirements, servo systems into the market growth period.” The market size of China’s servo industry shows a significant growth trend, and the market size will reach about 18 billion yuan in 2022, and the average annual growth rate is still expected to maintain rapid growth in the future; The scale of the global micro servo market has reached 100 billion yuan, and we are actively exploring overseas customers.” On October 9, Zhang Longfei, founder and general manager of Shanghai Xiangshi Intelligence (ISMC), said in an interview with a reporter.

It is worth mentioning that whether it is domestic or global, as one of the three major components of industrial automation, the micro server market has been showing a “three parts of the world” pyramid structure, that is, to Israel Elmo, the United States Copley Controls, Germany Siemens and other European and American systems occupy the top about 30% market share; Yaskawa, Panasonic, Mitsubishi and other Japanese leaders occupy nearly 35% of the middle market share; A further 35 per cent of the low-end market is held by domestic brands.

In the interview, Zhang Longfei revealed that due to the trend of domestic substitution in the industrial field in recent years, the localization rate of the future micro server market is expected to exceed 50%, and ISMC itself occupies a third of the market share of domestic brands on the track, more excellent domestic industry enterprises are gradually approaching the mid-end, and impact the high-end market.

Iterative acceleration under the track enterprise upward “squeeze”

In recent years, the word “jam neck” has become a sensitive word restricting China’s industrial field, especially the breakthrough of sophisticated technology, and the technical blockade of overseas leading suppliers forced domestic enterprises to accelerate the process of independent research and development, and in the micro servo market segment, the same is true.

In Zhang Longfei’s view, the so-called “stuck neck” problem is also the industrial supply chain security problem faced by China, especially since 2020, the impact of supply chain security should be interpreted from both small and large levels, “small security” refers to the impact of the enterprise’s own supply chain security, “big security” refers to the impact of the entire industry and even the national industrial base security.

“First, look at the supply chain security of domestic enterprises themselves, we have been tortured in some key imported chip delivery links since 2020, almost out of stock within three years, and spot market prices have even skyrocketed more than 10 times.” For start-ups, supply chain security is one of the key factors affecting the level of business operation, in order to avoid out of stock can only hoard goods at high prices to occupy a lot of cash. As far as the enterprise itself is concerned, we hope that domestic chips can gradually narrow the gap in the key chip parts and realize the domestic replacement of middle and high-end chips.” Zhang Longfei admitted.

For the “big security”, Zhang Longfei also believes that the supply chain ecological concerns of China’s advanced manufacturing industry can not be ignored. The localization rate of systems and components in high-end precision industrial equipment is low, and the key core components are jammed seriously, which has become an obstacle to the further upgrading of China’s industry.

“Simple electronic components, such as resistance and capacitance sensing, crystal vibration, etc., have basically achieved localization, but some of the more difficult high-end chips, such as some key chips on our controllers, MCU chips, Ethernet chips, high-speed ADCs, power chips, etc., are still difficult to find suitable domestic alternatives.” From the perspective of technical strength, I think that relying on the strength of our domestic chips is an opportunity to make it, but so far, I have not seen a suitable domestic chip program. The reason may be that the chip team is not accurate enough in the product research definition and market positioning, and is not sensitive enough to the demand pain points of the downstream industry segments, resulting in the determined industry needs that cannot be met. I hope that the domestic chip design team can have a deeper understanding of customer needs and pain points, call on research and development forces to solve customer problems, and make a real high-end chip, rather than staying in the homogenous low-end competition. As a high-end micro servo drive manufacturer, we are also willing to share the specifications of the cutting-edge direction of the micro servo field, and join hands with domestic supply chain ecological partners, upstream and downstream cooperation to achieve a truly healthy supply chain security.” Zhang Longfei said.

In fact, the reporter also learned that ISMC, as a Shanghai local high-tech enterprise founded in 2018, has launched five series of micro servo products to the market in six years, and its first Diamond diamond series has become the company’s flagship product with its tiny size, high power density and good performance in the industry. The second Ruby series is aimed at multi-axis highly integrated scenarios; The third Amber series can meet the secondary development needs of customers, and the terminals are flexibly distributed according to customer needs, which is convenient for customers to walk. The fourth Sapphire series is a relatively traditional AC servo, suitable for harsh field working environment; The fifth magnetic levitation system FTS drive, or flexible transmission system, was officially released in the first half of this year.

“We have three more products in development, to be completed after the research and development will be released. Although we started our business in China, we adhere to the international line in terms of market positioning, product development, quality management and expert services, and our brand trademark registration and product certification have passed the certification at home and abroad.” Zhang Longfei revealed.