Common Witness - History of Japanese Machine Tool Development
QINGDAO SANJET NEW POWER MACHINERY CO., LTD. , http://www.sanjet.net
1. Modern machine tools originated in England in 1769. British James Watt invented the steam engine to unveil the curtain of the industrial revolution. However, according to the theory to make this steam engine, it is necessary to use the correct size to process the inner surface of the cylinder, which can be called the heart. And the outer perimeter of the piston, this is an absolute condition. Making it possible to process it is "horizontal", which is made by the Englishman John. Made in 1775, Wilson made a huge contribution to the manufacture of steam engines. Henry, the British in 1797. Mozley created an iron thread-cutting lathe with a motorized feed holder, known as the originator of modern machine tools, and completed its modification in 1800. Machine tools, as machines for making machines, are called "working machines", and Mozley's modern lathes are the ancestor machines that produce working machines. In the 19th century, the machine tool as the working machine took root in the United States. The arms production required for the War of Independence and the Civil War accelerated the development of machine tools. Parts require uniform development of the arms industry, bred milling machines (Ai Li. Whitney. 1827), grinding machines (Brown-Sharp, 1868), brick lathes (Lahms), automatic lathes Pansai) and other machine tools used in mass production and promoted its progress. Moreover, mass production methods created in the United States as automobile production are also being shipped to the machine tool production line. Linear reciprocating machining has also emerged as a result of the need to machine large-area planes. Since 1820, pioneers such as Robert, Brato, Fuchs, and Kuraymet have been engaged in research. In 1900, the United States and the United Kingdom each developed high-speed steel knives, which made significant progress in machine tool production efficiency and machining accuracy. As a result, the value of the British machine tools, which are powerful and distinctive, has once again been favored. Even the British and American models have formed a confrontation in the international market. In the latter half of the 1800s, they were praised as new machine tools. Lay Joseph. R. The achievements of Brown, etc., the dominance of the machine tool industry has been transferred from the United Kingdom to the United States. At the same time, after entering the 1900s, superhard knives appeared in Germany, bringing revolutionary changes to machining. Under the circumstance of technological innovation, the machine tool industry seems to be in line with the global trend of entering another round of arms race, and it is facing an extraordinary prosperity on the verge of the Second World War, and its technology has also developed significantly. 2. A rapidly changing machine tool producing country Taking advantage of the Second World War, the development direction of machine tools has shifted to how to reduce labor and create high-precision workpieces. At the same time, the producing countries of machine tools have also expanded their developing countries and even emerging industrial countries with Europe and the United States as the center. With the increase of producing countries, the scale of global machine tool production has also expanded. Let us focus on the cutting type, and we can observe that its characteristics in recent years are: in 1970, the total machine tool production in the world was 6 billion US dollars, and in 1980 it increased to 20 billion US dollars, and in 1990 it was 33.9 billion US dollars. By 2006, Increased to $43.4 billion (estimated). The biggest reason for its rapid growth is the advent of NC machine tools developed in the United States in 1952 and then undergoing dramatic technological innovation and popularization in Japan. With the advent of NC machine tools, the end of the cold war structure as a post-war world framework, the industrialization of China and Asian countries, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the globalization of the market, machine tool producing countries have also experienced dramatic Change. For example, in 1987, the United States accounted for the world's largest share of production, the second was the Soviet Union, the third was West Germany, the fourth was Japan, and the fifth was the United Kingdom. The position becomes: the first Japan, the second Germany, the third China, the fourth Italy, and the fifth Korea. The United States and the Soviet Union (now Russia), which led the world's machine tool production for many years, have now stepped back. Instead, Japan has been leading the way since it took the first chair in 1982, and Germany has followed closely with a slight difference. . At the same time, China is growing in power. In 2002, surpassing the United States, the total production ranked fourth, and in 2005 it jumped to third place. In 2009, it finally surpassed Japan and Germany to sit on the throne of the world's largest production. China, which has grown into a world factory, and as a consumer of machine tools, has also expanded rapidly. Since 2002, it has surpassed Germany, Japan and the United States, and has taken the lead. 3, associated arms, can be developed According to the earliest record, in Japan, in 1872 (Meiji 5 years) Tokyo artillery factory built two milling machines and desktop double head horizontal, the following year installed three desktop milling machines in the Nakajima factory And 2 multi-axis drilling machines. Of course, it is much simpler than today's milling machines and drill presses. Japan’s machine tool industry was developed in close connection with guns and ships and other arms. Although the machine tool was imported from the Netherlands, France and other countries at the end of the Edo Shogunate, Japan did not have a decent machine and manufacturer in the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895. As a result, the Japanese military, which is in a position to do so, is doing everything it can to develop the machine tool industry. Under the background of the protection of the military and the prosperity of the entire Sino-Japanese War and the expansion of arms, the machine tool industry has gradually sprouted, and the recent Japanese-Russian war (1904-1905) has become a turning point. In the Russo-Japanese War, local private factories began to manufacture machine tools for munitions, especially for the production of artillery shells. As an opportunity, the Chiba factory and the Japanese stone Niigata Iron Works, which were introduced in the 1920s (1888-1897) In the 1930s (1898-1907), the Otsuka Noodle Chamber of Commerce (Otsuka Iron Works, now OKUMA) and the Wakayama Iron Works (now a new Japanese machine) have improved their position as machine tool manufacturers. The earliest Japanese-made machine tool that has been preserved to date is the 9-inch lathe made in 1889 by Mr. Chibezhuang Taro (the founder of Chibei Factory and then Chibei). From the end of Meiji (1868-1912) to the beginning of Taisho (1912-1926), the entire Japanese economy was in a depression, as if it had ushered in a savior. The First World War broke out in 1914. This war has brought unprecedented prosperity to the Japanese industry, and the machine tool industry is no exception. At this point, the struggling factories in the depression have not only regained their anger, but have also emerged as many new manufacturers claiming to be machine tool manufacturers. For example, the Tangjin Iron Works, which was founded in the 1940s (1908-1912), the Tokyo Gas Electric Industry (later Hitachi Seiki, merged with Mori Seiki Co., Ltd. in 2002), Kubota Iron Works (now KUBOTA) Komatsu Works (now KOMATU), etc., has also expanded to a medium-sized factory with 200 to 700 employees. At that time, the European and American countries were busy with the war, and there was no spare time to export machine tools to foreign countries. The United Kingdom, China and other countries began to import machine tools from Japan. From 1915 to 919, about 10% of Japan's production was exported. In 1921, the first machine tool exhibition hosted by the government was held in Osaka, and about 80 domestic machines were exhibited. However, it is said that domestically produced machines are almost all counterfeit products of foreign products. However, it is said that each manufacturer has begun to work on its own design and materials and improve the precision of its products by participating in the exhibition. This is a far-reaching exhibition from the perspective of arousing this awareness. 4. The manufacturing business law laid the foundation. The Japanese economy, which has been increasingly depressed since the end of the Taisho period, fell into the abyss in 1931. The production of machine tools is reduced by 10~20% every year, and all manufacturers are caught in the muddy bankruptcy and can't extricate themselves. However, the Manchurian incident that took place in August 1931 saved the depression again, and the Japanese machine tool industry and the arms industry joined hands to re-enter the growth period. At the same time, the machine tool industry is not only the arms industry, but also the foundation of the entire machinery industry for civilized countries. This understanding has also been widely recognized. In July 1938, the government enacted the "Machine Tool Manufacturing Business Law" and began to cultivate machine tool manufacturers. A factory that is designated by the law means taking the first step toward a first-class manufacturer. In fact, if it is not specified, it will not be eligible for tax exemption. To this end, many manufacturers have made various efforts, or added equipment, or established product inspection organizations to meet the recognized conditions (200 machines for ordinary machine tool manufacturers). This practice of creating conditions for the designation has also laid a solid foundation for the Japanese machine tool industry to catch up with world standards. In this sense, the formulation of laws and the efforts of enterprises in this period have also had an important impact on later generations. The well-known manufacturers stopped the production of the belt tower wheel machine and changed the production of the motor direct connection type machine. It is committed to the design and manufacture of high-efficiency, new machines that can compete with foreign products. In order to improve the technical level and standardize the government, the government has designed a standard model of ordinary lathes, drilling machines, milling machines, etc. called S-type (Standard) machine tools, and publicized them together. The S-type lathe has a good reputation and is still in production after the war. In 1937, the Lugouqiao Incident broke out, and the Japanese economy gradually shifted into the wartime system. The important industrial control order formulated five years later placed the machine tool completely under the government's establishment. In addition, Germany launched a war in 1939, the demand for machine tools in Germany surged, and the next year the United States banned exports to Japan, Japan can no longer rely on foreign machine tools. To this end, the country is engaged in the localization of coordinate boring machines, thread grinders and grinding machines. The number of manufacturers has increased with the expansion of demand. In 1940, there were more than 400 companies with more than 20 equipments. In 1943, the output reached 600 million yen (140,000 tons), which recorded the highest output in the history of the Japanese machine tool industry. The surge in manufacturers was due to economic regulation. The machinery factories produced for the civil production industry such as fiber machinery were converted into production machine tools, and the existing manufacturers bought a new machine tool factory after the textile factory. However, in 1943, the production surged, and the materials were seriously insufficient. The Second World War is also coming to an end and will soon be over. During this period, there have been times when the design of the general-purpose machine was changed, the construction was simplified, and the material was saved to produce the machine tool. The products produced are so-called "wartime machine tools" that are similar to single-function machines. 5. The chaotic period after the end of the war that the transferees frequently left a huge scar, and the Second World War was over. Many machine tool factories that do not have military needs have turned to the production of wok, cooking pots, steamed bread, plows and other civilian goods, agricultural machinery. There are also many factories that have returned to their original business scope before the war, or turned to other industries to temporarily produce civil machinery and fiber machinery. This confusion lasted for almost 10 years, and it was only in 1955 that there was a tendency to get rid of chaos. The 1956 Economic White Paper even began to use the expression "after the war has ended." With the progress of the economic renaissance, the demand for machine tools is also increasing. In addition, as a part of saving foreign exchange, machine tools are imported, and the domestic machine tool market is full of vitality. At this time, some enterprises began to cooperate with foreign companies in technical cooperation. The domestic machine tools quickly filled the technical gaps in the war and post-war period, and began to show signs of recovery. As a signboard of machining technology, many special machine tools that have begun to advocate high-speed and powerful cutting, technology and cost accounting bottlenecks have also begun to be produced. However, the excellent products that introduce this new technology are unreachable for small and medium-sized users and have not spread to the grassroots. 6. The germination of Japan's original technology After the post-war recovery period, after entering the Showa era in the 1930s (1955-1964), the machine tool industry finally began a new growth with a strong recovery. From then on until the 1970s, the remarkable development of the machine tool industry was praised by history. In terms of technology, it has basically caught up with the developed countries in Europe and the United States, got rid of the shackles of the past counterfeit era, and began to integrate the originality that matches the Japanese industrial structure. The precision and functionality of the products have been greatly improved, and international competitiveness has begun to take shape, laying the foundation for today's strong competitiveness. In terms of production, in 1962, the record production reached 100 billion yen, and it jumped into the fifth major machine tool producing country in the world, second only to the United States, West Germany, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom. This time, the background is the kind of economic prosperity in Japan, which is called the martial arts of the gods and the glory of the rock, and the kind of investment that attracts a new round of investment. In the atmosphere, demand is rapidly expanding, and machine tool manufacturers are actively influencing equipment investment. As a result of this large-scale mass production, the price has dropped, and even for advanced models, small and medium-sized manufacturers can afford it. The repeated development of the general machine called the economical lathe is also this period. In the meantime, the so-called "Showa 40 years of depression" occurred around 1965 (Showa 40), and the bankrupt enterprises frequently appeared. In order to strengthen the inter-firm relationship between enterprises, the province (now the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) led and implemented the group. And other policies. However, this is basically nothing more than a temporary recession in the process of economic growth. Once they get rid of the stagnation, the automobile industry and the automobile industry with the background of automobile popularization take the lead, the economic boom and machine tool demand regain their upward momentum, and the high growth period is the expression of the unprecedented mythology of borrowing more history. Named "Isino boom" period. At this time, a problem in the industry is a serious shortage of manpower. The pursuit of labor-saving production technology, machine tools as a strong propeller is deeply favored. In particular, CNC machine tools have received much attention, and its emergence has promoted a higher level of technological innovation. Due to the high demand for such NC machine tools and the regular mass production of traditional general-purpose lathes and drilling machines, the machine tool production exceeded 300 billion yen for the first time in 1970, and fully enjoyed the best after-war situation. 7. The oil crisis has entered the United States. Since the beginning of the 20th century, the US trade balance has experienced a deficit for the first time. In this context, President Nixon proposed a policy of defending the US dollar in August 1971, and the world shook the dollar crisis. Japan, which lasted for about five years and began to cast a shadow over the "Igino boom", was also directly affected by the US policy of defending the US dollar because of its high dependence on exports to the United States. Taking this as an opportunity, the international currency was adjusted, and the yen appreciated by 16.88% after a four-month floating exchange rate system (later changed to a floating exchange rate system in 1973). The exchange rate of 360 yen for one dollar is 308 yen for one dollar. How to reduce costs and maintain international competitiveness has become an urgent issue in the industry. In the context of this kind of environmental change, the machine tool industry has strengthened the group control and system orientation based on group technology at the technical level. At the demand level, it has also determined that it is necessary to focus on NC machine tools, saving labor and saving people. Become the center of new equipment investment. From October 1973 to November 1973, the Middle East oil-producing countries decided to substantially increase crude oil prices. Japan, which has a dependence on crude oil imports of more than 99%, has been hit hard, not only because the industry has even shaken the general consumer society. At that time, the island reconstruction policy was just implemented. The prices of land and building materials have skyrocketed abnormally. Just like the blue sky, there is a strict restriction on the supply of petroleum resources, which has caused abnormal events such as skyrocketing prices, stock-outs, stockpiling, and stockpiling. , almost panic state. Equipment investment in the industry has shrunk sharply, and demand for machine tools has plummeted. The member order statistics of the Japan Machine Tool Industry Association fell from 259.2 billion yen in 1973 to 145.6 billion yen in the following year. If you consider the skyrocketing price, you actually reduce it by nearly half. Losing enterprises continue to emerge, selling assets, downsizing personnel, recruiting people who want to retire, and various measures to reduce pounds are implemented, but they still cannot stop the phenomenon of bankrupt enterprises. 8. Mechatronics of the market and technology The Great Depression, which began in the oil crisis, has stabilized since 1977. The recovery of the machine tool industry is characterized by the progress of mechatronics in the context of the rapid development of semiconductor technology and the sharp expansion of the export market. The amount of production has been recorded on a record-breaking basis, reaching 365.5 billion yen in 1978, and up to 851.3 billion yen in 1981. The biggest reason for the sharp increase in production scale by amount is the increase in unit price brought about by mechatronics. The ratio of NC machine tools in production was 22.4% in 1976 and 29.4% in 1978. In 1979, it was 41.1%, which increased by more than 10% every year. Family-run small-scale processing workers are also beginning to be equipped with popular NC machine tools, and the range of demand is rapidly expanding, accelerating the pace of NC rate. At the same time, exports also broke through the 200 billion yen mark in 1979, and the export ratio (the ratio of exports to total production) was 42.7%. Like the previous year's export ratio of 44.8%, the machine tool was rapidly transformed into this period. Export industry. Machine tool production expanded with the expansion of domestic and foreign markets. In 1985, it reached 105.1 billion yen, surpassing the 100 billion yen mark for the first time. The biggest reason is that the C (Computer Computer) NC machine tool developed in the second half of the 1970s has greatly improved its technical level. It is far superior to Europe and the United States, which can be said to be a computer home, and has built a strong international competitiveness in the world. 9. The end of the soaring growth mode All the export of machine tools made in Japan has expanded dramatically, which naturally caused strong dissatisfaction from the importing countries in Europe and America, and sometimes even filled the sinister atmosphere. The result was a strong "square agreement" proposed by the five-nation summit in October 1985 to induce the appreciation of the yen. After that, the yen soared from around $1 to 240 yen, and suddenly rose to 130 yen. The yen’s appreciation of the depression has hit Japan. The increasingly serious trade in Mozambique, the independent restrictions on the number of US machine tool exports, and the implementation of European monitoring of Japanese machine tool exports have made the market shrink sharply. However, the Japanese industry at this time still has a strong resilience. At the peak of the so-called bubble boom in 1989 and 1990, the production of machine tools was expanded to 1303.4 billion yen, and the order counted by the Japan Machine Tool Industry Association was expanded to 1,412.1 billion yen (both in 1990). The highest record of supply and demand of this machine. In the peak period of 1990, domestic demand alone exceeded 100 billion yen (according to the order statistics), showing how active domestic equipment investment is. As an element to promote market expansion, there is no shortage of technical level. It is true that the pursuit of high-speed, high-combination, high-precision, and the like, and the computer-centric information system, this device evokes new demands for machine tools. However, the Japanese economy that soared after the war, with the collapse of the bubble boom, turned to the era of negative growth. Machine tool orders in 1993 were 531.7 billion yen, a decrease of more than 60% from the peak of 1993, and the machine tool industry was in a state of chaos. Since 1995, the demand for machine tools has finally begun to shake off the long period of depression due to the need for equipment upgrades during the bubble period and the launch of investment in global environmental issues. At the same time, the machine tool manufacturers in the period of negative growth and the restructuring activities carried out to meet the arrival of the 21st century are also in full swing. It can be said that a new round of machine tool industry construction has begun. However, when people's minds are re-emerging, the sequela of the deep trauma suffered in the bubble period is constantly appearing in financial institutions, real estate, and large construction companies. In order to deal with this huge negative heritage government, I invested a huge amount of money, and as a result, poured a cold water on the economic activities of the newly ignited industry. In 1997 and 1998, the return to the machine tool production of more than 100 billion yen was down by 26.8% year-on-year in 1999. It is 739.5 billion yen. The rapid development of IT (information technology) has fundamentally changed the way of manufacturing articles, evoking the explosive demand for IT-related devices such as mobile phones and computers. This has had a good impact on the demand for machine tools. In 2000, the demand for electrical and electronic machinery and precision equipment in the machine tool market increased significantly. However, the dynamic scene is just a blink of an eye. In 2001, the demand for mobile phones came to an end in 2001, and this took the opportunity to suffer an unprecedented IT depression. As a result, not only the IT-related fields, but also the equipment investment in a wide range of manufacturing industries is suppressed, and the demand for machine tools is also greatly reduced. Despite this, even if the IT and semiconductor industries are in a deep abyss and equipment investment is in a cold, the equipment investment in the automotive industry is very solid during this period. This is because, in the end of the goal of protecting the global environment, the first investment in low fuel consumption, light weight, high safety performance and pursuit of higher production efficiency is very active. As a result, the machine tool industry has increased its dependence on the automotive industry in the sluggish demand for a sharp decline due to the IT recession. In the second half of 2003, the IT and semiconductor industries regained their enthusiasm. The background is the rapid growth of a group of so-called digital home appliances, such as a camera-enabled mobile phone, a digital camera, a thin large-screen TV, and a DVD (multi-purpose optical disc), which has led to investment. Since October 2002, machine tool orders have also changed from reduced to increased, and in 2006, 11 friends increased for 50 consecutive months. This record exceeded the recovery period of 45 months in 1997, the longest time to date. The smooth sales of automobiles and digital home appliances have triggered a good atmosphere in the world at the same time. In order to pursue cheap labor and cheap manufacturing costs, manufacturing plants have begun to shift to Asia since the 1980s, especially to China, which has a huge market. The boom in the automotive and digital home appliance market has led to investment in equipment for companies and factories in Asian countries such as China, and Japanese machine tools have fully enjoyed the unprecedented Chinese fever. Supported by this good domestic and international economy, machine tool orders in 2007 exceeded the peak of the bubble period, reaching 1,589.9 billion yen. In the future, this kind of IT investment will expand horizontally and the scope will be expanded. In addition to the technological innovations to protect the global environment and the investment to reduce the earth's load, the official start is still behind! In September 2008, the global financial crisis caused by the US financial crisis was also sluggish. The entire manufacturing industry did not dare to invest in equipment, and the demand for machine tools dropped sharply. To this end, the total number of machine tool orders that have been continuously maintained since April 2004 exceeded 100 billion yen, which was suspended in September 2008 and lasted for 53 months. The machine tool market, which is mainly dependent on the needs of automobiles, construction machinery and agricultural machinery, is now in the vortex of a large structural transformation. This kind of market change, that is to say, forced the Japanese machine tool industry to change its technology, management and sales methods. How to change yourself? It can be said that it has now been forced to stand on the stage of new corporate restructuring.