Remanufacturing: Continuing the New Life of Machine Tools

When it comes to industry, when it comes to manufacturing, we inevitably have to talk about machine tool tools, because the machine tool is the “parent machine” of the industry, and the tool is called “industrial teeth”. The development process of the world machine tool industry to a certain extent reflects the development of the world economy. Breakthroughs in every difficult problem, every technological improvement, and every theoretical innovation will drive manufacturing, industry, and even human society as a whole. The progress.

First, the possibility of remanufacturing machine tools In 2009 the world experienced a financial crisis nightmare, all walks of life have suffered a fatal blow, and in 2010 the global machine tool has been out of the financial crisis, the output ratio The growth rate was 25% in the previous year. In 2011, the global machine tool consumption will also increase by 20%. According to the latest research on the world's machine tool industry by Luo Baihui, secretary-general of the International Mould and Hardware and Plastic Industry Suppliers Association, the demand for machine tool products such as metal cutting machine tools, metal forming machine tools, and machine tool accessories in the world will maintain a strong growth rate of 9.4% per year. By 2015, the global demand will reach 133 billion US dollars. The tool industry has also shown a good situation, and its demand in the world market continues to grow. According to Shen Zhuanghang, director of the Honorary Chairman of the Tool & Tools Association Tool Club and former director of the Chengdu Tool Research Institute, the global tool market is expected to grow by 3% to 5% over the next five years. Although the demand for machine tools in developed countries has basically stabilized or increased, the developing countries have a strong development momentum, especially in Asian countries such as China, India, Thailand, Vietnam, and Mexico. Large, strong future market demand, great potential, which will continue to promote the continued development of the global machine tool industry. In the coming years, the demand for global machine tools will continue to increase, which will provide possibilities for the remanufacturing of the machine tool industry.

Second, the inevitability of machine tool remanufacturing is an irreversible eternal law, any item has its own life cycle. Therefore, it must be admitted that the service life of machine tools is limited, and old machine tools will be continuously abandoned and forgotten after they complete their mission. According to incomplete statistics, in China alone, there are 8 million units of existing machine tools, of which more than 2 million are traditional old machine tools that have been in service for more than 10 years, and about 250,000 old machine tools have been eliminated each year. More than 1.5 million tons has entered the peak period of mechanical equipment scrapped. At the same time, China, the world’s largest consumer of cutting tools, had a total sales of 33 billion yuan in imported and exported tools in 2010. If this goes on, allowing some old machine tools to rust and corrode will not only be a waste of resources, but also pose a great threat to the environment. Moreover, from the perspective of resource and enterprise cost control, the price of iron ore has risen steadily in recent years. The price of steel products has been rising. The prices of tungsten resources and other resources are also fluctuating. The global economic situation is uncertain, making the cost of downstream machine tool companies. At high prices, some tool prices have also shown a tendency to increase prices.

Third, the history of machine tool remanufacturing machine tools to take the road of sustainable development, and vigorously develop the remanufacturing of machine tools is a historical choice, has long been a trend. As early as the early 1980s, the world-wide remanufacturing of machine tools was in a golden period of development. At that time, various countries saw the huge development prospects of machine tools, and they all developed the machine tool remanufacturing industry. At present, although the machine tool industry in developed countries such as the United States, Japan, and Germany is no longer brilliant, machine tool transformation has become a new growth point. The old machine tools generally have residual value of 45% to 80%, mainly due to the durability of the bed, columns, and bases. Remanufacturing these main parts requires the consumption of large amounts of steel and energy. If you retain the main body, repair or replace damaged parts, you can create equipment with the same quality and even better performance as the new equipment. With the development of manufacturing, the amount of cutting tools is also rapidly increasing. In order to cope with the consumption of resources and the increase of raw material prices, reduce manufacturing costs and environmental pressure, some developed countries and enterprises have recycled and reused used cutting tools many years ago. In Japan, the use of indexable tools began around 1960. By the 1980s, the reusable technology for indexable inserts had become widespread. There have been a number of specialized regrind mills. The regrind is performed in various ways so that such blades can be conveniently and effectively used. Japan Fuji Precision Industry Co., Ltd. is an important research center for indexable re-grinding technology. In recent years, super hard tool materials have developed rapidly. As we all know, diamond tools have the advantages of high hardness, sharp edge, low affinity with the workpiece, and low friction coefficient. It uses artificial diamond as cutting material, tungsten carbide as tool matrix material, metallic copper powder, cobalt powder and nickel powder as adhesives, but the raw materials are extremely expensive and costly. In the machining process of precision machinery and the like, a gantry saw is generally used for cutting with a diamond tool. In order to protect the saw body from damage, 15% to 25% of the tools can not be used in the later use and be discarded. At this time, the diamond cutting tool can be recycled for comprehensive utilization. At present, the tool industry has done a good job in recycling tool recycling Sandvik Coromant recycling program (CRC), Suzhou Arno's tool grinding industry.

In short, remanufacturing has a significant and far-reaching impact on the machine tool industry. In today's increasingly tense energy environment and deteriorating climate and environment, low-carbon, environmental protection, and energy-saving emission reduction have become the world’s concerns. Countries around the world are advocating low-carbon energy conservation, and the machine tool industry, which is an important part of the manufacturing industry, must also Taking the redevelopment road of remanufacturing as the circular economy mode of “resources, products, used products, and remanufactured products”, the social possession of machine tools and tools around the world continues to grow, and the remanufacturing industry has great potential for development. Moreover, the development of the remanufacturing industry is also conducive to the formation of new economic growth points and provides the society with a large number of job opportunities. Remanufacturing is a project that is beneficial to the future and benefits the future. Machine tool and tool companies all over the world should take active actions to incorporate low-carbon manufacturing and green environmental protection concepts into their future development plans.