In many manufacturing factories, Efort industrial robots are using their "dexterous arms" to skillfully complete "fine work", quickly performing welding, paint spraying, palletizing, collaboration and other operations. Relying on the dual-wheel drive strategy of independent innovation and overseas mergers and acquisitions, Efort has introduced and absorbed advanced technologies and experience in the global robot-related fields, forming a coordinated development pattern of the entire industrial chain from robot core components to robot complete machines, and then to the field of robot high-end series integration.
"As a Chinese independent brand industrial robot company, our biggest advantage is to be close to the market." Efort Chairman You Wei said in an exclusive interview with a reporter from Shanghai Securities News a few days ago, "Compared with traditional manual operations and mechanical equipment, industrial robots have the attributes of intelligence, high precision, and high-speed operation, which greatly improves production efficiency and helps companies reduce costs, improve quality and increase efficiency."
High speed, high precision, high reliability
As soon as the reporter walked into the Efort factory in Wuhu, Anhui, he saw two large-load robots with a load of 300 kilograms, which were stepping up the final debugging before leaving the factory. According to the staff, Efort has mastered the three core component technologies including robot controllers, servo drives and reducers. At present, the core components of robots, motion control cores, main control chips and power devices have all been localized and independently controllable.
In high-end manufacturing fields such as ships, aerospace, and automobiles, the situation where more than 90% of welding robots rely on imports has been broken. The high-speed, high-precision, and high-reliability hollow wrist welding robots launched by Efort have achieved stable and large-scale shipments. In the first half of 2024, the output of welding robots increased by more than 100% over the same period last year.
As of the end of the third quarter of 2024, the shipment volume of Efort's industrial robots has increased by more than 20% over the same period last year, far higher than the overall market growth level.
At present, Efort's industrial robot product line has expanded to 9 series and more than 60 products, which are widely used in multiple fields and have entered the leading customers in the electronic manufacturing, photovoltaic, lithium battery, automobile and auto parts industries on a large scale. In terms of market share, Efort's growth rate exceeds the industry average. In the first half of 2024, the company achieved sales of industrial robot complete products exceeding 7,500 units, an increase of about 29% over the same period last year, and the market share increased to 5.4%, helping domestic robot companies to exceed 50% market share in the first half of 2024.
Efort was born out of Chery Automobile Equipment Department. From 2015 to 2017, through the merger and acquisition of Italian spray robot manufacturer and system integrator CMA, high-end robot system integrator EVOLUT in the metal processing field, white body welding system integrator WFC and motion control system design company ROBOX and other overseas companies, their key core technologies were digested and absorbed and re-innovated, allowing the company's production level to rise.
"The robotics industry involves many disciplines and requires collaboration between companies in the industrial chain. The company will further consolidate its core competitiveness through mergers and acquisitions." You Wei said.
Anchoring the intelligence of robots
In 2020, Efort was listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board. It is the first batch of national specialized and new enterprises and the leader of the robot industry chain. It has built a national enterprise technology center for robots, a national and local joint engineering research center, and a national postdoctoral research workstation. In the first three quarters of 2024, Efort's R&D investment was 78.4018 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.99%; the proportion of R&D investment to operating income was 7.7%.
Efort plans to invest in the Efort Robot Super Factory and Global Headquarters Project in Wuhu, Anhui, with a total investment of approximately 1.893 billion yuan. The project will build a super intelligent digital factory integrating automated assembly, three-dimensional warehouses, CNC machining centers, core parts production, and quality inspection centers. After reaching full production, it is expected to achieve an annual output of 100,000 high-performance industrial robots. The Wuhu Jiujiang Economic Development Zone Robot Specialty Industrial Park where Efort is located is the first national robot industry cluster in the country.
In the first half of 2024, Efort, the National Advanced Manufacturing Industry Investment Fund and the Wuhu Science and Technology Innovation Fund jointly invested to establish Qizhi (Wuhu) Intelligent Robot Co., Ltd. Qizhi Robot focuses on the intelligence and openness of the robot system, and continues to provide intelligent technology bases for robot manufacturers and robot end users with disruptive technological innovation. Efort said that the universal technology base of intelligent robots and the humanoid robot prototype based on the base are still under development, and it is expected to release relevant prototypes in the first half of 2025.
Helping Chinese industrial robots to "change lanes and overtake"
"At present, the penetration rate of industrial robots in the Chinese market is at a low level. The main reason is that robots are still difficult to play an effective role in many flexible operation scenarios." In You Wei's view, robot intelligence is the key path for industrial robots to break the bottleneck.
Intelligence can not only expand the application scope of robots in the industrial field and enable them to be involved in more scenarios, but also help robots enter non-industrial fields in the future, thereby opening up a broader growth space. You Wei gave an example, just as electric vehicles gradually replaced traditional fuel vehicles, intelligence also provided an opportunity for Chinese industrial robots to achieve "changing lanes and overtaking".
"We not only need to catch up with foreign robot brands, but also surpass them, and do industries and scenarios that traditional industrial robots cannot get involved in." You Wei said, "We can better integrate advanced technologies, deeply integrate robot technology with artificial intelligence technology, and make autonomous intelligent robots for complex operation scenarios to achieve intelligent and flexible operations."
Deepen the field of vertical integration. In order to accelerate the implementation of intelligent robot scenarios, Efort is carrying out research and development work related to the universal intelligent robot base to improve the robot's intelligence level and scenario adaptability. In order to greatly improve the usability of the software platform, the integrated application development platform Modou IDE came into being for multiple scenarios such as automotive spraying and steel structure welding.
You Wei said that in the future, Efort will continue to focus on the autonomy of drive control, rely on product platformization, and focus on the depth of application. Efort is working hard to build China's first brand of industrial robots and strive to enter the first echelon of global industrial robots.