In China, where wages are relatively low, although the plastic products industry is still labor-intensive, the use of robotic arms has become increasingly popular. The robots and injection molding merchants who participated in this year's Dongguan International Machinery, Materials, and Mold Exhibition in China think so.
Those European and American multinational companies in the electronics and automotive industries have long introduced automated production in their factories located in China. But the current change is that Chinese domestic plastic processing plants located in the industrial intensive coastal areas of South and East China are also showing increasing interest in robotic arms, as they face the challenges of high worker turnover rates and shortened delivery times.
The exhibitors said that in China, factory workers will return home during the Lunar New Year, and some people will choose to stay in the rural areas of these inland provinces instead of returning to the factories. And the robotic arm will not leave. The loyalty of workers is not very high, "said Mr. Liang Xiangchao, the president of Hong Kong Tongpu Robotics Co., Ltd., a Chinese manufacturer of Tongpu robotic arms." The influx of foreign investment into China has turned China into a world factory, but it has also led to frequent employee job hopping. Some workers will switch to other companies to earn an additional two to three hundred yuan per month Usually, operators in plastic product factories need to undergo a period of training before they can take up their positions. If these employees keep changing jobs, it can be very frustrating for employers. They must constantly train new employees, which can also affect quality and production efficiency
There is a high level of employee turnover in factories in South China, and Ringo Au from Hong Kong Zhenxiong Machinery Company also believes so. He said that some factory workers will resign and return home after working for one or two years, so in the past year or two, many factories have begun to consider using robots to replace workers in handling parts.
Of course, usually only large companies have the money to invest in purchasing robotic arms, while most small and medium-sized mold factories still produce according to the original model, "said Mr. Ming kin to of Toshiba Machine Hong Kong Ltd. He is mainly responsible for the sales of injection molding machines produced by the company in the Guangdong region. He said that for customers, whether to purchase a robotic arm ultimately depends on measuring the cost difference between the robotic arm and ordinary workers.
To said, usually the price of a robotic arm is approximately equal to the total wages of two to three years of workers required to operate a device 24 hours a day.
The supplier of the robotic arm also stated that the robotic arm can ensure consistency in the operating cycle and improve quality. In addition, replacing ordinary workers with robotic arms to remove parts from molds is not only stable, but also safer.
At the same time, the continuous development of mold technology has also provided more market opportunities for robotic arms. Previously, parts needed to be manually polished and reprocessed before leaving the factory. According to Jing from Wittmann, the improvement in mold quality has enabled the produced parts to be directly assembled.
He also said that we have seen huge market potential in China. A domestic molding company that provides supporting services for multiple Chinese automobile manufacturers from