I. China-Japan gap: significantly in manufacturing technology, process equipment

      Looking at the Japanese model first, Japanese sheet metal production is specialized, highly automated, large-scale production, high-precision products, humanized and systematic management, basically have mold development, design and processing capabilities, and its processing equipment performance has been in Leading position, as shown in Figure 1 is the processing workshop of a Japanese factory: Compared with this, the overall situation of China's sheet metal manufacturing enterprises is relatively small, manufacturing equipment is backward, manual production is the main process, product quality stability is poor, and production efficiency is low. It is difficult to achieve mass production and timely delivery. The indicators of various enterprises are far from each other and need to be improved.

      It is worth mentioning that the spirit of Japan's "artisanship" is shocking. The various production know-how and process devices accumulated by its "artisans" in enterprise production are a perfect combination of modern advanced manufacturing technology and human tradition and wisdom. To improve their manufacturing technology and equipment, Chinese enterprises need time to settle and cannot be separated from the craftsmanship.

Comparison between China and the United States: automation and informationization become "short boards"

      Informatization of sheet metal, including stamping, welding, spraying and other processes. In terms of China-US horizontal comparison, the level of automation and informatization is "a few miles away." When the program is entered, the equipment will automatically scan the code to call the corresponding material for processing in the material library. After the processing in this section is completed, the parts will be placed in the designated area uniformly, and all of them will be unmanned.

      First, American companies are using closed-loop control to automate production. Enterprises have their own tooling mold maintenance workshops, where various sensors are installed or embedded in the mold. These sensors are virtually a safety protective barrier.

      Secondly, the United States has installed safety light grids on its presses. When workers are too close to the press, the press will automatically stop and automatically cut off the "danger source".

      At the same time, American companies have their own "trackers" and have their own management information systems. Materials supplied by their raw material suppliers are bar coded. Through scanning when entering the warehouse, all kinds of information of raw materials will automatically enter the production database. As the raw materials enter the processing process, the computer host of each processing step will automatically enter the processing information into the database, and this information will always be attached to the final product.

Sheet metal processing