Bearing: the key basic parts of mechanical equipment, the production process is complex and the barriers are high.
1.1 Bearings are key basic parts in the field of equipment manufacturing, with huge market space and wide downstream applications.
Bearing is the support of mechanical transmission shaft, is the key basic part in the field of equipment manufacturing, is the main engine performance, function, and efficiency of the important guarantee, and is one of the core components of major equipment in the industrial field. Its main function is to transmit force and motion and reduce friction loss.
In 2022, the global bearing market space exceeds 100 billion US dollars, and the world's eight multinational bearing enterprises occupy 70% of the global market. From the bearing industry as a whole, the global market size has exceeded 100 billion US dollars. According to statistics, the global bear market size in 2021 is about 120 billion US dollars, and the CAGR from 2016 to 2021 is 4.4%. China bearing industry market size to maintain rapid growth, according to the China Bearing Industry Association data, the bearing industry market size in 2021 rapidly grew to 227.8 billion yuan, and 2022 domestic bearing market space is expected to exceed 250 billion yuan.
Bearings are widely used downstream, playing an important role in aerospace, rail transportation, high-end machine tools, construction machinery and other fields, main shaft, ball screw, RV reducer, harmonic reducer, and other key basic parts.
According to the statistics of "China Machinery Industry Yearbook 2021", the downstream applications of bearings in 21 years are concentrated in the fields of automobiles, home appliances, motors, and so on. Among them, the structure of automobile bearings, household appliances bearings, and motor bearings accounted for a relatively high proportion, respectively, up to 39%/20%/18%.
1.2 Bearings are divided into rolling bearings/plain bearings, rolling bearings are the most widely used and are composed of bearing rings, rolling bodies, and cages.
According to the different frictional properties of the moving elements, bearings can be divided into rolling bearings and plain bearings. Rolling bearings generally have an inner ring and an outer ring, and are equipped with rolling elements such as balls or rollers in the middle to support the rolling load by rolling.
The surface of the plain bearing is used to support the rotating load, there are direct sliding contact cases, and there are fluid as a media to maintain the sliding situation with a certain film thickness. In contrast, the friction forms of the two are different, and the resistance of the rolling bearing is smaller, while the plain bearing is generally used in low-speed heavy load work.
Bearing steel, bearing special equipment, and bearing roller to build three core technical barriers
Bearings are high-precision products, which need to go through a complex process. In order to process bearing products with high precision, long life, and reliable performance with high efficiency and low cost, it needs the support of multi-disciplinary theory and technology such as material science, heat treatment technology, precision machining technology,y, and numerical control technology.
▲Eight-bearing enterprises dominate the global market, and the domestic leader has begun to take shape
The world's eight largest bearing enterprises include Sweden SKF, Germany Schaeffler, Japan NSK, Japan JTEKT (JTEget), Japan NTN, the United States TIMKEN, Japan NMB (Mebea), Japan NACHI (Fujikoshi). According to the prospectus data, in 2020, the international eight companies occupied more than 70% of the global bearing market share and basically monopolized the high-end bearing market.
China's bearing faucets are also gradually breaking through and initially forming a certain scale. Domestic Tier1 manufacturers in 2021 bearing production exceeded 1.756 billion sets, customers include Volkswagen, Toyota, and other well-known enterprises, other manufacturers are also very rapid development momentum.
▲Bearings are expected to be widely used in mobile robot rotation and linear drive, bringing significant market increment
According to the Tesla AI Day2022 information, Tesla humanoid robot "Optimus" has 28 body actuators, of which the upper limb joint module is dominated by a frameless torque motor and harmonic reducer, and the lower limb leg uses a frameless motor and linear actuators with a planetary screw. It is expected to bring the bearing demand for the motor, reducer, and lead screw. The joint of industrial robots is mainly in a rotating motion, and the thin wall bearing with equal sections and the cross roller bearing are the two special bearings most suitable for industrial robots. Industrial robot bearings need to meet the performance requirements of lightweight and high-load bearings in a limited space, and the bearing selection is more inclined to a lightweight, small volume, high precision, and long life of thin-wall bearings. Special bearings for industrial robots mainly include thin wall bearings of equal sections, crossed cylindrical roller bearings, and bearings reducers, most of which adopt non-standard and multi-rolling design principles. Thin wall cross cylindrical roller bearing roller cross arrangement, high rotation accuracy and can withstand the radial force, two-way axial force,e and overturning moment of the joint, mainly used in robot arms and other joints; The number of thin wall bearing steel balls of equal section is large, the carrying capacity is high, and it is mostly used for the waist and elbow of robots.
Industrial robot bearing features: It can withstand axial, radial, overturning, and other directions of comprehensive load; it has a thin-walled bearing and high rotation positioning accuracy. Any bearing that can meet the needs of this design can be used in industrial robot arms, rotary joints, chassis, and other parts.
