In 1959, the United States launched the world's first industrial robot, the function was still very simple, can only be used for fixed-point handling things. 1967, Japan from the United States to introduce the first industrial robot, to open the road of independent research and development and industrialization. In the two decades since then, Japan's industrial robots have seen explosive growth, and has bred two giants of the “Big Four” of industrial robots: Fanuc and Yaskawa. In 1973, Kuka developed the world's first electromechanical six-axis drive robot - FAMULUS.

In China, the first industrial robot was born in 1982. In other words, China's industrial robots started a full twenty years later. Whenever we talk about this, Liu Xiaoping, the founder of QiaoTian Intelligence, is thinking about one question: what can Chinese brands do?

01 Focus on the exploration and planning of robot end-of-line in multiple scenarios

In 2024, China's industrial robot market sales are expected to exceed 320,000 units, and the market as a whole continues to grow. Today's China has the initial strength to replace the whole industry chain. The rapid development of industrial robots is also driving the growth of the end-of-arm tooling market, which is expected to reach $6.5 billion by 2025 and maintain a CAGR of 14%, according to an analysis by industry organizations. Thanks to the growth of the automation market, the usage of end-of-line tools as a key part of robotic solutions in the industry is also rising rapidly.

Time back to 2016, for Liu Xiaoping this is an extraordinary year, this year he decided to Qiaotian Intelligent positioning from OEM factories to independent research, production and marketing of independent brands, and this is only for a goal: to achieve a breakthrough in robot end quick-change device technology, to create a domestic core components technology barriers. This is Liu Xiaoping in the research and robot upstream and downstream related products and services, positioning the niche market - robot end application equipment.

In order to occupy a place in the middle and high-end market, Qiaotian Intelligence's main target at that time was the domestic automobile OEM customers. At that time, domestic OEMs were in the midst of large-scale production expansion and new energy vehicle outbreak, in this “time is money” situation, Qiaotian Intelligence technical team quickly responded to customer needs, according to the site conditions to optimize the solution and assist in dealing with the production line, to overcome the difficulties of the project, and to empower customers to improve the production capacity and production tempo! QiaoTian has been recognized and trusted by customers. Under the influence of the general environment in 2019-2022, sales have not stagnated and declined, but doubled against the trend.

At present, Qiaotian intelligent quick-change plate has been ranked in the first echelon of the industry, and is also a national brand enterprise that has obtained the double certification of TüV and CE, successfully completing the road of the national brand's comeback. According to incomplete statistics, Qiaotian quick-change disk market inventory exceeded 50,000 + pieces, becoming the first echelon of domestic quick-change brand industry.

In 2023, Qiaotian Intelligence formally established two product teams, Robot End Solution and Connection and Switching Solution. The product line covers 6 categories, including quick-change disks, gripping systems, automatic glue application systems, trimmer series, industrial connectors, and magnetic mold changing systems. We are not limited to robot end quick-change devices, but focus on robot end and peripheral product solutions in multiple scenarios.

02 Catch the key market changes, multi-category combination development

With the global market demand for connectors to maintain a steady growth trend, the overall market size shows an upward trend. The Chinese market in particular has development potential, the accelerated construction of 5G base stations and the rapid development of the new energy automobile industry, the communication field and the automotive field connector market size will continue to expand.

In the face of this market opportunity, the company has quickly upgraded its overall strategic layout, and QiaoTian's industrial connector products have formed a comprehensive product lineup including electrical connectors, fluid connectors, and energy combination connection systems, etc., and can be customized in different sizes to meet the transmission needs of multiple scenarios. For example, the QCM series is mainly used in automotive manufacturing and 3C electronics, helping enterprises realize efficient switching and stable transmission of production processes. The FCM fluid combination series of industrial connectors focuses on multi-pole electrical connectors, high-pressure oil structures, and self-sealing water fittings, which are suitable for industrial scenarios such as airtightness testing, insulation and voltage testing, oil filling and weighing, and noise testing.

At present, QiaoTian's industrial connector product line, which has entered the field of many automobile OEMs and injection molding and stamping industries, has become the second curve of QiaoTian's fast-growing intelligent products.

Talking about the idea of new product development, the person in charge of QiaoTian's technology said: “In the field of robot end, although the products such as quick-change disk, automatic gluing system, industrial connector and magnetic mold-changing system have their own focus on their functions, they together constitute an important part of the automated production line, and all of them are designed to improve the production efficiency and flexibility.

For example, the development of QiaoTian's grinding machine started from the fact that the technical team, in the course of long-term cooperation with OEMs in other businesses, found that the welding process, which is the key technology for connecting the body-in-white, has been suffering from the problem of uneven efficiency and quality for a long time, which largely affects the production schedule and safety of the whole vehicle. After research and discussion, the technical team focused on solving the problem of resistance spot welding regrinding, and decided to invest in the research and development of regrinding machine shaping machine.

However, in the actual product planning process, the team is also faced with the industry's thorny difficulties: narrow welding grinding stability assurance, small throat depth welding clamp machine type, single-sided welding grinding swing arm swing into place to repair a series of problems. Technical team at the customer site after millions of tests and experiments, successively launched a fixed, swing arm, mobile, grinding and cap replacement machine, aluminum spot welding grinding machine, shaping machine and other models, all-round applicable to different sizes and needs of the production line and specific production environment and technical requirements. Since the product was launched in 23 years, it has been applied in dozens of bases of domestic first-tier OEMs with 3,000＋.

Up to now, QiaoTian's self-developed quick-change disks, industrial connectors, magnetic mold changing systems, gripping systems, repair mills and other products have been applied to a number of industry head customers. We have completed the successful transformation from robot end quick-change device equipment provider to robot end and peripheral solution provider.

03 To be an enabler of national brands

In the process of transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing to China's intellectual manufacturing, every industry is looking for its own value anchor point. How to empower national brands?2016-2024, Qiaotian Intelligence broke the monopoly of international brands in the domestic robot end system industry through a 7-year-long technological accumulation, realizing the mid- and high-end domestic substitution of key functional components of domestic robot end.

In 2023, Qiaoda Intelligence has obtained strategic investment from Geely Houtong Capital, WoNiu Capital, Midea Capital, the company will use the funds for R & D, production, sales scale upgrading, and at the same time, cooperates with famous universities and scientific research institutes to carry out scientific research, constantly plowing into the field of robot end, and improve the industry status quo with technological innovation. 2024, Qiaoda Intelligence launched a new product of automatic glue application system, which is realized by high-precision mechanical control. The system realizes the precise positioning of the gluing trajectory through high-precision mechanical control, which improves the sealing and bonding strength of the products. It further enriches QiaoTian's product line.

Product innovation and category innovation based on the actual needs of customers is one of the biggest sources of the continuous growth of QiaoTian's performance.

As CEO Liu Xiaoping said at the celebration of Qiaotian Intelligent's 2024 annual meeting, he summarized the past with three words: “firm, tough and persistent”. In Liu Xiaoping's understanding, the Chinese brand is not to talk about slogans and follow the crowd, but to use the customer thinking to think about what needs have not been met. Continuously stimulate their own business model and technological change and innovation, and gradually provide China and the world's industrial manufacturing industry with more excellent products and services.