China's printed circuit board (PCB) industry has made rapid development since 1990s, and has become the largest country in the world in terms of PCB output and output value. However, about 60% of the investment in PCB Factory, especially the high-end equipment, is slow in localization, which has become a bottleneck restricting the development of China's PCB industry.

To build a modern multi-layer PCB Factory, the investment proportion of production equipment and testing instruments is the largest. For example, the equipment investment of HDI factory accounts for more than 60% of the total investment. PCB is a technology intensive and capital intensive industry. As the saying goes, "the improvement of enterprise technology mainly depends on the ability of process equipment, followed by the introduction of talents and enterprise management". It can be seen that the development of PCB equipment is important to a PCB Factory. If China's PCB industry wants to take the lead in the world, it must have the world's leading equipment manufacturers.

Rapid expansion of PCB equipment and instrument market in China

With the rapid transfer of global electronic industry to China and other Asian countries, especially with the increasing importance of China in the global electronic product market in recent years, the global PCB production capacity is gradually transferred from Europe, America, Japan and other countries to the mainland of China, which promotes the rapid development of China's PCB industry. China has become the world's largest electronic products and PCB main production base.

In 2006, China's PCB output value surpassed Japan and became the world's largest PCB manufacturing base. At present, China's PCB output value has become the largest and fastest growing region in the world, which is the main driving force to promote the growth of global PCB industry. According to prismark data, from 2006 to 2010, the compound annual growth rate of China's PCB output value reached 9.6%, far higher than the global level of 2.5%. Since the second half of 2008, China's PCB industry has been impacted by the global financial crisis.In 2006, however, affected by the rebound of peripheral market demand and domestic economic stimulus policies, the scale of China's PCB market grew strongly by 29.8% in 2010, and the total output value reached 18.5 billion US dollars, accounting for 36.3% of the global total output value. It is estimated that by 2015, the total output value of China's PCB will reach US $30 billion 900 million, and the proportion of the world's total will rise to 44.3%.

Along with the strong demand of downstream products, the enthusiasm of PCB Factory to expand production is high, and the investment scale is constantly increasing, which has led to the prosperity of domestic PCB equipment market. According to the estimation of CPCA, the market scale of PCB equipment in the world will reach 11.8 billion US dollars in 2010, of which 29 billion yuan will be in China alone. According to the relevant data of Taiwan Institute of technology, the sales volume of PCB equipment in Chinese mainland increased from 21 billion 500 million yuan to 29 billion yuan in the past 2006-2010 years, with an average annual compound growth rate of 6.1%, especially in 2010, a strong increase of 16.1% over 2009. Synchronized with the growth of domestic PCB output value, China's PCB equipment has huge market potential in the future. It is estimated that the market size will reach 48.8 billion yuan by 2015, and the average annual compound growth rate from 2010 to 2015 will reach 11.0%, significantly higher than the growth level of 7.5% in the global market.

The weakness of domestic high-end equipment restricts the upgrading of PCB industry

At present, domestic high-end circuit board manufacturers are also facing such an awkward situation when purchasing process equipment. Through the investigation of relevant PCB companies, most companies also said that when improving the circuit board process capabilities, they are key to the selection of process equipment, such as laser drilling machines, high-precision mechanical drilling machines, high-precision exposure machines, and AOI optical inspection machines. , LDI laser direct imaging machines, etc., are more inclined to buy foreign imported machines. Some users also said that when companies choose production equipment, if the domestic brand equipment can meet the requirements of the process, they will also choose the more influential domestic brands in the industry, such as domestic etching lines, cleaning lines and other horizontal production lines. The quality can be guaranteed, and it is more practical to use.

If my country's PCB industry wants to lead the world, there must be a world-leading equipment manufacturer. Although China is a big PCB country, equipment that accounts for about 60% of PCB investment, especially high-end equipment, has not been locally produced, which has become a bottleneck restricting the development of China's PCB industry. Since the beginning of this century, China's PCB equipment has entered a new era of replication, improvement and independent innovation, and has achieved gratifying results. China's PCB industry equipment and instruments are developing rapidly, with an annual growth rate of more than 30%, and the self-sufficiency rate is rising. At present, domestic equipment and instruments of small and medium-sized PCB companies can basically be matched, and low- and medium-grade products can completely replace imports. In addition, a batch of high-end equipment is gradually becoming mature.

However, on the whole, although China has become an undoubtedly big country in the global PCB industry, it is "big but not strong" as a whole. Among them, domestic PCB special equipment has always been the soft underbelly of PCB industry upgrading. my country’s PCB output value is the world’s first, with a rapid growth rate, and the largest number of enterprises. However, key supporting industries such as equipment and instruments for production are underdeveloped. Although low-end equipment can replace imports, high-end equipment and testing instruments, such as Mechanical drilling, laser drilling and optical testing equipment are still heavily dependent on imports, and the self-sufficiency rate is low. The relevant data of Taiwan Industrial Research Institute show that the self-sufficiency rate of domestic PCB equipment is only 30%-40%, and my country's PCB special equipment industry has a long way to go.

The current problems in my country's PCB special equipment industry

Looking back on the past, China's PCB development has gone through a difficult and brilliant course. Today, with the rapid development of science and technology, under the environment of the hot-selling market for electronic products, the demand for PCB special equipment in my country has grown rapidly. After more than ten years of development, domestic PCB equipment companies have achieved good results, but the entire industry still exists Some problems, including:

1. There is still a certain gap between the overall technological level and advanced countries such as Japan. Due to the complexity of the PCB manufacturing process, the chemicals, machinery, optoelectronics, automation and other processes involved, and the late start of my country’s PCB equipment industry, although it has developed rapidly in recent years, the technical level has been continuously improved, and the equipment performance has been greatly improved, but some There is still a certain gap between the key equipment and the foreign advanced level, which is mainly reflected in the aspects of stability, processing accuracy, and reliability. There are also many factors restricting this aspect. The processing accuracy of domestic parts and components is also far from that of advanced foreign countries. For example, linear guides and screw components that are widely used in mechanical drilling machines and high-speed flying probe testers, Japan The accuracy of the company's products is much higher than that of domestic brands; in addition, the overall level of research and development of automation equipment control software is also behind the advanced countries and regions. Therefore, when large and medium-sized PCB manufacturers expand production capacity and update and upgrade equipment, equipment with high-precision requirements will still give priority to foreign equipment.

2. The equipment product structure is unreasonable, the supply of low-end equipment exceeds demand, and the high-end equipment still relies on imports. PCB production processes are many, the process is complicated, and the required equipment is various. However, in my country, equipment that accounts for about 60% of PCB investment, especially high-end equipment, has not been localized, which has become a bottleneck restricting the development of my country's PCB industry. At present, in the low-end equipment market, domestic brands have basically been able to meet the needs of domestic PCB factories, but some high-end equipment, such as coating thickness gauges, mechanical drilling machines, and laser drilling machines, still rely heavily on imports. Although some domestic equipment factories already have the production capacity of some high-end equipment, due to the late start and low brand awareness, large and medium-sized PCB factories still have certain doubts about the stability, processing accuracy, and reliability of their products. The overall sales scale of equipment is much lower than imported brands such as Japan and Taiwan.

Take mechanical drilling machines as an example. In 2010, the global sales of mechanical drilling machines reached 5,200 units. According to the report data of TPCA, the number of mechanical drilling machines sold to the mainland by Taiwan province equipment manufacturers alone reached 1,151. Mechanical drilling machines have always been the key equipment necessary for the expansion of PCB factories. Its investment amount is large and the proportion is high. It is conservatively estimated that by the end of 2010, the number of mechanical drilling machines in use worldwide will exceed 25,000, and it will exceed 1 in China. Million units. With the further increase of global PCB production value in the future and the replacement of drilling machines every 7-8 years, it is conservatively estimated that by 2015, the annual production and sales of global drilling machines will exceed 8,200, and the domestic market has greater potential. Although the sales scale of domestic drilling machine manufacturers is far behind that of leading international manufacturers such as Hitachi and Dongtai, it is gratifying that the drilling machines of a group of outstanding manufacturers including Shenzhen Han's CNC and Tianma Electronics have gradually matured, and the reputation in the industry has also continued. It can even be comparable to famous foreign brands in terms of cost performance, and has great potential in the future. In addition, molding machines with production and sales of 1/4 of the number of mechanical drilling machines are also facing a similar situation.

3. The number of enterprises is large, the scale is small, the output value is low, and the ability to resist risks is poor. Due to the wide variety of PCB equipment, there are many small factories on the market. The number of equipment manufacturers in CPCA members alone exceeds 200, not including a large number of equipment factories that have not yet joined the conference. However, from the perspective of a single equipment factory, its sales scale is relatively small, its output value is low, and its products are mostly concentrated in low-end products with low added value and technology, and market competition is severe. In addition, the brand awareness of domestic companies is generally not high, causing products to repeatedly fall behind in the competition of internationally renowned brands.

4. Low R&D investment and weak independent innovation ability. Due to the late start of domestic equipment manufacturers, small scales, low product profit margins, high pressure for survival, imperfect management systems of enterprises, difficulty in attracting outstanding technology R&D talents, and weak technology R&D capabilities, small and medium-sized enterprises invest in R&D. Inadequate and poor independent innovation capabilities of enterprises, this has further widened the gap between domestic and international advanced technology levels.

5. Insufficient contact with downstream circuit board manufacturers. From the development experience of countries with advanced technologies such as Japan and South Korea, we can see that breakthroughs in PCB technology and technological innovation have always been the result of joint research and development by circuit board manufacturers and equipment manufacturers. Only by strengthening the contact with downstream customers, understanding customer needs, and organizing technical personnel for R&D, design and improvement in response to customer problems in the actual mass production process, can PCB equipment factories win customers’ trust in domestic brands and improve The self-sufficiency rate of domestic equipment also promotes the improvement of my country's PCB industry technology and process, and promotes the upgrade of my country's PCB industry. 

Promote the faster development of domestic PCB special equipment

From the perspective of the entire PCB development process, breakthroughs in PCB technology and technological innovation can only be achieved by the combination of circuit board manufacturers and equipment manufacturers. PCB innovation is based on equipment innovation, and technology relies heavily on equipment. , The localization of PCB special equipment will play a very positive role in promoting the development of the entire industry. In order to promote the development and progress of China's PCB special equipment and instruments, industry experts said that companies can start from the following aspects:

First, increase R&D and investment in key PCB equipment. Pay attention to the development and production of high-tech, large-scale, wide-ranging, and technologically advanced equipment and instruments. The equipment and instruments that have been conquered in recent years include: automatic parallel exposure machine, laser drilling machine, laser cutting machine, laser character machine, appearance detector, X-ray dual-axis target shooting machine, coating thickness gauge, characteristic impedance tester and automatic layer Pressure system, etc.

Secondly, take the road of combining production, teaching and research to conduct R&D and production of key PCB equipment. Enterprises find universities and research institutes of counterparts for joint research and development projects, and hope that the country will issue relevant policies and provide financial support. We are well aware that R&D and production of key equipment requires a large investment and requires comprehensive talents with experience and mastery of various disciplines. These high-end equipment involve a wide range of disciplines, and only by discovering, utilizing and integrating the latest scientific and technological achievements such as new principles, new concepts, new technologies, and new materials as soon as possible, can first-class PCB equipment and instruments be manufactured.

Thirdly, the principle of PCB equipment R&D and production is: in line with the development direction of the PCB industry, customers have clear requirements, and put them on the market in the shortest time, and the functions and performance are "just right".

With the rapid growth in the demand for electronic consumer products, coupled with the country's emphasis on environmental protection, product quality, and energy-saving and efficient production, the PCB industry will usher in rapid development, which will eventually give rise to more demands and requirements for PCB supporting industries. In the "Electronic Information Industry Adjustment and Revitalization Plan", the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan for the Development of Information Industry Technology and the 2020 Mid- and Long-term Plan Outline", and the "Guidelines for Priority Development of High-Tech Industrialization Key Fields (2010)" Opinion Draft), "High-tech Fields Supported by the State", and "Twelfth Five-Year Plan for China's Printed Circuit Industry" and other policies and regulations have clearly put forward the support and requirements for PCB supporting equipment and materials. The strong downstream demand and strong policy guarantees have brought opportunities for the rapid development of the PCB supporting industry, which will surely promote my country's early comprehensive penetration of the PCB industry chain and become a real PCB power.

Generally speaking, my country's PCB equipment industry is developing rapidly, the market scale is increasing year by year, the self-sufficiency rate of domestic equipment is gradually rising, low-end products can completely replace imports, and some high-end equipment is gradually mature. However, it is undeniable that there is still a huge gap between a number of key equipment and instruments and the international advanced level. With the domestic PCB equipment market maintaining a growth of more than 10% during the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" period, my country's PCB special equipment industry has a heavy responsibility. far. The PCB special equipment industry is an internationally competitive industry. Chinese companies must look to the world, and only continue to pursue productivity improvements to reduce costs, develop towards high-quality, high-tech products, and provide circuit board companies with truly high-quality and inexpensive products. In order to be able to operate continuously, and to occupy a place in the world of special circuit board equipment, I believe that our domestic brands will also be famous at home and abroad in the future.