Old agricultural area now booming as high-tech cluster

Back in 1992, the land now occupied by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, was one of the capital’s agricultural areas. Nowadays, however, it has evolved into an important and dynamic national high-tech cluster, home to about 80 Fortune Global 500 companies.

The diverse and cuttingedge world of robotics — involving, among other things, intelligent unmanned express deliveries, robots that assist in medical operations, as well as digital assembly lines — is one of the precision and advanced industries that Beijing E-Town is now home to.

By any measure Beijing E-Town is a national success story and the robotic sector’s dazzling developments were showcased at the 2018 World Robot Conference held in Beijing from Aug 15-18.

Just one fascinating example was to be found at the stand of Japanese technology giant SMC Corporation, where a robot sorted eggs into different boxes based on their weight.

“It can recognize the difference in the weight of each egg,” said the Chairman of SMC’s China unit Zhao Tong, who added that the device could track the movements and control the precise pressures involved, so as not to break the eggs.

The company, which said the value of its annual production has soared from just 930,000 yuan ($135,000) in 1995 to 8.6 billion yuan last year, also displayed its product line of lightweight components at the conference. It said that these are expected, among other things, to reduce power consumption as well as improve precision controls for robotic devices going forward.

“Intelligent manufacturing and industrial automation will be a future trend in the Chinese market and we are willing to play a part,” Zhao said.

He added the company chose Beijing E-Town as an investment destination because it is a high-tech hub with a highly trained workforce.

To date, Beijing E-Town has attracted around 100 companies involved in robotics and associated activities, including such leading players as Zurich-based ABB, the HIT Robot Group, as well as SMC.

The spread of Beijing’s robotics industry is wide and getting ever wider — ranging from research and development of industrial robots to the manufacturing of services robots, special-purpose robots, as well as the production of key components — according to a recent local media report.

An active player in the sector that settled in Beijing E-Town late last year is TsinoDynatron Electrical Technology (Beijing) Co Ltd, a company which was started by a team of entrepreneurs at Tsinghua University. Its Chairman, Wang Jian, said his company displayed its own in-house servo drivers — a key component widely used in industrial robots — at the conference. He said these more keenly priced products have replaced many imported brands and are increasingly being used by local manufacturers.

“Beijing E-Town is a major driver for Beijing in the development of its advanced manufacturing industry, in which robotics are playing an important role,” he said.

“However, the things a single company can do are limited. (But) we hope to participate in constructing a complete robotics industrial network in Beijing E-Town,” he added.

Elsewhere, Beijing E-Townbased company Chietom displayed its rotation vector reducer — a type of speed reducer which is a core component of many advanced robots — at the conference.

Chietom Chief Scientist Zhang Yueming said that while the demand for such parts is growing by 40 percent every year in China, some 90 percent of the components still come from abroad. Zhang added, however, that his company expects to see its market share reach 10-20 percent in the future, helping to reduce the manufacturing costs of locally made robots.

Zhang added that his company received vital funding from the Beijing government, for the research and development of its own technologies.

“Development can’t be accomplished overnight. It needs time,” he said.

“Chinese companies are able to handle more and more key technologies now. It’s an issue that the central and local governments attach great importance to. We’re the beneficiaries of (government support).”

Officials said Beijing E-Town is in the process of speeding up the removal of companies that cause serious pollution, and is bringing in more high-tech companies from the manufacturing, emerging and high-end service industries, according to a local media report.

There are also plans to provide more land for them, as well as financing channels for companies in highend, precision and advanced industries, the report added.

These include companies in the electronic information, equipment manufacturing and biological engineering sectors.