In the new century, the challenges faced by mechanical engineers are twofold: revitalizing the traditional manufacturing industry, transforming and upgrading the manufacturing industry, and improving the international competitiveness of the manufacturing industry in global competition; It is also necessary to increase capacity and level to provide necessary equipment for the development of high-tech industries. The latter is a profound challenge to China's manufacturing industry and a new commanding height to climb after half a century's development.
3. 1 new commanding heights
If we make a rough evaluation, we can understand that the representative contributions of China's equipment manufacturing industry or machinery manufacturing industry in the 1960s were the "Nine Equipments" and the 10,000-ton hydraulic press, and a number of machinery and equipment from all walks of life represented by them, which made indelible contributions to the industrialization of China. Around the 1980s, marked by the tough battle of supplying150,000 kilowatts of power station equipment and 100 drilling rigs every year, the manufacturing industry created infrastructure conditions for the industrial modernization of new China, and provided material basis for the rapid development of energy transportation and the promotion of the four modernizations in China. Now it is facing a new peak.
According to the analysis of economists in China, the "first generation infrastructure" adapted to the development of industrial economy mainly points to energy, roads, water sources, carriers and logistics; Facing the era of knowledge economy, what is in urgent need of development is the "second generation infrastructure" that carries information flow and capital flow, namely, network, database, terminal, e-commerce system and so on. Providing equipment for the construction of these infrastructures is bound to become a new historical mission of machinery manufacturing departments.
For the manufacturing industry with a history of more than 50 years, it is undoubtedly a higher and more arduous task to provide equipment for high-tech industries, and it is a new commanding height for China to lay the foundation for the new century, new economy, globalization and knowledge economy.
3.2 The demand for high-tech industrialization is huge, and the equipment manufacturing industry in China is not suitable.
At present, China's equipment manufacturing industry is far from meeting the needs of high-tech development. In particular, microelectronics manufacturing needs advanced silicon wafer production lines, integrated circuit production lines, display production lines, precision molds and plastic machinery; The photoelectric manufacturing industry needs test equipment and production line to produce optical fiber, optical cable and connector; The industrialization of nanotechnology needs precision instruments and micro-mechanics; The preparation and measurement of new materials, the manufacture of new energy equipment and components, the research and development and industrialization of life science, genetic science, biotechnology, new medical engineering, aerospace technology and marine technology all need corresponding advanced equipment and instruments.
Just look at the demand of information construction in China. As a core component, China's demand accounts for one fifth of the world's total. According to CCID (Computer and Microelectronics Development Research Center of the Ministry of Information Industry), the domestic demand for chips in 2005 was 47 billion. The demand for 20 10 is 80 billion yuan.
In order to meet the needs of information development, all parts of China are planning to build integrated circuit production lines and optical fiber production lines. For example, Beijing "Northern Microelectronics Industry Base" will build 20 integrated circuit production lines and develop special equipment for chip production lines. During the Tenth Five-Year Plan period, Shanghai Microelectronics Industry Base introduced an investment of 654.38+0 billion US dollars and built 6543.8+00 integrated circuit production lines. In addition, Chengdu, Shenzhen, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Zhuhai, Qingdao, xi 'an, Chengdu and Leshan all have integrated circuit production lines under construction and planning.
Facing the advanced equipment and instruments needed by these production lines, China's equipment manufacturing industry is very unsuitable, and there are only a few that can be manufactured at present.
3.3 It is a reasonable choice to start with microelectronic equipment.
In recent ten years, the research and development of high-tech equipment in the world began with microelectronic equipment. The United States pointed out in the "National Key Technology" report of 199 1: "The semiconductor industry in the United States is based on equipment suppliers, and the leading countries in manufacturing equipment may dominate the world market of semiconductor devices." Therefore, the report suggests that "micro-nano-scale manufacturing" should be listed as a national key technology, aiming at the application of integrated circuits, and technical breakthroughs should be made in three aspects: nano-lithography technology, film/surface treatment technology and micro-scale mechanical devices.
The equipment of the chip production line basically belongs to "precision optical electromechanical equipment", which is technology-intensive and has high added value, reflecting comprehensive national strength; There are many peripheral devices, which are highly relevant and driving, and most of the technologies needed are * * * technologies of high-tech industries-precision/ultra-precision technologies, optical electromechanical technologies. And its frontier products (technology and equipment below 0.25μ) have become the key index line for foreign countries to control the development of China's advanced equipment. The equipment investment of an 8-inch production line is about $65.438+0 billion; The equipment investment of a 12 inch production line reaches15 ~ 2 billion USD. It can be predicted that in five to ten years, tens of billions of dollars will be spent on the corresponding equipment procurement in the construction of integrated circuit production lines in China. In 2000, the global investment in semiconductor equipment was $53 billion.
In order to get rid of the situation of completely relying on imports and being controlled by people, the seven tasks put forward by Shanghai's informatization development strategy are to increase the research and development of equipment and production lines in the information industry and provide working machines and complete production lines for the information industry; Machinery manufacturing enterprises in Shanghai and Beijing are mobilizing local resources and marching into the field of electronic equipment (starting from peripheral and post-process equipment); There are also some small foreign-funded enterprises that have started to set up factories in China to manufacture single reprocessing equipment for global supply. However, on the whole, all the key equipment needed for the development of information technology is basically dependent on imports. Demand is the biggest motivation, so it is obviously a reasonable choice to start with microelectronic equipment.
3.4 There is no gap between traditional industries and emerging industries.
Traditional industries and emerging industries are not only the relationship between you and me, but also the relationship between the growth of emerging industries and the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. The complex production processes in emerging industries are mostly formed by upgrading, improving and integrating the corresponding mature single technology. For example, well-known equipment suppliers in the field of semiconductor manufacturing technology, such as Ultratech, VSEA and TEL, rely on ion implantation and plasma doping, thin film deposition and laser heat treatment respectively. They are all based on the commonly used technologies in traditional fields, such as tribology, surface engineering, vacuum technology, welding technology and heat treatment, which are familiar to mechanical engineers, and are integrated to meet new requirements, making them more refined, more practical and higher.
The analysis of foreign situations shows that the protagonists of the development of semiconductor technology in the United States are mostly emerging enterprises; Japan and Europe are the main bodies of the common development of new and old enterprises, especially the equipment manufacturing industry. For example, Canon in Japan relies on camera technology to develop lithography equipment, Hitachi relies on precision machining technology to develop high-speed drilling machines for printed circuit boards, and a number of home appliance giants vigorously develop microelectronics production technologies and equipment, such as Panasonic, Sony, Sanyo and Sharp, Bosch, Zeiss, Philips in Europe and Texas Instruments in the United States, all of which have successfully entered the field of semiconductor manufacturing from traditional manufacturing. These facts should be beneficial for developing countries whose economic base is far less than that of the United States to make good use of the existing industrial base to develop high-tech industries.
3.5 Mechanical engineering should have new development.
It is not entirely up to engineers to adapt China's equipment industry to the needs of high-tech industrialization. System innovation and mechanism innovation are often more important than technological innovation here. However, from the technical basis, it is obvious that the focus and direction of the development of mechanical engineering discipline and personnel training should also be actively adjusted.
For example, from the demand of high-tech development, we should pay more attention to precision mould technology, RPM technology, precision and ultra-precision machining technology, automation and robotics technology, vacuum technology, surface technology, lithography technology, thin film technology, precision measurement technology, new material application technology and so on.
Industrial engineering, group technology, concurrent engineering, virtual design, rapid manufacturing, networked manufacturing, personalized mass production, modern logistics, customer management, etc. It should be first applied to the research, development, design and production of high-tech industrialized equipment.
From the concept of technology and professional clusters, it is necessary to vigorously strengthen technology clusters in four aspects, namely, four key technologies of high-tech equipment, or to do a good job in four aspects:
3.5. 1 Do a good job in optical and mechanical articles
Optical-mechanical-electrical integration technology is essentially a generalized mechanical-electrical integration technology, which is the integration of machinery and control, optics, electronics and machinery, and the comprehensive integration and compounding of physical and chemical properties of machinery, materials and particles. It involves many fields of mechanical engineering and is an indispensable technology in the development of high and new technologies such as microelectronics, optical communication technology, biotechnology, nanotechnology and aerospace technology.
3.5.2 Do a good job of "superficial writing"
The most obvious example is the chip. The basic processes of chip manufacturing: electroplating, plate etching, doping and heat treatment, which can be said to be "making a fuss on the surface", are all fine surface processes. Another example is the application of metal and metal oxide coatings and diamond-like carbon films in semiconductor devices, displays, microwave circuits, magneto-optical storage media, laser devices, biomedical devices, solar cells and so on. This is also a fine surface technology under clean or vacuum conditions.
3.5.3 Do a good job of "micro-scale articles"
All high-tech industries need ultra-precision measurement and processing technology. The trend of integrated circuit manufacturing is 200 1 year 0. 13μ, 2004 0.09μ, 2008 0.06μ and 20 14 0.03μ, which has become the same goal of the world semiconductor industry. Nano-materials show brand-new properties, and the corresponding micro-nano machinery also needs brand-new design concepts and technological schemes.
Mechanical engineering must adapt to this reality, get rid of the "heavy" and "big" work objects, strive to develop the corresponding micro-mechanical engineering, and design and manufacture the corresponding micro-mechanical equipment and devices at the micro scale, extending from millimeter and micron to sub-micron and nano scale.
Therefore, the research field of mechanical engineering should develop micro-kinematics, micro-structure, micro-dynamics, micro-tribology and micro-fluid mechanics, and establish micro-mechanics based on scale effect.
Mechanical manufacturing products include micro gears, micro motors, micro bearings, micro valves, micro pumps, micro switches, micro linear guides, micro laser heads, micro cutters, micro spindles and micro sensors, thus manufacturing micro machines, micro manipulators, micro robots, micro satellites, micro weapons and detectors.
Accordingly, mechanical manufacturing technology should master precision/ultra-precision technology, micro-machining, micro-measurement, micro-surface treatment, micro-EDM and micro-energy beam machining.
3.5.4 Do a good job in "economic articles"
Whether high-tech can be industrialized will inevitably be reflected as an economic problem in the end. For example, the principle of seawater desalination has long been solved, and the technical scheme of adopting membrane technology is not controversial. The core is the production cost. How to improve the membrane-making equipment, improve the production efficiency and yield, improve the heat transfer and separation system, improve the energy-using equipment, improve the transportation efficiency, and greatly reduce the manufacturing cost, these production technology integration with the ultimate goal of economy is essentially the job of mechanical engineers. Similarly, whether it is solar photovoltaic power generation, electric vehicles, wind power generation, maglev trains, etc. It can be widely promoted and industrialized as soon as possible, and the main problem also comes down to the economy. In order to serve high-tech industrialization, mechanical engineers must seek comprehensive technical and economic solutions.
3.6 New Features of the Third Climbing Peak
To climb the new peak of providing advanced equipment for high-tech industrialization, we must see its new characteristics:
Technically, it is a multi-disciplinary composite integration, seeking comprehensive solutions. A multidisciplinary team of engineers must be formed.
In terms of time, the development and renewal of high technology is very fast. We must aim ahead and catch up. At present, the mainstream of chip technology is to enter 300mm wafer and 0. 1μ process, and more than half of the production lines under construction in the world are 300mm wafer factories. Here, the old and the new often do not coexist, but are eliminated and replaced.
Organizationally, it is a large-scale pre-competition cooperation system and a joint breakthrough across industries. In order to reduce the cost of research and development, strong cooperation is necessary.
In terms of mechanism, it is a comprehensive application of planning means and market mechanism. It must be advocated by the government, supported by planning and coordination, and promoted with high intensity.
Now many people in the manufacturing industry know that there is a "Next Generation Vehicle Plan (PNGV)" in the United States, but they don't all know that there are three large-scale R&D plans in the United States, which are promoted by the government, combined with enterprises and integrated with Industry-University-Research, ASTI (Semiconductor Technology Consortium) in Japan and JISSI in the European Union. An obvious fact is that when developing the key technologies and equipment of information technology, the re-market countries also realize that the interests of enterprises are highly consistent with the national goals, and they are related to the overall situation. Therefore, the government must promote them, organize large-scale joint research institutions, and do everything possible to seize the commanding heights.