From manufacturing to smart manufacturing: Hydraulic cylinder source factory enters the stage of high-quality development

Under the wave of high-quality development of the global manufacturing industry, the basic module of the hydraulic system in the traditional industrial field is quietly undergoing structural upgrades. As the "power muscle" in the hydraulic system, the manufacturing capacity of hydraulic cylinders directly affects the equipment level and operating efficiency of many industries such as engineering machinery, industrial automation, agricultural equipment, and new energy equipment. In the past, the production of hydraulic cylinders, which relied on a large amount of manual work and extensive processing, is now moving from "manufacturing" to "smart manufacturing", and China's hydraulic cylinder source factory is at the forefront of this transformation and upgrading.

The hydraulic cylinder industry ushers in a "new turning point" in intelligent manufacturing

As the core component of the hydraulic system that converts hydraulic energy into mechanical energy, the stability, pressure resistance and sealing of the hydraulic cylinder are directly related to the performance of the whole machine. In the long-term development, China's hydraulic cylinder manufacturing industry has experienced a gradual improvement from low-end OEM to mid-end independent brands. Today, with the in-depth implementation of national strategies such as Industry 4.0 and smart manufacturing, the hydraulic cylinder source factory is ushering in a key turning point from "mass production is king" to "quality and efficiency are equally important".

In recent years, more and more source manufacturing companies have invested in automated assembly lines, high-precision CNC machine tools, and digital quality traceability systems. Through the dual-wheel drive of "equipment intelligence + process digitalization", they have achieved refined control of the entire process from raw material storage to finished product delivery.

A person in charge of a hydraulic cylinder source factory in East China said: "We now have a five-axis linkage machining center that can replace 3\~4 technicians, ensuring that the machining error is within ±0.005mm, and can also be linked with the MES system in real time to achieve production scheduling and quality closed-loop management."

Quality improvement has become the new core of competitiveness

In the past, the biggest problem faced by hydraulic cylinder source companies was uneven quality and poor batch consistency, which made it difficult to replace imported brands in high-end equipment applications. Today, under the dual effects of national standard improvement and market-driven mechanisms, quality control has become one of the core competitiveness of source factories.

In terms of quality, some companies have generally applied the following key technologies and means:

Three-coordinate detection system: used to detect the geometric accuracy and coaxiality of the cylinder body and piston rod;

Hydraulic test bench: to test the performance of each hydraulic cylinder, such as pressure resistance, load, and internal leakage;

Automatic spraying and drying line: to ensure uniform anti-rust and anti-corrosion treatment and extend service life;

ERP and MES integration platform: to achieve intelligent management from customer orders to production scheduling.

The introduction of these equipment and systems not only greatly improves the product qualification rate and delivery cycle, but also significantly improves customers' trust in domestic hydraulic cylinders, and promotes their rapid replacement of imports in the fields of new energy and automation equipment.

Multi-scenario application drives personalized customization to become the mainstream

Different from the previous product structure dominated by standard parts, the current downstream customer demand for hydraulic cylinders is increasingly showing a trend of "multi-batch, small batch, and customized". For example, in intelligent agricultural machinery, forklift AGV, and wind power hydraulic systems, hydraulic cylinders often need to meet non-standard dimensions, special working conditions, and special interface requirements.

Faced with this trend, the source factory has gradually transformed from "single production" to "modular + flexible manufacturing" mode. Some advanced factories have established a customized service system with "product database + customer collaboration platform" as the core. Customers can submit technical parameters online, and the platform automatically recommends module combinations that can be quickly matched, and pushes them to the back-end process team for verification and production.

Export share expands, Made in China wins international recognition

With the steady improvement of the quality of domestic hydraulic cylinders and the optimization of delivery efficiency, more and more source factories are accelerating their pace of "going overseas", and the export area has gradually expanded from Southeast Asia and the Middle East to the European and American markets. In some mid-to-high-end agricultural machinery and industrial equipment fields in North America and Europe, Chinese hydraulic cylinders are becoming an alternative option with both "high cost performance" and "reliability".

According to data from the China Hydraulic and Pneumatic Seals Industry Association, China's hydraulic cylinder exports in 2024 will increase by 21.3% year-on-year, of which the direct export proportion from source manufacturing factories exceeds 60%, showing strong market vitality.

Some source companies with independent brand capabilities have also begun to accelerate the layout of overseas localized services, such as setting up overseas warehouses, technical service stations, spare parts supply centers, etc., and gradually forming an operating model of "local manufacturing + global service".

There are still pain points in the transformation of intelligent manufacturing, and collaborative innovation is the key

Despite the obvious pace of transformation, the source factory of hydraulic cylinders still faces a series of challenges in the process of moving towards intelligent manufacturing:

The equipment investment return cycle is long, and some small and medium-sized enterprises cannot afford it;

There is a lack of high-skilled talents, especially for precision assembly and system debugging positions;
The upstream and downstream collaboration is lagging, and the information asymmetry problem between the design end and the manufacturing end is still common.

In this regard, the industry calls for strengthening policy support for "specialized and new" small giant enterprises, while promoting in-depth cooperation between industry, academia and research, and cultivating a regional intelligent manufacturing industry chain cluster with hydraulic cylinders as the core.