Not long ago, at the first China (Jinyun) Machine Tool and Tool Exhibition held in Jinyun, Lishui in 2024, many CNC machine tools independently developed by Zhejiang merchants were placed in the spotlight.
Jinyun is a mountainous county, but it is also known as the "capital of sawing machines in China". Band sawing machines account for over 60% of the domestic market share, and saw blades in spare parts and supporting consumables account for over 90% of the national market share
Running from scratch into a large industry
Due to geographical and transportation limitations, the foundation of industrial development in Jinyun is weak, but the people of Jinyun have a lively mind. Since the 1980s, the spring breeze of the manufacturing industry has blown into Huzhen Town, Jinyun County, adjacent to Yongkang, and many small vendors have begun to transform into "hardware craftsmen"
In 1995, Lv Zhenhong, a villager from Beishan Village in Huzhen, traveled over 470 kilometers to Anqing, Anhui, just to bring back a ton of used saw blades. He still remembers that the flow of these waste saw blades was to the second-hand market in Huzhen. At that time, piles of waste saw blades could be exchanged for stacks of bills
Like Lv Zhenhong, the "hardware craftsman" who traveled north and south, started with scrap saw blades and gradually entered the machine tool industry.
After the reform and opening up, Jinyun ushered in a "golden period" of industrial development. Townships and private enterprises are gradually stepping onto the historical stage, and industries such as machinery, lighting appliances, textiles, and sewing are developing rapidly. The machine tool industry, with sawing machines as its core, has emerged as a new force.
In December 1995, Li Xinfu, who founded the first smelting plant in Jinyun, switched from making sickles to making sawing machines. He raised money everywhere to buy a scrap imported sawing machine worth more than 10000 yuan. The same group of "earth masters" who made sickles soaked in the factory building to conduct research and used the "dumbest method" to completely disassemble the sawing machine, searching for answers among more than 100 large and small spare parts. After a year of trial and error, we finally developed Jinyun's first semi-automatic horizontal band saw. At that time, a manufacturing craze represented by "thermos cups," "scooters," and "mops" swept across Zhejiang. This sawing machine sawed the stainless steel cup wall and opened the "door" to the Jinyun sawing machine industry.
Jinyun people can make sawing machines! The news quickly spread. People with flexible minds began to imitate and buy waste sawing machines to assemble and sell. Another group of people started producing related components, and the prototype of the machine tool industry in Huzhen spontaneously formed from this.
Roll out new heights in the industry
Driven by the sawing machine industry, the industrial cluster of characteristic mechanical equipment manufacturing and new metal material production, represented by lathes, pipe bending machines, cutting machines, etc., has achieved breakthrough development.
In 2000, orthopedic surgeon Lin Lvgao "jumped" into the lathe manufacturing industry, which had few enterprises at the time, and established a machinery factory.
From a lathe for processing motor parts to focusing on the research and innovation of high-end cutting equipment, Lin Lvgao has walked for more than 20 years. Nowadays, Zhejiang Changer Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd., founded by him, has independently developed a five axis CNC horizontal side lathe for machining tenon grooves on aircraft engine discs, which is used to process key components in China's aerospace and other fields.
Like Li Xinfu and Lin Lvgao, more and more entrepreneurs are venturing into the field of machine tools
Veteran Ding Zelin founded Zhejiang Chenlong Sawing Machine Co., Ltd. with a single-minded focus on innovation, gradually conquering core technologies such as hydraulics, AI intelligent control, and the Internet of Things. The products are widely used in high-end manufacturing fields such as automobiles, high-speed railways, and aerospace, maintaining a market share of over 20% for many years.
Chenlong Sawing Machine, Sawpower Huang, and Changer Intelligent Equipment have successfully entered the "New Third Board", and multiple enterprises have the conditions for listing. Huzhen has become the township with the highest number of "New Third Board" listed enterprises in Lishui City
Huzhen has also gradually developed a wonderful atmosphere: here, entrepreneurs are chasing each other, not only comparing scale and profit, but also comparing equipment and research and development
With a pioneering spirit, Jinyun has transformed into an important national production base for household and industrial special sewing machines, the capital of sawing machines in China, and a trademark base for machine tool brands in Zhejiang Province.
In 2023, Jinyun County will achieve an industrial output value of 42.162 billion yuan, of which the industrial output value of mechanical equipment (CNC machine tools) will reach 21.191 billion yuan, accounting for "half of the country".
Jumping up enough to reach the industry ceiling
Currently, with the deepening development of a new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, high-end equipment manufacturing industries such as automobile manufacturing, rail transit, and aerospace are iterating and upgrading, which puts forward new requirements for machine tool processing.Standing at the crossroads of "smoke rising everywhere" in the low-end field and "left and right pincer attack" in the mid-range field, how can the Jinyun machine tool industry, which started from scratch and went from 0 to 1, accelerate and catch up? Advancing towards high-end is an important breakthrough for the rapid development of the industry.
Technology and high-end have become the driving force of Jinyun Machine Tool Enterprise. Chenlong sawing machine is continuously accelerating its innovation and research and development pace, increasing its annual R&D budget to 6% of its output value, and striving to break through the high-end market; Zhejiang Sawlihuang Industrial Technology Co., Ltd. is using the concept of manufacturing automobiles to produce sawing machines, achieving 100% laser welding of sheet metal welded parts, and creating a new series of products, achieving a breakthrough of "zero" export of sawing machines from China to Germany
Government and enterprises are working hand in hand to promote the integration of industry, technology, and talent. 11 innovative service platforms have been established, including the National Torch Lishui Intelligent Equipment and Robot Characteristic Industry Base, Zhejiang Jinyun Sawing Machine and Characteristic Machinery Equipment Technology Innovation Service Platform, etc; The government, enterprises, universities, and research institutions jointly formulate medium - and long-term development plans and growth roadmaps, cultivate "specialized, refined, unique, and new" small and medium-sized enterprises in a hierarchical manner, jointly build industrial research institutes with universities, and implement innovative high-level talents for "co attraction and sharing"
Mountainous counties have developed "new landscapes". The robot and CNC machine tool industry cluster in Jinyun County has been included in the second batch of "Made in Zhejiang" provincial-level characteristic industry cluster collaborative zones, successfully cultivating 2 national key specialized, refined, special and new "little giant" enterprises and 4 national specialized, refined, special and new "little giant" enterprises. Zhejiang Changer Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd. won the first prize for provincial scientific and technological progress
The CNC machine tool industry still has a long way to go to move towards the mid to high end. Fan Haiyang, Director of the Economic and Commercial Bureau of Jinyun County, said, "Jinyun is strengthening technology supply, promoting collaborative innovation in the industrial chain, enhancing demand management, promoting product iteration and upgrading, and striving to build the Southern China Machine Tool Science and Technology New City, the Yangtze River Delta characteristic high-end equipment manufacturing base, and the Zhejiang Intelligent Manufacturing Entrepreneurship and Innovation Pilot Zone
