This industry has once again stood at a crossroads.
Editor’s note: This article is from “Interface News”
Reporter | Lu Keyan Xu Shiqi
Edit | Wen Shuqi
Photo source | Visual China
At 11:05 in the night, a 3D printing company in Jinsha Community, Chang’an Town, Dongguan, was also brightly lit. Xiao Gao works as an engineer in this company. He is doing the final repair work for today’s orders.
Changan Town is in the northwest corner of Shenzhen. Take the Metro Line 11, and within an hour’s drive, you can complete the shuttle from Changan to the center of Nanshan District, Shenzhen.
3D printing is a key industry in Changan. Every day, a large number of 3D printed products placed on Taobao are issued from here. The technology that became popular ten years ago has cooled somewhat, but Dongguan ’s 3D printers are still open all year round, producing models and parts of various materials, and then transporting them to various industries such as automobile manufacturing, construction, medical .
Two hours ago, Liang Bolun uploaded the 64th video of him as the UP master at the B station, called “3D printing” the strongest model repair software! Magics Chinese video tutorial.
As a 3D printing practitioner, he began uploading 3D printing teaching and measurement videos in 2018, with the purpose of making popular 3D printing media numbers. In Beijing, more than 2,100 kilometers away from Dongguan, Liang Bolun didn’t know that the 3D printing tutorial video uploaded by himself has become one of Xiao Gao’s “textbooks”.
In addition, the videos on Station B, Youku, iQiyi, and several 3D printing enthusiast forums are learning materials for Xiao Gao and colleagues. These videos teach them how to be in the manufacturing empire of the Pearl River Delta Play the role of a good screw.
In 2019, Changan ranked seventh in the national ranking of the top 1,000 towns in overall strength. Standing on the streets of the town, you can hardly read from the gray scene in front of you that it matches the economic strength, except for the clearly audible sound of factory machinery running 24 hours a day.
The epidemic paused this voice. The blocked construction, the loss of orders, and the rising prices of consumables have repeatedly compressed the already meager profits of the 3D printing industry. In the worst month of February, a factory’s revenue fell by 50-60%, which is nothing new.
The industry has once again stood at a crossroads.
“Complex Skills and Puzzles”
After graduating from junior high school, Xiao Gao reported that he was a vocational high school, but failed to keep reading. At the age of 18, he went to deliver food, but once he couldn’t find the customer’s address, he was given a bad review and felt that this job was not suitable for him. laterXiao Gao ran for half a year, but his income has not yet been taken high. He can only return to his hometown in frustration.
It was n’t until a year ago that Xiao Gao was introduced to work in Chang’an Town, and this company is now a little bit down. He now has a business card and the column titled “3D Printing Engineer”.
“I really” work “, even the desk, it is different from the previous one.” Here, the teacher teaches Xiao Gaola to order, choose materials, and also pack him the videos on Station B and Youku. Tutorial, urge him to learn modeling. You can earn five or six thousand yuan a month, which is why Xiao Gao stays here.
There are 5 industrial light curing printers in the company. The main orders come from industrial hand boards and crafts. Although bearing the name of engineer, Xiao Gao didn’t know much about engineering. His main job was business communication and model repair.
The 3D printing process is mainly divided into modeling (repairing), conveyor, post-processing, etc. In theory, as long as there are suitable materials and 3D model data, anything can be printed on the 3D printer.
Xiao Gao currently only has a simple degree of modeling, that is, repairing the models already built by customers into printable versions on the software-this work is much easier than modeling, only need to know that a certain model is printed out The feasibility of this, but it also caused him to be unable to deal with more difficult problems, to be handed over to colleagues in the engineering department to solve.
Structural engineers grasp the core quality of a 3D printed product. The key issues such as whether the combined structure is reasonable, whether the positioning is correct, and whether the material will be damaged are determined by their professional knowledge. Therefore, the structural engineers of the engineering department almost hold the highest salary of the entire company, and even some people have exceeded five figures.
This position requires the candidate to have programming experience and be proficient in 3D modeling software, which is currently incapable of Xiao Gao, who has only a junior high school education. However, engineers like Xiao Gao have been able to handle most of the orders received by the company. To a certain extent, they are actually the main force of the Changan 3D printing industry.
The junior high school education, the B station tutorial, bringing the teacher, and the labor force that is not difficult to find, can complete a 3D printing order. Such a story is known to answer the argument that resistance is moved to know, Changan is on fire, and the concept of 3D printing, which has long faded from the tuyere, has also returned to the public’s attention.
In Zhang Kangkang’s description, the “small heights” who are not trimmed are “complex skill puzzles”, and they are the starring actors of the cyberpunk science fiction blockbuster in the Pearl River Delta manufacturing industry.
“Cyberpunk” in Chang’an Town
The story of Changan ’s 3D printing also begins with the Shouban Factory.
3D printing is essentially a processing method. In the traditional manufacturing industry, the manufacturing process generally needs to go through mold opening, casting or forging, cutting, component assembly and other processes. 3D printing eliminates the need for complicated processes, without the need for molds, forming at one time, so it can greatly reduce costs and lower the threshold of manufacturing.
The 3D printing industry in China started late. The earliest 3D printing company was born in Beijing in 1994, but various technologies were still faltering at that time, and it was not yet possible to directly make functional parts. Low, scholars and companies promoting this technology are often regarded as scammers.
Around 2013, a report in the British “Economist” magazine “The Third Industrial Revolution” once again ignited the public’s passion for 3D printing. It is regarded as an innovative technology in the medical, construction, automotive and other industries, but since it has been unable to overcome the difficulties of commercial mass production, the popularity of 3D printing has quietly receded after a few years.
But where people are not paying attention, this technology has been self-innovating, and now 3D printing companies have spread all over the country. Almost no threshold is required. A few people, a few machines and a few factories can establish a formal 3D printing factory to export manufactured products for all walks of life in the world.
Among them, the Pearl River Delta 3D printing company headed by the Dongguan Department took the lead in killing a bloody road.
Dongguan Chang’an Town is a famous mold town in China. In the early 1990s, Hong Kong’s industry accelerated to the Pearl River Delta and surrounding areas, and expanded into a huge manufacturing cluster belt in the Pearl River Delta. Hundreds of thousands of manufacturing companies have a lot of mold needs every day. Changan seized this opportunity to quickly attract investment and become one of the most important mold product distribution centers in southern China.
In Chang’an, mold and hand plate factories are everywhere, and these two tools are widely used in manufacturing. In the industrial manufacturing industry, it is common to confirm the shape of the customer with a hand mold first, so as to find out the shortcomings of the product design and improve it. After confirming, then open the mold for mass production. Almost all industrial products must rely on mold forming.
In the past, the Shouban industry highly relied on mature masters of manual technology. Increasing labor costs year by year is a huge expense, but for Shouban masters who have the right to speak technically, the monthly salary of 4,000 or 5,000 yuan is not enough Attract them to stay. Gradually, the loss of talent in the industry has intensified, and Shouban factories have also been forced to transform.
Dongguan Keheng Shouban Model Co., Ltd. was the first factory to transform, and 3D printing entered the vision of this company at this time. Xiao Zhao, a business manager of Keheng Company, told Interface News that the price of materials for 3D printing began to fall sharply, and the influx of domestic printer manufacturers also made the equipment cheaper. In 2011, Keheng purchased the first industrial light curing SLA printer and put it into the prototype manufacturing business.
Compared with the traditional hand-made manufacturing technology, 3D printing can shorten the delivery time from one week to one day. At the same time, no personnel is needed during the printing process, which saves a lot of labor costs for the enterprise. Since then, the number of 3D printers in Keheng has increased year by year, and now it has become one of the largest 3D printing prototype factories in Asia.
The transformation of Keheng is a microcosm of Changan Mould Shouban Factory.
Xiao Zhao recalled that 3D printing was cited at the beginning
In Zhu Tao ’s view, 3D printed “low-end manufacturing” and “high-end manufacturing” are sometimes separated by a line. When the price war rages on, Changan’s 3D printing plant will also be on the crossroads of transformation. However, it is difficult for Zhu Tao to anticipate that high-end talents are needed to move towards high-end precision. Can engineers like Xiao Gao continue to shine in the company?
“Maybe I will be eliminated myself, but I believe that Dongguan will have a winner. We have never been afraid of new technologies. I believe that Dongguan always has new ways.” Zhu Tao said.