Consumption upgrades have become a major trend in China's home appliance market, and air-conditioning R&D centered on user experience has also become the core of strategic transformation for all major air-conditioning companies. The popularity of intelligent technology and the increasing sales of mid- to high-end products have put forward higher requirements for the technology of air-conditioning motors.
The most intuitive embodiment of product upgrade requirements is the expansion of the company's strategy for DC brushless motors. According to Welling Motor, the current sales of DC brushless motors is about 25%, and sales volume has increased by 80%. Kaibang Motor said that it will add about 15 million new capacity in 2018, most of which are DC brushless motor production lines. After production, Kaibang DC brushless motor capacity will exceed 20 million units, but this is "not enough." ". At the same time that Wolong will double its production capacity in 2018, it will rapidly expand the production proportion of DC brushless motors. It is said that 40% of the current output is DC brushless motors. However, Shibaura, which is mainly based on DC brushless motors, has further expanded the supply of DC brushless motors after the Tengwo production line, but Shibaura has not rapidly expanded the capacity of DC brushless motors. They believe that the DC brushless motor market "Still in cultivation".
With the joint efforts of many mainstream motor companies, the market share of DC brushless motors has increased rapidly. According to the industry online data, as of April, the sales volume of DC brushless air conditioner motors in the year of 2018 reached 27.2%, and the sales growth rate reached 38.4%, of which the internal sales growth rate was as high as 65.4%.
In fact, the analysis of the expansion pattern of each household in 2018 shows that DC brushless motor has undoubtedly become the protagonist of the expansion of air-conditioner motor, and the promotion of the air conditioners in the United States and Haier and the gradual popularization of the consumption concept of DC inverter air conditioners. Under the overall demand for DC brushless motors will continue to rise. A number of air-conditioning motor companies said that in the future, AC motors will only be maintained or modified, and the strategic focus will be on DC brushless motors with easy automation, lower noise and better performance.
In product development, DC, miniaturization, and noise reduction are still the main directions for upgrading air-conditioning motor technology. In addition, the field of commercial air-conditioning motors represented by Welling is also one of the breakthrough points.
It is worth mentioning that the gradual upgrade of intelligent air conditioners has brought a series of research and development issues to the air conditioner motor industry. In this interview, the R&D leaders of some air conditioner companies have repeatedly mentioned the electronic control R&D of smart air conditioners. With the gradual upgrading of the smart air conditioner's sensing technology, the air conditioner development has begun to put forward the integration requirements for the electronic control module. Part of the view is that the integration of the entire air conditioning electronic control system is more conducive to the development of intelligent air conditioning technology.
In this regard, air-conditioning motor companies are also actively responding. The deputy general manager of a certain air-conditioning motor company bluntly said that the electronic control part was taken separately to the whole machine, which is not a good thing for the motor company, not only affects the profit of the product, but also greatly reduces the industry entry threshold, and it is also possible to The stability of the control affects. He said that at present, enterprises are also preparing for both hands. One is to remove the electronic control part and only the power supply machine; the other is to provide better electronic control technology for the whole machine enterprise, such as the amount of dust and frost on the two devices. And other electronic control modules.
Another person in charge of the air-conditioning motor company said that the electronic control part has high requirements for precision, especially the chip reading and writing is not easy for the whole machine enterprise to achieve stable and reliable integration performance. At present, the supply of chips is insufficient, which has affected the development of mainstream brushless motors.
In fact, when it comes to chips, the “ZTE event” that has recently attracted global attention has also had a great impact on the air-conditioning motor industry. At present, the supply of DC inverter motors manufactured in China is still dominated by Japanese and American companies. The ZTE incident has amplified the chip supply problem in the motor industry. In this regard, several air-conditioning motor companies said that in recent years, they have cooperated with domestic chip manufacturers to develop domestic electronic control modules. A company has even accumulated sales of millions of domestically produced domestically produced chips. While a leading company has already developed its own chip technology, but for the localization of the chip, many technical leaders are also cautiously optimistic - this field does not make the product achieve high stability and precision overnight. However, all major motor companies agree that "the localization of chips is a must-have, even if it is full of hardships."
Therefore, although the motor industry seems to be firm and clear in the direction of transformation, the further test that will be carried out in combination with the upgrade path is not a small pressure on the R&D of each enterprise. Will such pressure put the motor industry to the next level?
It is worth mentioning that with the continuous upgrading of motor technology and continuous optimization of product structure, the air-conditioning motor industry is facing the impact of high raw material prices, but the overall profit level is expected to further improve, and the price competition of DC motors will become increasingly fierce. . The 2018 cold year is about to close, and whether the air-conditioning motor industry will continue to upgrade in the future, there will be an answer this summer.
