The Zhitong Finance App learned that Everbright Securities released a research report saying that rolling screws have a short production cycle and low manufacturing cost. On the premise that they meet accuracy requirements, they are suitable for mass production at low cost, and are expected to become an important support for humanoid robots in the future to reduce costs and large-scale deployment. At present, foreign roller screws have entered the field of CNC machine tools and CNC industrial equipment, and P5 to P7 level of accuracy can fully meet the requirements of humanoid robots. Domestic companies that have accumulated experience in rolling technology are expected to benefit from it in the future. Recommended attention: New Coordinates (603040.SH), Sijin Intelligence (003025.SZ), Hengfeng Tools (300488.SZ).

The views of Everbright Securities are as follows:

What is a roller screw?

Thread rolling forming technology is based on the theory of metal plastic deformation, and has the characteristics of high material utilization rate, high product mechanical strength (20% to 30% increase in tensile strength, 20% to 40% increase in shear strength), long service life, high uniformity, interchangeability, short production cycle, and low manufacturing cost of screw threads. The Tesla robot Optimus torso has 28 joints, 14 rotating joints and 14 linear joints. The linear joints are equipped with inverted planetary roller screws.

How accurate is the rolling screw?

For a long time, there have been differences in the accuracy of rolling routes in the industry. Some scholars believe that its manufacturing accuracy is only around P7, and it can only be used as transmission components in equipment. In fact, the current rolling process can fully guarantee the production of C5 precision ball screws, and using particularly uniform materials, C3 precision ball screws can be produced.

Application of roller screw in foreign countries

Beginning in the 1990s, the advent of precision rolling technology HPR (HighPrecidionRolling) caused a major breakthrough in the rolling accuracy of screw threads. A number of CNC precision rolling mills with a high level of digitalization and intelligence have appeared in European and American countries. Examples include PROFIROLL (PROFIROLL), KINEFAC (KINEFAC) KENIFF, GERMANY (Leistritz), etc.

Well-known companies that manufacture rolled ball screws abroad, such as Rexroth, Thomson, Warner Electric, Eichenberger, NSK, THK, etc., have a new generation of high-performance CNC precision rolling mills, and have also mastered core technology, so that the accuracy of rolled ball screws can stably reach P5 to P7 levels in batch mass production, and some have reached P3 level. Precision rolled ball screws with P3 to P5 accuracy have the opportunity to enter the field of CNC machine tools and CNC industrial equipment. The German company Rexroth made a decision to focus on mass production of rolled ball screws. Of the total number of ball screws sold, the number of rolled ball screws accounts for 80% to 90%, while the number of ground ball screws only accounts for 10% to 20%.

Application of roller screws in China

Companies that develop and produce rolled ball screws and rolled trapezoidal screw products in the early days include Yunnan Three Machine Tool Kunming Cold Rolling Research Institute, Nanjing Process Equipment Factory, and Shanghai Machine Tool Annex 6 Factory. In recent years, the main ones include: RSK Ningbo Rolling Stone Technology (joint venture), GOLDEN Beijing Galton (Sino-South Korea joint venture), etc., and the accuracy of rolled ball screw products remained at the T7 to T10 level. There is a big gap between China's rolled ball screw products and foreign ones. The accuracy difference between roller rolled ball screws is 2 levels. Among related listed companies, New Coordinates is a leading enterprise in the domestic cold precision forging (roller rolling) segment, covering the entire industry chain technology research and development of materials, molds, equipment and products; Sijin Intelligence specializes in cold forming equipment, which is mainly used to manufacture various metal parts within a certain size range at room temperature; Hengfeng Tools specializes in precision complex cutting tools and precise and efficient tools.

Risk analysis: 1) the industrialization process falls short of expectations; 2) competition increases risk; 3) progress in core technology falls short of expectations.