Constrained by low-level competition, slow development of packaging machinery

China's packaging machinery started relatively late, and before the 1980s, its development was slow, with only a few low-level packaging machinery available. It did not become an independent industry, and there is no such thing as packaging machinery in the published product catalog.

After the reform and opening up, the demand for packaging machinery in society continued to increase. With the government's attention and support, China's packaging machinery has developed rapidly, with an average annual growth rate of over 30%. After entering the 1990s, it still grew at a rate of over 20%.

After more than 20 years of development, packaging machinery in China has become one of the top ten industries in the machinery industry. Both in terms of output and variety, remarkable achievements have been made, providing strong support for the rapid development of China's packaging industry. Some packaging machinery has filled the domestic gap and can basically meet the demand of the domestic market, and some products are still exported. In 2001, the production of * * * packaging machinery reached 533000 units (sets), with an output value of 19.55 billion yuan, accounting for 8.2% of the total output value of * * * packaging industry. China has become one of the major consumers of * * packaging machinery.

However, there are still many problems in China's packaging machinery manufacturing industry: firstly, there is a lack of macro level planning, and investment in developing new products often starts in a rush, with low-level repetition. Secondly, there is a lack of capital investment. Due to insufficient funds, the average proportion of funds used for research and development in sales by enterprises is less than 1%, making it impossible to achieve one generation, one generation of development, and one generation of research. Due to the lack of technical reserves and ineffective introduction and absorption of technology, the enterprise has fewer new products and lacks market competitiveness. Thirdly, there is a lack of technical personnel. Due to the current low profit level in the packaging industry, it is difficult to attract skilled technical personnel. There are few self-developed products, weak innovation capabilities, and even weak ability to digest and absorb similar foreign products. At present, the export value of packaging machinery in China is less than 5% of the total output value, while the import value is roughly equivalent to the total output value.

Compared with developed countries, the gap in China's packaging machinery industry mainly lies in the following aspects: from the perspective of product structure, there are currently more than 2300 varieties of packaging machinery in foreign countries, with a large number of complete sets of equipment, and constantly new technologies and products emerging.

However, there are only over 1300 types of packaging machinery in China, with a small number of supporting products and a lack of high-precision and large-scale products, which cannot meet market demand; From the perspective of product quality, the gap is manifested in low product performance, poor stability and reliability, unsightly appearance, rough surface treatment, poor quality of many components, short lifespan, and low reliability, which affect the overall quality of the product; From the perspective of enterprise status, foreign enterprises have a large scale and high degree of standardization, and most of them adopt CAD/CAM technology. The management, sales and other work of enterprises have basically achieved computer management. However, there is a lack of leading enterprises in the domestic packaging machinery industry. There are not many large-scale and high-quality enterprises, while there are many small-scale enterprises that manufacture similar products. There is a general situation of weak technical strength and low level of technical equipment; From the perspective of product development, China is still mainly in the stage of testing and imitation, with weak self-development capabilities and a lack of scientific research pilot bases. Research funding accounts for only 1% of sales revenue, while it is as high as 8% to 10% in foreign countries.

In 2005, China's food and packaging machinery industry achieved remarkable performance through the joint efforts of the entire industry, with product sales revenue reaching 67.9 billion yuan, an increase of 21.5% from the previous year's 55.8 billion yuan. However, overall, the technological level of China's packaging machinery is still 20 years behind the advanced level, and it is at a disadvantage in competition in product development, performance, quality, reliability, service, and other aspects.

Following the international trend, the packaging industry urgently needs a comprehensive transformation

At present, countries attach great importance to the development of packaging machinery, and products that integrate machinery, electricity, light, sound, and magnetism are constantly emerging. Efficiency, high resource utilization, energy-saving products, practicality, and commercialization of scientific research achievements have become the trends in the development of packaging machinery in various countries, and this is also the development direction of China's packaging machinery industry. For packaging machinery enterprises in our country, we should not pursue perfection, but strive for excellence and specialization. Most of the packaging machinery enterprises in the United States, Japan, and Italy are not large in scale, but have a high degree of industrialization. From the trend of international packaging machinery development, China's packaging industry cannot meet the needs of the situation by simply increasing capital investment and expanding scale through extensive operation. China's packaging equipment has entered a new era of adjusting product structure and improving development capabilities. Technological upgrading, product replacement, and strengthening management are important issues for the development of the industry.

In terms of product structure, the packaging machinery industry should be market-oriented, change the current situation of low technology content and low-level competition, eliminate a batch of low efficiency, high consumption, low-grade, low added value, labor-intensive products, automatic laminating machines, and strive to develop large-scale complete sets of equipment and products with effective low consumption and balanced production and sales.

In terms of packaging function, as the ultimate goal of packaging machinery is to complete product packaging and improve work efficiency, in the era of refined and diversified development of industrial and agricultural products, it is required that packaging machinery products develop towards the polarization direction of product multifunctionality and single high speed. For example, the packaging requirements of Coca Cola products are speed and quality, while the transformation of packaging structure is secondary; For candy packaging, pillow shaped, irregular, and joint shaped products are required to be packaged on one packaging machine.

In terms of technical performance, advanced technologies from other fields should be applied to packaging machinery, such as mechatronics integration technology, heat pipe technology, remote control technology, automatic flexible compensation technology, etc., to significantly improve product technical performance.

In terms of design philosophy, the standardization and modularization of structural design should follow the same pattern. This allows for the use of existing models for modular design, enabling the development of new models in a shorter period of time, improving the speed of product updates, and promoting the mechanization of packaging machinery. In manufacturing, industrialization has become a trend. International packaging machinery manufacturers attach great importance to the universality of packaging machinery components. Some universal standard parts are no longer produced by packaging machinery factories, while certain special components are produced by highly specialized manufacturers. In a sense, * * packaging machinery factories are only assembly factories. However, packaging machinery enterprises in our country do not need to expand or become more comprehensive, but should focus on developing core technologies and enhancing the competitive advantage of their products