As we enter the middle of the year, the global economy is facing increased downward pressure due to the increasingly complex and severe international environment and the significant impact of the domestic COVID-19 outbreak. One notable phenomenon is the contraction of end-user market demand and insufficient investment and consumer confidence. This market impact has also spread to upstream equipment manufacturers and component suppliers, significantly increasing the survival pressure on enterprises. Shenzhen Lavichip Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Lavichip) is one of the fastest-growing control system development companies in the industry in recent years. Facing the current market challenges, they have taken a different approach, choosing to focus on the development of industry-specific solutions and pursuing a path of innovation and integration. Additionally, to better adapt to market changes and achieve the integration and consolidation of control platforms, this has become one of their key priorities.
Recently, this magazine conducted an on-site visit to the company and invited Song Pengcheng, General Manager of Shenzhen Lavichip Technology Co., Ltd., to provide a detailed overview of the company's product development strategy in the control system sector, as well as the latest developments within the Lavichip team.
I. Deeply Rooted in the Industry
Industrial control is a field with relatively long product lifecycles. Since its establishment in 2013, Lavichip has, from the outset, it clearly established a development philosophy of not competing with most standardized controller manufacturers solely on the “price” dimension, but instead focusing on key target markets, deeply exploring the diverse needs in process applications, and developing robot/manipulator control systems with broad coverage and the ability to truly address process challenges. This approach aims to pursue a differentiated development path centered on product quality and user experience as core competitive advantages.
Lavichip Control System Solutions
Song Pengcheng stated: “We have not invested excessive effort into standardized products. Our understanding of the equipment market and extensive development experience over the years are Lavichip's strengths. Therefore, we have focused more on the development of industry-specific machinery, combining production processes with control technology to address specific application scenarioses. From both hardware and software perspectives, we conduct highly customized development to provide control solutions with higher added value for specific application areas or machine types, helping customers enhance their market competitiveness.”
In the injection molding machine market, which is a key focus for Lavichip, the company has developed 11 corresponding controller products to meet the application needs of various production processes in the injection molding machine industry. These include single-axis, dual-axis, three-axis, five-axis, seven-axis, and twelve-axis controllers; controllers for in-mold inserts, labeling, dual-color, side-loading, fully automatic knife, fork, and spoon integrated packaging, and other specialized controllers for various production processes; to controllers supporting different fieldbus standard protocols, and more. These products truly penetrate the “industry-specific” application end of the industry, maintaining a high market share in the injection molding machine sector, particularly in certain niche application markets (such as in-mold insert injection molding and high-speed machines), and establishing a strong market reputation for Lavichip within these niche industries.
Based on this development philosophy, in the CNC machine tool industry, after years of market cultivation and gradual accumulation and refinement, Lavichip has begun to make a name for itself in the CNC machine tool industry, with business maintaining steady growth. The company primarily provides control solutions for the material handling processes of machining robots in lathes, milling machines, and grinding machines, meeting the application needs of industries such as automotive, construction machinery, mold making, and power equipment for flexible production and energy-saving efficiency improvements. In the future, Lavichip plans to offer comprehensive control solutions through CNC workstations, including material storage, material warehouses, robots/machining robots, and mobiles robots.
II. Expanding Market “Width” Through Platformization
While deeply researching niche industries, actively expanding market “width” and opening up broader application spaces is also a key focus for Lavichip at present.
Regarding this, Song Pengcheng explained: “In the past, our R&D efforts were somewhat scattered. To adapt to the application requirements of more diverse industries, we are now consolidating our advantages in industry-specific machine development while integrating all our accumulated development experience into several key controllers. By platformizing existing core technologies, we have achieved consistency in software technology platform architecture, resulting in the four platform-based controller products currently promoted by the company. This has significantly improved development efficiency, reduced development costs, and laid a solid foundation for Lavichip's future business expansion.”
In the development of integrated drive and control platforms, at the end of last year, Lavichip launched its masterpiece—the JAS high-integration drive and control integrated machine. Designed for applications in the gantry robot industry, it features three-axis and five-axis integration (expandable to seven axes), using a compact common bus design with a small footprint; it employs chip-to-chip direct connection via an internal high-speed bus for communication, eliminating the need for external communication control buses, and offers strong interference resistance; high efficiency and reliability; the current loop control cycle can reach as fast as 62.5us, while the speed loop and position loop cycles can reach as fast as 125us, enabling high-precision and high-response control; it also offers rich application functions, including a motor setup wizard, automatic stiffness control algorithm, and inertia parameter identification functionality, with built-in application logic and drive parameter settings for a one-stop setup, making it simple and user-friendly, significantly improving debugging efficiency.
These four platform-based products include: two economical platforms (one for general-purpose pulse and CAN types, and the other for high-performance EtherCAT control solutions), standardizing controller algorithms and platform architecture to facilitate secondary application development; the other two are integrated platform products, one for drive-control integration and the other for display-control integration.
The core difference among Lavichip's four platform-based products lies in the software algorithm capabilities. Higher-performance platforms feature more powerful software algorithms, enabling high-speed, high-precision, and high-performance control functions. Taking Lavichip's EtherCAT controller platform as an example, it is positioned as a high-end bus solution, utilizing the EtherCAT bus communication protocol with a communication rate of up to 100 Mbps, making it widely applicable for high-speed machines. It supports expansion up to 32 axes, It is compatible with various servo drive products that support the EtherCAT real-time Ethernet standard protocol, creating a universal high-performance bus control system. It features simple wiring, labor savings, and a wide range of applications, making it suitable for the development of various types of non-standard equipment.
For the integrated display and control platform, Lavichip did not adopt a standard configuration development approach. Its QT series HT0804 robot teaching pendant standardizes the interface design platform, offering multiple versions and development platforms based on Linux, androids, and other operating systems, allowing users to choose from multiple versions and development platforms. Users can independently develop different industry-specific application interfaces using Lavichip's standard QT development tools, significantly simplifying the development process. Furthermore, Lavichip integrates display and control functions into a single bus, enabling users to control high-performance robot systems through the teaching pendant interface.
3. Accelerated “Automation Replacement” Trend
Since 2020, under the impact of multiple factors such as epidemic prevention and control, restricted personnel movement, disrupted logistics and transportation, and global economic turmoil, the demand for reduced or unmanned manufacturing has become more urgent. The global robot/mechanical arm market has accelerated its development to reduce reliance on manual labor—the “machine replacement” trend has entered a fast track. As the “brain” of robot/mechanical arm systems, the performance of control system software algorithms plays a pivotal role.
Song Pengcheng pointed out that the current requirements for motion control technology in robot/mechanical arm systems primarily manifest in the following aspects: first, the ability to address process challenges in high-end application scenarioses, such as ensuring that multi-axis (three-axis/six-axis) gantry robotic arms can operate independently without interference, which places high demands on the underlying algorithms and architecture of the control system; second, the system's overall performance, cycle time, and efficiency requirements are equally stringent; third, product integration is also an important technological trend, including drive-control integration, vision-control integration, and integrating various front-end and back-end processes (such as inspection, packaging, and palletizing) into a unified control platform. In the face of these market developments, manufacturers are facing significant challenges in terms of technical capabilities. They must accurately grasp industry trends and customer core needs, invest substantial effort and time in R&D reserves, and efficiently address customer development requirements.
According to reports, Lavichip has already established stable partnerships with some high-end brands in China's robotics/mechanical arm industry, and even some foreign manufacturers have approached them for collaboration. Leveraging Lavichip's high-performance bus-type controllers (supporting EtherCAT, RTEX, CANopen standard protocols, etc.), which offer high-speed real-time motion performance, high-precision interpolation motion control algorithms, and adaptive predictive technology, the company can meet the application requirements of robotic arms/robots in stamping, palletizing, injection molding, and lathe applications for gantry, swing arm, column, and joint-type robotic arms/robots. The overall system's stability, efficiency, and cycle time metrics can fully compete with imported robotic arm brands, helping manufacturers avoid industry “overcompetition” and enhance their market pricing power.
Notably, in collaborating with these robotic arm/robot manufacturers, Song Pengcheng emphasizes that Lavichip's meticulously developed market-driven R&D management system is a crucial component. “From the moment market demand or customer requirements are identified, we strictly adhere to the company's established management processes to accelerate response times, accurately pinpoint customer application pain points, and strengthen collaboration among internal development teams. This comprehensive customer demand management system is one of Lavichip's core competitive advantages,” he added.
IV. Becoming a Valuable Control System Provider
This year, despite the extremely unstable upstream supply chain, Lavichip has ensured stable market supply by increasing safety stock reserves and actively preparing alternative product solutions. Meanwhile, Lavichip is actively establishing its own manufacturing base in Shunde Beijiao. The new factory is reported to cover an area of approximately 6,000 square meters and is expected to commence operations by the end of this year. The new facility plans to implement digitalized process management workflows to ensure that controller products achieve high levels of quality stability and consistency.
Additionally, Lavichip has established a dedicated laboratory at its Shenzhen Nanshan Technology Center to simulate various on-site application scenarioses. This allows each new product to undergo rigorous real-world application verification from the design stage, achieving optimal stability in a very short development time and enhancing the product's adaptability to customer production environments.
This young company is steadily growing stronger. At the end of last year, Lavichip was officially recognized by the Guangdong Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology as a “2021 Guangdong Province Specialized, Refined, and Innovative Enterprise.” In response to this recognition, Song Pengcheng stated, “Receiving the designation as a specialized, refined, and innovative enterprise is an encouragement for us, but compared to our team's overall goals, I believe it is still insufficient. We must continue to strive for excellence, continuously breaking through in product technology R&D and manufacturing process management to become a capable, valuable control system brand, truly addressing the challenges and pain points of industry applications, and creating greater value for customers across various industries."
Progressive and open-minded, these are the core values of Lavichip's corporate culture. With a steadfast focus on its goals and an unwavering commitment to progress, Lavichip will continue to invest in the research and development of core control system technologies, continuously accumulating knowledge and overcoming challenges, while enhancing the user experience of its products. In the ever-changing market, the company will maintain a more stable and sustainable path of development.
—Excerpted from “Focusing on the Industry, Creating Value — An Interview with Song Pengcheng, General Manager of Shenzhen Lavichip Technology Co., Ltd.” published on Transmission Network.
