Smart Manufacturing for the Future, Embarking on a New Journey | Schaeffler Empowers China's Machine Tool Industry to Advance Toward High-End Solutions, Collaborating with Partners to Build a New Machine Tool Manufacturing Ecosystem

 

 

 

Breaking Through to High-End: The “Upgrade Code” for China's Machine Tools

 

Currently, China's machine tool industry faces a “triple opportunity”: - Policy-wise, the “14th Five-Year Plan for Intelligent Manufacturing Development” explicitly designates high-end CNC machine tools as a key breakthrough area. - Market-wise, emerging industries like new energy, aerospace, and semiconductors are experiencing surging demand for high-precision machining. - Technology-wise, the accelerated integration of technologies such as five-axis simultaneous machining, intelligent control, and digital twins is driving the evolution of machine tools from “functional machines” to “intelligent entities.”

 

However, the path to high-end development is not without challenges. Demands for high dynamic performance, extended service life, and low maintenance costs impose increasingly stringent requirements on the precision, stability, and reliability of core components like spindles, ball screws, and guideways. How to overcome bottleneck technologies and achieve self-reliance in critical components? This is both an industry-wide imperative and the direction Schaeffler is exploring alongside its Chinese partners.

 

As a global leader in industrial technology, Schaeffler remains committed to its mission of “Innovation Drives, Technology Empowers,” deeply engaging in China's machine tool industry upgrade and collaborating with industry partners to explore new possibilities in intelligent manufacturing.

 

 

Technology Empowerment: Schaeffler's Smart Manufacturing Solutions

As an “invisible champion” in the industrial sector, Schaeffler has dedicated over 70 years to developing core components like bearings, linear guides, and electric drive systems. Its technologies are deeply integrated into the global high-end machine tool supply chain. Addressing China's unique market demands, we offer “customized + localized” solutions, leveraging three core capabilities to help customers overcome high-end bottlenecks:

 

Ultra-Precision Technology: X-life® high-precision bearings, precision linear guides, torque motors, and other products enable nanometer-level motion control, meeting the high-dynamic demands of five-axis machining centers, turning-milling centers, and gear-cutting machines.

 

Extended Service Life Design: Through material optimization, surface treatment, and lubrication technology upgrades, certain products achieve over 50% longer service life than traditional solutions, reducing equipment downtime;

 

Intelligent Services: Smart bearings equipped with condition monitoring sensors provide real-time equipment health data. Combined with Schaeffler's digital platform, they enable predictive maintenance, helping customers build “unmanned workshops.”

 

Schaeffler × Changji Technology: Technological Dialogue to Explore New Heights in Gear Machining

 

Schaeffler's Linear Motion Division and Industrial Automation Team visited Yichang—the “World Capital of Hydropower”—to co-host the “Convergence & Synergy, Dynamic World” Customer Day with Changji Technology. The event showcased precision product series and solutions launched in October 2025. As a leading enterprise in China's gear machine tool sector, Changji Technology specializes in R&D for CNC gear hobbing machines, gear shaping machines, and other products. Its equipment is widely used in high-end manufacturing fields such as automotive, wind power, and robotics. During the event, technical experts from both companies engaged in in-depth discussions on core challenges including “optimizing high-speed spindle systems,” “enhancing gear machining precision,” and “suppressing ghost-step noise.” Schaeffler showcased its RKI(B) torque motor solution, specifically engineered for high-precision gear machining:

 

Technical Highlights:

Embedded magnet structure and high-speed winding configuration, combined with water-cooled stator surface heat dissipation technology, achieve 350Hz high-speed operation with 30% torque increase while reducing rotor heat generation by 60%.

 

Application Value:

By optimizing motor dynamic characteristics, it effectively suppresses “ghost step” vibration during gear processing, improving machining accuracy by 20% and boosting overall equipment efficiency by 40%.

Celebrating Tai Zheng Group's 30th Anniversary:

Thirty years of weathering storms together, now joining hands to ride the waves and witness the rise of China's intelligent manufacturing.

 

January 2026 marks the significant milestone of Tai Zheng Group's 30th anniversary. As Schaeffler's long-term strategic partner in China's machine tool sector for over two decades, Tai Zheng Group has grown hand-in-hand with Schaeffler, becoming both a witness and driver of “China's Intelligent Manufacturing.” The collaboration between Tai Zheng and Schaeffler is a mutual choice built on ‘trust’ and “professionalism.” Moving forward, both parties will deepen collaboration in intelligent CNC machine tools and green manufacturing to jointly advance the upgrade of China's high-end machine tool industry.

 

 

From spindle bearings to torque motors, Schaeffler consistently embodies the role of a “technology pioneer,” providing Chinese machine tool enterprises with end-to-end support that addresses pain points with tailored solutions. In the future, we will continue partnering with collaborators to overcome high-end manufacturing bottlenecks through “German precision + Chinese speed,” jointly defining new standards for intelligent manufacturing!