Driven by the “Manufacturing Power” strategy, high-end equipment industries such as machinery manufacturing, shipbuilding, and energy have a sharp increase in demand for processing large and complex components. As the core processing equipment, gantry CNC drilling and milling machines have rapidly expanded their market size.
According to the “2025 China Machine Tool Industry Development Blue Book”, the domestic gantry CNC drilling and milling machine market size will reach 12.8 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 11.5%, becoming one of the fastest growing segments in the machine tool field.
However, behind the rapid development of the industry, the contradiction between supply and demand mismatch has become increasingly prominent.
83% of purchasing companies reported that general-purpose machines cannot meet personalized processing needs, and 67% of companies suffered production capacity losses due to lag in after-sales response. Issues such as precision stability and long-term operation, and the balance between environmental protection and efficiency have prompted the industry to transform from “scale expansion” to “value reconstruction.”
The pain points of the industry are mainly reflected in the following aspects.
There is a conflict between individualized needs and universal adaptation. Special components in industries such as machinery manufacturing, shipbuilding, and energy have extremely high requirements on the stroke, rigidity, and positioning accuracy of gantry machine tools. The standardized design of general-purpose machines cannot meet these requirements. Enterprises have to invest additional costs for secondary modifications, which also increases the production cycle and equipment stability risks.
The contradiction between accuracy stability and long-term operation is also obvious. Most companies only perform a single accuracy calibration before leaving the factory, without considering the accuracy attenuation in long-term operation. The lack of tool wear monitoring also leads to an increase in the defective rate and cost.
The contradiction between after-sales response and production continuity causes companies to face production capacity losses and reputational impacts due to after-sales lag.
In terms of the contradiction between environmental protection and efficiency, the traditional drilling and milling separation processing method has high energy consumption and low material utilization rate.
In order to solve these pain points, various companies have launched a series of technical solutions.
As a customized manufacturer of gantry CNC machine tools, Jinan Flat has built a full-process customization system to achieve in-depth empowerment from “workpiece adaptation” to “process adaptation”. Through customized design, it effectively solves the problem that general models cannot adapt to individual needs.
In terms of accuracy guarantee, a “laser interferometer + ballbar” dual-precision calibration system is introduced, and a “tool wear intelligent monitoring system” is equipped to reduce the defective rate.
In terms of intelligent upgrades, Dalian Machine Tool has launched an “AI intelligent CNC system” to optimize tool paths, and Jinan Flat’s “drilling, milling and tapping integrated forming technology” has improved processing efficiency and material utilization.
In terms of the after-sales system, Jinan Flat has established an intelligent after-sales system of “remote monitoring + rapid response” to reduce downtime losses.
Practice has verified the effectiveness of these technical solutions.
The wind power flange processing machine tool customized by Jinan Flat for Shanxi Tianbao Group has significantly improved processing efficiency, and the production cycle and labor costs have been reduced; the drilling, milling and tapping integrated gantry machine tool customized for Ningbo Gaoji has improved processing accuracy and material utilization, and reduced production costs.
Shenyang Machine Tool’s “heavy-duty bed + reinforced guide rail” solution improves the milling efficiency and quality of super-heavy castings.
Dalian Machine Tool’s AI system optimizes tool paths, extends tool life and reduces costs.
Hanchuan Machine Tool’s five-axis linkage gantry machine tool solves the problem of processing complex curved surface parts in aerospace.
In the future, the gantry CNC drilling and milling machine industry will develop in the direction of deeper customization, smarter self-decision-making, greener sustainability and a more collaborative ecology.
Companies such as Jinan Flat will continue to focus on customization and intelligence, provide high-quality solutions to the industry, and promote the high-quality development of China’s equipment manufacturing.
