The "Made in China 2025" issued by Premier Li Keqiang comprehensively deploys the strategy of building a strong manufacturing country. This is the action plan for the first decade of implementing the strategy of building a strong manufacturing country in China. According to the plan, China will achieve its strategic goal of becoming a manufacturing powerhouse through a three-step approach, with the first step being to enter the ranks of manufacturing powerhouses by 2025. The plan positions "intelligent manufacturing" as the main direction of China's manufacturing, and rare metals, as "electronic metals," will play a key role in intelligent upgrading.

What is intelligent manufacturing

Intelligent Manufacturing (IM) is a human-machine integrated intelligent system composed of intelligent machines and humans, which can perform intelligent activities such as analysis, reasoning, judgment, conceptualization, and decision-making in the manufacturing process. Through the collaboration between humans and intelligent machines, it is possible to expand, extend, and partially replace human mental labor in the manufacturing process. Intelligent manufacturing has updated the concept of manufacturing automation, extending it to flexibility, intelligence, and high integration. That is to say, intelligent manufacturing can improve product accuracy, break through the production technology of core components, and enhance the production capacity of manufactured products through the intelligence of the production process.

The elements of intelligent manufacturing include the demand for talent and equipment, and the demand for equipment is of paramount importance. Intelligent devices require information transmission terminals to have sensitivity that can replace or even surpass human perception. This requires materials with special functions, and metals and semiconductors are materials.

Rare Metals in Intelligent Manufacturing

Among numerous rare metal materials, indium, germanium, gallium, tungsten, bismuth, cobalt, antimony, vanadium, rhodium, selenium, tellurium, and various rare earth materials have special functions, thus meeting the needs of intelligent manufacturing equipment and intelligent living facilities. For example, indium metal has the characteristic of conductivity and transparency, making it an ideal material for producing various LED liquid crystal displays, and has played a huge role in touch panels in the past two years. For young people who pursue a more convenient and comfortable customer experience, various transparent touch glass will become an important component of production. The highly regarded copper indium gallium selenide solar cells are also based on the excellent conductivity and transparency of indium materials. This photovoltaic thin film cell has significant characteristics such as low production cost, low pollution, no degradation, and good low light performance. It is a promising part of the new energy application in "Made in China 2025".

Rare metal germanium is the foundation of the Internet of Things in the intelligent manufacturing process, and the construction of future smart cities is based on high-speed and Internet of Things signal transmission. Germanium has the advantages of high refractive index, low dispersion, easy processing, good mechanical strength, and non hygroscopicity, making it an attractive material in infrared and optical components. Fiber grade germanium tetrachloride can be used in fiber production, mainly for fiber doping and photoelectric conversion. Germanium accounts for about 30% of fiber use. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology invested 430 billion yuan in broadband renovation to achieve "light in copper out". Improve network signal transmission speed while achieving full coverage of fiber optic networks. Germanium will be used in the manufacturing of various infrared sensors and thermal sensitive components in intelligent manufacturing equipment and products; As a key material for infrared navigation in aerospace and military fields, it is the foundation for achieving manufacturing power.

These rare metals and rare earth materials have been widely used in various smart devices. With the development of technology and the increase in human demand, the future application scope will be more extensive.

Green manufacturing and new energy both require rare metals

In 2014, three Japanese scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for inventing gallium nitride, bringing the rare metal gallium into people's sight. This energy-saving and environmentally friendly lighting material will continue to play a role in green manufacturing in "Made in China 2025". In addition, the application of gallium arsenide as an important alternative material for upgrading silicon chips in the future is also worth looking forward to.

Precision machine tools are essential equipment for producing high-precision components, and tungsten, known as the "industrial tooth," is a key element in its alloy materials. At present, the production capacity and level of various machine tools and cutting tools in China are low, and high prices are required to import foreign high-end machine tools and cutting tools every year to meet the production needs of domestic aerospace and precision instruments.

The role of various rare metals in intelligent manufacturing is becoming increasingly prominent, and the role of rare earths has also been pushed into the forefront. This is also the reason why the Chinese government vigorously promoted the integration of domestic rare earth resources, severely cracked down on illegal mining, and implemented total quantity control on mining after losing the WTO rare earth case.

Rare earths are known as "industrial gold" and "industrial vitamins", with excellent physical properties such as optoelectronics and magnetism. They can be combined with other materials to form new materials with diverse properties and varieties. Their significant function is to greatly improve the quality and performance of other products. Not only is it an element for manufacturing killer weapons in the military field, but it is also a lubricant for many high-tech industries such as electronics, lasers, nuclear industry, superconductivity, etc.

In the next decade of development in China, green manufacturing is a prerequisite for all manufacturing and intelligent manufacturing, and the production and application of new energy products will be put on the important agenda. Rare earth permanent magnet materials can replace traditional petrochemical fuels and provide a driving force for the development of the new energy industry.

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