The foundation has been laid to move beyond technological independence in the machine tool industry, which is highly dependent on overseas markets, to the installation of AI functions.

The Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) held an opening ceremony for the 'AI CNC Demonstration Center', which will promote technological independence and advancement in the machine tool industry in Korea, at its Changwon headquarters on the 25th.

Machine tools are called 'mother machines' because they are another machine that makes machines. Among them, the most important 'CNC (Computer Numerical Control)' operates in a similar way to how humans work. The CNC upper controller, which acts as the brain, processes numerical information through a computer, and then instructs the CNC lower controller, which corresponds to the hands and feet, called the 'drive system (motor and motor drive),' to perform various activities such as positioning/speed/rotation.

On the other hand, CNC is a highly difficult field, and our country has a weak technological base to the extent that we import more than 90% from Japan and Germany.

In the era of the 4th industrial revolution, where ultra-precision machine processing is becoming more necessary, technological independence in CNC is a keyword that will determine competitiveness in the field of national strategic technology.

To solve this problem, much effort has been made to localize CNC technology in Korea, and although some results have been achieved in certain component units, the overall reliability has not been secured when the technology is integrated with the entire machine tool, and commercialization has failed.

KERI Precision Control Research Center, which has been researching the machine tool field for over 10 years, recognized these limitations and began a project to build a testing infrastructure that can verify the long-term reliability of CNC technology from a more macroscopic perspective.

The project was carried out jointly by Gyeongnam Province and Changwon City, the centers of South Korea's machinery industry, and began in earnest after Japan's export restrictions in 2019.

Afterwards, in 2021, the government designated Changwon-si, Gyeongnam as a 'Precision Machinery Specialized Complex', and in 2022, construction began on the 'AI CNC Demonstration Center', which continues to this day.

The AI CNC demonstration center consists of 5 floors above ground and 1 floor underground, and has a total floor area of 3,405 m2 (1,030 pyeong). The construction cost of the building is 12 billion won (3.6 billion won from the provincial government, 6 billion won from the city government, and 2.4 billion won from KERI), and a total of 45 types and 73 units of equipment worth 18 billion won will be installed.

Based on the verification center, KERI plans to verify the product performance of machine tool companies located in Changwon Industrial Complex, Gyeongnam, and promote collaboration and linkage among them to improve the perfection of CNC technology. They will be classified into anchor companies (development of domestic CNC source technology), supply companies (commercialization of core components), and processing companies (mounting CNC on machine tools) by role, and will provide organic support from technology development to commercialization. Through this, the goal is to localize more than 50% of CNCs distributed in Gyeongnam by 2030 and achieve an import substitution effect of 300 billion won per year.

In addition, cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) technology is also being introduced to machine tools. Many machine tools are old products, and data differs depending on the industrial site process, making it a difficult field to introduce AI. Depending on the company, there are also difficulties such as concerns about leaks of industry confidential information, lack of AI experts, and burden of expensive software costs. Above all, if AI is introduced incorrectly, it can cause damage to expensive machine tools and workpieces, so small and medium-sized companies cannot help but be more conservative.

On the other hand, through this 'AI CNC Demonstration Center', experts from KERI's Artificial Intelligence Research Center will secure a large amount of reliable big data and promote the advancement and smartening of machine tools. The goal by 2030 is to build more than 500 AI factories in Gyeongnam and create an economic effect of more than 1 trillion won per year.

KERI President Kim Nam-gyun said, “Our country is the world’s fifth largest machine tool manufacturer and mainly supplies mid- to low-priced products. However, we depend on advanced countries for core parts such as CNCs, which has limited the creation of high added value.” He added, “We will instill confidence in the industry that our country can produce top-quality CNCs, and we will strive to go beyond simply meeting domestic demand and secure technological competitiveness in the global market.”

Meanwhile, KERI plans to use the 'AI CNC Demonstration Center' as a forward base to foster strong companies in the smart advanced machine tool field. In addition, it plans to expand the scope of technical support to effectively respond to future industrial fields such as the domestic development of 5-axis CNC for aerospace.

KERI is a government-funded research institute under the National Research Council of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Science and ICT.