Abstract:With a large number of international optical component enterprises set up factories in China and a small number of domestic optical processing enterprises to establish outsourcing relations, domestic high-quality enterprises seize the opportunity of industrial transfer, transform to modern optical processing enterprises, and gradually narrow the gap with the international advanced level, the emergence of a number of advanced technology and equipment, high degree of automation, strong quality assurance and process control capabilities, optical components mass production level with international market competitiveness enterprises, promote the development of the industry. At the same time, in the context of the accelerated integration of technologies such as the Internet and the Internet of Things with the manufacturing industry, the application of optical lenses has gradually expanded to emerging fields such as automobiles, machine vision, and AR/VR, which has further promoted the development of the industry. Due to the continuous decline in shipments of major downstream products such as smartphones in recent years, the demand for optical components has decreased, so the industry scale has declined in 2022. In 2022, the market size of the mainland optical component industry will be about 153.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2%.
1. Definitions and Classification
Optical components are the basic building blocks of an optical system, also known as optical parts. They are important devices used to control and process light transmission, and their materials are usually optical glass, crystals, semiconductors, etc., which are an important part of the optical system, and are widely used in laser technology, imaging technology, communication technology, biomedicine and other fields, and are an indispensable basic component of the development of modern science and technology. Optical components can be divided into various types according to their different functional and structural characteristics, such as lenses, prisms, mirrors, gratings, etc. These components can realize basic operations such as modulation, splitting, and coherence processing of optical signals through the effects of refraction, reflection, scattering, and absorption of light, so as to meet the needs of various optical technologies and applications.
Second, industry policies
Policies promote the rapid development of the precision optical components industry. In recent years, the state has promulgated a series of encouraging policies and medium and long-term development plans to support the precision optical components industry to become bigger and stronger. With the introduction of national strategies such as the "14th Five-Year Plan" and "Double Gigabit" and the rapid development of a new generation of information technology, the mainland precision optical components industry has also ushered in major development opportunities. In the context of promoting the deep integration of the Internet, big data, artificial intelligence and the real economy, with the multi-faceted support of the national industrial policy, the precision optical components industry is expected to achieve rapid development.
3. Industry barriers
1. Technical barriers
The manufacturing of optical components is highly integrated in geometric optics, physical optics, thin film optics, colorimetry, thermodynamics, precision machinery, electronic technology, computer technology, light source technology, microdisplay technology and other disciplines, and the product technology content is high. Especially in optical design optimization and analysis, cold processing, coating design and technology, precision assembly and testing, technology accumulation and continuous research and development are extremely important, with a high technical threshold, requiring manufacturers to have deep technical accumulation and continuous research and development strength.
2. Financial barriers
The technical threshold of the optical component industry is high, involving multidisciplinary fields such as optics, machinery, and electronics. In the process of product development, a large number of experiments and verifications need to be carried out to achieve the accuracy and stability of the product, and a large amount of R&D costs need to be invested. The optical component industry requires the use of high-end precision instruments and equipment, such as high-precision optical glass processing equipment, optical coating equipment, laser interferometers, etc. These devices are expensive and require ongoing maintenance and updates, requiring a significant investment. The production cycle of optical component products is usually long, and it needs to go through multiple processes and links, such as optical design, material procurement, processing, assembly, testing, etc. This requires enterprises to have sufficient financial strength to cope with possible capital turnover problems. Therefore, the optical component industry has high financial barriers.
3. Customer barriers
Domestic optical component customers usually have high industry expertise and technical requirements. When selecting suppliers, these customers will not only consider the performance and quality of the products, but also conduct a comprehensive investigation of the supplier's technical strength, R&D capabilities and after-sales service capabilities. Therefore, enterprises need to have deep optical expertise, technology research and development capabilities and manufacturing capabilities, as well as perfect quality control system and after-sales service system, in order to gain customer recognition and trust. At the same time, customers in the industry usually have high loyalty and long-term willingness to cooperate. After selecting a supplier, these customers will establish a long-term and stable cooperative relationship with the supplier and recommend other customers. It is difficult for new entrants to establish stable cooperative relations with customers in the short term, which has formed a certain customer resource barrier for new entrants.
4. Barriers to talent cultivation
Because optical components generally have the characteristics of single-piece processing, complex processes and high precision, individuals are required to have a high level of process skills in the processing process, and it takes a long cycle and high cost to train a worker with skilled operation technology. Therefore, the accumulation of technical experience and the training of mature operators constitute a higher threshold for this industry.
Fourth, the industrial chain
From the perspective of the industrial chain, the upstream of the industrial chain of the optical component industry is the supply of raw materials and related equipment, mainly including optical materials, auxiliary materials, processing equipment, etc. Among them, optical glass is one of the most important raw materials, and the mainland, as the world's largest producer of optical glass, tends to stabilize the gross profit margin of optical glass manufacturing, which provides the necessary conditions for the continuous and stable production of the industry; The downstream of the industry is the application of optical components, which is mainly divided into mobile phones, cameras and other application markets and emerging application markets such as automotive lenses, lidar, machine vision, and AR/VR.
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