With the rapid development of power electronics technology, computer technology and automatic control technology, electric drive technology is facing a new revolution. In the field of electric drive, the Inverter speed regulation system has become the mainstream because of its high efficiency and good performance. Benefiting from strategies such as energy saving, emission reduction, and environmental protection, as an important equipment for Inverter and speed regulation, the frequency converter industry has become one of the industries with huge market potential in the next few years.
New trends in inverter technology
The development of information technology has led to the development of Inverter technology. Because of its high speed control accuracy, low starting energy consumption, small area, advanced technology, rich functions, simple operation, strong versatility, and easy formation of closed-loop control, Inverter speed control has the characteristics. It is considered to be the most ideal speed regulation program, which represents the development direction of electric drive.
High-voltage and high-power inverters have great technical development difficulties in terms of electromagnetic compatibility, electromagnetic radiation, and series technology, so they have become a hot spot for competition among major electrical companies in the world. At present, many domestic inverter manufacturers have invested a lot of manpower and material resources in the field of high-voltage inverters, striving to occupy the commanding heights in the current inverter technology. Nevertheless, the core components of the frequency converter have always been dependent on imports, which has become a bottleneck restricting the development of domestic frequency converters.
In order to cope with the challenges from different application fields, inverters are constantly being updated and the products are becoming more and more diversified. In general, the new generation of frequency converters should have the following characteristics: First, they are fully digital and fully functional, capable of compensating for load changes, especially distributed ones with communication and networking functions and programmable functions. The second is simple or industry-specific frequency converters and the realization of mechatronics and miniaturization. The third is networking and systemization, reducing production costs through network connections, and configuring different types of inverters with the same programming language and communication protocol through fieldbus modules.
In addition, with the advent of new high-voltage power electronic devices, high-voltage and medium-voltage inverters have also made considerable progress. In the next few years, new types of inverters such as matrix inverters and green inverters will be available soon.
The current situation of domestic inverters
There are more than 300 inverter manufacturers in the domestic market. Due to the relatively weak strength of my country's inverter supporting industries, domestic brands have a certain gap with foreign brands in terms of processing and manufacturing, industrial design and other technologies. At present, foreign brands account for about 70% of the domestic inverter market. Local inverter companies mainly produce V/F control products. For vector inverters with superior performance and high technical content, most domestic companies develop products that are still Not mature enough.
Therefore, the frequency converter market in China is still price-oriented, but with the rise of local brands, the market share of domestic frequency converter companies is gradually expanding, especially in recent years there has been a trend of accelerating the replacement of foreign brands. Although it has not yet possessed the strength to fully compete with top international brands, it has shown certain competitive advantages in some segmented products and markets, and its market share has gradually expanded.
From the overall point of view, the competition in my country's inverter industry is becoming increasingly fierce. Because the market is extremely attractive, not only the market has formed a certain scale, but the potential capacity is also very considerable, and it continues to attract new players in the industry. With the technological advancement of domestic manufacturers and the improvement of quality stability, coupled with the advantages of service and price, it is expected that the market situation of high-end products monopolized by foreign manufacturers will change in the next few years.
The inverter market has a bright future
The development of frequency converter technology has made frequency converters unprecedented promotion and application in modern fields such as electric power, cement, elevators, mining, metallurgy, and transportation.
According to the statistics of the inverter branch of the China Industrial Electrical Appliances Association, in recent years, the annual demand for the inverter market in my country has formed a market space of about 10 billion yuan. Moreover, with the progress and diversification of user needs, the functions of domestic frequency converter products are constantly improving and increasing, and the degree of integration and systematization is getting higher and higher, and some special frequency converter products have appeared. The further expansion of the frequency converter market has laid the foundation.
Data shows that in recent years, the frequency converter market in my country has maintained a growth rate of 12% to 15%. It is expected that the market demand for frequency converters will maintain a growth rate of more than 10% for at least the next 5 years. After 10 years, the inverter market will be saturated.