What is the current level of the US equipment manufacturing industry in the world? Some clues can be seen from the list of the world's top 500 machinery companies. In 2016, 138 companies in the United States were shortlisted in the world's top 500 machinery companies, ranking first in the world, and there are companies in 17 industries. It can be said that the industrial system is sound. and other industries have a greater advantage. However, it is worth noting that the number of listed companies in the United States in 2016 showed a downward trend, less than 141 in 2015 and 145 in 2014. More importantly, in the top 500 list, American companies have been expelled from the top 5, and instead are swept up by Japanese, German, Chinese and Korean companies, and only two American automakers barely ranked sixth and seventh. Position, many electrical and electrical enterprises are not in the top 10.


In order to boost the equipment manufacturing industry, the U.S. government has decided to strengthen its support for the equipment manufacturing industry and strive to build a world-leading advanced manufacturing R&D center. The National Innovation Strategy of the United States jointly released by the National Economic Council and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy pointed out that, unlike other countries, which can obtain economic growth through existing technology and business management, the source of American economic growth is innovation. Therefore, the U.S. government needs to make greater efforts to invest in basic innovation fields, encourage private sector innovation and cultivate more innovative talents, and take measures to create high-quality jobs, maintain long-term stable economic growth, and promote national key innovation fields. breakthrough. The U.S. innovation strategy also establishes a roadmap for revitalizing the manufacturing industry: establishing a national manufacturing innovation network, developing key technologies for advanced manufacturing, and developing high-quality manufacturing employees; reinvesting in production chain innovation; supporting technology-intensive manufacturing start-ups to scale up .


The formation of a network of innovative institutions in strategic and promising high-end industries makes the U.S. equipment manufacturing industry in a global dominant position, which is the foothold of the U.S. innovation strategy. What is a high-end industry? The Brookings Institution in the United States provides two defining criteria: one is that the R&D expenditure per worker in the industry is more than $450, or greater than or equal to 80% of the industry-wide standard; , Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) degrees must be higher than the national average or have a 21% share of the industry. An industry can only be identified as a high-end industry if it meets both of these criteria. At present, there are 50 industries in the United States that meet high-end industry standards, including aerospace, basic chemistry, communications equipment, industrial machinery, general machinery, automobiles, navigation, semiconductors, oil and gas exploration, satellite communications, pharmaceuticals, and medical diagnostics. High-end industries lead the recovery of the U.S. economy, have a profound impact on the future of the U.S. economy, and are also the main battlefield for breakthroughs in innovation. The key innovation areas currently targeted by the US government include new neurotechnology, clean energy, space technology, high-performance computing, and smart cities.


With the support of the government, American companies have intensified their innovation efforts one after another, and jointly carried out innovative research projects with scientific research institutions, which have achieved initial results. For example, General Electric and Livermore National Laboratory jointly launched an open-source additive manufacturing software development project, and General Technologies and Central State University jointly established a new additive manufacturing laboratory. Through the upgrade and modification of traditional CNC machine tools, American companies have enabled a machine tool to have both additive and subtractive functions, realizing metal 3D printing. American equipment manufacturing companies have also made breakthroughs in the development of production line technology and the research and development of micro-UAVs. It can be said that the U.S. equipment manufacturing industry has made significant progress in leading innovation and represents the development trend of the industry, but it is still too early to conclude that "the U.S. equipment manufacturing industry will be great again".