Offline a robot joint in 90 seconds, reducing the cost to a hundred-yuan level

Source: Daily Economic News Author: Zhao Wenqi

The robot industry is moving from “prototype competition” to “scaled mass production.” The capacity and quality of upstream core components have become the key variables determining the pace of the industry.

On April 2, Quanzhibo, a domestic robot joint module supplier, announced that its “high-pulse integrated joint automated production line” has officially begun operations.

Joint modules integrate the collector motor, reducer, driver, and encoder into one unit. They are the foundational components for a robot’s power and control, directly affecting the robot’s motion capability and the reliability of the complete system. Chen Wanqi, founder and CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Quanzhibo, said that high-pulse integrated joints account for nearly 50% of the total cost of a humanoid robot complete system; the company’s mass production capability is one of the key factors determining the course of industrialization.

A reporter from Daily Economic News learned that after capital continued to increase funding into humanoid robot bodies, upstream core components are becoming a new investment hotspot.

Zhu Jia, a partner at Heguang Venture Capital, said that joints account for nearly half of the complete system’s cost, and mass production capability directly determines the pace of commercialization. “In the past, many startups were good at making prototypes, but truly very few companies can achieve extremely high yield rates and stable mass production of products.”

The biggest challenge is not technology

Public information shows that Quanzhibo was founded in 2023. The company has already completed over 300k yuan in A+ round financing. Its customers include leading humanoid robot companies such as Leju Robotics and Songyan Power.

On the stage of this year’s CCTV Spring Festival Gala, Songyan Power’s robots left a deep impression on audiences nationwide. What supports them in completing every precise step and every synchronized motion is the “P100-20-10” joint module provided by Quanzhibo.

Chen Wanqi said the Spring Festival Gala stage is a “big exam” under extreme conditions—lighting, temperature, and continuous high-intensity operation. Any tiny failure will be magnified endlessly. “Our joint modules passed this test. With stable and reliable performance, we proved the strength of domestically made core components to audiences across the country.” He added that this means humanoid robot manufacturing is entering a new stage in which it moves from “lab assembly” to “high-throughput production,” similar to the scaled leap that the consumer electronics and electric vehicle industries once experienced.

A reporter from Daily Economic News saw at Quanzhibo’s new factory an automated production line operating with steady rhythm: robotic arms complete micron-level assembly of core components such as stators, rotors, gear reducers, and encoders; AGV carts (automated guided vehicles) weave through to deliver materials; a digital twin system monitors the operating status and process parameters of more than 2,000 devices in real time. After dynamic calibration and load testing for the full process, each set of joints generates a unique traceability code.

The most core value of this production line is that it is believed to solve the “capacity pain” that has long plagued the robot industry. According to Quanzhibo’s disclosure, the new line compresses the delivery lead time of a single set of joints from the past 20 minutes to 90 seconds, improving efficiency by more than 13 times. The automation rate exceeds 85%, and the first-pass yield remains stable at 96% or above.

Liu Chunbao, Quanzhibo’s chief scientist, told a reporter from Daily Economic News that over the past year, the biggest challenge the company faced was not technology, but insufficient capacity. “In 2025, we saw an explosive growth in orders, but upstream drivers and encoders became a bottleneck for a time. We designed the drivers ourselves, but production depended on suppliers. When demand from complete-system customers was released in a concentrated burst, the entire supply chain came under pressure.” He recalled that in the second half of 2025, Quanzhibo’s capacity could no longer fully meet order demand from customers such as Leju Robotics and Songyan Power, and some deliveries had to be postponed.

This predicament is not unique to Quanzhibo. As humanoid robots move from the “prototype stage” into the “small-batch mass production” stage, complete-system companies’ demand for core components shows an exponential increase. Joints, which account for nearly 50% of the complete system’s cost, have their supply capability directly determining the shipping cadence of complete-system manufacturers. Liu Chunbao noted: “Many complete-system companies are not unwilling to sell more; they just can’t get enough joints—enough volume and enough stability.”

After the “high-pulse integrated joint automated production line” was implemented, the company can achieve stable mass-production and delivery. According to Quanzhibo’s official disclosure, Quanzhibo’s total orders in 2025 exceed 150 million yuan, and total production capacity in 2026 is expected to reach between 300k and 500k sets.

Liu Chunbao told a reporter from Daily Economic News that through automated production lines and large-scale production, the cost of some of Quanzhibo’s basic joint modules has already been compressed to the hundred-yuan level, and the micro-joints with drivers have also fallen from nearly a thousand yuan a few years ago to three or four hundred yuan.

Capital is paying attention to robot components

Worth noting is that as large-scale commercial deployment of humanoid robots is imminent, Quanzhibo’s fundraising pace is also accelerating in parallel. After completing its A round financing in September 2025, the company recently obtained another A+ round financing of over 500k yuan. Investors include CEC Haikang, the Beijing Robotics Industry Fund, and Gudsong (Guangsuo) LightSpeed Heguang, among others.

This capital move is not an isolated case. In the past two years, financing hotspots in the humanoid robot track were highly concentrated in body (complete-system) companies, but since the second half of 2024, upstream core component suppliers have begun to draw more attention. At the production commissioning ceremony, Quanzhibo’s investors said that the humanoid robot industry is experiencing a transition from “technology validation” to “scaled application,” and the focus of capital is also shifting from the body to upstream core components.

Liu Chunbao also observed this change. “From the second half of 2024 to 2025, we clearly felt more industrial capital and financial investors paying attention to the components track.” He analyzed that the logic behind it is that complete-system companies start to scale up production, supply-chain bottlenecks become visible, and the capacity and quality of upstream components become the “choke point” for the industry. “Capital is no longer only looking at Demo (presentations) and parameters; it cares more about who the customers are, what the repurchase rate is like, and whether the production lines can withstand the tests of scale.”

Liu Chunbao specifically mentioned that Quanzhibo’s strong binding relationship with leading customers such as Leju Robotics and Songyan Power is also a key reason capital is optimistic about the company’s future. “If the joints fail, the complete system fails. This kind of binding forces us to push reliability, consistency, and service life to the extreme. And the endorsement from top-tier customers is itself the toughest form of commercial validation.”

Looking ahead, Chen Wanqi said the company’s goal is to ensure that Chinese robots use domestically made joints that are reliable, stable, and capable of high-pulse performance, while also providing key core components for the global humanoid robot industry chain.

“We are not just making parts; we are defining the boundaries of a robot’s motion capability.” In Liu Chunbao’s view, when the industry’s annual production moves from the thousands of units to the millions, standardized, modular, and intelligent joints will be the inevitable direction. “China produces tens of millions of cars every year—about 30 to 40 million. Every vehicle’s power system is highly standardized. The future of robot joints should be like that, too.” Liu Chunbao said.

(Editor: Wenjing)

Keywords:

                                                            Robot