Driven by the upgrading of downstream optical applications, the optical glass flat lapping machine industry is shifting from scale expansion to quality improvement. Technological iteration, application expansion, and policy-enforced environmental requirements are jointly reshaping the industry's development path.

From the perspective of industry status, the market scale is growing steadily. The relevant segmented market scale reached 13.76 billion yuan in 2024, a year-on-year increase of 8.3%, and is expected to rise to 14.92 billion yuan in 2025 with a growth rate of 8.4%.

Growth is accompanied by obvious structural changes: high-precision products with surface roughness within 0.8nm have become standard in cutting-edge fields such as semiconductor lithography lenses and AR/VR devices. The shipment proportion of aspherical lenses increased from 22.1% in 2020 to 37.6% in 2024, and ultra-thin glass lenses grew by 21.8% year-on-year, accurately responding to downstream demands for lightweight and high precision.

Technological upgrading is the core mainline of industry development. Precision has broken through from micron-level to nanometer-level and ultra-nanometer-level, with surface roughness control within 0.1nm achieved in some fields.

In terms of processes, the multi-process composite lapping mode has become popular, integrating rough grinding, fine grinding, and polishing links. Combined with real-time detection and dynamic parameter adjustment, it greatly improves yield and consistency. Intelligent transformation is advancing simultaneously: AI defect detection systems are integrated with automated processes to reduce labor dependence and achieve precise control of the lapping process.

Diversified application scenarios have injected new vitality. Consumer electronics remains the core demand source, and the multi-camera configuration of smartphones has driven mid-to-high-end lapping demand. The demand for high-definition camera modules in new energy vehicle intelligent driving has become a growth engine in the past two years.

Emerging fields are rising rapidly. The market related to free-form surface lenses for AR/VR headsets reached 630 million yuan in 2024 and will exceed 810 million yuan in 2025. The exponential growth in machine vision and industrial automation inspection fields has opened up a new growth pole.

Green transformation and policy empowerment provide important support. Environmental protection policies have forced technological innovation, accelerating the R&D of lead-free and arsenic-free environmental protection glass. More than 60% of large-scale enterprises have completed the green transformation of their production lines.

National policy support is significant. The "14th Five-Year Plan for the Development of the Raw Materials Industry" includes high-end optical glass in the key areas of new material research. It clearly states that the guarantee capacity of key strategic materials will reach more than 70% by 2025, guiding the industry towards high performance and autonomy.

Driven by downstream demand upgrading, technological iteration, application expansion, and policy-enforced environmental requirements, the optical glass flat lapping machine industry is achieving steady market growth with structural changes such as high precision. Despite challenges including core technology breakthroughs, it is stepping into a new stage of high-quality development.