As one of the four major gear transmission research institutions globally, what stunts does the key national laboratory of mechanical transmission have?

The technician is debugging the robot. Photo by Long Fan

Located at Chongqing University Campus A, the laboratory has experienced the development process of mechanization, information, and intelligence.

A diversity of gears and mechanical parts developed here have been widely used in such fields as aerospace, wind power, automobile, and rail transit, according to Shao Yimin, deputy director of the laboratory.

With the advent of the intelligent era, the laboratory is also committed to making mechanical parts increasingly "smart."

"Low carbon, information, and intelligence are the development needs of the global automobile industry, and powertrain is the core technology to satisfy such demand," said a relevant person in charge of the laboratory's research team.

The technician is debugging the robot. Photo by Long Fan

The laboratory has made great efforts in the R&D of various automatic transmission and light/medium/heavy hybrid power technologies, successfully developed generations of related products, and applied the achievements in major automobile manufacturers.

Regarding the precision manufacturing of high-performance gears, the laboratory has overcome the difficulties in the precision manufacturing of complex modified gears and taken the lead in developing gear grinding machines and large-specification precision hobbing ones, with such functions as flexible modification and reducing the distortion of tooth surfaces, in China.

At the same time, the laboratory has innovated the methodology, technology, and equipment to realize the intelligent manufacturing of complex high-performance parts. For example, it has invented the seven-axis CNC abrasive belt grinding technology and equipment, developed the super-large selective laser melting equipment, established the CNC machine tool reliability management system, and worked out the key intelligent manufacturing technologies, including the intelligent monitoring and management system for automatic gear processing as well as the cloud manufacturing service platform for machine tool equipment.

"With the arrival of the era of 'intelligent' manufacturing, high-end equipment needs more research on the integration of human, machine, and things - the organic combination of computer's storage and computing capacities and human's thinking ability. Through the chips attached, the parts will become smarter," said the person.

In the next step, the laboratory will use new intelligent technologies, such as human-computer integration, intelligent perception, and digital twin, to build an information interaction system and develop remote/unmanned operation and maintenance functions. In this way, each part can "communicate" and "talk," and the development and operation of the equipment will be more efficient and intelligent.