By Rui Hu, EDITOR
As a new round of science and technology revolution and industrial reform is in full swing, the real economy is transforming and upgrading towards the integration of digitalization, and networking.
Currently, the Chongqing government is vigorously implementing an action plan on innovation-driven development strategy led by big data intelligence. In particular, the whole city has been endeavoring to put the accomplishments of Smart China Expo (SCE) in place since it closed successfully last year. In response to the requirements for superior quality, manufacturers have begun to introduce digital workshops and intelligent factories into their production processes.
Since 2018, over 300 intellectualization reforms have been completed, and a total of 216 municipal-level demonstration digital workshops and smart factories have been certified by the authorities, based on statistics by Chongqing Economic and Information Commission.
Chongqing Tsingshan Industrial Co., Ltd. has a Vehicle Semi Anechoic Chamber (with drum), where the Background Noise is a low 18dB. As one of the leading passenger car transmission manufacturers in China, Chongqing Tsingshan spent 50 million yuan, creating this unique laboratory for testing car transmissions.
The lab is designed as a lab structure for silencing — anechoic fireproof insulation is filled between the rooms, and a semi-anechoic vibration isolation system assembly is adopted at the bottom of the rooms; the inner chambers are 15m long, 11m wide and 5m high, with the wall made of a German sound-absorbing material; more surprisingly, the whole laboratory is suspended in midair. A colossal spring connects the lab with the ground, to precisely simulate the driving conditions for cars, such as uphill, downhill, rough roads, and sharp turns. This design was made in consideration of the fact that the tiniest problem of the transmissions may not be “heard” without the quietest environment.
Chongqing Tsingshan’s big data is valuable because it has an annual production of millions of transmissions and the total sales of over 20 million. It has invested 5% - 10% of its gross proceeds in R & D, from which the exclusive big data may form core competitiveness of the company. For this purpose, it is rapidly attracting and cultivating big data analysts and other professionals. It is also planning to set up a new Institute for Engineering System and Standardization, to engage in analysis and application of big data, construction of industry standards, etc.
Today, Chongqing Unication Electronic Technology Co., Ltd. (Chongqing Unication for short) has enabled navigation through QR code scanning. Given this, a smart vehicle can carry materials required by the production line and directly head to the destination.
How does the vehicle find the “demand-side”? It locates the demander by reading the QR codes on the ground and then automatically sends the materials or other goods to the destination following the orders from the intelligent system, according to Mr. Leng Ye, a Deputy General Manager of the Company.
This vehicle, as a component of the intelligent warehousing and logistics system of Chongqing Unication, is named an automatic guided vehicle (AGV). Of course, there are many other smart systems and equipment, such as the flexible mechanical arms able to automatically grab materials and the intelligent warehousing system capable of finishing warehouse in / out tasks automatically.
With the help of digitalization, Chongqing Unication has achieved the visualization of production processes and the intelligent control and tracing over the whole process. Besides, it has raised the production line change efficiency by 50% and the entire production efficiency by 28%. Now the Company’s digital workshops have taken shape. What’s more, it has participated in the preparation of relevant national standards on smart manufacturing.
So far, the Company has entered into agreements with five enterprises, involving a total sales amount of approximately a hundred million yuan, on providing digital workshop system solutions, intelligent equipment, and systems of iCMX series. Major sectors therein include automotive electronics, instruments and meters and smart terminals.
By the packaging line of the luncheon meat can, Chongqing Dejia Company
By the packaging line of the luncheon meat can, a robot palletizer was pushing boxes full of cans into a space stacked with goods with one “arm” and heaping the boxes with another “arm” before sending them into the storage. The reporter saw this scene at Chongqing Dejia Meat Science and Technology Development Co., Ltd. (Dejia Company for short) on July 30.
Different from conventional slaughterhouses, Dajia Company enjoys highly-automated production lines, with various advanced intelligent devices equipped everywhere.
The company’s production lines of cans for luncheon meat have a visual identification system, which looks like three connected microscopes. Through their cameras at the bottoms, not only the impurities and foreign materials in the empty cans but also the flaws and misprints on the bodies can all be picked out.
In terms of raw material processing, the production lines adopt low-temperature intelligent thawing units. The meat products are thawed from -18°C to 0°C - 5°C and kept at a constant temperature through its accurate temperature control and intelligent compensation functions. The smart thawing method is not like that by steam with high heat and humidity; it ensures even temperatures on the meat surface and core and reduces the losses of water and hemoglobin.
The manually-operated processes have also realized intelligentization: The automatic weight detection devices on the conveyer belts will be triggered if lacking any scheduled cans; X-ray machines on the production lines can detect whether there are bone residues or foreign materials in cans; the smart ink-jet printing recognition system is used to take photos of the cans passing by to guarantee no existence of error or misprint on the printed expiration dates.
Before the transformation, workers were needed to pile the boxes in the palletizing process and put the cans into boxes one by one. Thanks to the intelligent production, the number of the required workers has been reduced from 30 to 5 or 6, yet the annual output of cans and other products has increased from 10,000 tons to today’s 20,000 tons, with a growth rate in labor productivity of nearly 50%.
Currently, the production scale of Dejia Company’s meat cans is among China’s top three, and it also has state-of-the-art techniques in this industry and brisk market demand.
How will the components enter into the assembly lines from the suppliers to the assembly plants? Traditionally, the trucks would carry the parts to the workshops of the assembly plant, and workers need to unload the goods and send them to the storages by trolleys or manually-operated forklifts. After the streamline starts operating, they need to get back to the storehouses and take the goods out based on the types.
Chongqing Chuanyi Automation Co., Ltd
However, Chuanyi Automation has never experienced such a complicated process. On July 25 and in its plant in Guangdian Park, after the components were unloaded from a truck at a designated spot, a self-driving vehicle came, carried the goods, and returned to the storage by the way it came.
The storage adopts a Metro-styling arrangement for storage racks, with different division plates from top to bottom for showcasing various goods. After this vehicle reached the site, a self-driving forklift would grab the products, lift the height, move, and put them at relevant parts.
Notably, the actuator and other products made by this company through intelligent devices are also playing essential roles in industrial intellectualization.
For example, heat-engine plants should reduce the contact between pulverized coal and air and adjust the water levels in the boilers. Thus they need the optimal matching parameters to increase the efficiency and minimize emissions. Under the circumstances, manual operation is neither safe nor accurate. The general way is to install induction systems on the coal pipes, air conduits, and others alike for collecting data about temperatures and pressure. Then, the background program would analyze the data and give orders to the actuators made by Chuanyi Automation. Soon after receiving the order, the actuators would adjust the related valves, thus realizing the industrial intellectualization of this workflow.
Source: Chongqing Daily
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