Further promote new industrialization: high-end layout and step up to a new level of industry

High-end layout, step up to a new level of industry (in-depth observation and in-depth promotion of new industrialization (2))

General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out: "China's manufacturing industry is very complete, and what we must strive for now is to comprehensively improve, and the middle and low end of the past should go up, and the layout is high-end." High-quality development should be reflected here. "Promote major technological transformation and upgrading projects, eliminate backward production capacity, continue to implement the "three products" action of increasing the variety of consumer goods, improving quality, and creating brands and the action of improving the quality of key industries... In recent years, China has promoted the manufacturing industry to high-end through a series of measures. In this report, the reporter walked into three companies to understand the latest progress in China's comprehensive improvement of manufacturing and high-end layout.

—Editor

Overcome difficulties and continue to develop development

China's heavy-duty gas turbines have achieved a new breakthrough

Go commercial! On March 3, China's first fully independent intellectual property rights F-class 8 MW heavy-duty gas turbine (hereinafter referred to as G50) successfully passed 50+72-hour trial operation and officially put into commercial operation, filling the gap in the application field of China's independent gas turbines.

Heavy-duty gas turbine is currently the most efficient thermal power conversion equipment, is an important embodiment of a country's industrial level and comprehensive national strength, and the difficulty of research and development is different. "The air inside the G50 burner is flowing at a speed of 60 meters per second, and ignition is as difficult as lighting a candle in a category 10 wind." Fang Yu, director of the National Key Laboratory of Dongfang Steam Turbine Company of Dongfang Electric Group, said.

For example, the key components of G50, turbine blades, must meet three extremely harsh conditions: First, to "endure" a high temperature of 1300 degrees Celsius, you know, this temperature is much higher than the melting point of ordinary metals, and the commonly used high-temperature nickel pole alloy materials can withstand high temperatures for a long time and are only about 900 degrees Celsius; Second, it must withstand the pressure of 18 standard atmospheres, which is equivalent to the pressure at the bottom of the dam after the 180-meter deep dam is filled with water; Third, at a speed of 6000,<> revolutions per minute, the linear speed of the blade top exceeds twice the flight speed of a large passenger aircraft. "This requires researchers to apply multidisciplinary knowledge such as aerodynamics, solid mechanics, mechanics, and materials science to the limits of engineering." Fang Yu said.

In addition, G50 has more than 2,0 parts, the system coupling degree and component integration degree is super high, and the assembly accuracy of the parts must be controlled within 05.1 mm. Some critical components, even a <>mm operating clearance deviation can cause the whole machine to fail.

"We joined forces with nearly 300 units upstream and downstream, and it took more than 4000,13 days and nights to finally gnaw this 'hard bone'." Recalling the 2009-year development process, Fang Yu was full of emotion: in 4, the project was launched, and it took 2 years for the structural design alone; The trial production of the first burner took another 4 years; Since then, the team has spent four years testing components, lasting more than 1000,8 hours and scrapping eight burners.

The quest to start from scratch was hard. Like turbine blades, there is no enterprise supply on the market, and Dongfang Steam Turbine has set up its own blade casting team. In the face of difficulties, team members read literature and find ways around the clock. Finally, after tens of millions of tests, "a wax molding method with ceramic core" was explored, which solved the problems of blade deformation, looseness, hot cracking, and core breakage. Today, the turbine blade precision casting pilot line of Dongfang Steam Turbine has the mass manufacturing capacity of F-class 50 MW gas turbine. "The high-temperature turbine blades of gas turbines generally need to be repaired and replaced in 2 to 3 years. This production line can provide spare parts for the turbine blades of high-power gas turbines running in China, and there is no need to wait for imported spare parts. Tian Xiaojing, deputy director of the G50 Development Center of Dongfang Electric Group Dongfang Steam Turbine Company, introduced.

During the development process, challenges often arise unexpectedly. In 2018, when the combustion technology team tested the burner components, it encountered high-frequency oscillations of about 3000,<> hertz, and the harsh sound penetrated the sound insulation and transmitted to the measurement and control room. Upon inspection with a peephole, there were cracks, debris, equipment parts had been damaged, and the test was forced to stop. "We later realized that the experiment had encountered a 'hot oscillation scream'." Tian Xiaojing introduced that inside the burner, high-temperature flames and pressure fluctuations "you come and go", resulting in "hot sound oscillation" phenomenon, once resonance, it will damage the equipment.

The R&D team went back to basics and started over. They carry out basic research and development in universities in the United Nations, carry out hundreds of part-level tests... It took 2 years for the R&D team to finally establish a complete set of thermoacoustic oscillation prediction and control methods, and then found the best fuel-air matching ratio, so that the "thermoacoustic oscillation scream" quieted down.

Behind the successful development of G50, there are the unremitting efforts of R&D personnel and the continuous investment of enterprises. "Some people say that the gas engine is 'burned by burning money'." Fang Yu said that for 13 years of continuous research and development, the cumulative investment of nearly 20 billion yuan.

The effort pays off. Today, China has comprehensively overcome the independent development and testing of gas turbine whole-process technology, mastered the design methods of the core components of gas turbine and the overall performance and overall structure of the whole machine, and formed more than 1000,<> gas turbine design/manufacturing standards.

Looking forward to the future, the relevant person in charge of Dongfang Electric said: It will rely on the first set of major technical equipment demonstration projects to carry out long-term test verification and continue to optimize the performance of G50. At the same time, relying on the research and development capabilities of G50, it will develop F-class 15 MW and F-class 80 MW heavy-duty gas turbines to improve the lineage of China's gas turbines.

Focus on demand and unremitting innovation

Domestic mobile phones have steadily entered the global high-end market

On February 2, local time, the 27 Mobile World Congress opened in Barcelona, Spain. Honor, a smartphone brand from China, attracts attention: the latest generation of flagship mobile phone Honor Magic2023 series was released, with two products starting at 5 euros and 899 euros respectively, entering the global high-end smartphone market.

"Building a global iconic technology brand is the vision put forward by Honor Brand at the end of 2020." Zhao Ming, CEO of Honor Terminal Co., Ltd., said. In 2022, Honor's R&D investment will account for nearly 10% of sales revenue, ranking in the leading square in the ranking of R&D investment intensity of large domestic enterprises. Innovative breakthroughs such as "Eagle Eye" capture, self-developed RF enhancement chip, and the world's first silicon-carbon anode technology "Qinghai Lake" battery brought by continuous high R&D investment have given Honor the strength to impact the global high-end market.

High-end development is inseparable from the persistence of anchoring user pain points and breaking through the technical ceiling of the industry.

In the distance is the cityscape, with more than 10 different colors of watercolor pens, red and green leaves and flowers placed in the near scenic area, and a picture card that can be quickly moved left and right... In the Image Objective Laboratory of the Glory R&D Center Building of Shenzhen's New Generation Industrial Park, a small cubicle separated by a black curtain attracts special attention.

"This is our capture lab." Cao Gong, an expert in the field of Honor products, said that these complex scene restoration is to test and train the "Eagle Eye" capture system. The reporter clicked on the Magic5 screen mounted on the gimbal to shoot, and in the rapid movement of the picture card at a maximum of 3 meters per second, a photo with clear picture quality, balanced color and rich details instantly appeared in front of him. "Based on artificial intelligence algorithms, Hawkeye can automatically take a series of photos and intelligently filter out the one with the best movement, expression, and picture quality." Cao Gong said.

Honor has built 10 imaging labs like this. "Once the imaging hardware unit of the new product is finalized, we start multiple rounds of testing, automatically analyze the problem through the system software, and perform dozens of iterations on the algorithm." Cao Gong said that after the product is launched, it will continue to improve in response to user feedback, and complete upgrades every 3 to 4 months.

In addition to solving the pain points of photography, battery life, and signal for smartphone users, Honor mobile phones have also created many smart applications based on the MagicOS operating system.

The mobile app purchases a ticket, completes check-in in advance, and the moment you walk into the airport, the electronic boarding pass will automatically pop up; Take the subway to work in the morning, walk to the subway gate, and the subway code will automatically open... These intimate applications benefit from the platform-level artificial intelligence of the Honor mobile terminal. "We believe that in the future, smartphones will become personal assistants for users." Zhao Ming said that through platform-level artificial intelligence, the Honor MagicOS operating system can systematically learn the daily application habits of users, and then predict the next behavior and usage scenarios, and give birth to a series of smart applications, limiting these calculations and storage to mobile phones, and fully protecting consumer privacy and data security.

High-end development is also inseparable from exquisite craftsmanship and advanced intelligent manufacturing system.

Walking into the intelligent manufacturing demonstration factory of Shenzhen Glory Intelligent Machinery Co., Ltd., four production lines with a length of nearly 4 meters are lined up. In the SMT placement process at the front end of the production line, the automatic placement machine is mounting the mobile phone motherboard. "Compared with the previous generation of products, Honor adopts the 'four-sandwich' process this time, which can reserve more space for the battery and image unit." Pointing to the mobile phone motherboard in the tray, the staff of the Honor Manufacturing Management Department told reporters that this motherboard full of components has 150 layers, a total of more than 4,1500 components, each with a placement accuracy of 0.04 mm, "To complete the high-precision board stacking, it is inseparable from the 4-layer stacking manufacturing process independently developed by Honor, and it is inseparable from the strict online quality inspection system." ”

"The Honor mobile phone motherboard must complete two placement processes and four 4% automatic tests on the production line." Along the line of sight of the staff, the reporter saw a cabinet with the HIEP logo, which is an intelligent equipment platform independently developed by Honor, on the production line, similar self-developed equipment is widely used in more than 100 detection processes such as 3D scanning detection of veneer appearance, single board RF test, screw laser height detection, 100% online automatic aging test, radio frequency test of the whole machine, image test, screen test and so on. In the Honor Smart Factory, there are more inspection processes than assembly processes to ensure that only qualified products can enter the next process.

"Premiumization is not a slogan, but a marathon." Zhao Ming said that the imaging system of the next generation of mobile phones, the 2.0 or even 3.0 version of the "Qinghai Lake" battery, and the more intelligent artificial intelligence application are all in full swing, "Our goal is to increase the domestic high-end market share to 10% this year and win a place in the high-end competition in the global market." ”

Digital empowerment to upgrade files

The international market share of industrial robots has increased significantly

Assembly, assembly, handling, wiring... In the production workshop of Nanjing Eston Automation Co., Ltd., the conveyor line runs at high speed. In the interlocking assembly positions, "skilled workers" either wave long arms or use flexible joints, each performing their own duties and working closely together to assemble one component after another into finished industrial robots.

"These 'employees' are robots who can work overtime around the clock, and even then, they can't keep busy." Opening the schedule, the head of production of Eston Automation Co., Ltd. said that the company's industrial robot production line is running at full capacity, "Last year's sales exceeded 1,7 sets, this year is expected to exceed 2,5 sets, orders continue to continue, production capacity must continue to expand." ”

Behind the red report card, it is inseparable from the company's efforts to digitalize. Lu Hao, marketing director of Eston Company, introduced that in the past, the finished robot only knew how to complete the set actions step by step; Now, the company delivers the whole solution to the customer - the new generation of robots equipped with a digital platform, the platform has a strong knowledge base, through the "comparison reference" knowledge and experience, not only know what welding actions need to be completed, but also know how the completion effect, but also can actively match the better solution, "If the delivery is a production line composed of multiple robots, you can also assign tasks, improve quality, and strengthen process management through the digital platform." ”

In Lu Hao's view, with the acceleration of the transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry, the market demand for industrial robots is expanding significantly, and is changing from general to customization, "To achieve customization, in addition to the hardware to transform the arm span, load, materials, etc., it is also necessary to integrate digitalization into the full life cycle of the product to help robots have more professional performance in different segments." ”

Moving along the production line, finished robots are being tested in "cubicles". Some of them are like skilled workers, who can accurately complete actions such as plating inserts, and some are like Hercules, who can move thousands of pounds of counterweights. "They have different skills thanks to the fact that they are equipped with the company's self-developed 'operation and maintenance wizard'." Lu Hao explained that the "operation and maintenance wizard" is a palm-sized edge gateway module, which can collect information such as current, position, torque and other information generated during the robot's movement, and upload it to the digital platform, so as to form a large database and customize "digital models" for different industries.

After delivery to customers, the robot can also use its own "knowledge base" to learn and update skills, and determine the "schedule" and "roadmap" of work according to environmental data and demand indicators, so that the accuracy and efficiency of the operation can be increased by more than 30% on average. In the event of a fault, the robot also automatically warns you and is handed over to the manufacturer's technicians for remote diagnostics.

"In the past 10 years, driven by demand and policy support, the domestic industrial robot industry has developed rapidly, and has achieved international leadership after upgrading and survival of the fittest." Zhou Ailin, vice president of Eston Company, said that the proportion of China's industrial robot products in the international market has risen from about 10% 10 years ago to about 30%, and it is more than 50% in the field of information home appliances, and the competitiveness in high-end segments such as lithium batteries, photovoltaics, and die-casting is also very strong. It is understood that the application of industrial robots in China has covered 60 industry categories and 168 industries in the national economy. In 2021, the density of robots in China's manufacturing industry will reach more than 300 per 2012,13 people, an increase of about <> times over <>.

"Upstream, the localization process of core components such as reducers, controllers, and vision sensors has accelerated, providing more possibilities for cost reduction and efficiency increase." Downstream, new energy, automobile, lithium battery and other industries have strong demand, full of development stamina. Deep ploughing, hard climbing, the good show is still to come. When it comes to the future, Zhou Ailin is full of confidence.

Our reporters Wang Zheng, Yao Xueqing, and Li Xinping