Source: China Business News

Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Industrial Technology Innovation Capacity Development Plan (2016-2020)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan") and proposed to build 15 national manufacturing innovation centers by 2020, cultivate and identify about 100 key laboratories of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, leading the formation of more than 120 international standards.

In fact, with the concept of industry 4.0 constantly put forward, the state has gradually strengthened the promotion of manufacturing innovation at the policy level, and how to upgrade from "manufacturing" to "intelligent manufacturing" has become an inevitable issue for enterprises. In this context, a number of high-end manufacturing enterprises have emerged in China to initiate the transformation and upgrading of intelligent manufacturing.

Among the many exploratory enterprises, the path of intelligent manufacturing upgrading of the world's leading aluminium industry is very representative. Analysts believe that enterprises such as Zhongwang, which take the lead in realizing intelligent development from traditional manufacturing and moving from local to global, are the typical representatives of China's gradual transformation from a big manufacturing country to a powerful manufacturing country, and their development model is worth learning from the industry.

Promoting Intelligent Manufacturing Landing

The Plan also points out that by 2020, the technological innovation capability of industries in key areas of industry and information technology in China will be significantly improved, and the level of innovation achievements in some areas will be in the forefront of the world. Among them, China will focus on building about 15 national manufacturing innovation centers and a number of provincial manufacturing innovation centers, building 60 industrial technology basic public service platforms, and identifying more than 300 national technological innovation demonstration enterprises.

It is worth mentioning that since 2011, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Finance have jointly launched the identification of national technological innovation demonstration enterprises every year. In the list of national technological innovation demonstration enterprises published last year, 69 enterprises including Beijing Oriental, Great Wall Automobile and Zhongwang Group were listed.

From last year's list, the listed enterprises are either regional benchmarking enterprises or leading enterprises in the industry. For example, Great Wall Automobile is a representative regional benchmarking enterprise in Hebei Province. Zhongwang is not only a representative of domestic high-end manufacturing enterprises, but also a leading enterprise in the global industry. It is understood that Zhongwang is the second largest manufacturer of industrial aluminium extrusion products in the world and the largest manufacturer in Asia and China. Its products are widely used in mechanical equipment, transportation and power engineering.

In fact, since the implementation of the national strategy of "Made in China 2025" in 2015, there have been successive good policies to promote the development of manufacturing industry. In the past year alone, there have been intensive promulgation of the "Implementation Plan of Intelligent Manufacturing Pilot Demonstration 2016 Special Action", "Planning for Standardization and Quality Improvement of Equipment Manufacturing Industry", "Industrial Green Development Planning (2016-2020),"Special Action for Innovative Development of Intelligent Hardware Industry (2016-2018)".

Experts said that China's "smart" manufacturing not only needs the continuous promotion of the state at the policy level to promote the landing of good policies and measures, but also requires enterprises to practice their internal skills at their own level, increase investment in technology research and development and product innovation, and export high-end smart products. Only by concerted action from "top" to "bottom", can China truly achieve intelligent development.

Breakthrough of New Materials

It is also clear in the Plan that China will formulate and revise more than 10,000 standards around key areas such as intelligent manufacturing and new materials, and lead to more than 120 international standards. The conversion rate of international standards in key areas will reach more than 90%, and the voice of international standards will be greatly enhanced.

With the country's economic development continues to achieve fruitful results, environmental problems brought about by the relevant fields are becoming increasingly prominent. Taking the automobile industry as an example, in recent years, China's automobile industry has developed rapidly, and has become a major automobile production and marketing country in the world. However, energy saving and emission reduction are imminent, and lightweight development is the trend of the times, which also impels the development of new materials to make important breakthroughs.

Everbright Securities recently released a research report that the lightweight technology route is mainly light alloys and composite materials, while light alloys are mainly aluminum and magnesium alloys. Aluminum alloy body weight reduction effect is remarkable, and can replace most parts. Driven by the pressure of emission reduction, the increasing demand for electric vehicles and the upgrading of aluminum alloy processing technology, the permeability of aluminum alloys in automobile body, engine and other fields will continue to increase, which will drive the steady growth of aluminum for automobile. It is estimated that the global total amount of aluminum for automobile will reach 11.54% in the next five years and 195 Kg by 2020.

It is noteworthy that aluminium alloy material not only plays an important role in promoting the development of automobile lightweight, but also has a wide application in mechanical equipment, chemical equipment, communication equipment, electric power equipment, aircraft structural components, ships, high-speed rail, motor vehicles and other fields due to its good mechanical strength and light weight.

Zhongwang Sample of Intelligent Manufacturing Upgrade

With the wide application of aluminium alloy materials, its market space in the high-end manufacturing field is constantly released, which also makes the manufacturing industry usher in the tide of intelligent manufacturing transformation, which is a new development opportunity for the domestic aluminium processing industry. The high-end aluminium enterprises, such as Zhongwang Group, will surely become the "tide-maker" to promote the development of the industry.

It is understood that Zhongwang, founded in 1993, has undergone three transformations in the course of its development in the past 20 years to realize the global transformation of its brand. That is to say, the transformation from building aluminium profiles to industrial aluminium extrusion business in 2002 will provide power for Zhongwang's follow-up development. In 2011, the second transformation was initiated, that is, on the basis of the original industrial aluminium extrusion business, the business sector was extended to the deep processing business and aluminium calendering business, thus Zhongwang rapidly opened the overseas market. In 2016, Zhongwang proposed the third transformation: from high-end aluminium processing materials suppliers to lightweight integrated solutions suppliers.

Zhongwang's three transformations are also the process of its transformation from traditional manufacturing to intelligent manufacturing. One of the important prerequisites is the support of its strong technological research and development strength and comprehensive innovation ability. Zhongwang set up a technology center in 1998. The center was recognized as provincial enterprise technology center in 2006, and obtained the qualification of "National Certified Enterprise Technology Center" in 2012. In 2013, Zhongwang Group was officially approved to be included in the ranks of "National High-tech Enterprises". At the same time, Zhongwang also actively cooperates with universities and research institutes, which enables Zhongwang to take the lead in the research and development of new materials and make breakthroughs in the development of high-end products. As of December 31, 2015, Zhongwang has been granted 370 patents.

While focusing on R&D innovation, Zhongwang pays more attention to the realization of intelligent development through technological innovation. Zhongwang's deep processing centers, which were put into operation at the end of 2012, have widely used intelligent production systems and industrial robots. Its pallet welding production line is composed of 10 groups of robots, each group includes two mechanical welding arms and one handling arm. Mechanical welding arm can improve the efficiency and quality of welding. Smoke and dust generated during welding process are automatically purified by the smoke and dust processor. The whole production process is completed by intelligent robots. Only a few workers need to supervise the production process.

"By introducing advanced equipment such as large extruders, the group will consolidate its leading position in research and development and production of high-end industrial aluminium profiles; introducing various robotic systems will not only reduce labor costs, but also effectively improve production efficiency and product competitiveness." Zhongwang related person in charge of the introduction