“Hefei Manufacturing” Trots Towards “Hefei Intelligent Manufacturing”

[Preface] On September 9, after over half year’s investigation and preparations, the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), the Managing Committee under Hefei High-tech Zone and the Anhui Goocoo Investment Group signed a framework agreement for strategic cooperation regarding development of robot industry in Hefei. The three parties will jointly create the incubation platform for robot industry, set the development fund for robot industry and construct the Hefei Robot Industrial Park. 

“World Champion” “Kejia” USTC intelligent service robot becoming the focus of the competition

RoboCup – World Cup of Robots

Obstacle crossing competition of robots

“Robot fishes” vividly swimming in water

    On September 9, after over half year’s investigation and preparations, the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), the Managing Committee under Hefei High-tech Zone and the Anhui Goocoo Investment Group signed a framework agreement for strategic cooperation regarding development of robot industry in Hefei. The three parties will jointly create the incubation platform for robot industry, set the development fund for robot industry and construct the Hefei Robot Industrial Park.
    Focused on the core of “robots” and “complete equipment” and by highlighting the development idea of attaching equal importance to “assembly and core components”, the emphasis of Hefei lies in the project. Up to now, Economic Development Zone, Xinzhan District and Feixi County of Hefei have successively started a batch of projects for “robot” manufacturing including Lianxin Intelligent, Xinyihua Intelligent, TAIHO Optoelectronic, Eagle Automation, etc. Anhui Military Industry Group and China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC) No.38 Research Institute have obtained a batch of R&D achievements in researches of mechanical control of intelligent engineering and intelligent manufacturing of core components i.e. special sensors.
    The tendency of rapid development of intelligent manufacturing industry in Hefei is now emerging.

Resources are Gathered for Pursuit of Development
    Robots are known as the “pearl inlaid in top of the crown of manufacturing industry” and are expected to be the entry point and important growth point for the “Third Industrial Revolution”. R&D, manufacturing and applications of robots are important indicators to weigh the levels of a country in scientific & technological innovation and high-end manufacturing.
    At the end of last year, the Hefei Xinyihua Intelligent Robot Co., Ltd. set up by BOE Technology Group and funded by China Optoelectronics Fund was formally commenced. Total investment of this project amounts to RMB 2 billion; its total land area is 120 mu and the floor area is 22,400 m2. It is mainly engaged in R&D and manufacturing of new flat panel displays and other devices and its annual output is 300 clean transport, assembly and testing robots and other intelligent devices. According to the progress schedule of this project, the main part of the plant will be capped at the end of this April and equipment will be moved in the plant this June, in order to ensure the operation of it in September.
    Hefei has spared no efforts in vigorously promoting the development of intelligent industries. By gathering various resources, Hefei is trying to induce relevant enterprises to implement industrial upgrades towards intelligent manufacturing. Hefei LCFC Co., Ltd. has improved its automation degree of production through technical transformation and has introduced the 3C robots developed by Hefei Lianxin Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. With the support of Zhengqi Financial, a member company of Legend Holdings, the automatic guided vehicles (AGV) developed by Hefei Gen-song Automation Technology Co., Ltd. are also about to face the world …

Technical Innovations are Focal Points
    On June 9 this year, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out in the Academicians Conference that, China will become the largest market of robots. Based on this, Hefei has sized up the situation and considered all related aspects to solidly promote the development of intelligent industry.
In Hefei Economic Development Zone, with the total investment amounting to RMB 0.42 billion, the Production Base Project for Complete Equipment and Intelligent Control System Applied in Offshore Engineering of Smarter Technology is currently under way. At present, the workshops and plants are under construction, which are expected to be completed at the end of 2014. By newly building the production base for offshore engineering equipment, this project will be capable of producing 9 special equipment for offshore umbilical cables, 6 special complete equipment for offshore flexible hoses and 1 kingpost-type marine crane in a single year. The assembly workshop for electric whole-set intelligent control system applied in special equipment for wires & cables newly built to support the project will be capable of producing 300 electric whole-set intelligent control systems and 3,000 hysteretic torque controllers in a year.
    Strengthening the scientific & technological innovations and developing the innovations and integration of key technologies are the keys to development of Hefei intelligent industry. Currently, a batch of projects i.e. artificial intelligent and machine vision project of TAIHO Optoelectronic, six-axis robot project of Eagle Automation and special sensor project of Anhui Military Industry Group have already entered the Institute of Advanced Technology, University of Science and Technology of China for further innovative accumulation.

Complementary Advantages for Promotion of Upgrades
    Robot is an important type of automatic equipment for modern manufacturing industry that integrates multi-disciplinary advanced technologies covering mechanics, electronics, control, computers, sensors, artificial intelligence, etc. It is also a breaking point discovered by Hefei in implementation of industrial upgrades.
    Hefei possesses strong competitiveness in color sorters and packing machineries in both China and abroad. Guided by the general trend, Hefei is promoting enterprises to make use of customer resources and advantages to transform and upgrade to intelligent manufacturing.
    Both the Zhongke Optic-electronic and TAIHO Optoelectronic are mainly engaged in color sorters while Zengran Packaging and Zhongchen Machinery are mainly devoted themselves to packing machineries. Via the guidance and promotion of the government, these enterprises have re-integrated their own resources and are now positively implementing industrial upgrades towards robot palletizers and whole-set equipment via combination through complementary advantages. Through powerful combination, the Hefei Sunwin Intelligent Co., Ltd. which was commenced at the end of 2012 has currently completed the civil engineering of production and auxiliary facilities with the area of 44,000 m2. Installation of electromechanical equipment, external decoration and outdoor works are now under way, meaning that it will be completed and put into operation soon.

Growing Tendency of “Hefei Intelligent Manufacturing”
    The foundation of Hefei robot R&D and industrialization is already solid with the support of several colleges, universities and institutes such as the USTC, the Institute of Intelligent Machines, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei University of Technology, etc. Among various enterprises, Anhui JEE Automation Equipment Co., Ltd. can be counted as one shining star in intelligent equipment industry in China.
    Currently, the Testing Production Line Project for Flexible Assembly of Double-clutch Automatic Gearbox invested by Anhui JEE Automation Equipment Co., Ltd. with the total investment of RMB 0.23 billion has passed the pre-acceptance of JAC and is highly recognized by national 863 expert review group.
At the moment, in the production of international advanced aluminium alloy closures, large robot automatic production lines have already been widely used and intelligence & automation have already been incorporated into the standard of production. However, light-weight design and researches of automobiles in China still have a long way to go and the gap in light-weight manufacturing technologies with developed countries is relatively large. Besides, there are no precedents in China in independent development of automatic flexible production line for automobile body aluminium alloy closures.
    By grasping the nettle, Anhui JEE Automation Equipment Co., Ltd. is now preparing for implementing the automatic flexible production line project of automobile body aluminium alloy closures. It is a key part for manufacturing whole-set equipment for automobile aluminium alloy body and also for light-weight manufacturing of automobiles. This project is proposed to implement light weight in engine cover of car body based on the aluminium alloy body technologies that are being developed by Great Wall Motors. After implementation of the project, the intelligent manufacturing technologies for automobile body in China can be greatly improved, ending the monopoly of foreign technologies.