Science and Technology Daily front page! How do you make an engine "smart"

Today, Science and Technology Daily published "How to produce an engine" on the front page, Weichai Intelligent digital factory through the extensive application of visual recognition, online detection, robots and many other advanced intelligent manufacturing technologies, to achieve the full intelligence from raw material selection, parts processing, assembly and debugging, to create a "smart brain" for engine production and manufacturing. Focus on the development of new quality productivity to promote industrial innovation.

An engine comes off the line every 90 seconds. How? On June 12, the reporter of Science and Technology Daily felt the high efficiency of intelligent production in the "lighthouse factory" - Weichai Intelligent Digital Factory (hereinafter referred to as the "smart factory"). The invisible "smart brain" here takes over the workshop, and an engine is completed by robots from cylinder block and cylinder head processing to final assembly and finished product testing.

"Here, many advanced intelligent manufacturing technologies such as visual recognition, online inspection and robots are widely applied, and the intelligent production line of the whole process improves the production capacity and guarantees the product quality." Wang Jian, executive president and manufacturing director of Weichai Power, mentioned a set of data to reporters: the processing automation rate of the factory is 100%, the assembly automation rate is 80%, the degree of automation of parts logistics distribution is 100%, and the key process is 100% online detection.

The production process of modern automobile engine involves many complex processes and precision technologies. As the first batch of "intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstration projects" and "intelligent manufacturing benchmarking enterprises", the smart factory in front of the reporter has realized the whole intelligent process from raw material selection, parts processing, assembly and debugging.

Create a "digital factory" in the virtual world that can "map" the physical factory, which is the digital twin technology. The reporter learned that long before the construction of the factory, Weichai technicians used digital twin technology to build a virtual factory, which corresponds to the physical factory one by one, so as to realize the real-time monitoring and analysis of the production process of the physical factory and the digitalization of all production factors, so as to optimize the production process, improve production efficiency and improve product quality.

"Smart" is one of the labels of this factory.

Fitting piston rings is one of the processes in the engine production line. After the robot puts the ring in place, it snaps a picture. "It's visual error proofing. Check if it's wrong. If it's wrong, it'll call the police." Wang Jian said that in some processes, the material placement is not regular, and the robot can also use the "fuzzy grasp" technology to "pick out" the material used from the "basket" of things through vision and install it on the engine regularly.

The key to high-end equipment manufacturing is advanced technology. Wang Jian mentioned that in the smart factory, the key process parameters are 100% real-time online measurement and automatic upload, the full coverage of 5G network realizes the zero delay of AGV car regulation, the automatic quick change card claw realizes the second-level transformation of different products, and realizes the whole process of flexibility, agility, digitalization and intelligent production.

Similar smart processes can be seen everywhere in this factory. But "smart" doesn't sum up what this factory is all about.

Every engine that comes off the assembly line is tested for ignition performance, but today, diesel is nowhere to be seen. Smart factory engine assembly second-line monitor Sun Qinglin told reporters that they use cold car test, do not need to fire, but through a cold test bench a motor to drive the engine crankshaft rotation, simulate the engine operating state, through a variety of sensors to collect the internal characteristics of the engine parameters, such as intake pressure, oil pressure, oil temperature, etc. Special software is used to analyze and compare the standard curve to confirm the quality of the engine.

In smart factories, energy saving and "smart" go hand in hand.

The reporter noticed that the large smart factory roof was almost covered by solar panels, and next to the factory, several container "cabins" attracted attention. "This is an energy storage battery, using Weichai autonomous energy storage technology." Qi Xiaoling, chief technologist of Weichai Group, told reporters that these plants are mainly roofed photovoltaic, supplemented by solid oxide fuel cells, gas units, and power dynamometer self-electricity, and cooperate with energy storage, waste heat recovery and utilization of multi-energy complementary, through the information system will be all kinds of energy data interaction, real-time automatic regulation, to achieve self-sufficiency in smart factories, almost to achieve "zero carbon" emissions.

To develop new quality productivity, the focus is to promote industrial innovation with scientific and technological innovation. This smart factory illustrates Weichai Group's efforts in this regard. From November 3, 2023 to June 12 this year, in only half a year, the smart factory ushered in a key node - on the same day, Tan Xuguang, chairman of Weichai Group, announced that Weichai intelligent digital Factory reached full production, the 15,000th engine off the line.

Original title: Front page of Science and Technology Daily! How to "intelligently" produce an engine.