Scientific resources support marine economy, high-quality development research | High-end equipment goes to sea from here
Building a modern ocean city is an important task for Shanghai and an inherent requirement for Shanghai to promote high-quality development. How to promote the upgrading of the marine economy and further implement the strategy of becoming a maritime power? Changxing Island, located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, is writing its own answer.
ZPMC maintains technological leadership through continuous innovation and has become the only supplier in the world that can provide a complete set of solutions for automated terminals. Not far away, the Changxing Marine Laboratory of Shanghai Jiao Tong University combines basic research and applied research, and is committed to putting scientific research results into practice in enterprises.
On Changxing Island, high-end equipment has become a Shanghai-made brand, and marine technological innovation has become an important growth pole for high-quality development.
Walking into ZPMC Changxing Base, hundreds of colorful quayside bridges are lined up along the coastline, which is a spectacular sight. These colors mark their identities. The white quay crane was built for the French port, the black represents Houston in the United States, and the military green is for Singapore...
The so-called quay crane, the full name of quayside container crane, is a large-scale equipment specially used for loading and unloading container ships at port terminals. Therefore, it is also nicknamed the "crane grabbing machine" of the port.
Customer-ordered port cranes are waiting to be rolled off the assembly line at the pier of Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industry Changxing Branch. Photo by Lai Xinlin.
The quay crane export is where ZPMC started. Since exporting the first quay crane to Vancouver, Canada, in 1992, ZPMC has gradually opened up overseas markets and has now become the world's largest port machinery equipment manufacturer. Its main quay crane products have maintained the first place in the global market share for 27 consecutive years, and the top 100 global ports in container throughput are its customers. Since 2008, the global market share of ZPMC’s quay cranes has remained at around 70%.
"We are shipping overseas almost every day, and we will ship another 23 quayside cranes in June to Egypt, Croatia, the United States and other places." Wu Yue, deputy general manager of Zhenhua Heavy Industries Changxing Branch, told reporters that this year's large-scale quayside cranes The target order is 208 units.
The proud achievements come from always being the leader in technology. Taking the quay crane as an example, the 3EPlus super large quay crane customized by ZPMC for Dubai has a front extension of 80 meters, a rear extension of 30 meters, and a lifting height of more than 54 meters. All parameters are the highest in the world; it is the Shenzhen Yantian International Terminal built the smallest quay crane according to local conditions. The weight of the whole machine is reduced by about 20%. It is lightweight and easy to maintain.
The degree of development of the port reflects the economic strength of the country, while the advanced degree of port machinery equipment determines the level of the port. Yan Feng, deputy secretary of the Party Committee of ZPMC Changxing Branch, observed that orders from the domestic market have been increasing in quality and volume in recent years, not just in developed areas like Shanghai, but also in other places such as Tianjin Port and Qinzhou Port in Guangxi. The construction capacity of the port area. "Quan quay crane is the arm of world trade. It connects the world's logistics and transportation. Everyone hopes to improve its ability to attract foreign trade ships to dock and unload ships, so as to stimulate local economic development."
The improvement in the energy level of ports in various places also urges Zhenhua Heavy Industries to continuously upgrade its products. Adhering to the goal of "creating a world first every year", ZPMC has established Zhenhua Design and Research Institute with more than 1,600 people to increase the empowerment of traditional terminals with digital and intelligent technologies, and has participated in more than 70% of the world's automated terminals. Construction has become the only supplier in the world that can provide a complete set of solutions for automated terminals. “We hope that through the equipment we provide, the local port will become world competitive,” Yan Feng said.
The technological progress of high-end equipment is inseparable from basic research. A few kilometers away from Zhenhua Heavy Industry, there is a place that plays such a role-Shanghai Jiaotong University Changxing Marine Laboratory.
When the reporter walked through the exhibition hall and came to the intelligent manufacturing laboratory in Building 2, he found that this was not a laboratory room with some scientific instruments as ordinary people thought, but a large "117 meters long and 72 meters wide" workshop".
In the Marine Equipment Laboratory of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, a laser welding robot is performing welding operations. Photo by Lai Xinlin.
“The space of this laboratory even exceeds the space of ordinary small shipyards.” Weng Zhenping, executive director of the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Marine Equipment Research Institute, told reporters that quasi-industrialization is the characteristic of Changxing Marine Laboratory. “Our laboratory completely simulates future wisdom. The entire process required by the shipyard, from steel plate cutting, parts grinding, assembly and assembly, to large component assembly, ship segmentation, etc., covers all key processes except painting. Through a U-shaped path, it finally becomes the entire Boat out."
When the reporter visited, an experiment on intelligent welding was being carried out in a corner of the laboratory. Parts are randomly placed on the ground. The intelligent assembly and welding equipment uses model-driven technology, visual recognition technology, robots and other technologies to achieve unmanned automatic assembly and welding. About 6 groups are set up per hour, and the efficiency is nearly doubled. In the future, intelligent assembly and welding equipment can also centralize multiple processes such as part positioning, assembly and welding, full welding, weld grinding and precision measurement, significantly reducing the distance of parts transportation.
"Our slogan is that building ships should be like building cars, try to be as intelligent and unmanned as possible, and improve construction quality and efficiency." Weng Zhenping said, which is why Changxing Marine Laboratory combines basic research and applied research. "If you want to put scientific research results into practice, you must do this. You can't just publish papers. In the end, they must be applied to enterprises, see results, and gain benefits. Only then can you unleash new productivity and achieve high-quality development." Therefore, the laboratory also makes full use of its location. Advantages include collaborative research with central enterprises on the island, such as the Jiangnan Research Institute in cooperation with Jiangnan Shipbuilding, and the low-temperature engineering laboratory in cooperation with the Hudong Shipyard to study ultra-low temperature engineering and assist in the manufacturing of LNG ships.
As a research base serving the high-quality development of the marine industry, the entire Changxing Marine Laboratory covers an area of 236 acres with a total investment of 5 billion yuan. It focuses on intelligent manufacturing, intelligent equipment, green power, resource development, underwater technology, deep-sea exploration and polar regions. Science and other research directions, it has achieved a number of integrated research results, including research on key core technologies of deep-sea mining, successfully developed "Kai Kao No. 1" and completed a 1,300-meter deep-sea test; designed and synthesized a new type of main-chain degradable anti-fouling coating with sustained and stable performance. The technical advantages of long-term anti-fouling, good drag reduction, not easy to fall off, and no cracking on impact, surpass the existing international mainstream products in terms of principle and effect, and are promoting classification society certification and market promotion; the research and development team of ships has established an unmanned production line , based on two key technologies such as the cross-department and multi-field unified data model and digital twin small-scale unmanned production line control, independently developed 4 sets of automation equipment, developed a software system, and built a small-scale unmanned production line prototype .
"China's shipbuilding volume, both in terms of orders and annual completions, ranks first in the world. This is very worthy of pride, but at the same time there are still many core and key technologies that are not fully in our own hands." Weng Zhenping said, this This is the responsibility of Changxing Marine Laboratory. “We must work with enterprises to tackle key problems to achieve independent control of key technologies and serve the development of the marine economy and the strategy of becoming a maritime power.”
