Frontline research | A "bed" leaps over the dragon gate! Breaking through the core key technology of 0.01mm and continuously surpassing Dong Lingyun | Technology | Frontline

The technical level of high-end CNC machine tools is one of the standards for measuring a country's core manufacturing capabilities. Last year, China's machine tool industry ranked first in the world with a production volume of 182.3 billion yuan. However, being large but not strong is the biggest bottleneck restricting the development of China's machine tools. How to break through in high-end machine tool manufacturing? Recently, the reporter conducted a survey on the largest CNC machine tool research and production base in China - General Technology Shenyang Machine Tool.

The user distribution map released by Shenyang Machine Tool this month covers multiple key industries such as energy, rail transit, automobiles, and construction machinery. On the day of the reporter's investigation, Dong Lingyun, the Minister of Strategy and Operations of Shenyang Machine Tool, was about to conduct a follow-up visit with the technical service department on the user experience of the new Longmen series products.

Thanks to the significant improvement in core technical indicators, the new products of the Longmen series have been highly recognized by users. The reporter learned that in the past year, Shenyang Machine Tool has established 35 research and development teams, tackling more than 10 core key technologies such as high-end CNC machine tool design and manufacturing. R&D investment accounts for 11.9% of total sales revenue. Dong Lingyun has been working at Shenyang Machine Tool for 30 years, and in his impression, the company's R&D investment in 2022 is the highest.

Dong Lingyun, Director of Strategy and Operations Department of General Technology Shenyang Machine Tool: These are the implementation progress of our project after its establishment, including the time plan for the prototype, all arranged according to the schedule to ensure that the final product meets the customer's needs.

Dong Lingyun, Director of the Strategy and Operations Department of General Technology Shenyang Machine Tool: This is the progress table for gantry products. The spindle speed of gantry products has increased from 2000 and 3000 revolutions per minute to 6000 and 8000 revolutions per minute. These are all difficulties that we have gradually overcome through our innovative studio, step by step through a large number of experiments.

Breaking through the core key technology of 0.01mm and continuously surpassing it

Increasing the spindle speed can improve the operational efficiency, machining accuracy, stability, and reliability of machine tools, which are also important indicators for judging whether the machine tool is high-end.

In the production workshop, the reporter met with Yan Haoming, the project chief engineer of the Longmen Machine Tool series products. He is currently testing the 35th guide rail test piece on a new product. The guide rail is one of the most easily worn core components on a machine tool, and its quality directly affects the machining accuracy of the machine tool. At present, most quenching technologies in China can only process parts with a length of 2 meters, but Yan Haoming and his team have successfully challenged quenching 11 meter long parts.

Yan Haoming, Chief Engineer of Longmen Five sided Machining Center Project: Why do we need to study quenching technology? We want the accuracy of gantry machine tools to remain unchanged for a long time, and we must break through technological barriers in order to break the blockade on gantry machine tools from abroad.

Yan Haoming told reporters that internationally, this large volume gantry machine tool has a positioning accuracy of 0.01 millimeters, which belongs to the precision level. At present, the gantry series products of Shenyang Machine Tool have successfully crossed the industry threshold of 0.01 millimeters. At present, they are continuously improving the manufacturing level of core components to make machine tools more stable and reliable.

The CNC system is a key core component of CNC machine tools, responsible for coordinating and coordinating various actions during the operation of the machine tool. The CNC system independently developed by Shenyang Machine Tool has reached the world's advanced level in some functions.

Front desk reporter Qi Lili: We can see that there is a human-machine dialogue interface next to the machine tool. By entering commands on it, you can operate the machine tool. Although it may seem like a very large iron object, its fast moving speed can reach 30 meters per minute, and within a range of 6 meters, its positioning accuracy can reach 0.01 millimeters. For example, the running parts of this machine tool are within a range of 6 meters, and it only takes 12 seconds to move. At the same time, its error will be controlled within a distance of one tenth of a strand of hair.

Supplementing Shortcomings and Enhancing Capacity to Help the High end Machine Tool Industry Get Rid of Difficulties

During the interview with Shenyang Machine Tool, the reporter found that the factory now needs to control the production of machine tools in real time every day, work overtime to ensure timely delivery of orders, and even adopt three shifts for key projects. But it's hard to imagine that this company almost went bankrupt a few years ago.

Shenyang Machine Tool has always been at the forefront of China's machine tool industry, and its products and technology represent the overall development level of China's machine tool industry. This machine tool was the first self-developed lathe by the Chinese people, which appeared on the 2-yuan banknote published in 1960, commonly known as the "lathe worker's two yuan".

In 2011, Shenyang Machine Tool ranked first on the global machine tool ranking with a sales revenue of 18 billion yuan. Unexpectedly, the global machine tool industry market has become saturated. At this time, the foreign machine tool industry began to research and develop new technologies for high-end machine tools, and the Chinese machine tool industry fell into the "mid to low end trap". In 2018, Shenyang Machine Tool was heavily indebted and plunged into a bankruptcy crisis.

Dong Lingyun, Minister of Strategy and Operations Department of General Technology Shenyang Machine Tool: At that time, due to the overall market downturn and the internal funding chain rupture of Shenyang Machine Tool, the enterprise was extremely difficult. On the one hand, it is difficult to pay wages, and on the other hand, even the water and electricity bills in the park are difficult to pay. People may have to come to pull the floodgates and stop the water supply.

To help Shenyang Machine Tool overcome its difficulties, the country, provinces and cities have successively issued policy documents to support the reform and development of Shenyang Machine Tool. The 22nd meeting of the State Council Leading Group for State owned Enterprises reviewed and approved the Comprehensive Reform Plan for Shenyang Machine Tool Factory, which includes Shenyang Machine Tool as a pilot unit for comprehensive reform of state-owned enterprises in the Northeast region.

Dong Lingyun, Minister of Strategy and Operations Department of General Technology Shenyang Machine Tool, stated that the eight ministries have jointly proposed a comprehensive reform plan for a local state-owned enterprise, in order to promote this industry.

The implementation of the comprehensive reform plan has played a positive role in solving the dilemma of Shenyang Machine Tool. In 2019, with the support and assistance of national ministries and provincial and municipal governments, General Technology Group implemented a strategic restructuring of Shenyang Machine Tool.

To meet the needs of national key areas, Shenyang Machine Tool has implemented a three-step strategy of "filling gaps, improving levels, and self arming", filling manufacturing and process gaps, improving the level and level of core equipment, relying on its own technology and core equipment to upgrade and replace existing equipment. After restructuring, Shenyang Machine Tool achieved a turnaround within 3 years.

Dong Lingyun, Minister of Strategy and Operations Department of General Technology Shenyang Machine Tool: In the industrial chain, we need to achieve independence, security, and controllability. Our level of localization is gradually improving. Some of our other products have already achieved a positioning accuracy of 0.005mm, and we will continue to move towards a height of 0.001 mm in the future. These are dragon gates, and we must step by step overcome them.