china economic sample observation·enterprise sample chapter｜the digital nirvana of a grain of sand
2024-09-29
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xinhua news agency, taiyuan, september 24title: digital nirvana of a grain of sand
xinhua news agency reporters gao kang and wang jinyu
the grains of sand, although tiny, are all-encompassing, and the vastness can be seen invisibly.
the craftsmanship of casting has a long history. in the past, craftsmen used fire as pen and gold as ink, creating exquisite masterpieces in the heat.
in the digital age, using sand as a tool and new technology as a medium, the casting process is redefined.
this is the production workshop of kangshuo electric group co., ltd. located in gaoping city, shanxi province (photo taken on august 21, 2024). published by xinhua news agency (photo by yang zhe)
taking advantage of the trend, relying on innovation to break through difficulties, and starting a fantasy journey of "two-way running" between sand and casting - kangshuo electric group co., ltd. started from scratch and has established a firm foothold in the field of sand 3d printing and casting in the past few years, planning for the future. .
lacking first-mover advantage and independent technology, how can kangshuo get started and break out of the industry? what difficulties have they overcome in the transformation and upgrading from economic and trade services to intelligent manufacturing... the rebirth of a grain of sand, the transformation of an enterprise, the breakthrough of an industry, and the subtle details of the universe.
chasing sand
in 2009, liu bin, who was in his forties, made an important decision to pick up his backpack and go to beijing to start a business again.
he was once a leader in the business circle. with his flexible business acumen, he earned his first pot of gold at a young age.
industry, the lifeblood of a country's economy, has always fascinated him. he believes that only doing the traditional trade is "unchallenging and not enough". entering the manufacturing industry and creating his own "fist" products can better realize his ambitions.
let’s go to the capital of science and technology to find inspiration!
on august 21, 2024, a technician calibrated a printer in the production workshop of kangshuo electric group co., ltd. in gaoping city, shanxi province. published by xinhua news agency (photo by yang zhe)
kangshuo electric (beijing) co., ltd. was established in beijing: 3 employees and a traditional business agency business line.
while maintaining his old business to support himself, liu bin was conducting inspections and preparations at home and abroad, full of longing for the future.
during a trip to the united states, he visited the massachusetts institute of technology. he was deeply shocked when he saw that tiny aerospace parts manufactured using 3d printing and other technologies were engraved with textures like human fingerprints.
that’s it!
after some research, he made up his mind to bring industrial-grade 3d printing technology back to china.
after spending most of his savings, liu bin purchased more than 100 3d printing equipment from abroad and built a factory in foshan, guangdong, where the jewelry industry is developed. the business started smoothly, producing 3d printing wax film molds for companies to manufacture customized jewelry.
however, the good times did not last long. with the rapid promotion of 3d printing technology, industry competition is becoming increasingly fierce. the company lacked originality and relied on "brought over" technology and equipment, resulting in a severe decline in business and orders.
liu bin once again stood at the crossroads of life.
"if you can make such small jewelry so exquisitely, wouldn't it be even better to make industrial parts?" a friend's words inspired liu bin.
he made a decisive decision to give up the jewelry business and switch to the field of industrial parts casting.
the foundry industry, an ancient industry with a history of thousands of years, is glowing with new vitality driven by digital technology. liu bin keenly captured this trend, and with the 3d printing technology and experience accumulated over the past few years, he plunged into the vast ocean of casting.
for a long time, china's foundry industry has been large but not strong, accounting for nearly half of the world's foundry production capacity. however, the casting process, technology and product quality have lagged behind the international advanced level.
on august 21, 2024, a technician operated a printer in the production workshop of kangshuo electric group co., ltd. in gaoping city, shanxi province. published by xinhua news agency (photo by yang zhe)
"in those years, he lived and ate in an office. he started researching technical solutions every day when he opened his eyes." fan yiyang, president of kangshuo group, recalled that in order to delve into industrial-level 3d printing technology, liu bin visited almost all 3d printing technology innovation-related conferences in beijing. company.
he finally found the direction-sand 3d printing mold. compared with the wooden molds and steel molds used in the traditional foundry industry, sand molds are made of quartz sand, ceramsite sand, etc. as raw materials through 3d printing. in this way, the efficiency of mold production is higher, and the cast products are more precise and more plastic.
through digital technology, shazi shaped various ingenious precision parts in this nirvana again and again.
at that time, only foreign countries had mature technology for sand 3d printing. the price of a piece of equipment imported from germany can reach tens of millions of yuan.
tighten your pants, even if you don’t have enough money, you have to take out a loan!
time did not wait, and the company had not yet recovered from the pain of transformation. liu bin ordered several large-scale 3d printing equipment from germany, and the capital turnover for purchasing equipment and building factories became increasingly difficult.
"we spent our own money to 'extend' the company's life." fan yiyang told reporters that during the most difficult period, several managers of the company took turns to use their savings every month to pay wages to employees.
on august 21, 2024, technicians adjusted printing equipment in the production workshop of kangshuo electric group co., ltd. in gaoping city, shanxi province. published by xinhua news agency (photo by yang zhe)
in 2018, the joint innovation project between beijing and henan gave wings to liu bin's dream of "chasing sand", and the sand 3d printing project was launched. in 2020, kangshuo settled in gaoping city, shanxi province, the "hometown of smelting and casting" with traditional casting advantages, and became a chain owner company that helps local traditional casting companies carry out intelligent transformation and upgrading. his industrial dream continues to grow here.
metamorphosis
in the third workshop of kangshuo group's shanxi gaoping factory, a huge machine is busy. this rectangular "big box" about 3 meters long and as tall as a person is a sand mold 3d printing equipment. through the glass, you can see the print head on the operating table. keep laying layers of sand on top.
the print head "squeaked" and quickly passed over the one-meter-square sand mold base. layers of gravel were laid down precisely, just like an artist's hand using sand as ink. in an instant, a sand mold was completed smoothly. .
in the exhibition hall, there are a wide variety of sand molds. some of them have only 1 to 2 millimeters of gaps at their finest, while others are precision parts composed of dozens of pipes. kangshuo's main business is to use 3d printing technology to manufacture sand molds to help customers cast key components such as engine cylinder heads, aerospace engine blades, and gearboxes.
"there are currently 11 units of equipment like this in the shanxi factory. the production line is equipped with several workers in shifts, and the machine does not stop 24 hours a day." duan geyang, general manager of kangshuo group, said that currently, kangshuo group has branches in shanxi, henan, chongqing, in jiangxi and many other factories, kangshuo group's related business revenue exceeded 100 million yuan in 2021, and the industry's popularity is rising.
on august 21, 2024, technicians operated casting equipment in the production workshop of kangshuo electric group co., ltd. in gaoping city, shanxi province. published by xinhua news agency (photo by yang zhe)
it is hard to imagine that a few years ago, kangshuo sand mold 3d printing started in a workshop-style factory consisting of a factory building of about 1,000 square meters and two tin rooms.
liu bin is well aware of the importance of talents to enterprise development.
he put forward a unique goal: "let people who could not speak before be able to speak clearly about our sophisticated technology in front of customers." therefore, those employees with potential were asked to speak in front of their coworkers every week. , took the stage to teach everyone his own technical innovation courses.
wang xiang, a young man in his 20s, used to have some social fears and was not good at talking. since joining kangshuo group's chongqing base, he has conducted internal roadshows in the company every week. now he has transformed into the company's technical backbone, often representing the company in various public events and exhibitions.
there are many similar measures, including training and promotion channels... kangshuo has become a local star company in one fell swoop, attracting many local young people.
recruit talents in an eclectic way. liu bin also discovered a group of "veterans" who have been engaged in the foundry industry for many years, such as zhao bin, to inject backbone into the first 3d printing factory settled in dengzhou, henan.
“with no foundation, no skills, and a lack of talents, we were crossing the river by feeling the stones step by step.” zhao bin, who has now become the executive deputy general manager of kangshuo group, recalled.
"our production scale was small at that time, and sometimes we purchased some raw materials in single digits, and our suppliers didn't look at us seriously." zhao bin said that today's sound supply chain is "hard work + perseverance" little by little. came out.
the customer requires that crack x-ray inspection be carried out before product acceptance. the factory did not have such conditions at the time. in order to keep the order, zhao bin came to a sudden idea and ran to a nearby hospital to rent an x-ray machine for product testing.
sand mold 3d printing has several characteristics: high precision, high efficiency, and high flexibility. in order to keep up with the advanced level of the industry and the high-quality needs of customers, what is the secret of kangshuo's innovation?
by "noisy".
"there is a strange phenomenon in kangshuo's r&d department." duan geyang told reporters that the r&d centers of other companies are quiet. when people pass by kangshuo's laboratory, they will always hear a "quarrel."
"we who do casting generally have a rough temperament." duan geyang said.
liu bin believes that engineers' "quarrels" are a vivid reflection of everyone's in-depth exchange of innovative ideas and discussion of skills. at kangshuo, he not only encourages r&d personnel to take turns "asking questions" every day, but also encourages "quarrels" due to differences in technological innovation.
"if there are differences, it means that everyone is thinking seriously. maybe both paths are right." liu bin formulated innovation rules to provide a guarantee for trial and error in research and development.
on august 21, 2024, technicians calibrated equipment in the production workshop of kangshuo electric group co., ltd. in gaoping city, shanxi province. published by xinhua news agency (photo by yang zhe)
an open and inclusive innovation atmosphere promotes the take-off of kangshuo technology innovation:
kangshuo has established a central research institute; in the past three years, an average of more than 100 patents have been registered every year, and the annual r&d investment has exceeded 50 million yuan...
kangshuo has successively carried out joint scientific innovation with tsinghua university, beijing university of technology, north university of china and other universities, and the results have continued to show.
today, kangshuo's products have covered the fields of intelligent manufacturing of complex key components and intelligent equipment, mainly for aerospace, automobiles, ships, energy and power, industrial aircraft and other industries; the group's revenue has doubled for four consecutive years, and revenue is expected to increase again in 2024 doubled; in 2022, kangshuo was selected as a national specialized and new "little giant" enterprise and won the title of "intelligent manufacturing pilot demonstration factory" issued by the ministry of industry and information technology.
after more than 10 years of hard work, kang shuo ushered in the highlight moment when he transformed from a cocoon to a butterfly.
catch up
in shanghai in may, the 2024 asia 3d printing and additive manufacturing exhibition, which has attracted much attention from the industry, kicked off.
at the exhibition, kangshuo's booth was bustling with activity in front of an equipment the size of a small container.
what attracts everyone’s attention is the kss1800a sand mold 3d printing equipment independently developed and launched by kangshuo.
"can i take it away directly?" on the first day of the exhibition, a japanese businessman said that he had to pay the full price on the spot and hoped to buy this prototype immediately and take it home; some foreign visitors took out a tape measure and notebook and recorded the measurements while asking... …
why is everyone so fascinated?
this is a product produced by kangshuo group through 3d printing technology. published by xinhua news agency (photo provided by interviewee)
——r&d led by bai long, dean of kangshuo central research institute, kangshuo pioneered the bi-directional sand spreading technology for sand mold 3d printing in the industry, with a sand spreading speed of 400 mm per second and a printing speed of 1200 mm per second; the printing speed of each layer it takes about 16 to 18 seconds, which is 6 to 8 seconds faster than imported equipment. it doubles the sand spreading efficiency and effectively improves production efficiency.
——subversion of the traditional rail-based transportation model and the installation of agv assembly doors for picking up and delivering parts. the efficiency of picking up and delivering parts has been greatly improved, and it is more suitable for the new digital environment of smart factories.
——a piece of equipment imported from abroad often costs tens of millions of yuan. kangshuo strictly controls costs through independent research and development, cost reduction and efficiency improvement, and the price is controlled to less than half of the imported equipment.
many core independent technologies of this equipment have reached the industry-leading level and filled the gaps in the industry.
the new equipment has not yet been launched on the market, but it is already popular. this not only reflects the improvement of the company's technical strength, but also epitomizes the intelligent and high-end development of china's foundry industry.
kangshuo is just like a grain of sand, which has gone through ups and downs and countless hardships. with the help of digitalization, it has been sublimated into a casting mold that can be called a handicraft.
in the shanxi kangshuo headquarters park, the reporter came to the fifth-phase intelligent casting workshop with an area of more than 30,000 square meters. the windows were bright and clean, and several workers were debugging equipment.
fan yiyang told reporters that this is kangshuo's latest foundry workshop, which is scheduled to be put into operation at the end of 2024. it will become one of the industry's first smart factories for zero-emission recycling of sand molds. by then, the saturated output value is expected to exceed 1 billion yuan. this workshop will be equipped with with about 20 workers, the per capita output value is expected to exceed 50 million yuan.
with accumulated experience, liu bin led kang shuo to plan a big game of chess.
transformation and upgrading from a sand 3d printing mold service provider to an independent research and development sand 3d printing equipment manufacturer + casting intelligent production enterprise; through the technology and experience accumulated in the sand 3d printing field, to the intelligent manufacturing of more difficult complex key parts, exploit new growth points in emerging fields such as intelligent equipment, unmanned equipment, and intelligent production line system integration.
the rapid development of kangshuo group is a microcosm of the transformation and upgrading of china's foundry industry in recent years.
more and more "stuck neck" technologies such as high-strength aluminum alloy products and high-grade cast iron products, multi-alloy element molten iron smelting, sand cores, precision multi-way valves, etc. are being overcome one by one; new intelligent casting companies are developing in shanxi, jiangsu, and hebei , jiangxi and other places are booming. the situation of the industry being large but not strong is changing. market competitiveness is increasing year by year. china's foundry industry is accelerating towards intelligence and high-end.
although the grains of sand are small, they can gather into a tower; although the road to innovation is long, it will eventually usher in the dawn. the story of kangshuo group's struggle is like a grain of fine sand being reborn in the digital age, vividly explaining the power of innovation and the meaning of persistence.
the world can be seen in a grain of sand, and the universe can be seen in a drop of water. the story of china’s smart manufacturing sailing has just begun.
