“Super Magellan Digital Production Line” of Yangzhou CIMC Tonghua Special Vehicle Co., Ltd. was officially put into operation in Yangzhou, Jiangsu on the morning of July 28. The production line is purported to change the way of traditional production and management. By using the same way as producing commercial vehicles to produce special ones, it greatly improves the production efficiency and shortens the product delivery time. It becomes the leading digital special vehicle production line.

Full-auto laser cutting work island, digital welding production line, the world’s first robot automatic spraying line for hyper-complex workpiece, the latest advanced KTL (cathode electro-coating) electrophoresis line... Hundreds of customers, dealers and suppliers representatives from all over the country visited the newly built digital semitrailer factory of CIMC Tonghua for the Super Magellan Digital Production Line that was just in operation on the morning of 28th. They commended this intelligent, high-level production line.

“Such intelligent production line could only be seen for production of commercial vehicles. It is the first time for production of special vehicles,” said Xu Yun, General Manager of Shanghai Lulutong Automobile Sales Co., Ltd., who viewed this production line as a new benchmark for intelligent manufacturing in the special vehicle industry.

Magellan Instruction Workshop project was formally established at CIMC Tonghua in August 2016, according to Xia Aijun, General Manager of CIMC Tonghua Digital Semitrailer Factory. CIMC was the first in China to explore and practice intelligent manufacturing of special vehicles. As the project saw rapid progress, the Magellan project was upgraded to the Super Magellan program, in which a full production process was achieved from laser cutting, robot welding to KTL electrophoretic spraying & coating, and efficient assembly. At the same time, the production line project integrated PLM (Product Lifecycle Management), MES (Manufacturing Execution System) and other digital management tools to become richer in content and be given more profound significance.

“The PLM system and MES system enable the informational and digital management over the entire process from product configuration, product design, and structured process design at earlier stage to on-site production execution. Also, the data from the production site can be fed into the design end, which expresses a closed loop of digital product manufacturing,” said Xia Aijun, adding that “In this way, it improves the efficiency of operation, shortens the cycle from product development to marketing services and delivery time, and injects new vitality into market innovation. ”

“The Super Magellan Digital Semitrailer Factory put into operation today is a domestically first-class, and globally leading digital production line for special vehicles,” Dr. Li Xiaofu, Technical Director of CIMC Vehicles, stated, “Digital-analog design, automatic production, and digital management will greatly improve production efficiency, shorten product delivery time, and allow zero emissions of VOCs (Volatile Organic Compounds).”

This production line is introduced to enable flexible mixed model production of multiple models in the form of module work island. The “Module Work Island” is a new model for flexible product manufacturing combined with modular product design. A limited number of modules can be utilized to meet the individual needs of customers through the modular configuration of products.

“Generally speaking, it breaks the concept of traditional product lines by separate concentrated production of each small auto part, and assembly of those parts into models as required by customers in the same way as block stacking based on customers’ order requirements,” said Zhang Shiwei, Director of the CIMC Vehicles Automatic Manufacturing Technology Center. “This allows for greater production efficiency while tailoring to the current market need for flexible production.”

As for energy saving and emission reduction, I saw at the factory that some goldfish were playing in the pool of coating wastewater which had been treated with special water treatment process. “The traditional paint or primer technology was applied for the special vehicle production line, for which ‘rusty water’ was common in the wastewater. The new production line, on the other hand, adopts new technology on an energy saving and environmentally friendly basis. With professional environmental water treatment technology, the discharged wastewater is clean enough for keeping goldfish after several processes such as electrophoresis and coating,” a relevant staff said.

According to analysis by relevant organizations in the industry, the current special vehicle market in China features “multiple varieties, small batches, and small yet dispersed producers” in relation to production and needs. As China sees faster economic development and infrastructure construction, and GB1589 (Limits of dimensions, axle load and masses for motor vehicles, trailers and combination vehicles) and GB7258 (Technical specifications for safety of power-driven vehicles operating on roads) have been introduced, the market is calling for special vehicles with more specificity, and higher technical and intelligence level.

“The CIMC’s Magellan program was born in this context,” the relevant leader of CIMC said. “The choice of CIMC Tonghua to spearhead this mission is mainly based on its advantages in impressive manufacturing background and innovation.” Since its establishment in 1992, CIMC Tonghua has been focusing on semitrailers for 26 years with such long history and tradition of semitrailer manufacturing and R&D, and an annual design capacity of 30,000 units. In 2017, the sales of more than 26,300 special vehicles of different varieties was among the highest in the industry.

The new Super Magellan Digitalized Special Vehicle Production Line in operation is part of the digitalized production - research entity project invested by CIMC. Reportedly, such project was signed in Yangzhou Development Zone. As a pilot project of CIMC Industrial Park, it is designed to build a semitrailer and tank truck R&D center, a digitalized manufacturing center, and a global operations center, building itself into an Asia-Pacific leading digital semitrailer joint production and research entity and a world’s leading tank truck R&D and production base.

“The old factory of CIMC Tonghua on Yangzijiang Road is expected to be relocated by the end of next year.” Liu Hongqing, President of CIMC Tonghua Digital Semitrailer Joint Enterprise, introduced that the pilot project has a total investment of 2 billion yuan and is expected to be completed in December 2019. After it starts production, it is supposed to achieve annual sales of 3.6 billion yuan and pay taxes of 200 million yuan. It is destined to become a model enterprise for intelligent manufacturing in the semitrailer industry and a benchmarking enterprise in Yangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone.