Guests including Shen Jianwen (6 ^th from right), Technical Director of CIMC Vehicles, and Guo Xizhou (7^th from right), General Manager of CIMC Huajun, jointly launched the 3^rd“lighttowerfactory”

On November 24, 2017, the ceremony for launching and delivering the office building of the lighttower factoryunder CIMC Huajun was held by CIMC Vehicles (Group) Co., Ltd. in Zhumadian City, Henan Province. Meanwhile, the first van semi-trailer with side curtains made by CIMC Vehicles was revealed. This is also the first product manufactured by the lighttower factory. The successful assembling and delivery of this trailer implicate that the prototype for the next-generation smart trailers in China has come into being. With the introduction of GB7258 (technical specifications for the safety of power-driven vehicles operating on roads), manufacturers of such trailers will welcome unprecedented opportunities.   

CIMC Vehicles has significantly improved its capabilities in smart manufacturing in recent years with new smart products developed one after another. The company has achieved a leading position in the world regarding the capability of manufacturing semi-trailers. In particular, “the van semi-trailer with side curtains is an outcome from exploiting the wisdom of a large number of engineers in the country, with features such as smart technologies and a light weight. Advanced materials and techniques were used to make this trailer and it is a symbol of the leading position of ‘Made in China’ in the world both in terms of the design and the manufacturing processes.” Zhang Xueli, Senior Engineer at the Research Institute of Highway, Ministry of Transport, said on the ceremony for assessing and delivering the trailer that this new product made by CIMC Vehicle would play a great role in the development of important industry standards and related experimental validation performed by the Ministry and would definitely be an example and guidance for the safe, environmentally friendly, and efficient development of China’s trailer manufacturing industry.

The lighttower factory of CIMC Huajun is the 3^rd advanced digital plant under CIMC Vehicles with the innovation of “making semi-trailers with the approach used for commercial vehicles to realize zero emission of VOCs.” The van semi-trailer with side curtains enjoys features such as lightweight, low cost, easy loading and unloading, and brilliant appearance. Currently, such trailers are the mainstream transport equipment on the European market and also the future direction for the development of advanced trailers in China.

CIMC Huajun is a flagship company under CIMC Vehicles (Group) as well as the main driving force in the transformation and upgrading of the Group. “Our transformation today is not just for the upgrading but also for producing products appreciated by the industry. Our goal for the transformation is to truly serve the market and our customers.” According to Shen Jianwen, CTO of CIMC Vehicles, what is brilliant about this project is that the product innovation is not about the finished vehicles but the innovative combination of parts. The semi-trailer is assembled with high-precision parts and this is the modularized approach for manufacturing vehicles. When this approach is used together with automation and digital technologies to enhance productivity, large-scale and standardized product manufacturing can be realized and highly flexible and personalized products can be made to meet the needs on customization, thus a smart model for “flexible production” can be created.

The efficiency of loading and unloading will decide the operating performance of a logistics company. “As far as the time is concerned, normally it takes two hours to unload an entire truck and three hours to load it. However, with a van semi-trailer with side curtains, only 20 to 30 minutes is needed with loading and securing together costing one hour, shortened by approximately 70%.” Guo Xizhou, General Manager of CIMC Huajun, said, “This plant shoulders the important mission of the strategic planning and technological upgrading of CIMC Vehicles with the focus on enhancing the competitiveness of our core products and the aim to build a smart trailer with leading technologies and rapidly expand market share both at the home and abroad.” 

It is understood that this semi-trailer has a total length of 13.69m, a width of 2.55m, a volume of 90 cubic meters, and a weight of 6,600 kg. The mainstream structure in Europe is used for the trailer with high-strength curtains on the top and at both sides of the body. The top of the body can slide open back or forth. The goods can be loaded and unloaded with cranes. Curtains at both sides can be moved back or forth for the loading and unloading by forklifts. Regarding the materials, the trailer is largely made of aluminum alloy and roller profiles to lower its weight and disc brakes and pneumatic suspension are used based on the requirement of GB7258 to further ensure the safety on the road.

Guo Xizhou (5 ^th  from right), General Manager of CIMC Huajun, delivers the key of the test trailer to Zhang Xueli (4^th from right), Senior Engineer at the Research Institute of Highway, Ministry of Transport

The most important feature of this semi-trailer is the smart technologies it uses, from which we can see the prototype of the future smart trailers. This trailer combines the achievements from the smart trailer program of CIMC Vehicles (Group). It is armed with the hardware of a smart trailer and a smart platform for managing information about the trailer.  With the SF-Trailernet system developed by CIMC Vehicles, the trailer is capable of addressing issues common in the logistics industry such as the assets management, cost reduction, enhancement of efficiency, and early warning, and realizing functions such as dynamic and real-time acquisition of the information about the goods, operation and analysis of Big Data, the transparent course of transport, and the monitoring on the safety of the trailer and goods.

As a smart trailer, this van semi-trailer with side curtains made by CIMC Huajun combines the latest technologies such as tracking and management of trailers, monitoring on the temperature and pressure of the tires, RSS smart rollover prevention system and smart early warning on collision, further ensuring the safety of the vehicle. One of the great features of this trailer is its smart electric support leg system. This system is controlled through an entirely independent power supply which is operated by pressing one button in the driver’s cab. The legs are raised and lowered by an electric motor so that the driver is relieved of the heavy duty and potential dangers under the burning sun or in the heavy rain. The system can achieve wireless remote control with multiple trailers of the same configuration operated by a single wireless remote control, which is a great benefit to the drop and pull transport.

On the afternoon of November 23, the ceremony for CIMC Vehicles to deliver the van semi-trailer with side curtains for testing to the Ministry of Transport was held by CIMC Huajun. The company has cooperated with the Ministry in the related test for validating the safety of the trailer and attended the technical seminar to talk about the solution for testing and validating of the safety specification Part 2 - Tractors and Trailers of the Safety Specification for Commercial Vehicle for Cargos Transportation so as to promote the healthy growth of the entire industry.

Special thanks to Li Jiazi, brand marketer of Market Management Division, CIMC Huajun, for contributing photos and articles