The birth of a "black light factory" began with the application of robots.
In the production plant of a new energy enterprise in Jiangsu, hundreds of driverless tractors move stably on complex roads, which can not only plan the operation path independently, but also actively avoid other robots and various obstacles. These driverless tractors are products of Shenyang Xinsong Robot Automation Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Xinsong Company), loaded with navigation, perception and control systems independently developed by Xinsong Company, replacing 70% of the manual logistics transportation of this new energy enterprise.
As a developer of driverless tractor, Wang Xun has grown from a software engineer to a senior executive director of Xinsong mobile robot, and has experienced a rapid iteration process of robot products and technologies.
"I am most willing to go into the workshop, because the workshop is connected to the market and the laboratory at one end, which is an important carrier for advanced technology to generate real productivity. Each workshop is a window for observing industrial change." Wang Xun's robot production workshop in Xinsong Company witnessed the change of manufacturing production mode and production relations brought about by the development of new quality productivity.
In the factory area of Xinsong Company in Hunnan District, Shenyang, Liaoning Province, there is a robot production workshop with an area of more than 20000 square meters, which is called the most comprehensive robot production workshop in the world by the industry. Here, the scene of robot making robot and robot service robot is staged all the time.
On June 18, the reporter saw in the workshop that the "China Red" mechanical arm, with six joints dancing freely, completed spot welding operations as fine as micrometers while carrying heavy loads; The yellow automobile chassis assembly robot keeps an eye on the production line above, steadily lifting and accurately assembling in one go; The industrial cleaning robot with cool temperament plans its own route and avoids obstacles accurately
The mobile robots produced here, such as industrial cleaning, logistics, palletizing and chassis assembly, can be regarded as "feet" in industrial production, while the industrial robots with strong and flexible wrists can be regarded as "hands" in industrial production. The high torque design supports the "arm" to swing up and down, which can weld thousands of welding points for the car body.
Zhang Jin, president of Xinsong Company, said that Xinsong Company has developed three categories of products, namely industrial robots, mobile robots and special robots, with fully independent intellectual property rights. It has completed more than 800 national key scientific and technological breakthroughs and has more than 1300 patents.
Liaoning is the birthplace of China's robot industry. Shenyang robot and intelligent manufacturing industry cluster, represented by Xinsong, has been included in the list of national advanced manufacturing industry clusters, becoming a "national team" leading the innovative development of the robot industry. Shenyang's robot industry chain has gradually formed, with more than 500 upstream and downstream supporting enterprises providing nearly 100 categories of robot products, which makes it possible for robots to be deeply applied.
The application of robots in production means that the industrial production mode has been upgraded from mechanization, automation and flexibility to informatization and intelligence.
For example, Wang Xun said that an automobile parts manufacturer used the production line to produce 150 automobile engines every day. After the mobile robot is launched, the enterprise changes the previous linear production mode to "island assembly". Each raw material station and assembly station is a work island. AI technology will intelligently allocate raw materials to idle work islands to achieve network transportation, and replace low-end repetitive labor with information management and numerical control technology. Today, the company's daily production of automobile engines has increased to 380.
After the popularization of the production mode of "island assembly", more and more unmanned factories and "black light factories" have appeared.
"With the enabling of robot technology, the innovative configuration and optimal combination of production factors will be realized, and a new type of production relationship will be established," said Wang Xiaofeng, senior director of the Central Research Institute of Xinsong Company. The robot designed by Wang Xiaofeng and his colleagues, rooted in the R&D workshop, can move flexibly with hundreds of kilograms of process equipment, perform fine operations with errors calculated in microns, and perform precise operations in a high radiation and high temperature operating environment.
Wang Xiaofeng's recent work focuses on the research and development of welding robots. The new generation of control system software that he and his team are developing will improve the spot welding rhythm, process accuracy and welding quality of welding robots on the automobile production line. As enterprises update data and then iterate, welding robots will become more and more suitable for workshops and workers to control. In the future, more and more welders holding welding guns will disappear, and instead, comprehensive operators of welding technology will stare at the control screen. At that time, the weldment, welding rod and flux in the welder's eyes will be replaced by a group of relevant data and models.
"The use of robots to enable new industrialization has really changed the production application scenarios, and the labor intensity of workers has been declining and the production efficiency has been improving," said Wang Xiaofeng.
