"As an industrial worker, it's a great honor to be on such a good platform." This is the first sentence that the reporter said when he met Master Li Wanjun at CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles) not long ago.
In 1987, Li Wanjun, 19 years old, graduated from vocational high school and came to the water tank section of Changke welding workshop. After decades of excellence, he has developed first-class welding technology, known as the "high-speed rail welding master", and was elected as the representative of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China.
CRRC Changke, where Li Wanjun is located, was founded in 1954 and is one of the key construction projects of the National "First Five Year Plan". It was restructured into a joint-stock company in March 2002. From the first subway train in China to the first new generation subway in the world that uses all carbon fiber composite materials, from the independently explored EMU "Changbai Mountain" to the "Fuxing" with completely independent intellectual property rights, they have created brilliant achievements.
The experience of Li Wanjun and Changchun Railway Vehicles is a microcosm of CRRC's reform and development. CRRC carries forward the spirit of locomotive in the new era, builds a major power in rail equipment, and becomes a "golden card" of China's equipment manufacturing industry.
Internationally renowned "golden card"
In the past 40 years of reform and opening up, CRRC has achieved the goal of "leading" in the world's advanced rail transit equipment field, becoming the world's largest rail equipment enterprise with the most complete varieties and leading technology.
In the process of climbing the technology peak, generations of CRRC people have explored the locomotive spirit of the new era of "industry serving the country, collaborative innovation, reform forging ahead, and embracing the world", deepened reform, optimized governance, gave play to institutional advantages, adhered to collaborative innovation, and firmly grasped the important tools of a major country, providing valuable experience for China to break through key core technologies in basic fields.
From "following" to "running together", and then to strengthening independent innovation to achieve "leading", CRRC has gradually mastered the key core technology of advanced rail equipment, broken the long-term foreign technology monopoly, and become the first echelon of the world's rail equipment. Rail equipment products, including high-speed rail, are internationally renowned.
Since the first "Harmony" EMU was put into operation on April 18, 2007, CRRC has developed two generations and multiple models of "Harmony" EMU trains, which basically meet the needs of different regions and under various objective conditions. In June 2017, the Chinese standard EMU "Fuxing" with full independent intellectual property rights was put into use, with a continuous running speed of 350 kilometers per hour and energy storage speed of more than 400 kilometers per hour, making it the fastest, safer and more reliable EMU train in the world.
However, 15 years ago, most of the key systems of track equipment such as traction and braking were imported, and only minor changes in the software of braking response time were subject to human intervention.
From 2006 to 2017, the rapid leap of high-speed train industry has been achieved from "200~250km/h EMU" to "350km/h EMU", and then to "Fuxing" China's standard EMU "with completely independent intellectual property rights, which reflects the joint efforts of CRRC Group in collaborative innovation.
At the same time, CRRC is also actively spearheading the "Belt and Road Initiative" and the "going global" of high-end equipment. Its products cover 102 countries and regions, and 83% of countries with railways run CRRC products.
In recent years, CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles has reported many successes in the international high-end market. It has established market headquarters and sub research and development centers in the United States, Australia, Russia and other countries, covering four major regions and more than 30 business regions in the world. On October 30, the first test Melbourne metro vehicle designed and manufactured by CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles Co., Ltd. was successfully rolled off the production site in Newport, Melbourne, Australia.
The "golden key" to open the door of high-speed railway
Entering the delivery line of CRRC Sifang Co., Ltd., new high-speed EMUs are lined up like giant dragons, ready for departure.
This is the first place of China's high-speed railway. The first 200~250 km/h high-speed EMU, the first 300 km/h high-speed EMU, the first 380 km/h high-speed EMU, and the first "Fuxing" EMU were all born here. The CRH380A driving out of here has set the world's first speed for high-speed rail operation test at 486.1 km/h; The "Fuxing" EMU has achieved 350 km/h commercial operation, making China the fastest country in the world in high-speed rail commercial operation. Here, high-speed trains can be produced at the speed of 3 trains every 4 days at the fastest. Today, more than 1300 high-speed EMUs have been driven out from here, which is the largest number of enterprises operating high-speed EMUs online in China. From here, urban rail metro vehicles drive to more than 50 lines at home and abroad, and the products are exported to more than 20 countries and regions in the world.
What kind of innovation lies behind the "dream factory" of CRRC Sifang high-speed railway?
"Innovation is the 'golden key' to open the door of high-speed rail," said Ma Yunshuang, general manager of CRRC Sifang Co., Ltd.
Take "Fuxing" as an example. "Fuxing" is a new generation of high-speed EMUs in China with completely independent intellectual property rights, reaching the world's advanced level. The continuous operation speed is 350 kilometers per hour, and the test speed is more than 400 kilometers per hour. Its overall design and key technologies such as car body, bogie, traction, braking and network are independently developed. At the same time, energy conservation and consumption reduction, safety, intelligence, comfort, application economy and other aspects have been greatly improved, and some technical indicators have reached the world's leading level.
A column of "Fuxing", with more than 500000 parts. From 2013 to 2017, CRRC Sifang has overcome numerous technical difficulties from the determination of top-level technical indicators to key technology research, from simulation analysis to test verification, turning design schemes into feasible drawings.
In 2018, CRRC Sifang launched a new round of innovation, adding new members to the "Fuxing" family. In order to meet the demand of China's high-speed railway for large volume passenger transport, CRRC Sifang has developed 16 long edition "Fuxing" multiple units with a speed of 350km/h, which have been put into operation; The super long version of "Fuxing" with a speed of 350 km/h and 17 car formation entered the type test in September, and is expected to be put into operation on the Beijing Shanghai high-speed railway next year; The 250 km/h "Fuxing" multiple units also started type test in October this year
Through continuous innovation, "Fuxing" is about to form a pedigree "family" with different speed levels, different marshalling forms and different operational needs to meet the diversified needs of high-speed railway. At the same time, CRRC Sifang is developing high-speed maglev with a speed of 600km/h to cultivate new advantages to meet global competition.