Explore the answer to the ultimate cost performance of Sany motor

According to the benchmarking results of the 2024 wind power operation index in the power industry, Sany Renewable Energy ranks first among the 22 complete machine manufacturers in the country in the list of the best host manufacturers for regional unit utilization rate indicators.

Over the years, based on the global insight into the application scenario and the deep understanding of the wind turbine system technology, Sany Renewable Energy has run through the whole chain of production, university, research and use, to create a motor with both performance and cost advantages, and has practiced the concept of "creating the ultimate user experience with the ultimate cost performance" with practical actions.

The answer lies in technological innovation

Since its birth in 2008 at the same time as Sany Renewable Energy, Sany Motor has been deeply involved in the field of wind power motors. From 1,075 self-produced motors in 2021 to 2,400 self-produced motors expected in 2025, the continuous growth of "quantity" is accompanied by the continuous optimization of "quality".

"Quality" comes from the accumulation of experience day after day, from the accumulation of technology over the years, and from the unswerving R&D and innovation.

When other machine manufacturers are subject to factors such as technology maturity, industrial chain support, and cost changes, and switch between different motor technology routes, Sany Renewable Energy, as a gene and integration advantage of the whole industry chain, has been firmly following the double-feed technology route for many years, and thus formed a deep penetration of dual-feed motor technology. 15MW platform motor was the first to roll off the production line; 20MW platform motor completed technical reserve...... Technology precipitation has been exchanged for greater innovation confidence.

Innovation brings greater cost-effective advantages.Aluminum is rich in reserves, the price is more advantageous, and the use of aluminum windings can also reduce the manufacturing cost of motors.Based on the above judgment, Sany Renewable Energy took the lead in the application and promotion of motor aluminum windings in the industry, and continued to cooperate with the industrial chain on the road of collaborative innovation, cost reduction and efficiency increase, so as to achieve the optimal match of motor cost reduction and balance performance.

Innovation leads to greater product reliability.Motor parts such as shafts, end caps, and machine bases can obviously be purchased, but Sany Renewable Energy insists on self-made and uses automation equipment to ensure quality consistency. The Manufacturing Process Capability Index (CPK) is used to quantify the ability of processes to meet specifications in a stable and controlled state, reflecting the level of product quality dispersion. Due to the use of fully automated equipment, Sany Motor's self-made parts CPK (process capability index, which refers to the actual processing capacity of the process in a controlled state for a certain period of time - editor's note) can easily reach more than 1.67, far exceeding the industry average of 1.0.

It is through the innovation of the whole chain of "material-design-intelligent manufacturing-operation and maintenance" that we continue to promote the upgrading of motor power density, reliability and intelligence, so as to provide core power support for large-megawatt wind turbines.

Kong Lingjiang, general manager of Sany Renewable Energy Motor Company, said that innovation needs to be fully verified, and innovation also needs to be tested by practice.

The answer is hidden in the experimental verification

Under the development trend of large-scale fans, the iteration speed of motors has accelerated significantly, and the reliability of key components such as motor bearings is particularly worthy of attention. One model has been updated in the past three years, and now it will be updated every year. This puts forward higher requirements for the motor's error-proofing ability, and also highlights the importance of pre-verification.

It is precisely because of the awareness of the importance of test verification that Sany Renewable Energy is willing to "slow down" in the construction of test benches and test verification. A lot of money and time have been invested in the construction of four test bases: Beijing Large MW Complete Machine Test Center, Zhangjiakou Blade Test Base, Shaoshan Material Laboratory and Tongyu Test Wind Field, thus establishing a multi-level verification system through wind turbine materials, components, subsystems, complete machines to batch fleets, so as to fully demonstrate the reliability of the whole life cycle of products.

In order to meet the reliability verification needs of parts and complete machines under the trend of large-scale, Sany Renewable Energy has broken the long-term technology monopoly of foreign countries, and has developed and built a self-developed and self-built 35 megawatt six-degree-of-freedom wind power test bench with the largest carrying power, the highest degree of reduction and the most comprehensive verification in the world, which can simultaneously meet the equipment functional testing, failure limit verification, design simulation model verification of the whole wind turbine and motors, spindles and other components, fully demonstrate the design feasibility and product reliability, and feed back the component design with test data. Achieve a closed loop from validation to optimization.

Relying on the "design-verification-optimization" trinity reliability guarantee system, the cost of Sany motor is 10%-30% lower than the industry average, and the quality reaches the level of leading enterprises, and at the same time shows stronger technological innovation capabilities.

The answer lies in lean production

Unlike technological innovation, which can significantly reduce costs, the production link is to tap the cost reduction space bit by bit and create greater value for the entire industrial chain.Lean production not only taps the potential of cost reduction, but also improves efficiency and ensures the consistency of quality.

At Sany Renewable Energy's Beijing Nankou production base, an industry-leading flexible production line has been established, a production process automatically distributes materials through AGV, various industrial robots and truss robots operate in an orderly manner through data-driven, and a production line can achieve mixed-line production.

Different from the inefficient and error-prone manual cart material distribution method in traditional factories, through advanced digital technology, Sany Renewable Energy Factory has realized intelligent management and automatic material distribution, and the work distribution and process control are more accurate and efficient, greatly improving efficiency and reducing errors.

Digital intelligence allows AI to empower fan design and manufacturing.In the past two years, Sany Renewable Energy has invested 200 million yuan to upgrade the motor plant intelligently. The cumbersome and time-consuming processes of the past have now been fully optimized by digital intelligence technology.In Sany Renewable Energy Motor Factory, a U-shaped automatic production line for rotor coils is built, integrating advanced technologies such as automatic sorting, intelligent visual inspection, automatic insulation reinforcement, linear wrapping, and unmanned molding, reducing production line personnel by 60%, increasing daily output by 30%, increasing labor efficiency by 195%, and increasing the pass rate of rotor coil inspection from 98.5% to 99.9%.Through the development of the automatic stator coil assembly line, the first application of automatic wrapping of white cloth belt, nose end wrapping, and automatic loading and unloading of robots has been applied for the first time, and the automation rate of the banding has been increased from 20% to 85%, the deviation range of coil shape and size has been reduced from 8mm to 2mm, and the core quality consistency has reached the industry-leading level.

Kong Lingjiang revealed that from the perspective of the nine-dimensional benchmarking of the whole process of lean manufacturing (process consistency, precision, quality control, reliability, efficiency, cost, flexibility, safety and environmental protection, and technological advancement), 75% of Sany Motor's items have reached the industry average, and 25% of the items have exceeded the industry level.

The answer is hidden in deep integration

Unlike other OEMs who purchase motors or adopt the model of "independent design + commissioned production", Sany Renewable Energy always adheres to the self-development and self-manufacture of motors, and participates in the in-depth design of the main engine to ensure that the motor voltage, rotation speed and host are better matched. From the design source and manufacturing link, it ensures that the motor and the wind power machine are more matched and have better reliability, which is also the unique advantage of Sany Renewable Energy.

On the one hand, it is the deep integration between the motor as the core component and the downstream wind power machine; On the other hand, it is the deep integration between the motor as a finished product and its upstream components.In 2025, Sany Renewable Energy will unite the industrial chain to achieve zero-fault slip rings in self-made motors, so as to completely eliminate the pain points of the industry.This means that it is necessary to start from multiple dimensions such as material selection, technical boundaries to parameter selection to ensure that the slip ring, including the brushes that are matched with it, can have the same life cycle as the wind turbine.Kong Lingjiang said that by sharing the actual operation data of the wind turbine in the wind farm, the analysis and research of the failure mode, and the study of process improvement under application conditions with the slip ring manufacturer, it will help improve the performance of the product from the source.

It is through the deep integration and collaborative innovation with the upstream and downstream industrial chains that at present, the bearing failure rate of Sany motor is 0.3% and the failure rate of slip ring is 1.1%, which is significantly lower than the industry average.

Focus on the big picture and start with the details. The success of Sany Motor's ultimate cost performance is hidden in every detail.