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Smart Factory丨A flexible "lighthouse" that can think quickly

2021.09.28

On September 27, the World Economic Forum (WEF) officially released a new list of "lighthouse factories" in the global manufacturing field, and Sany Heavy Industry Beijing Pile Driver Factory was successfully selected.It became the first certified "lighthouse factory" in the global heavy industry industry.

The highly flexible production created by 5G + industrial Internet, machine vision, and industrial AI has made it a "lighthouse" for intelligent manufacturing in the global heavy industry industry.

Machine Vision!

Precision assembly "lighthouse factory"

Walking into the assembly flexible island, it is full of robots that do not stop day and night. Only one or two engineers could be seen nearby, occasionally moving between the machine-connected production lines. Unlike the general workshop, this production line, which is responsible for the assembly of large parts, is quite quiet. Dong Mingkai, president of Sany Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute, introduced: "In the past, this production line was full of people. ”

Figure丨Flexible assembly island

The pile driver power head assembled here weighs several tons and is the core component of the pile driver. Relying on the 5G high-definition sensor, the heavy-duty robot accurately feeds the large items into the machine, and achieves accurate alignment within a few minutes, with an error of only 0.3mm.

In the past, this process could only be completed by manual "hanging gantry", which was not only labor-intensive, but also relatively inefficient.

"There is no precedent for unmanned assembly of such oversized parts in the industry." Dong Mingkai introduced, 5G high-definition sensor is the "eye" of the machine, can generate 1 million three-dimensional data coordinates per second, with strong perception and computing capabilities, "with it, no matter what model of large and small parts, the robot can get real-time scene depth information and three-dimensional model, and automatically repair deviations during operation."

At present, this flexible assembly line can meet the production of all power heads from 3 tons to 16 tons, with an automation rate of 70%, double the production capacity, and all quality defects caused by bumps have been eliminated.

Figure丨Flexible welding island

The same is true in the welding island. The robot "observes" the groove environment through the laser, adaptively adjusts the parameters, and realizes multi-layer single-pass welding of high-strength steel with a thickness of 40mm and a width of 60mm at one time, which solves the global industry problem of square head welding of drill pipes.

The on-site workers said that the robot is quite smart, and if there is a deviation in the position of the weld, the welding method will be adjusted immediately, and there will be no deviation in quality.

In 2019, the pile driver lighthouse factory renovation project was launched, and the industrial stereo vision system was fully introduced, with the help of 2D/3D visual sensing technology, AI algorithms and high-speed 5G network, the pile driver factory realized the in-depth application of intelligent industrial robots in the fields of adaptive welding of large equipment and high-precision assembly.

At present, the sorting of a small steel plate in the factory and the assembly of more than 10 tons of mast can all be completed by robot automation.

Elephant Dance!

A beacon demonstration for the industry

Picture丨The interior of the "lighthouse factory" of Sany pile driver

Piling machineryAs a heavy equipment, its production mode is a typical discrete manufacturing, with multiple varieties, small batches, and complex processes. The greater challenge lies in the complexity, large, heavy and long workpieces, such as the longest 27 meters and 8 tons in more than 170 drill pipes, and the 16 tons in more than 20 power heads.

After automation, digitalization and intelligent upgrading, Sany pile crane factory has a total of 8 flexible work centers, 16 intelligent production lines, and 375 fully networked production equipment. Based on the Tree Root Interconnection Industrial Internet Platform, the production and manufacturing elements are fully connected, and the entire factory has become an "intelligent body" that deeply integrates the Internet, big data and artificial intelligence.

First of all, the Sany pile crane factory has an "intelligent brain" - FCC (Factory Control Center), which is also the core of intelligent manufacturing in the entire factory. Through FCC, orders can be quickly broken down to each flexible production line, each work island, each piece of equipment, and each worker, realizing the whole process from order to delivery data-driven. Along the data flow, the product is able to "understand" the whole process and details of its own manufacturing.

Figure丨Visualization large screen

Figure丨Dual AGV linkage based on 5G

The realization of smart logistics is handed over to the smart cargo handling "Scud" - AGV trolley. Under the guarantee of accurate timing and low latency 5G wireless industrial private network, the industry's first two AGVs "two-vehicle dream linkage" realize the synchronous handling and automatic loading and unloading of 27-meter-long and overweight materials.

Figure丨Intelligent Library

The "brain", "eyes" and "scuds" efficiently and collaboratively decompose tasks, and the "hands" of the smart factory are also running at a rapid pace. In the factory, the "human-machine collaboration" technology based on 5G+AR equipment has been widely used. Traditional tiring and dangerous work such as material sorting and pin assembly no longer require manual operation, and all are efficiently completed by robots.

At the same time, through powerful human-machine collaboration, robot AI can also learn the skills and techniques of skilled workers without programming, and use it as a comprehensive teaching aid to "bring the old with the new", and finally realize the skill transfer and the inheritance of the craftsman spirit of the factory's "master".

Picture丨The interior of the "lighthouse factory" of Sany pile driver

In the background, the "Root Cloud Platform" created by Tree Root Internet is also calculating day and night, which matches the optimal parameters for each process, each model, and even each tool according to the industrial big data collected by more than 3,600 data collection points in the factory, and optimizes the production cycle.

Dong Mingkai, president of Sany Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute, introduced: "Today's pile driver factory is an engineer with a smart brain and quick eyes, which realizes the parameterization and softwareization of craftsman spirit and experience."

Highly flexible production, so that the production potential can be greatly exerted. Compared with before the transformation, the output value of the pile driver factory in the same plant area has doubled, the overall production equipment utilization rate has increased from 66.3% to 86.7%, and the average time to failure has decreased by 58.5%. At present, the factory can produce nearly 30 models, and the level of "flexible and intelligent manufacturing" is leading in the world, realizing "elephant dancing".

In 2020, the per capita output value of Sany pile driver factory has reached 10.728 million yuan, which is a well-deserved "lighthouse benchmark" in the global heavy industry industry.

Dong Mingkai said that the pile driver "lighthouse factory" is the first in the industry to adopt the "Industry 4.0" standard, creating a benchmark for global industry smart factories, and making a positive example and demonstration for the construction of other "lighthouse factories" in the global industry.