Ninth Institute Project Case | FAW-Volkswagen Tianjin Plant Paint Line

The FAW-Volkswagen Tianjin factory project is an important support for FAW-Volkswagen Automotive Co., Ltd. to implement its national strategic layout and achieve the goal of an annual production capacity of 300,000 vehicles by 2020. The new factory is located in the Ninghe District of Tianjin, with the painting workshop covering an area of 35,638.9 m2 and a building area of 69,538.5 m2, producing VW A-SUV and Audi Q3 models on a mixed line.

Among the eight project blocks in the painting workshop, the topcoat line is the core block, which includes a spray booth, drying room, air conditioning system, and dry filtration unit. In a fierce international bidding process, the Ninth Academy successfully won the bid, breaking the long-standing monopoly of foreign suppliers in this market. The topcoat line began construction in August 2016, with equipment installation starting in May 2017 and completed and put into production in January 2018. The Volkswagen SUV models TAYRON and T-ROC were officially launched in the market, and it currently also produces Audi Q3 vehicles. The entire project is undertaken by the Ninth Academy, which is responsible for feasibility studies, scheme design, construction drawing design, and project management. With the goal of creating 'the best quality in the international market' for the new painting workshop, it benchmarks against international advanced levels throughout the entire process of engineering design, manufacturing, installation, commissioning, training, and accompanying production to meet high standards for functional assurance, low maintenance, low cost, environmental protection, and energy saving.

In the topcoat line, the spray booth uses the most advanced dry filtration system with lime powder for paint mist treatment. Features such as a fully stainless steel shell for the filter, upgraded filter elements, an all-round mixing hopper, and independent valve islands for each filter ensure its advancement, stability, and service life. The structure of the spray booth adopts the most advanced double-layer wall panel structure with novel design and beautiful appearance. This is the first time our institute has comprehensively mastered design, manufacturing, and installation in this area, filling a domestic gap. The drying room uses a new type of direct-through drying room developed based on advanced structures from both domestic and international sources. It features good air sealing and energy-saving properties. During development, three-dimensional simulation technology was used to verify the heating conditions of the body and the effectiveness of air sealing. It improves thermal efficiency while reducing investment in mechanical equipment and lowering operating costs. The project engineering design reflects a perfect combination of traditional painting processes with modern new technologies and serves as a demonstration for factory technological transformation. Through advanced planning, rigorous analysis, multiple scheme comparisons combined with product characteristics and Volkswagen's global standards, bold innovations were made in factory design using multiple advanced technologies to comprehensively enhance product quality, energy-saving environmental protection properties, economic efficiency, and operational efficiency to lay a solid foundation for building a green factory.

On May 22, 2018, the FAW-Volkswagen Tianjin topcoat line project successfully passed the SOP process audit certification by German company Kongsberg's auditors with a green light. This engineering project is a model of 'production-research' integration in China's automotive industry. The Ninth Academy has developed a series of internationally competitive core products through close communication with FAW-Volkswagen Company while continuously absorbing and digesting international advanced technologies. These core technologies effectively reduce operating costs for Volkswagen Company and domestic automotive enterprises while penetrating international markets with high economic value. At the same time, it points out new directions for independent equipment research in China.

During the project's prefabrication and installation phases as well as debugging and production stages, several German experts provided on-site guidance. The quality of processing and installation underwent tremendous changes; a wealth of manufacturing, installation, and debugging experience was accumulated. Not only did it technically exceed Volkswagen's standards but also fully met Volkswagen's quality standards in product quality. This formed core standards for the Ninth Academy and played an important role in enhancing our overall manufacturing equipment level while serving as a demonstration for manufacturing equipment production quality.

Throughout the project process, all team members worked together with shared goals; they tackled problems head-on without retreating when faced with obstacles. They worked overtime tirelessly day and night; during one particularly tense period of the project, all on-site members did not take any weekends off to ensure smooth progress. It was precisely due to this selfless work spirit among team members that led to the successful completion of the topcoat line project.