Celebrating the centenary | The completion of the Hongqi Prosperity Factory of China FAW

"The original intention casts glory, pursuing the new red flag of dreams." On June 29, the grand completion ceremony of the Hongqi Prosperity Factory and the delivery ceremony of the E-QM5 were held. Leaders from provincial and municipal levels, including Jing Junhai, Secretary of the Jilin Provincial Party Committee; Han Jun, Deputy Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee and Governor; Wu Jingping, Standing Committee Member and Executive Vice Governor; as well as Xu Liuping, Chairman and Party Secretary of China FAW, and Lei Ping, Party Committee Member and Deputy General Manager, attended the ceremony. Liu Shixin, Party Secretary and General Manager of the Ninth Machinery Institute; Yang Yumin, Party Committee Member and Deputy General Manager; Shi Fu, Assistant to the General Manager and General Manager of the Business Center; Lu Zhendong, Deputy Dean of the Manufacturing Technology Institute and Director of the Main Teacher's Office; along with representatives from the Prosperity Factory project team witnessed this glorious moment together.

Since the start of construction in April 2020, the Ninth Institute team has faced numerous challenges such as typhoons, freezing rain, and pandemics. They overcame difficulties in process equipment installation and civil engineering cross-operation challenges. With unity and determination, they completed the factory construction in just 14.5 months, creating a miracle of 740,000 square meters from scratch. This once again refreshed the speed of the Ninth Institute and established another important milestone for Hongqi's ambitious goal of one million production capacity.

Prosperity Factory Project, is one of Jilin Province's major "Three Early" projects. It is the largest civil engineering and production line EPC general contracting project ever undertaken by the company. It encompasses a comprehensive new energy vehicle factory turnkey project covering nine major sectors including stamping, welding, painting, assembly, battery electric drive, quality assurance, logistics, digitalization, debugging consumables, and office supplies. The project adopts an overall coordination management model with sectoral linkage and extensively utilizes digital means to create a technologically advanced digitalized, intelligent, flexible, and green automobile factory.

The stamping workshop features an internationally pioneering "FTF" dual-wing fully automatic layout scheme with world-leading mold change speed in high-speed mode. The fully automatic steel-aluminum hybrid mechanical stamping line with a capacity of 8500t/7300t can achieve a maximum cycle rate of 15 SPM. Automatic feeding at the line's start and AGV automatic transfer at its end are implemented. The sheet metal and end pickers are stored in a fully three-dimensional inventory with lean layout for superior efficiency. Identity recognition and predictive maintenance create a collaborative interconnected digital twin workshop.

Welding WorkshopThe workshop is equipped with 628 robots, achieving an automation rate of 100% for welding points and fully automating internal transportation. For the first time in mass production lines, adaptive production chains are applied. Outside the line, multi-model fixture storage is utilized with intelligent AGV transportation to facilitate convenient introduction and switching of fixtures both inside and outside the line. Additionally, NC high-flexibility equipment is used within the line to achieve flexible production without restrictions on model or platform. Advanced processes such as laser spiral spot welding, laser brazing, and cold metal transfer welding are employed to effectively ensure body connection quality and appearance quality. Digital technologies such as central control systems, predictive maintenance, energy management, and parameter integration are applied to achieve visualized process parameters, intelligent error-proofing in processes, and transparent factory operations.

Painting WorkshopBuilt on the principles of "green, advanced, intelligent," the production line employs environmentally friendly water-based primer-free technology. It integrates dozens of advanced technologies while actively consolidating technical resources for independent innovation. The workshop boasts China's most advanced digital central control system, energy management system, independently innovated AGV auxiliary transportation technology, three-dimensional warehouse pallet exchange technology, seven-axis robotic arms for rotation, rapid color change systems, and three-dimensional warehouse body storage technology. To create a green factory environment, dry paper box waste paint collection systems are used alongside zeolite rotary wheels and heat storage RTO for comprehensive waste paint and gas treatment. Green environmentally friendly painting materials are fully utilized including soundproof damping materials that are eco-friendly as well as solvent-free waxes and water-based topcoat materials. EDRO technology is employed to achieve zero discharge of electrophoresis wastewater. Organized VOC emissions are managed comprehensively for VOC gas treatment. Relying on central control systems along with six technical dimensions (body automatic tracking technology, BS architecture visualization technology, predictive maintenance technology, flexible control technology, data collection technology, quality management technology), intelligent frequency reduction is achieved across eight business scenarios along with predictive maintenance, virtual-real interconnection quality warnings management sequence management scheduling APC air conditioning control.

Assembly WorkshopUtilizing a new layout combined with transportation forms along with adaptive fixture switching technology allows for mixed-flow production accommodating both traditional vehicles and new energy vehicles across any platform while reducing investment in subsequent new model transformations by 50%. In terms of process equipment design all large components are assembled automatically which features minimal human operation while ensuring stable quality achieving an industry-leading automation rate of 30%. Online detection is conducted for vehicle power levels and pipeline arrangements to enhance overall vehicle process quality. The workshop relies on the "Aliyun" platform to establish an industry-first workshop-level CPS system achieving digital management of quality characteristics throughout all processes ensuring controllability throughout processes with traceable results while integrating predictive maintenance and intelligent lighting among other digital means to ensure efficient green operation throughout.

Battery Electric Drive WorkshopBenchmarking against industry standards fully applies high-pressure safety environmental guarantees along with high-quality testing technologies achieving "100% safety" in manufacturing processes along with "100% guarantee" in manufacturing environments. Module stacking assembly utilizes laser welding with EOL testing fully automated improving production line efficiency along with consistency levels. For the first time floating mechanisms combined with intelligent vision systems along with servo systems achieve high-precision spline assembly; battery module busbar welding employs online detection for weld penetration for the first time domestically; height difference detection processes have been added for stator entry into motor housings; rotor automatic insertion magnetic steel simultaneously employs surface magnetic detection along with magnetic flux detection as dual guarantees for industry standards; key processes achieve 100% error-proofing along with 100% data collection; based on intelligent equipment driven by data digital control over battery electric drive production management along with manufacturing process traceability is realized.

Racing against time to showcase Ninth Institute speed again; forging ahead to demonstrate craftsmanship spirit. Celebrating the centenary of party founding China FAW Hongqi Prosperity Factory's glorious completion signifies that Ninth Machinery Institute's automobile factory design manufacturing and contracting management levels have reached new heights! It also means that Ninth Machinery Institute has taken a significant step towards its grand goal of becoming an "international first-class domestic leading automotive engineering service company!"