Exploring the Ninth Institute Project | Hongqi H Platform Assembly Workshop: A New Benchmark for Smart Factories in the Automotive Industry

With the wave of emerging technological changes sweeping the globe, the Chinese automotive industry is facing a rare opportunity in a century. The Ninth Academy is in line with the trend of the times, assisting the glorious path of the century-old Hongqi brand. Utilizing the factory buildings constructed in the 1970s, while fully preserving the historical appearance of the factory, a newly designed intelligent final assembly production line has been established. This integrates historical sentiment with intelligent technology, creating an intelligent, green, and flexible Red Flag H platform final assembly workshop tailored for high-end models.

Flexible production line: The independently developed intelligent sliding lift system and intelligent liftable EMS flexible conveyor line can achieve adjustable operating heights from 0.4m to 1.8m. It is the first in the country to apply AGV conveying technology, allowing for rapid adjustments of station spacing, layout, and number of stations based on vehicle models and production capacity.

Robot automatic transfer: The transfer between the body line and interior line is automatically completed by a six-axis heavy-duty robot equipped with a visual photo positioning system. It has high precision in body grabbing and strong flexibility, successfully solving issues such as interference from factory columns and limited space.

Windshield visual guided assembly: This allows for fully automatic glue application and installation of front and rear windshields, achieving a precision within ±0.5mm. Collaborative robots are used for fully automatic priming, improving priming quality by 50%; it also features an innovative automatic adhesive tape device that completely resolves windshield slipping issues.

Pallet support point adaptive switching: This is a pioneering technology in the country that replaces pallet storage with support point storage. The positioning points and tightening points on the pallet can be switched according to vehicle model requirements, compatible with four platforms, fully automated switching, and intelligent digital management of storage areas with equipment precision reaching ±1mm.

Chassis automatic assembly: The chassis module and body are assembled using an overall automatic assembly process that automatically identifies vehicle models, achieving automatic switching of tightening procedures for four types of vehicles and various torque fastening methods. The tightening points use robots for automatic tracking tightening with positioning accuracy reaching 0.1mm.

Surface gap measurement: This involves measuring, recording, and providing real-time feedback on assembly gaps of the entire vehicle. It allows for human-machine collaboration in the same area to avoid collision risks. The high precision of the laser measurement system effectively ensures the accuracy of gap surface difference detection.

Tire automatic assembly: Tires are fully automated from entry into the factory to transportation, grabbing, positioning, and tightening installation, with tightening results uploaded to the tightening system. It can achieve automatic transportation and feeding of two types of bolts and one type of nut; switching between different diameters for four vehicle models.

Full-line AGV automatic logistics system: Using an AGV logistics system as a carrier, 268 AGVs complete transportation along 29 routes within the factory. Coupled with intelligent logistics tools and logistics execution systems, it achieves random precise delivery of materials online. It is the first fully unmanned delivery final assembly workshop in the country.

Through project exchanges, customer consultations, and exhibition information, the Hongqi H final assembly workshop has attracted significant attention from the industry. Many new technologies have led the direction of technological development in the industry, becoming a new benchmark for smart factories in the automotive sector. This workshop has also attracted attention from outside the industry, having received 624 batches of visitors totaling 12,086 people so far, including over ten important leaders at national and provincial levels, and has been reported live by both domestic and foreign media multiple times. As builders of the Hongqi factory, people from the Ninth Academy feel honored. They will continue to use new process concepts and integrate the latest technologies from home and abroad to constantly break through themselves and contribute to the vigorous development of China's automotive industry.