Song Zhiwei is operating a wheel flaw detection robot. Photo by reporter Li Yanbin.
In the intelligent wheel production workshop, the finished wheels that have just come off the assembly line are shining with a mirror luster. Photo by reporter Li Yanbin.
In Taiyuan, Shanxi Province, in the huge factory building of the Taizhong Railway Industrial Park, heavy equipment forms a steel dragon, stretching along the wall in the half-empty corridor, connecting several "glass houses". In the room, the operator faces the screen, clicks the mouse, and the red-hot wheels complete a processing process and slowly move to the next station.
This is the world's most advanced and most automated intelligent wheel production line, weighing more than 600 kilograms of billets, after heavy quenching, become a qualified "running shoe" for high-speed trains with a speed of 350 kilometers per hour.
10 years ago, after being commissioned and put into operation by foreign technical experts, the monthly production capacity of this production line was only more than 5,000 pieces. Over the years, we have bravely entered the 'no man's land' of intelligent manufacturing, and constantly upgraded and transformed, and now the monthly production capacity can reach 430,000 pieces. In the "glass room", Song Zhiwei, the technical organizer of the energy room of Taiyuan Heavy Industry Rail Transit Equipment, proudly told reporters.
Or those equipment, the production efficiency has increased several times, largely thanks to the deployment of "digital craftsmen". Song Zhiwei, 34, is one of these "digital craftsmen".
On Song Zhiwei's "Tai Re Youth" honorary certificate, the company commented on him: "The production line is the lifeline of axle production. He is the guardian of this lifeline. ”
Awakening: Become a "new worker" on the shop floor
Now, Song Zhiwei often teaches vocational school students, and is also employed by Shanxi University as a part-time tutor for graduate students. He often uses the word "awakening" to share with young people his journey of becoming a "new worker".
In 2006, Song Zhiwei was admitted to Hefei University of Technology. Like many college students, he suddenly threw off the pressure of the college entrance examination, lost his sense of direction all of a sudden, and spent 4 years in confusion. After graduation, Song Zhiwei, who benefited from the policy of "Western Development Student Aid Project", returned to his hometown Shanxi and entered Taiyuan Heavy Industry Rail Transit Equipment to become a worker.
Seeing the workers busy all day around the bulky equipment, not only the working environment is difficult, but also the labor intensity is high, Song Zhiwei has thought about escaping more than once.
Soon, the company launched the localization project of key components of high-speed trains, and Song Zhiwei was transferred to the new factory to participate in the construction of intelligent wheel production lines.
As long as they are on the job, they will put their heart and soul into it. Song Zhiwei was deeply touched by the professional attitude of the German engineers when debugging the equipment on site, and his mentality also changed unconsciously.
During the day, he followed foreign experts to learn, and at night, he picked up books and read, from equipment installation to the commissioning of various inverters and CNC systems, he was proficient.
At the beginning, I just hoped to reduce labor intensity through intelligent production and be 'lazy' at work. Later, when I saw the lines I knocked out, I became interested in innovation. During that time, Song Zhiwei was hungry to learn Xi new knowledge and new technologies.
He sorted out more than a dozen technical bottlenecks that were difficult to break through, went through hundreds of repeated tests, and finally greatly improved the stability of wheel mass production by improving the accuracy of the control algorithm. When he was most obsessed, he lived in the unit and didn't go home for 1 month.
Xiao Song has found the direction of his life. Bao Jiang, director of the heat treatment process of the second wheel factory, commented.
Breakthrough: An engineer and a senior technician.
In order to improve the efficiency of the production line, Song Zhiwei boldly put forward the idea: there are differences in the structure of the quenching furnace and the tempering furnace, the production rhythm does not match, and the cost loss is huge, so the single-layer structure in the tempering furnace should be changed to a double-layer.
At that time, the two pieces of equipment were made in Germany, and the transformation of the furnace structure alone involved a number of adjustments such as the overclocking operation of the return line drive of the tempering furnace and the mechanical structure transformation of the return line trolley, which made the German engineers shake their heads again and again.
But Song Zhiwei withstood the pressure and began a difficult argument.
The tempering furnace changed from a single layer to a double layer, and the most difficult thing was to rewrite the control program of the original system. The control program of tempering furnace equipment involves hundreds of control program blocks, thousands of pages of electrical diagrams, and the key process parameters belong to technical secrets that have been hidden, and the transformation is no less difficult than reconstruction.
In order to achieve a breakthrough, Song Zhiwei and his team members worked almost all year round, repeatedly conducting feasibility demonstrations of transformation plans, equipment simulation tests and process verification, and then continuously modifying and optimizing parameters according to the test results.
More than a year has passed, and the tempering furnace has finally been successfully transformed. The waiting time for wheels to enter the furnace has been shortened from 2 hours to half an hour, which has greatly improved the work efficiency, and at the same time realized the "one use and one backup" of the tempering furnace, saving more than 6 million yuan in costs for the enterprise every year.
This is just the beginning.
Since then, Song Zhiwei has repeatedly changed the technical parameters and structural performance of the equipment to speed up production and reduce costs.
Song Zhiwei, who has refreshed the data of the production line again and again, is also trying to break through the boundaries of his own capabilities.
In 2018, he participated in the 2nd National Intelligent Manufacturing Application Technology Skills Competition, and his team finally won the first prize of the group. During the training period, Song Zhiwei got along with the team coach and Zhang Dongyuan, a veteran worker with more than 40 years of experience, and was impressed by the craftsman spirit of the master, and the two also reached a consensus in the discussion: "In the tide of intelligent manufacturing, those who engage in technology must understand production, and those who engage in operation must also understand programming, and the boundary between workers and engineers is no longer clear." ”
Later, senior engineer Song Zhiwei deliberately obtained the skill level of senior technician of CNC assembly and maintenance worker and became a "double-teacher" talent.
Future: Make the "brain" of the production line smarter.
In 2021, the wheel production line in the old factory area needs to "retreat from the city into the park". Song Zhiwei, who has more than 10 years of experience in project transformation, once again participated in the design of the whole automation scheme and was responsible for the preparation of the automation joint commissioning plan.
This time, he not only borrowed from the mature and stable technical framework in the early stage, but also explored the use of the most advanced artificial intelligence technology. He led the team to sort out the technical difficulties one by one, and after dozens of rounds of technical scheme exchanges and discussions, a detailed automation system plan was finally formulated, and the "smart brain" was installed for the "old" production line in his twenties.
In the process of dozens of rounds of technical scheme exchanges and discussions, Song Zhiwei began to feel that he needed to "recharge".
I myself have a bachelor's degree, so how can I be a tutor for graduate students? The olive branch of the off-campus part-time tutor of graduate students thrown by Shanxi University further strengthened Song Zhiwei's determination to "recharge".
In December 2022, 33-year-old Song Zhiwei took the national master's admission examination and was admitted to Taiyuan University of Technology. He looks forward to making breakthroughs in the application of artificial intelligence to visually identify wheel surface defects through further Xi. Faced with the astonished gaze of his colleagues, he replied, "Determination is often more important." ”
In Song Zhiwei's employee innovation studio, Song Zhiwei opened the studio's webpage and told the story of innovation. "All the materials in the studio are placed on the Internet, and they are displayed in a structured and systematic manner, which is the Xi of 'engineer thinking'. Song Zhiwei said.
The cmd command window popped up on the computer screen, and Song Zhiwei skillfully typed a line of ** to write an artificial intelligence real-time detection program. The reporter picked up the mobile phone and books facing the computer camera, and the program could accurately identify them.
When computers can accurately understand and interpret images and data, 3D vision technology can be used to reconstruct 3D models and product quality inspection, improving production efficiency and quality. Song Zhiwei has a new vision for the "factory of the future", and he wants to bravely enter the "no man's land" again.
Dialogue. Q: In the intelligent manufacturing factory, why do you have to understand production when engaging in technology?
Answer: In highly automated and information-based manufacturing enterprises, the distinction between skills and technology in the traditional sense has become more and more blurred, and the characteristics of integrated development of technology and skills are generally presented. For example, in our intelligent manufacturing factory, workers in the production line operation and maintenance post need to be able to understand the technical requirements of engineers, while engineers in the process management post need to master specific operational skills in the production process. In reality, many high-level skilled workers have the ability to participate in technical work, and are increasingly playing a role in process improvement, R&D and innovation. In my opinion, compound talents with both technology and skills can better meet the requirements of intelligent manufacturing.
Q: Do you have any suggestions for promoting the integrated development of technology and skilled talents?
Answer: manufacturing enterprises should fully implement the policy of "mutual evaluation" of vocational skill level recognition and professional and technical title evaluation, and enterprises should take the initiative to explore the establishment of a mechanism for comparing skill levels with management and technical job sequences, and can not use academic qualifications and identities as a "threshold" to treat skilled talents and professional and technical personnel differently. With the implementation of the "new eight-level worker" skill level system, enterprises with the right to independent evaluation of skilled talents should also keep pace with "wisdom" and continuously optimize the evaluation standards, so that high-level skilled talents can stand out. Therefore, it is necessary to promote the integration of craftsman spirit into ideological and political education, guide students to re-understand "entering the factory and being a craftsman" in the career planning stage, and aspire to become high-quality technical and skilled talents.
Dictation: Song Zhiwei Collation: Li Yanbin).