Original question:
"Reporter Walks the Front Line - National Industry-University-Research Practice Center Tour".
The vice president unit of the Plate Processing Branch of China Metal Materials Circulation Association, Anshan Iron and Steel Processing and Distribution (Changchun)**hereinafter referred to as "Anshan Iron and Steel Processing") is mainly engaged in the production and processing of automobile body sheet products, warehousing and distribution and technical services. On September 16, 2022, after a series of expert reviews, Angang Steel Plus was approved by the China Financial Association to set up the "Advanced High-strength Steel Laser Tailored Welding Technology Industry-University-Research Practice Center", which marks that Angang Steel Plus has become a technology-leading industry benchmark enterprise in the field of automotive body sheet processing.
The development level is a sign of the strength of a country's manufacturing industry, and the quality of automobile body sheets is directly related to the safety and production cost of the whole vehicle. Anshan Iron and Steel takes scientific and technological innovation as its core advantage, and constantly realizes the quality leap of domestic automotive plates. Recently, the reporter interviewed Jiang Zhigong, the company's engineering and technical director, and asked him to introduce the company's scientific and technological research and development and application characteristics.
Combination of independent R&D and technology introduction
Angang Steel Co., Ltd. was established in 2004, which was originally a joint venture between Anshan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. and the German-owned ThyssenKrupp (China) Investment Co., Ltd. ThyssenKrupp has brought international leading production technology and processing equipment to Angang Steel Processing, making the company a leading automotive sheet metal processing enterprise in China at the beginning of its establishment.
In 2016, thyssenkrupp divested from Angang Iron & Steel Co., Ltd., and the company has since become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Anshan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. The withdrawal of German capital did not affect the company's continued growth and the pace of pursuit of advanced technology and equipment. The company has successively established two branches (subsidiaries) in Tianjin and Hangzhou, with a total of three factories and 16 production lines, including welding wires, shearing lines, slitting lines, etc. At present, Angang Steel Processing has a total shear blanking processing capacity of 650,000 tons a year, and a laser tailored welding processing capacity of 9.5 million pieces. FAW-Volkswagen, FAW Car, Daqing Volvo, Shenyang BMW, Beijing Benz, Great Wall Motors and other well-known car companies are the main customers of Angang Steel Plus. The main reason why the company has been able to win the trust of so many high-quality customers is that the company can meet customer value expectations with continuous technological development. Independent R&D and technology introduction are the two main paths for Angang Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. to innovate in science and technology.
First, adhere to independent research and development and break through the monopoly of foreign technology.
In addition to having its own R&D team, the company also cooperates with Jilin University, Suzhou University, Changchun University of Science and Technology, Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and other institutions and institutions to carry out research and development. In recent years, it has obtained 3 invention patents related to welding and 26 utility model patents.
Tailor-made welding technology is an area that Angang Steel Plus has focused on exploring in recent years. Tailored blanks are an alternative to cold-formed tailored blanks, which are widely used in automotive longitudinal beams, B-pillars, door rings and other components.
Hot-stamping high-strength steel has higher strength than cold-forming high-strength steel, which can reach 1500MPa or even 2000MPa. Higher mechanical strength means that hot-stamped high-strength steels can reduce the weight and fuel consumption of the vehicle body, while improving the crash safety performance of the vehicle body. However, there has always been a problem in the welding process of hot-stamping high-strength steel, that is, its surface is coated with a layer of aluminum-silicon plating, and the coating will have an impact on welding, so the current general solution is to ablate the welded edge before tailored welding. However, this method inevitably produces local decarburization and burning of other alloying elements, resulting in insufficient weld seam and insufficient strength of welded joints during the welding process. Moreover, the technology is monopolized by foreign companies, and the development of domestic enterprises is restricted.
In response to these problems, Angang Steel Plus has explored a new technical path through independent research and development. The company uses direct wire filling welding for tailored welding, which can ensure that the weld is completely transformed into a martensitic structure in the subsequent pressure quenching, and ensure that the weld is fully hardened, especially through the filler wire to achieve good residual strain at the weld. At the same time, in view of the monopoly of foreign capital on the technology of partial stripping of aluminum-silicon coating, Angang Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. adopted the technology of stripping all aluminum-silicon coatings to achieve a breakthrough in monopoly technology.
In addition, through independent research and development, Angang Steel Plus has innovatively designed the ANS+ESDR door ring structure, and changed the curve processing scheme of the hot-formed tailored welding door ring to a linear processing scheme. Jiang Zhigong introduced that the precision control of the external dimensions is relatively high when processing the door ring with a linear welding machine, which can achieve stable weld quality, and at the same time, the production cost is reduced without the need for special fixtures. The technical solution has been unanimously recognized by the company's customers, and Angang Gangjia has also registered a trademark and applied for a patent for this solution developed by itself.
The independent research and development of Angang Steel Processing not only focuses on the production process and quality, but also focuses on the automation of equipment. The company's R&D team has realized the automation of the equipment from loading to unloading through the transformation of the shearing machine. In the past, it took four or five workers to run the shearing machine, but now it is fully automated.
Second, benchmark against world-class enterprises and continuously introduce high-level technical equipment.
In addition to independent research and development, the introduction of foreign advanced technology and equipment is another important way for Angang Steel to upgrade technology, and it is also an important tradition of the company. In 2019, the company's subsidiary in Tianjin introduced the first advanced large-scale flexible laser blanking production line in China from the Schuler Group of Germany, which is mainly used for the production of large automotive panels such as doors, engine covers, and wheel covers. High efficiency, high quality and flexibility are the main characteristics of this production line.
The efficiency of the flexible laser blanking line is very high, and in the case of a bulky product such as a bonnet, it can produce up to 30 pieces per minute.
Because the production line is equipped with a cleaning machine in the front-end coil feeding and back-end sheet discharging stages, it can ensure that the surface of the produced sheet metal has a good clean state, which can meet the needs of high-quality passenger car outer panels.
Flexibility is another major advantage of the line. In the past, if the product was changed, the mold of the production line should also be changed and updated. This process undoubtedly increases the time cost of production, and now the flexible laser blanking production line used by Angang Steel Plus, using laser processing, does not require molds, so it can quickly adapt to the change and adjustment of products, which greatly facilitates processing and production.
Use advanced means to test product quality
In order to deliver the best products to customers, in addition to the most advanced equipment and technology, the quality inspection of finished products is also an indispensable part. Angang Steel Plus adheres to the application of advanced testing methods to build a solid quality defense line, and its product testing is mainly divided into two links: on-site testing and laboratory testing.
First, do a good job in on-site testing and build the first line of defense for quality.
Angang Steel's laser tailored blank production line is equipped with real-time optical detection devices, which can automatically identify morphological defects such as porosity, depression, and misalignment on the weld. As soon as a defect is found, the inspection device will immediately alarm the police, and the worker will remove the problematic product from the production line, isolate it to the "suspect area", and then re-inspect it.
In addition to relying on the detection device, Angang Steel Plus will also carry out cupping inspection on the weld of the product, and the inspector will inspect the welding quality of the product by analyzing the cracking position and depth of the cupping.
Second, "* test", laboratory testing to build a second line of quality defense.
In addition to on-site testing, testing samples in the laboratory is another important line of defense for quality. Jiang Zhigong introduced that laboratory testing is a hot stamping process. The sample is first heated to an austenitic state, and then hot-stamped and quenched. The mechanical strength of the sample after such treatment can reach more than 1500MPa, and then the strength of the sample weld is tested by a tensile machine.
Do a good job of customer service
Achieve customer stickiness
Having advanced technology and high-quality products is the core advantage of an enterprise, but for a manufacturing enterprise to B, doing a good job in pre-sales and after-sales service is also the key to maintaining customer trust.
First, pre-sales service, intervene in product design in advance to achieve the best plan.
Angang Steel has its own technical team, which is responsible for providing technical solutions for customer enterprises. According to Jiang Zhigong, Angang Steel has been doing EVI for many years, and they will provide improvement suggestions for automobile manufacturers on the improvement of the design scheme of tailored blanks, especially the design scheme of the door ring. Sometimes the company will work with the equipment manufacturers and automobile manufacturers to determine the design scheme of the product in combination with the latest technology to achieve the optimal solution of product quality and cost control.
Second, the first management mode to ensure that all after-sales problems are solved.
As far as after-sales service is concerned, Angang Steel Plus has developed a standardized feedback mechanism for quality problems. The first level is the after-sales service TSD team, which is mainly to solve the quality problems of customers' products on site; If the TSD team can't solve the problem, it will feed back the problem to the quality engineer at the factory level to solve it; If the quality engineer thinks that the feedback problem is a systemic problem, then he will further feedback the problem to the quality department of the company headquarters, and the quality manager of the quality department will coordinate and control the problem.
When it comes to industry competition at home and abroad, Jiang Zhigong introduced that in the field of uncoiling blanking, domestic leading enterprises such as Angang Steel Plus have little gap with their foreign counterparts in terms of process level. Equipment and technology are basically at the same level.
As far as tailored laser welding is concerned, the domestic outstanding enterprises and the international level are basically the same, and even more advanced than the developed countries in application. Because of the huge scale of China's automobile market, the promotion of new technologies and new products is faster. Sometimes it is even a year earlier than in developed countries, and it is widely used in the market.
Based on the country's emphasis on carbon emission reduction, the new energy vehicle market has broad prospects for future development. When it comes to the future planning of the enterprise, Jiang Zhigong said that Anshan Iron and Steel Group has made a plan for the development of the automotive steel system according to the development trend of new energy vehicles. For example, the application research and development department of materials has been established, which is committed to new development in the field of new energy vehicle material applications, better serving customers, and promoting the technological progress of the industry. (Wu Rui).