Vitality China Research Tour, Hebei Chapter|Shahe Glass, leaping to "intelligent manufacturing"

In the third-line production workshop of Hebei Dejin Glass Co., Ltd., located in Shahe City, Xingtai City, glass of different specifications on the two production lines slowly rolled off the production line from the automatic conveyor belt, and a robotic arm grabbed the freshly baked glass sheets back and forth and stacked them neatly.

"This is a 'one kiln and two lines' glass production line, that is, one kiln can produce two production lines at the same time." Zhang Feifei, director of the third-line production workshop of Hebei Dejin Glass Co., Ltd., said that in traditional glass production, a kiln can only supply one production line to produce one specification of products.

In glass production, Hebei Dejin Glass Co., Ltd. has faced the problem of old equipment and high energy consumption. Many years ago, the company dismantled and transformed the original two "one kiln and one line" glass production lines into the current 800t/d "one kiln and two lines" electronic and automotive high-quality float glass production lines, and the products realized the high-end transformation from ordinary glass to electronic glass and automotive glass.

TE_A228 runner temperature is 1082.8 degrees Celsius, bubbling inlet flow is 107.36 cubic meters/hour...... On the big data intelligent command center of Hebei Dejin 800t/d "one kiln and two lines" electronic and automotive high-quality float glass production line, the production data of the glass production line is displayed in real time.

"This glass production line has achieved digitalization and intelligence, and the kiln, tin tank, and annealing kiln are unmanned, which greatly improves production efficiency and product quality." Zhang Feifei calculated an account: compared with the original ordinary float glass production line, the natural gas consumption per ton of glass production produced by the "one kiln and two lines" production line can be reduced by 30 to 40 cubic meters, and the excellent product rate has increased by 15%.

Shahe City is our country's largest glass production, processing and sales base, known as "China's Glass City". In recent years, the city has actively guided glass manufacturers to implement technological transformation, from the production of architectural glass to the production of ultra-white, ultra-thin and other special glass, and continues to move towards green, high-end and intelligent.

By introducing advanced technology and equipment, hiring a team of experts to set up a laboratory, Hebei Dejin Glass Co., Ltd. produced the province's first 0.8mm ultra-thin ultra-white glass.

What is the concept of 0.8mm? It is roughly equivalent to the thickness of a human nail cover. Because glass is fragile, glass that is too thin cannot be processed using conventional cutting means. In the face of technical problems, Hebei Dejin Glass Co., Ltd. rose to the challenge.

"Don't look at it thin, this ultra-thin ultra-white glass can be used in microscopes, displays and solar power generation." Zhang Feifei said that this breakthrough not only means technological progress, but also opens up new market space.

In the product testing process, in the past, the human eye looked at the unevenness and bubbles of the glass to identify the quality of the product, and if there was a quality problem, the whole glass would be thrown away directly. Now, the electronic probe can accurately identify defects in the glass that cannot be seen by the human eye, and "optimize cutting" the parts where the defects are found, reducing the waste of manpower and material resources.

Increase technological transformation and embrace digital transformation. The production line of Hebei Dejin Glass Co., Ltd. is equipped with a smart brain, from smelting, annealing, to sub-packaging and packaging, all processes are controlled by the computer background. The glass size, furnace temperature, and feeding speed are all "one-button control".

From the humble handmade glass workshop to become a provincial key characteristic industrial cluster, after more than 40 years of development, the glass industry in Shahe City has moved from low-end to mid-to-high-end and has become a pillar industry of the county economy.

"Transformation and upgrading is not a multiple-choice question, but a compulsory question." Li Yanfeng, deputy director of the Shahe Science and Technology and Industrial Information Technology Bureau, said that Shahe City firmly holds the bull's nose of technological transformation and upgrading, differentiates itself through technological innovation, avoids industry involution, and promotes the glass industry to leap from manufacturing to "intelligent manufacturing".

At present, Shahe City has invested 5.3 billion yuan to complete the technical transformation of 11 production lines, and according to this progress, the plan to complete the technical transformation and upgrading of all production lines by 2028 is expected to be completed ahead of schedule.

Walking into the production workshop of Hebei Jinshi Xinyuan New Material Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jinshi Xinyuan"), nearly 9 square meters of original glass are undergoing "coating surgery". By vacuum magnetron sputtering, these glasses are coated with a silver-dominated metallic film to transform them into high-value-added offline LOW-E (low emissivity) coated glass.

"This glass has high technical content and good energy-saving effect, and is mainly used in the high-end construction market." Wang Shilei, director of the comprehensive management department of Jinshi Xinyuan, said.

In recent years, the traditional architectural glass market has shown a saturation trend, and many glass companies have begun to enter new markets, and Jinshi Xinyuan is one of them.

"Our transformation goal is to individualize needs and emerging markets." Wang Shilei said that as the downstream of the original automotive glass, they have set their sights on the entire set of automotive glass manufacturing, introduced the industry's leading automotive glass deep processing production line, introduced the digital management and operation system, and built a smart factory.

While speaking, Wang Shilei took the reporter to the site of Jinshi Xinyuan's high-end automotive glass manufacturing project, where two automotive glass production lines have been commissioned. The project uses the automotive float glass produced by local enterprises in Shahe as raw materials, and on the basis of producing conventional automotive glass, it can also produce high-end products such as automotive canopy glass, panoramic glass, and coated glass, filling the gap in the automotive glass manufacturing industry in our province.

The transformation and upgrading of traditional industries cannot avoid reducing costs and increasing efficiency. In the upstream, Shahe City promotes the centralized direct mining of soda ash production areas, the local centralized mining of quartz sand, and the centralized supply of clean energy; in the midstream, improve the intelligent and green level of production lines through technological transformation; In the downstream, it binds application scenarios such as new energy vehicles, glass and cultural and creative to open up new markets.

In Shahe, traditional workshops are equipped with digital engines, assembly lines are waving robotic arms, and production processes have smart brains, accumulating surging momentum for the high-quality development of the county's economy.