Automation drives greener truck manufacturing

Inside Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle's D600 smart factory in Shiyan, Hubei province, 227 robots work across the welding line, while automated guided vehicles move materials through the plant with little human intervention.

A high-end truck cab rolls off the line about every 87 seconds.

The factory, which began production in January, is part of Dongfeng's effort to upgrade one of China's best-known commercial vehicle manufacturing bases through automation, flexible production and greener processes.

"With the core welding and painting processes fully automated, production efficiency is about 40 percent higher than on traditional lines," said Sun Yixian, deputy head of Dongfeng Commercial Vehicle's vehicle manufacturing plant.

The D600 factory represents an investment of more than 1.2 billion yuan ($179 million) and covers an area roughly equivalent to 18 soccer fields. It integrates 101 new processes, technologies, pieces of equipment and materials, and has an annual capacity of more than 260,000 high-end vehicle bodies, according to Sun.

One of its most distinctive features is flexibility.

A laser-welding line for truck cab roofs — the first of its kind for commercial vehicles in China, according to the company — improves structural strength and sealing. Digital systems also allow different vehicle configurations to move through the same production system.

Inside the trim workshop, intelligent warehousing and unmanned logistics are changing how parts reach the assembly line.

The system automatically assigns storage locations, synchronizes with AGV scheduling software and issues transport instructions without manual handling, said Chen Lilin, technical head of the factory project.

"From storage to delivery, the process forms a closed loop of intelligent scheduling, unmanned transport and automatic data updates," Chen said.

The new production system is also designed around Shiyan's environmental constraints.

The city lies in the core water source area for the middle route of China's South-to-North Water Diversion Project, making pollution control particularly important.

The D600 plant has replaced conventional solvent-based topcoats with lower-VOC water-based paints, reducing volatile organic compound emissions by about 50 percent, Chen said.

Wastewater is treated through a system combining source reduction, treatment and recycling. Rooftop photovoltaic panels generate about 6 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a year and are expected to cut carbon emissions by roughly 5,000 metric tons annually.

The shift is also extending beyond the factory gate.

Suppliers that previously transported components through multiple stages are increasingly producing closer to the line, allowing parts to move directly into assembly.

More than 100 local suppliers have been involved in upgrading alongside the D600 project, while locally sourced components now account for more than half of the factory's supply, Sun said.

Once the project reaches full capacity, it is expected to drive more than 50 billion yuan in output across upstream and downstream industries.

That matters in Shiyan, a city whose modern industrial history has been closely tied to Dongfeng since the late 1960s. The local automotive sector has since grown into an extensive network of vehicle and component manufacturers.

Chen said the factory's environmental upgrades are intended to reduce emissions without compromising product quality.

"We want to make products that are both environmentally friendly and high-quality," he said.

Contact the writers at liukun@chinadaily.com.cn