□Zibo Daily/Zibo Evening News/Expo News
Reporter Wang Qi
Major projects are the "bull's nose" that drives the local economy. The significance of its production is undoubtedly huge for the future development of a city. As time comes, many major projects in Zibo have begun to enter the final stage, many projects have officially started production, and industrial development is full of vitality.
A few days ago, the reporter came to Shandong Beiqi Haihua Auto Parts Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as BAIC Haihua) located in Boshan to visit the composite material leaf spring project that has been officially put into production. Its production not only fills the domestic gap, but also marks that the first domestic composite material leaf spring has achieved mass production in our city.
In the production workshop, workers are rushing to make orders and deliver the 1,000 composite leaf springs required by China National Heavy Duty Truck as scheduled before the end of the year. Earlier, China National Heavy Duty Truck Corporation had 123 heavy trucks equipped with BAIC Haihua composite leaf springs put on the market. "This batch of orders that are being made are worth 4 million yuan. We expect to provide China National Heavy Duty Truck with a total of 40 million yuan in composite leaf springs." said the relevant person in charge of the company.
It is understood that this is the first time that domestic automobiles use domestic composite leaf springs, which is undoubtedly a milestone for the development of automobile spare parts in our city.
As another important path to lightweight automotive parts, composite leaf spring technology is currently a project that domestic companies are working hard to deal with. Even on a global scale, there are only a handful of companies that can master mature composite leaf spring technology. In this technology, BAIC Haihua has already made the first move. In 2018, the company spent more than 50 million yuan to acquire a company focused on this field in Germany, thereby mastering relevant technologies. Due to the severe impact of the epidemic in the past two years, BAIC Haihua moved the production line from Germany to Boshan in July 2021. After multiple rounds of installation and commissioning, it has now successfully achieved mass production.
What is the difference between composite leaf springs and metal leaf springs? From the appearance, it can be seen that the composite leaf spring is much smaller. At the front end of the composite leaf spring production line, you can see that the fiber filaments of each plate are grouped in 16 groups, and each 19 groups form a huge raw material square array. The fiber wires extend into the equipment through the conduit. The leaf springs are preformed through the laying process through the laying process, and molded and cured at a certain temperature and pressure.
"A composite leaf spring can replace a group of metal leaf springs, which has a very obvious weight loss effect on the automobile." The person in charge said that the weight of composite leaf springs is 60%-75% lower than that of steel leaf springs. The fatigue life under vertical load is 5 times that of steel, which can effectively improve the smoothness of the product by about 30%, and the durability is 2 to 5 times that of steel multi-leaf leaf springs. In addition, composite leaf springs have obvious advantages in safety of use - as the service life approaches, metal leaf springs may suddenly break, while composite leaf springs will only fall off layer by layer, thus playing a "failure protection".
After rough calculation, after composite leaf springs replace metal leaf springs, each vehicle (heavy truck) can reduce weight by about 280 kilograms, which can reduce fuel consumption by about 2240 liters per year and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 5600 kilograms. After the project is completed industrialization, it will produce 200,000 pieces (sets) of composite leaf springs annually. After the project reaches full production and effectiveness, it can add 230 million yuan in sales revenue and 60 million yuan in profits and taxes. And this is just the beginning. The China Materials Automobile Composite Materials Industrial Park project is currently in full swing. After it is officially started, the output value of composite leaf springs is expected to exceed 400 million yuan.
With the production of composite leaf springs, large automobile factories such as China National Heavy Duty Truck, Shaanxi Heavy Duty Truck , and Geely are also negotiating cooperation with BAIC Haihua. The composite leaf springs in the heavy truck field are shining brightly, and good news is also coming from the commercial vehicle field. In August this year, BAIC Haihua completed the supplier review of BAIC Foton . The access to major domestic suppliers has been basically completed, and the layout of the commercial vehicle supply system is being accelerated. In the near future, more automobiles will be used in China with auto parts made in Zibo.
BAIC Haihua's blueprint layout is not only this. Focusing on the national "dual carbon" strategy, BAIC Haihua, which holds core technologies, is promoting the lightweight replacement of automotive parts, while also turning its attention to a broader field of military industry, wind power, hydrogen energy, carbon trading, etc., and related products are under development and incubation.
