CRRC ZELC has announced that the world's first intelligent bogie manufacturing workshop had started its production in Zhuzhou, Hunan Province, China. Comparing with the traditional manual operation, it provides 30.1% more production efficiency with 50% less staffs and 35% shorter R&D time.
As the chassis of rolling stock, bogie is the key component to its safety, comfort, orientation and car-body support. The main part of this intelligent manufacture workshop is composed of four plants and eleven sub-production lines covering the whole bogie production process of processing, assembly, welding, painting and logistics etc. Once inputting order, AGV(Automated Guided Vehicle) will automatically retrieve and transport materials from ASRS to the corresponding work stations. Then automatic production will be conducted by the intelligent following the parameters contained in the QR code. Each time a new QR code will be generated for the next procedure until the finished products storage. No human assistance or intervention is needed throughout the whole process.
The waiting time amongst production lines of bogie frame, wheel, axle is almost zero. Meanwhile, the intelligent bogie manufacture workshop could perform flexible production in accordance with the variation of tasks. Small-scaled trials and mass production could be conducted simultaneously. It only takes about 20 minutes to produce a wheel.