The automatic production line in Taiyuan Heavy Machinery Group Yuci Hydraulic Industry Co Ltd has been imported from Germany.
Taiyuan Heavy Machinery Group Yuci Hydraulic Industry Co, the wholly-owned subsidiary of Taiyuan Heavy Machinery Group Co, is one of the largest independent and competitive high-end hydraulic products manufacturers in China.
Aiming to conduct research and development on the world-class high-end hydraulic components, the company has made many technological breakthroughs in areas such as new materials, ram-type pumps and multiple unit valves.
Formerly known as Yuci hydraulic factory, founded in 1964, the company is titled as the cradle of China's hydraulic industry.
To date, the company's high-performance plunger pump products have been applied in various sectors including large-scale metallurgy and construction machinery across China after years' of research and development, production and testing.
Wang Dian, Party chief of the company, said that basic functional components are more important than the main engines in which the products and technologies in equipment manufacturing industry is witnessing an upward trend toward high-end development.
"Our breakthrough in high-pressure plunger pump has provided support for China's advancement in high-end equipment manufacturing.”
Pump is a vital part of the construction machinery in which it transmits power. The high-pressure plunger pump is the core component for high-end hydraulic equipment, known as the "heart" for the whole system.
Statistics show that the hydraulic transmission system is applied widely in developed countries, covering 95 percent of the construction machinery and automatic production line. About 90 percent of the numerically controlled production centers in developed countries adopt the system as well.
Chen Qunli, deputy general manager and senior engineer of the company, said that high-performance ram-type pump produced by four foreign leading enterprises from the United States, Germany and Japan accounts for more than 70 percent of the Chinese market with strict trade secret in technologies.
"The scale of China's hydraulic industry has become the second-largest in global market but the domestic hydraulic parts are weak in technology, especially the high-pressure ram-type pumps above 35MPa."
Since 2011, the company has invested 1.2 billion yuan ($179 million) in the research and development, manufacturing, testing and demonstration of the world-class high-end hydraulic parts, focusing on innovation and technological breakthroughs of advanced hydraulic components.
Technological breakthroughs
In 2013, the company established an industrial park to introduce world-leading technologies and facilities in machinery processing, heat treatment production line and specialized equipment.
"We started to conduct research on high-performance hydraulic pumps in 2012 and completed the trial test in 2015. In 2017, the high-performance hydraulic pumps were introduced into the market," Chen said.
He said that the company has conquered some 19 technological problems including the copper melting process for cylinder block, slipper plunger packing technology, design of unloading trough for distribution plate and casting of high-pressure hydraulic components through international cooperation, research and improvement.
It has formed a series of high-end pumps and plunger motor products covering the piston pump for industrial piston system engineering, special plunger pump for closed system and high-end plunger motor.
"Breakthroughs of high-end castings is a prerequisite of the technological breakthrough of the high-pressure piston pump products," said Chen.
Chen added that the company is equipped with the state-of-the-art facilities with advanced technologies and modern concept.
"We will try hard to improve our research level and learn from the experiences of other countries to ensure the quality of our products could meet the international standard. After more than four years' research on materials, smelting and casting, the company has mastered cutting-edge production engineering and realized stable production."
Upgrading products
"Our products need to test the market and users. Only by applying the products widely and continuously, can we improve and upgrade them in a sustainable cycle," Chen said.
"China still has a long way to go in terms of plunger pump manufacturing as there is still a gap between us and the advanced foreign products in nature, life length and reliability."
To date, the company has achieved the international standard in degree of accuracy and noise. In the aspect of persistence and reliability, the company has passed a life test of 5,000 hours and an impact test of 200,000 times, more than doubling the national standard.
Wang said that there are more than 3,000 domestic hydraulic enterprises in China. The industry has developed into a new stage in which Taiyuan Heavy Machinery Group Yuci Hydraulic Industry will deepen reform and innovation and focus on the high-end market to achieve high-quality development and make more contributions for China's equipment manufacturing.