CSR sprints for world top

Capacity for independent innovation is the core capacity for sustained and healthy corporate development, and there will be no right of speech for enterprises in market competition without independent innovation. In order to assume the responsibility for China s rail transit equipment manufacturing, CSR ZLC Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. must uphold the technical route of introduction, assimilation and renovation and provide customers with the best system solutions.

Xu Zongxiang, general manager of CSR ZLC Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd.

In November 2009, the first batch of 14 TM3 electric locomotives with independent intellectual property right developed and manufactured by CSR ZLC Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. CSR ZLC were delivered to the overseas customer. As the developer of China s first electric locomotive for the main railway line, CSR ZLC has been striving to improve the innovation capacity, cultivating an independent brand and sprinting for the world top against time with the objective of mastering world top technologies, manufacturing world top products and building a world top base .

Though in a high position in DC electric locomotive technology in the world at the end of the last century, China was about 20 years behind world advanced level in the field of AC-driven electric locomotive. To change this situation and speed up the modernization of Chinese railway locomotives, the State mapped out the strategy of introducing advanced technologies, joining efforts in design and manufacture and building a Chinese independent brand in 2003, and CSR ZLC was among the six key enterprises supported by the Ministry of Railways.

701 days

Joining efforts in design and manufacture

Mastering top technologies

Learning technologies in a down-to-earth manner to lay a solid foundation for future independent innovation.

In June 2004, to resolve the problem of transporting the coal produced in Shanxi to other areas, the State decided to invite domestic locomotive manufacturers for a public bid for large-power AC-driven electric locomotives with a design speed of 120 kmph, an 8-axis of maximum power of 9,600 kW and a traction force of over 20,000 tons of freight trains.

On December 7, 2004, CSR ZLC got an RMB 7.34 billion worth of order for 180 large-power AC-driven electric locomotives in combination with a foreign company. Under the agreement with the foreign company, CSR ZLC sent 35 groups and teams of 129 members abroad for training and learning advanced manufacturing technologies; and organized 43 groups and teams for training in the company.

During the training abroad, we argued with the foreign trainers on the basis of reason to learn more advanced technologies. Once, to get some technical data, we discussed inexhaustibly with the trainer from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. in spite of hunger. Yan Gang, head of the Control Team of the General Arrangement Division 1 of the Locomotive Development Department of the Technical Center of CSR ZLC who had attended overseas training, said at the memory of those training days, We must learn advanced technologies, and our efforts will be in vain if we could not answer the colleagues questions when we return.

Having the staff pursuing an exquisite manufacturing culture is just like having a combat-efficient team, to be geared to international practices, a complete set of technical systems is also needed. CSR ZLC constantly improved means of design, created the top three-dimensional digital design and validation platform, built the product data management system PDMS, and duly and effectively accomplished the intensive conversion design of technical drawings.

Through 701 days efforts, the world s most advanced DJ4 now Harmony I large-power AC-driven eight-axis 9,600-kilowatt electric locomotive rolled offline in CSR ZLC on November 8, 2006. Through the trial manufacture and test of the body and key parts of the locomotive, CSR ZLC gradually mastered the system integration technology of the locomotive, actively carried out localization work afterwards and achieved a localization rate of 70% by the third stage, also, CSR ZLC has mastered the nine key technologies of the world s most advanced AC-driven electric locomotives like assembly, body, bogie, traction transformer, traction motor and driving gear as well as the ten major supporting technologies like pantograph, increased the technical strength in electric locomotive significantly, accomplished alternate-direct conversion smoothly and narrowed the gap between China and developed countries in railway locomotive equipment to 10 to 20 years.

517 days

Integrating manufacture, learning and research

Increasing innovation capacity

We should not only introduce technologies, but also assimilate and renovate them, otherwise we will get stuck in a vicious circle of introduction-backwardness-reintroduction .

In June 2006, at the news that the Ministry of Railways had the intent to purchase a batch of large-power AC-driven six-axis 9,600-kilowatt electric locomotives and determined the mode of project implementation, CSR ZLC promptly acted and inked a deal with the ministry on August 18, 2007 after over a year of technical negotiation.

As for the reason for developing and manufacturing the six-axis locomotive so actively, Fan Yunxin, managerof the development department and professor-level engineer of the company, thought it was inevitable for corporate development: We should not only introduce technologies, but also assimilate and renovate them, otherwise we will get stuck in a vicious circle of introduction-backwardness-reintroduction . The 9,600-kilowatt large-power six-axis freight electric locomotive is more cost efficient than the eight-axis one, developing and manufacturing it can increase our renovation capacity and maintain our leading role in technology.

However, development of six-axis locomotives is much harder than that of eight-axis ones. Liu Hong, General Arrangement design engineer, introduced, An eight-axis locomotive connects two compartments, four for each. A six-axis locomotive merges two compartments into one, with the length shortened and the space compressed, while all the original parts must be put into the only compartment. Popularly speaking, a basket becomes smaller, but carries more.

How to accomplish independent R & D, make self-innovation and truly master top technology on the basis of introduction in the shortest time?

On the premise of fully drawing on the existing mature experience in eight-axis locomotive project management and design quality control procedures, the engineers of CSR ZLC chose the mode of integration of manufacture, learning and research and pooled superior resources from all sides for renovation. CSR ZLC carried out technical cooperation with institutions of higher learning like Central South University, Hunan University and SouthwestJiaotongUniversity as well as research institutes like Zhuzhou CSR Times Electric Co., Ltd. and China Academy of Railway Sciences to boost the technical level in a short time.

In the shortest time, CSR ZLC mastered world top core locomotive technologies like the integration technology of the six-axis electric locomotive system with the largest power 9,600 kW in the world, the traction transformer with the largest capacity 11,000 KVA in the world, the locomotive traction motor with a maximum axis power of 1,600 kW, traction converter, bogie, high-strength and long-life heavy-duty body design and the new-type electric pneumatic system.

On January 16, 2009, the first six-axis 9,600-kilowatt locomotive rolled offline. Encouragingly, CSR ZLC spent only a year and five months rolling out the independently developed Harmony large-power AC-driven six-axis 9,600-kilowatt freight electric locomotive, thus achieving a leap from technology introduction to independent innovation and gaining precious experience in independent bidding, independent design, independent manufacture, independent purchase and independent management.

180
180 days

Self pressurization

Proactive innovation for development

We not only introduced advanced products and technologies, but also acquired an innovation capacity and concept from them.

In late 2008, CSR ZLC launched the development of large-power AC-driven six-axis 7,200-kilowatt electric locomotive. This was a new task self-proposed by CSR ZLC on the basis of market demand.

However, it was rather difficult. If the R & D of six-axis 9,600-kilowatt locomotive is a renovation based on technology introduction, the R & D of the 7,200-kilowatt one is a test of CSR ZLC s capacity for independent innovation. For example, the former modifies a three-compartment car into a two-compartment one, while the latter builds a new car on the basis of market demand.

Despite high difficulty, CSR ZLC pressurized itself still by reducing the R & D time to six months. We spent three months completing product design and another three completing trial manufacture of products and matching of key parts. CSR Chairman Zhao Xiaogang described project implementation as a hypernormal idea, hypernormal act and hypernormal speed.

We spent less than six months on the development and mass manufacture of large-power AC-driven six-axis 7,200-kilowatt electric locomotives, and everybody thought it was impossible at that time. Liu Hong, an engineer involved in design, said, If manufacturing a 9,600-kilowatt electric locomotive is a long-distance race, manufacturing a 7,200-kilowatt one is just like a short-distance one, you have to sprint every second.

However, Deputy General Manager and Chief Engineer Fu Chengjun of CSR ZLC was full of confidence, After less than five years of introduction, assimilation and renovation, we not only introduced advanced products and technologies, but also acquired an innovation capacity and concept from them, the capacity made us confident of completing the R & D of new products in only six months.

Just as Fu said, CSR ZLC has had a full command of the frontier electric locomotive technology in the world after introduction and assimilation in the first stage, and completed technology and product localization after the integration of manufacture, learning and research in the second. The two stages enabled CSR ZLC to create a world top platform for the R & D of electric locomotive hardware and software, comprehensively improve the capacity for system integration and build a high-caliber scientific and technological talent team.

Finally, CSR ZLC successfully developed the large-power electric locomotive model with an autonomation rate of 90%, fully accomplished the localization of locomotive network control systems, and set a record in similar homemade products.

Reviewing the company s achievements in independent innovation, Fu was confident, Today, we can say proudly that CSR ZLC has mastered the core technology of large-power electric locomotives, China s railway locomotive system integration and core part technology has gone out of the embarrassing situation of restriction by foreign large companies. Relying on the serial and spectrum-type platform, we can turn out any product demanded by the market in five months at a cost of two thirds of similar foreign products.

CSR ZLC spent less and less time and became more and more efficient achieving three leaps at the three stages of independent innovation. It took CSR ZLC only five years to develop the capacity for independent R & D and grow into a world advanced electric locomotive enterprise. In the future, CSR ZLC will continue to provide better locomotives for China s economic and social development down the road of independent innovation.