Just as vehicles are becoming carbon-neutral and smarter, so are production plants in the automotive industry. More and more manufacturing facilities are based on automatic processes and are becoming self-sufficient and sustainable, in terms of energy. A recent example is a Chinese factory that wants to take electric vehicle manufacturing into a new, intelligent era.
China is known for its grandiose projects, and one of them plans to bring together no less than 100 electric vehicle companies. Called the “China-ASEAN New Energy Electric Vehicle Production Base”, this large-scale project is set up in the Gangbei District of Guigang City, Guangxi. The goal of this impressive EV development center is to produce four million electric two-wheelers, 500K three-wheelers, and five million sets of spare parts, per year.
According to the District’s officials, 50 companies have already kicked off operations at the new base. One of the latest additions is the Luyuan smart factory, which was built in less than a year. The factory unfolds over 172,000 square meters (almost 2 million square feet), and it has an estimated annual capacity of 1.5 million units. But this huge EV plant is also designed to take the production process to the next level.
The smart factory will feature ten automatic production lines (five of which have been completed so far), which will carry out the pre-assembly tasks at the same time. As a result, an electric motorcycle will be completed every 30 seconds. Plus, the automatic cutting, bending, and welding will be monitored with advanced systems, leading to a frame accuracy error of less than 0.5 mm.
The Luyuan Guigang intelligent factory is also supposed to add real-time connectivity to the automatic processing, for a digitally-advanced production flow. The company also stated that there are 60 welding robots operating at the factory now, which implies that the number will increase.
Although the Luyuan EV company doesn’t intend, so far, to become an international brand, and is focusing more on becoming a leader in South China, its smart factory is an interesting example of what most EV factories will probably look like, in the near future.
According to the District’s officials, 50 companies have already kicked off operations at the new base. One of the latest additions is the Luyuan smart factory, which was built in less than a year. The factory unfolds over 172,000 square meters (almost 2 million square feet), and it has an estimated annual capacity of 1.5 million units. But this huge EV plant is also designed to take the production process to the next level.
The smart factory will feature ten automatic production lines (five of which have been completed so far), which will carry out the pre-assembly tasks at the same time. As a result, an electric motorcycle will be completed every 30 seconds. Plus, the automatic cutting, bending, and welding will be monitored with advanced systems, leading to a frame accuracy error of less than 0.5 mm.
The Luyuan Guigang intelligent factory is also supposed to add real-time connectivity to the automatic processing, for a digitally-advanced production flow. The company also stated that there are 60 welding robots operating at the factory now, which implies that the number will increase.
Although the Luyuan EV company doesn’t intend, so far, to become an international brand, and is focusing more on becoming a leader in South China, its smart factory is an interesting example of what most EV factories will probably look like, in the near future.