Taiyuan Heavy Industry innovates to win sales

Company's locomotive components now meet strictest quality standards in the world, granting it access to every market

Shanxi's manufacturing industry is experiencing a transformation toward technological advancements, efficiency, smart and environmentally friendly operations, as well as vigorous globalization.

One enterprise representing the trend is the rail transit equipment unit of Taiyuan Heavy Industry Group, located in the city of Taiyuan.

When visiting the company's production plant, visitors will be impressed with the high efficiency of its production processes.

At the plant, the production of a forged steel locomotive wheel, which involves complicated procedures such as cutting, heating, preshaping, pressing, boring and shaping, proceeds at an astonishing speed. The finished product, which started out being cut from a huge cylinder of steel, is completed in just 53 seconds.

Zhang Lei, a technical officer at the rail transit equipment unit, said the plant, which is called No 2 plant by staff members, boasts one of the most advanced production lines in the industry globally.

"The production of train wheels looks as easy as making mooncakes, thanks to the high level of automation," Zhang said. "From cutting to packaging, the entire process has realized full automation.

"Even the loading and transport of raw materials and products are done by robots and unmanned vehicles."

As a train wheel can be produced in less than a minute, the plant can produce about 1,000 wheels a day at full capacity.

Zhang, who was a regular worker at No 2 plant 12 years ago, recalled that the company made less than 1,000 wheels a month at that time－a productivity that saw the company lose millions of dollars in the rail equipment sector.

"We began to import production equipment and technologies at that time," Zhang said. "And later we developed our own core technologies, steadily improving our production efficiency and product quality."

The executive said that since the company reached a globally advanced level in production and operations several years ago, it has seen a substantial increase in orders from both home and abroad.

At present, Taiyuan Heavy Industry's rail transit unit is the only company in China capable of producing a full portfolio of train wheels and components that include wheel axles, wheel hubs and wheel sets.

According to Ren Jinfeng, a sales manager responsible for the Asian region at Taiyuan Heavy Industry, the company's train wheel products are widely used for high-speed and metro trains in China and overseas.

"The metro and high-speed train systems in many Chinese cities, including Taipei, as well as those in South Korea, Turkey and Africa, are using our wheels," Ren said.

He said he has seen the sales networks steadily expand overseas over the past few years.

"We first exported our products to neighboring South Korea and Vietnam, and then Iran, South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Poland, Austria, New Zealand, Singapore and Malaysia, to just name a few," Ren said.

The company made one of its largest deliveries overseas at the beginning of this year.

Loaded with 50 containers of train wheel axles produced by the company, a freight train bound for Europe departed from Taiyuan on Jan 31.

This was one of its major marketing breakthroughs after it reported a rapid sales increase for 2021.

Despite the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the company's 2021 business revenue and profit grew 48 percent and 89 percent respectively from 2020.

Company executives said the wheel axles sent to Europe represented their highest technological level of production.

Han Yuming, general manager at the rail transit equipment unit of Taiyuan Heavy Industry, said this batch of axles was produced using its latest patented technologies and standards the company proposed on behalf of the industry.

For its efforts in developing these technologies and industrial standards, the research and development team for rail transit equipment was awarded the second prize for science and technology progress in Shanxi in 2021.

Han said enhanced R&D is the secret behind the company's rapid and high-quality growth in recent years.

"Our R&D team has been constantly growing, from a dozen people several years ago to more than 50 at present," Han said.

Along with the growth in personnel numbers is the growing innovation capacity of the team's members, according to Han.

"In the past, we made products according to clients' designs," the executive said. "Now we can design advanced and pacesetting products to help to increase added value for customers."

In addition to its own standards, Han said the company's products are produced according to the highest standards in the world.

For instance, the company has been granted the CL65, a globally recognized certificate for raw materials used in wheel axle production. "This allows us to export our train wheels and components to more global destinations," Han said.

A recent development is that the company passed a quality assessment by Deutsche Bahn, the national railway operator of Germany, in 2022.

"As Deutsche Bahn's standard is the strictest in the world, the qualification means we are granted a passport to enter every market globally," Han said.

The innovation system of Taiyuan Heavy Industry's rail transit equipment unit is now composed of a provincial-level technology center, two provincial-level laboratories and four joint labs.