These will include a Tire Equipment Intelligent Manufacture Center; an Industrial Robot and Intelligent Logistics System Industrialization Base (Phase II); a Smart Tire Factory Research Center, which aims to support tire manufacturers in the establishment of a smart factory providing comprehensive modular manufacture solution; and a Smart Tire Application Technology Center focused on R&D and manufacture of RFID, TPMS, intelligent digital terminal and a big data platform.
These will be located mainly operated in Qingdao, China, and construction will take around 2-3 years.
Zhang Bin, head of the Mesnac Research Institute, said, “The fact that Mesnac decided to undertake these new projects represents its response to the industrial trend of smart manufacturing both in China and in the world. With the global manufacturing industry continuing to upgrade, Germany, the USA, the UK and Japan have put forward their smart manufacturing plans, including German Industrie 4.0 and the US Smart Manufacturing Leadership Coalition (SMLC), etc.”
In May 2015, the Chinese government initiated its Made in China 2025 Plan, with smart manufacturing as its main focus. The core of smart manufacture lies in the in-depth integration between information technologies, robotic application and digital equipment manufacture. In the tire industry, tire plants call for automated upgrading, flexible production and smart manufacture.
“As a reliable partner of tire manufacturers, Mesnac has always prepared itself to provide better equipment, integrated solutions and service to its customers. Therefore, these four projects are not only in line with national industrial trends, but also meets Mesnac’s continuous endeavor to better serve its global customers.”
The four projects involve hardware and software R&D and manufacture at three levels. Firstly, at the equipment level, it will focus on digital equipment research and further improve the automation and intelligence level of equipment. Secondly, at the factory level, it aims to realize automation in the entire manufacture process, from raw material introduction to final product output, the process of which poses higher requirement for intelligent logistics, robotic application and smart terminal and sensing device.
Thirdly, Mesnac expects to further upgrade its software system (such as adding a manufacture execution system and computer-aided manufacturing) and establish big data platform to support the smart interconnection between different modular procedures and equipment and enable tire plants to realize flexible manufacture and mass customization.
February 4, 2016
