(Source: Cangzhou release)
Reposted from: Cangzhou Release
Entering the Botou Economic Development Zone, modern factories are scattered in an orderly manner, and intelligent equipment is roaring in operation. At the 3D printing center of Botou Yaqi Casting Co., Ltd., technicians are staring at the equipment screen and carefully controlling the sand molds. Under the “carving” of the 3D printer, the sand molds are turned into 3D sand molds of various shapes, and then transferred to the casting workshop for pouring production.
“It used to take about two months for a casting to go from drawing to finished product. Now with 3D printing technology, sand cores can be printed directly based on three-dimensional drawings, and casting samples can be made in a week.” said Guo Xingchun, deputy general manager of Yaqi Casting. In 2023, the company invested in the introduction of a casting sand mold 3D printing project, which greatly improved production efficiency. Looking at the production workshop, automated equipment such as energy-saving medium-frequency electric furnaces, advanced automatic molding, and pouring lines operate efficiently, and equipped with scientific environmental protection equipment and facilities, the production environment has achieved “sand without sand, dust without dust”.
Yaqi Casting's transformation practice is a vivid epitome of Botou City's accelerating the upgrading of the foundry industry and promoting green development. In order to systematically break the bottleneck of industrial development and promote the improvement of industrial quality and efficiency, Botou City has formulated implementation plans for improving the quality and efficiency of the industrial industry for three consecutive years starting from 2023, and simultaneously introduced supporting supporting policies such as technological innovation subsidies and talent introduction incentives, anchoring the goal of “building an internationally competitive advanced manufacturing cluster” and continuing to make efforts. At present, 126 high-tech enterprises, 208 national-level technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises have been cultivated, and 28 provincial and municipal-level innovation platforms have been established. Enterprise innovation capabilities and scientific research strength have achieved a double leap.
At the same time, Botou City further regards the construction of “China's Green Foundry City” as a strategic starting point, focusing on industry chain collaboration to break the situation, and continues to promote the iterative upgrading of the traditional foundry industry towards high-end and intelligent directions by guiding enterprises to increase R&D investment, building collaborative innovation platforms, and promoting cooperation between upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry chain. Currently, Botou has 322 foundry companies. Its leading products include automobile molds, pump valves, etc., which are widely used in automobile manufacturing, equipment machinery, petrochemical and other industries, forming a complete industrial chain from raw material supply to intensive processing. The annual output value of the cluster enterprises exceeds 26 billion yuan.
Entering the Science and Technology Achievements Exhibition Hall of Hebei Zhongbo Explosion-proof Tools Group Co., Ltd., innovative achievements can be seen everywhere: explosion-proof adjustable wrenches, explosion-proof hammers, explosion-proof pipe clamps, explosion-proof electrician's knives, explosion-proof chain hoists, explosion-proof fire buckets… From large to small, various types of explosion-proof products and invention patents come into view. According to the person in charge of the company, they invest nearly 10 million yuan in research and development every year and have a total of 148 national patents. The explosion-proof tools we produce not only occupy more than 80% of the domestic market share, but are also exported to more than 110 countries and regions around the world.
“Next, we will continue to strengthen policy guidance and full-process service guarantees for enterprises, focus on the extension and expansion of key links in the industrial chain, continuously improve the scale effect and core competitiveness of industrial clusters, and promote Botou's green foundry industry to a higher level.” said Zhang Jinying, deputy director of the Botou Science, Technology and Industrial Information Bureau.