In April this year, HG Laser, the core subsidiary of HGTECH, completed the on-site installation and commissioning of the automatic and intelligent production line built by China Lesso Group Holdings Limited (hereinafter referred to as LESSO), and is currently in the trial production of the whole line in Foshan base of the customer, and the project acceptance is about to be ushered in.

This is the first time that the “Laser + Intelligent Manufacturing” solution has been applied to the pipe fitting industry in China, and it is also the first time that the concept of intelligent manufacturing has been introduced into the pipe fitting industry, which is of benchmarking significance.

In the post epidemic era, the automation and intelligent process of China’s manufacturing enterprises has been greatly accelerated. Compared with the traditional production line, intelligent manufacturing needs less manpower to produce the same amount of products, which can effectively alleviate the shortage of personnel in special situations such as sudden epidemic.

Ma Xinqiang, chairman of HGTECH, admitted in an interview with the media that the epidemic has accelerated the promotion of intelligent manufacturing. The company is cooperating with downstream customers to promote the implementation of intelligent production lines and intelligent factories in construction machinery, bridges, electronic information and other industries. In the first half of the year, HGTECH’s intelligent manufacturing orders increased by 20% over the same period last year.

The “life” of an injection molded PVC pipe fitting in an automatic intelligent factory can be described as natural and smooth. On the intelligent production line, after the MES system is dispatched, the AVG dispatching system will uniformly carry out intelligent receiving, feeding and automatic pouring of the products to the back packaging line. The sorting, positioning, laser coding, visual inspection, plate placing, packing and other actions of the products are “accomplished in one go” by robots, AGV automatic cars and other automation equipment. In such an intelligent workshop, you can only see a dozen workers at most, which is 30% - 40% less than in the past.

Through information and digital management, the production status, production line nodes and equipment operation status, output, packaging progress, failure and other product related data at all levels in the workshop will be uploaded to the MES system in real time, and will be included in the visual data monitoring center. “The whole process of product production is traceable, which just meets the needs of customers to develop intelligent manufacturing and strengthen the precise control of product quality, process, supply chain, logistics and other links,” said the project leader.

At first, HG Laser only provided laser marking equipment for LESSO. After knowing that the customers have the demand of digital management and product traceability, the company immediately concentrated resources to carry out technical exchange, on-site investigation and detailed scheme confirmation with customers. At the beginning of the project, the biggest technical difficulty encountered by the team was how to correctly decompose the dynamic and disordered pipe fittings and put them into the products. After nearly two months of continuous simulation test, the team formed a feasible scheme and shot simulation animation video, which was repeatedly verified and approved by customers.

Through the idea of “Laser + Intelligent Manufacturing”, HG Laser will take LESSO intelligent factory project as an opportunity to set up a packaging automation team, and continue to develop intelligent packaging applications around brand packaging, personal care, home care, tobacco and wine, building materials and medical consumables.

In the future, HGTECH will continue to seize the opportunity of “new infrastructure”. On the one hand, it will release the capacity of 5g optical modules and high-speed optical modules in data centers. On the other hand, it will promote the implementation of solutions of “laser + intelligent production line” and “laser + smart factory” in more industries to compete for digital economy.