Today's Cancelled Trains
China develops cutting-edge Permanent-Magnet Synchronous Electric-Machinery Traction System for High-Speed Rail
Beijing: After 10 million test runs, 100 million yuan (US$16.1 million), and over 11 years, the Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Research Institute (ZELRI) under the auspices of high-speed rail equipment manufacturer CRRC Corp has successfully developed the permanent-magnet synchronous electric-machinery traction system, giving the nation’s high-speed rail industry an extra edge.
The system was delivered on May 16 for use on the trains traveling the No. 1 subway route in Changsha, capital of Hunan province. Ding Rongjun, president of ZELRI and a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that the company has been able to turn out a 699 kW model for the new system, suited for use on a high-speed rail train with speeds of up to 500 km/h. This puts China in the same category with Germany, Japan and France as one of the few countries that possess such technology, said the report.
The permanent-magnet traction system boasts cutting-edge technology that greatly improves the power quality, energy efficiency and controllability of trains. New cars will be more economical, comfortable and reliable.
ZELRI started research on the advanced traction system in 2003 and has overcome numerous obstacles in the development process. After gain victory over the overheating problem, it produced technology neck-and-neck with a few leading international rail-equipment manufacturers including Siemens and Bombardier.
The system was first installed on a trial basis in late 2011 in some trains on route No. 2 of the subway in Shenyang, Liaoning province in northeastern China. The new equipment operated without any malfunctions for 70,000 kilometers of train travel as of the end of May 2015.
Under the instruction of the central government, ZELRI started the effort in 2011, upgrading the wattage of the system from 190 kW, suited for use in a city subway, to 690 kW, suited for a high-speed rail train with speeds of up to 500 km/h. It successfully rolled out the upgraded model in October 2014.
“We expect to adapt the system on the nation’s high-speed rail trains in the near future,” said Li Yifeng, chief designer of ZELRI, according to the report.
Data show that the substitution of the permanent-magnet synchronic traction system with the existing system will boost the power of the electric machinery of the high-speed rail trains by 60% and cut its degeneration by 70%.
High-value Equipment for Smart Industrial Transition the core of “Made in China-2025″ Program
The core of China’s manufacturing sector in the coming 10 years lies in applying information technology to manufacturing heavy equipment instead of traditional consumer goods to achieve a smart industrial transition and make China a world manufacturing power by 2025, the official China News Service reports, citing recent remarks by Premier Li Keqiang.
Speaking at the 3rd Round table Summit of Global CEO Council held on June 9 in Beijing, Li said that while traditional manufacturing industries will keep going in China, exports of “China-manufactured equipment” will be one of major goals of the government’s Made in China 2025 plan.
One of the major tasks under the plan is promoting breakthroughs in 10 key sectors, including numerical control tools and robotics, aerospace equipment, ocean engineering equipment and high-tech ships, nuclear power equipment, energy-saving vehicles and heavy duty agricultural machinery.
Through the plan, China hopes to achieve a degree of industrialization nearly equal to Germany and Japan to rank among world’s advanced manufacturing powers rather than its current position as the “world’s factory.”
Li has also said on other occasions that a focus on resource- and labor-intensive industries is not helpful and efforts should be switched to building a new manufacturing image for the nation overseas by stepping up the manufacture and export of high quality heavy duty equipment such as nuclear power equipment and high-speed trains.
Mao Weiming, vice minister of industry and information technology (MIIT), said the Made in China 2025 plan is mainly designed to turn China into a “strong” manufacturer instead of simply a “big” one. In this regard, Mao added, some problems have first to be addressed, including a lack of core technologies, poor brand quality, industrial structure, serious competition in homogeneous products and a shortage of channels for transferring technical achievements.
What counts most is to upgrade the country’s industrial structure and competitiveness by building high-end supply chains and value chains, especially in the production of high-value equipment, Mao said.
China News Service said the country possesses favorable conditions to develop the heavy duty equipment segment. First, market demand for construction equipment is strong as many countries are stepping up infrastructure construction to spur economic development — an area in which China is also keen to invest. China can also cooperate with advanced countries to develop medium and high-end equipment for third-party developing countries.
Second, the quality of China-made equipment is quite adequate. Wang Liming, chief engineer at the MIIT, said China now accounts for 61% of global output of power generation equipment, 41% of global vessel production and 38% of machine tool supply. In addition, the country is the leading builder of railways in the world, completing construction of 16,000 kilometers of rail with over 10,000 kilometers more under construction. In aerospace, steel and marine engineering, China’s manufacturing capability and capacity is also good if not the most advanced in the world.
A third factor is strong policy support from the government. Beijing has launched a series of measures to promote exports of railway and nuclear power technology, as well as construction materials.
He Maochun, director of the Research Center of Economy and Diplomacy at Tsinghua University in Beijing, told China News Service that the government’s efforts to bolster export of high-value equipment meet one of the goals of its Belt and Road initiatives: stimulating equipment shipments through capital exports, not to mention bringing about economies of scale and sharpening the country’s competitive edge in international markets.
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