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How two bearings mirror upgrading of China’s manufacturing

Published

2 hours ago

September 29, 2024

Ochuwa Ibrahim

How two bearings mirror upgrading of China’s manufacturing

By Li Xinping, Wang Zheng, Ding Yiting, People’s Daily

Bearings are considered as “joints” of industries.
Recently, the Liu’ao offshore wind farm in Zhangzhou, southeast China’s Fujian province, which features the application of 16-MW offshore wind turbine units, was put into full-capacity operation and connected to the grid for power generation. The bearings of the turbine units were independently developed in China.

Meanwhile, a tunnel boring machine equipped with a Chinese-manufactured main bearing, which comes with a diameter of over three meters, was instrumental in building the Suzhou Metro Line 6 in Suzhou, east China’s Jiangsu province.

These two bearings exactly mirror the solid strides in China’s manufacturing over the past 75 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China.

The bearings used on the 16-MW offshore wind turbine units were produced by LYC Bearing Corporation. “We were incapable of producing high-end bearings over 10 years ago, but we were determined to crack this hard nut,” said Wang Xinying, chairman of the company.

To strengthen its capabilities, LYC set up Chinese national-level key laboratories and other innovative platforms. It also cooperated with Tsinghua University and other institutions of higher learning to leverage their strength.

As a result, it launched a wide range of new products, such as bearings for new energy vehicles (NEVs), wind turbine units, and for rail transit. These products have been employed by important equipment such as the Chang’e series lunar probes, the Tiangong Space Station, and the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST).

While LYC is striving for excellence in manufacturing high-end bearings, China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Corporation Limited (CRCHI) is focusing all of its energy on the development of tunnel boring machine (TBM) bearings.

In 2019, CRCHI set up a dedicated research and design institute to develop main bearings for TBMs, the “final piece of the puzzle” in China’s goal to fully localize its TBM industry. After three years, the institute finally developed a TBM bearing with a diameter of over nine meters.

“This main bearing, the largest and heaviest in the world, can be used in the largest TBMs currently available,” said Liu Feixiang, CRCHI’s chief scientist.

“In the past, what we could do was decided by what equipment we had, but now we can manufacture equipment for whatever task is needed,” Liu added.

Behind the two bearings lies the strong confidence stemming from China’s complete manufacturing system.

In 1949, China’s first batch of molten steel was produced by Ansteel in northeast China, and today, China has maintained the world’s largest steel producer for 28 consecutive years, constantly breaking world records in the thickness of steel foils.

In 1956, the first Jiefang truck rolled off the assembly line of Chinese automaker FAW Group. Today, China has been the world’s largest auto production and sales country for 15 consecutive years, while its production and sales of NEVs topped the global market for the ninth year in a row.

China has completed in a just few decades the industrialization process that took developed countries several hundred years. It boasts the world’s most comprehensive industrial categories and a well-rounded industrial system, with its manufacturing spanning 31 major categories, 179 subcategories, and 609 branch categories. For 14 years in a row, the country has remained the world’s top manufacturing hub. In 2023, its value-added manufacturing output accounted for 26.2 percent of its GDP and approximately 30 percent of the global output.

As Chinese enterprises constantly improve their capabilities and extend to the higher end of the industrial chain, more bearing products are hitting the market.

On March 10, a bearing developed by LYC for a 40-meter-aperture radio telescope in the Changbai Mountain area, northeast China’s Jilin province, completed acceptance inspection to support future lunar and deep-space probe missions.

On March 14, the world’s first main bearing for 25 MW wind turbine units successfully rolled off the production line at Luoyang Bearing Science and Technology Co., Ltd. in Luoyang, central China’s Henan province, setting a new record for the highest single-unit capacity in wind turbine bearings.
As products become higher-end, production must also become smarter. CRCHI has built a digital twin of the general assembly facility in one of its industrial parks in Changsha, central China’s Hunan province.

“This is a digital twin image of the front of a TBM’s cutterhead. The varying shades represent the stress and wear on the blades,” said Wang Yongsheng, deputy head of CRCHI’s digital twin research institute. By analyzing the data in real-time, engineers can upgrade the next-generation products in a more targeted manner, Wang added.

In China, mass-produced power battery cells now have an energy density of 300 watt-hours per kilogram, placing them at the forefront of international standards. The silicon-perovskite tandem solar cells made in China have achieved an efficiency of 34.6 percent, continuously setting new world records.

Besides, recent years have seen rapid growth in China’s export of “the new three,” namely, NEVs, lithium-ion batteries and photovoltaic products, with annual exports exceeding 1 trillion yuan ($140.93 billion).

Currently, strategic emerging industries account for about 13 percent in China’s GDP, and China is home to 463,000 high-tech companies. Chinese manufacturing is rapidly advancing toward the high end of the global industrial chain.

Moreover, the penetration rate of digital R&D and design tools in major Chinese enterprises reached 80.1 percent, and 62.9 percent of their key production processes are numerically controlled. Industrial internet has been applied in all major industrial categories, and the steps of industrial digitalization and digital industrialization have been accelerated.
By upgrading traditional industries, expanding emerging industries, and planning for future industries, China is developing new quality productive forces tailored to local conditions, continuously creating new drivers of growth and competitive advantages.

How two bearings mirror upgrading of China’s manufacturing

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Zulum decries insensitivity of the NEDC towards disaster

Published

3 days ago

September 26, 2024

Ochuwa Ibrahim

Zulum decries insensitivity of the NEDC towards disaster

By: Sam Kayode

Borno Governor Prof Babagana Zulum has decried the insensitivity of the North East Development Commission (NEDC) towards the recent flood disaster which befell residents of maiduguri the Borno state capital in which several souls perished in the water.

He said that the agency is a creation out of the tragedy of insurgency which afflicted the people of the north east of the country yet their management forgot so soon their roots by daring to abandon the people and spending most of their productive time in Abuja outside their jurisdiction.

The Governor who was responding to a visit by the chairman of the agency General Paul Tarfa retired and his management team to the government house recently stressed that he was not happy with the way management was handling Borno and other stake holders within the north east region of the country adding that they must repent from their wrong practices of just doing things and ignoring the authorities on ground.

” For now, what is important to us is the empathy from agencies like your own. Sympathy that stakeholders like yours will show to us and the people of the state. NEDC was created for distresses like this which is an emergency situation and we expect to see you people at the forefront in ameliorating the problems of the people.

“But you have not been up to the tasks even for our emergencies. I am afraid because you are too distant from us. I want to see the presence of the NEDC in Maiduguri instead of Abuja because we are the first priority of the agency.

” I am calling for a deliberate readjustment of the NEDC protocols so we can be carried along and can work together.. Nobody is happy with the NEDC and I believe they know this and should be working hard to change their current posture ” said Zulum.

Professor Zulum reiterated that the only way the NEDC can make its impact felt in north east Nigeria is to concentrate its administrative activities in Maiduguri as enshrined in the letters guiding the formation of the commission.

The Governor stressed that their urgent return to Maiduguri would ease the administrative lacuna between the north east governors forum and the agency.

Earlier the leader of the group General Paul Tarfa had said that he was happy with the achievements of the Governor which the whole world was aware of adding that his hard work and character has earned him good will which he is enjoying now.

“The goodwill you are enjoying now is because of your character and i want you to keep it up. We came to commiserate with you over the sad incident of the collapse of the Alau dam and we want you to take it in your stride.”

General Tarfa maintained that the response from those showing the State sympathy at this time of sorrow is positive and that the people will soon heal from all these damnation.

Also speaking the Managing Director of the agency Mohammed Goni announced that small businesses and petty traders will benefit from a whopping 3billion naira which would help them take off economically after the flood.

He said that his agency was planning its own contribution to assist and would announce such donations in due course.

Zulum decries insensitivity of the NEDC towards disaster

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Jonathan Says StruggleJonathan Says Struggle for Power Remains Mai. cause of Conflicts in Africa

Published

5 days ago

September 24, 2024

Ochuwa Ibrahim

Jonathan Says StruggleJonathan Says Struggle for Power Remains Mai. cause of Conflicts in Africa

By: Michael Mike

Former Nigeria’s President, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan has pointed out that the struggle for power remains the major cause of conflicts on the African continent.

Jonathan gave the remark on Tuesday at a a programme organized by the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR) and partners in commemoration of the International Day of Peace in Abuja, where he was also as a Fellow of the Institute.

He became the second individual to be so honour after Gen. Yakubu Gowon (Rtd), Nigeria Head of State who oversee the reintegration of Nigeria after the Civil War, was given the same award last year

Speaking at the event, Jonathan said: “Actually, 10 top countries are in conflict globally. Three of them are in sub-Saharan Africa. And quite a number of countries around us, including us, are in one form of conflict or the other.

“And when you look at what causes conflict in Africa, most cases is struggle for leadership, contestation for power. And that is the main cause of conflict.

“Sometimes when you go through a society, and you can tell all kinds of stories. But by the time you do proper analysis, and dig deep, you know that most causes of conflict is leadership struggle. That is why I’m only worried about my country Nigeria.”

The former president, who chaired the programme, noted that the notion that politics is dirty is wrong, stressing that the players were responsible for the dirty state of politics in Nigeria and Africa in general.

He said: “People say politics is a dirty game. The way we play our politics is the way we want to play it.

“Remember (Olusegun) Obasanjo, the former president, recently made a statement that politics is not dirty but the people that play the politics, come to play politics with their dirty minds and dirty hearts. And dirty character.

“And that is why people say politics is dirty. And in that case, we must all begin to think differently. We must cultivate the culture of peace,” he added.

He said Nigerians and Africans in general must start developing a culture of peace, noting that peace should be part of their everyday life.

“Until we get to that level where we develop the culture of peace, in this country, we will always have political conflicts in our election.

“And without us strengthening that effort, without us developing that culture of testing a nation peacefully, we will always be in conflict in Africa and in Nigeria.”

The former president, who remains the only Nigerian president to hand over to opposition party after he was defeated at the polls, cited the recently conducted governorship election in Edo State, noting that there were more tension after the election than it was before the poll due to the feelings that some things were not done rightly.

He noted that technology would not solve the problem in Nigeria’s electoral process, decrying that technologies would be manipulated if the human mind is corrupt.

“Here in Nigeria, we talk about technology. Without the human mind ready to do what is right, if we bring the technology, they will manipulate it,” he said.

While delivering his lecture, Dr Samuel Iroye, the Head of Department of Peace and Conflict Studies at the National Open University of Nigeria, said all Nigerians need to play a part in the promotion of the culture of peace in the country.

Iroye, while stating that peace was not an ideology but a practical experience that could be felt called for the engagement of youths in developmental initiatives.

He said to achieve peace, there must be a level playing ground for everyone through education, stressing that the education curriculum in Nigeria doesn’t promote the culture of peace.

“To ensure a culture of peace, we must ensure that we have peace within ourselves”, he said, adding that no one could give what he doesn’t have.

Earlier, the Director General of (IPCR), Dr Joseph Ochogwu, said peace is an orphan, adding that people like to enjoy it but don’t want to invest in it.

While decrying the level of violence across the world, he charged Nigerians to start investing in the development of the culture of peace.

On why President Jonathan was picked for the award, Ochogwu said it was because of his ideology which promote peace above personal considerations, recalling the former President’s statement that nobody’s life is worth sacrificing for any personal political interest.
Ends for Power Remains Mai. cause of Conflicts in Africa