At 16:16 on April 18, 2022, the CASIC Industrial Park was full of fireworks and jubilant. The company held a grand ceremony for the first small batch of smart mine wide-body dump trucks to go offline. The successful roll-off of the vehicle marks the preliminary completion of a series of basic preparations such as the project's test verification, product finalization and flexible production line construction, and officially enters a new stage of mass production.

Wide body dump truck

It is understood that the wide-body dump truck is a non-road dump truck with Chinese characteristics invented in China, which is between a large open-pit mining truck and a road truck. Because of its large size, single transportation volume and high annual transportation capacity, the price is only 20% or even lower than that of traditional electric wheel mining trucks, which greatly saves the initial investment of open-pit mines and has a short supply cycle, usually within 30 days. It can greatly shorten the mine construction period and other characteristics, and is widely used in open-pit mine earthwork stripping, coal transportation, slag discharge and other transportation work.

In 2021, the sales volume of wide-body dump trucks in the domestic market will exceed 20,000 units, and major OEMs have entered the field one after another and increased investment in research and development. With the increasing maturity and rapid promotion of technologies such as new energy and 5G, an intelligent revolution in the mining industry is being triggered, and industry competition is becoming increasingly fierce.

In order to seize market opportunities, CASIC established a wide-body dump truck project research and development team as early as January 2021. After the establishment of the project team, the core members went deep into the front line of the mine many times, went to several mining areas in Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang to conduct market research, and discussed with the direct users of the mine to improve product performance and various parameters.

In mid-September 2021, the wide-body dump truck test prototype was officially assembled at CASIC. In line with the entrepreneurial spirit of "if you have the conditions, you have to create the conditions", and faced with many difficulties in innovative products, the R & D team members worked day and night. Fight side by side with production workers, guide workers to operate, and overcome difficulties on site. After the emergency installation during the "November" long holiday, the prototype car officially entered the testing phase in the CASIC Industrial Park on October 8, 2021, injecting new impetus into the company's high-quality development.

On November 19, 2021, the test prototype car was tested on the gravel road ring road, Belgian road, high twist road, washboard road and pebble road in different road conditions such as the Wanshan Proving Ground. Starting, braking, steering, uphill and downhill tests were carried out, and all test data met the design standards. On December 16, 2021, the test sample vehicle was sent to the Ordos mining area in Inner Mongolia for industrial trial operation. During the 3-month test period, the total transported earthwork exceeded 170,000 tons, and the total operating mileage exceeded 5,000 kilometers. The reliability and operational efficiency of the vehicle Approved by users.

After a series of rigorous tests in the factory and mining areas, the products were initially finalized, which laid a solid foundation for mass production and the construction of flexible production lines, and also sounded the charge for the vehicle to fully enter the mining field.

Produce small batches

On March 21, 2022, the flexible assembly and commissioning production line for wide-body trucks independently designed by CASIC was put into operation, and the first batch of 12 small batches were officially launched for final assembly and commissioning, which opened the prelude to the mass production of CASIC wide-body dump trucks.

The field of wide-body dump trucks is very different from the open-pit mines, underground mines and special equipment products developed and produced by CASIC in the past. The user groups faced this time are diversified, including large coal mining enterprises, small coal mine owners, earthwork stripping retail investors and even drivers. . Therefore, new requirements are put forward for the CASIC product marketing model, and at the same time, new challenges are put forward for product reliability, cost, and operation economy. However, the repeated epidemics in the environment have led to more uncertainties. The rapid advancement of the new development pattern of "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality" has accelerated the transformation of my country's energy pattern. Under such circumstances, it is difficult to achieve great development only by customized products. . Therefore, CASIC has accelerated the development and production of new vehicles.

The wide-body dump truck project is a key project during CASIC's "14th Five-Year Plan" period. It is also a platform-based and mass-produced product. How to improve product reliability, reduce product manufacturing costs, improve user operation efficiency and diversify innovative marketing channels? It is the subject that CASIC faces to adapt to the new situation.

According to Wang Zekang, the person in charge of the project, the wide-body dump truck inherits the technical advantages of the world's largest 363-ton mining truck and large-tonnage unmanned mining truck. Frame, Macpherson-type front axle, dual-axle five-link non-independent middle and rear axle, oil-gas spring multi-stage shock absorption suspension and many other innovative technologies. It is used in many occasions such as open-pit coal mines, metal mines and urban and field infrastructure. It has the advantages of large bearing capacity, good use economy and high reliability.

After the vehicle was launched, CASIC cadres and employees actively responded to the company's call that "starting is a sprint, and the beginning is a result", and the cadres and employees went to the front one after another: the project team fought side by side with the production workers day and night to guide the operation of the workers; quality inspection personnel, safety production personnel Sink the production site, strictly control product quality and safety production, and escort the successful offline of the product.

Xu Daiyou, chief designer and deputy general manager of CASIC, said that in the face of the new industry situation, we must further enhance the awareness of opportunities, and make the wide-body dump truck project well and refined, making it a high-quality company, and occupying a place in the market.Editor/Ma Xue