by Xinhua writers Ye Zaiqi, Wu Xiaoling
SEATTLE, the United States, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Eight Chinese enterprises and institutions showed their mettle with their thrilling cutting-edge technologies at the 2018 World Conference on Quality and Improvement currently underway here.
The global quality conference, hosted by the American Society for Quality (ASQ), has attracted more than 2,500 professionals from across the world this year to this port city in the U.S. western state of Washington.
It gave the spotlight to the Chinese business stars that shared their latest state-of-the-art achievements in infrastructure and quality construction with a large world audience at the first China-U.S. Quality Summit.
SAFE NUCLEAR ENERGY TECHNOLOGY
China's nuclear engineering and design pioneer, Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute (SNERDI), unveiled its disruptive digitalized design technology of the CAP1400 nuclear reactor unit for a Chinese nuclear power plant.
Based on an Integrated Data Center, the digitalized visual design technology of the CAP1400 project, which extensively employs digital tools such as Big Data, Cloud platform and Internet of Things (IoT), offers absolute safety solutions for nuclear power plants and eliminates possible nuclear disasters such as the one that engulfed a nuclear power plant at Fukushima Prefecture in Japan in March 2011.
The intelligent digitalized design of the project that includes a visualized 3D dynamic model and simulated Main Control Room provides the whole life-cycle service to a digital power plant, which ensures its safe operation over a period of 60 years or longer.
"Nuclear power is a safe, efficient, economic and clean source of energy and one of the greatest discoveries in the 20th century," said SNERDI President Zheng Guangming.
There are 38 active nuclear reactors at various nuclear power plants on the Chinese mainland, with 18 more being under construction, he said.
A total of 450 nuclear reactors across the globe generate about 11 percent of the entire power supply worldwide, he said.
CHINA'S SUPER LARGE METRO SYSTEMS
Shanghai, an economic and financial metropolitan hub in eastern China, is building a mega digitalized metro system that has reached 673 km across the city.
As the world's largest metro network, the Shanghai Metro system reached a ridership of 3.5 billion person/times in 2017, about two times more than that of London Underground and 1.3 times the amount of the New York Subway.
Yu Guangyao, chairman of the directorate of China Shanghai Shentong Metro Group Co. Ltd, said his company is leveraging the sophisticated technology of the Internet, IoT, Big Data and Cloud computing to build a data-driven digitalized metro system and services.
Thanks to digital technology, the company's newly-developed comprehensive smart rolling stock inspection system is capable of completing a full inspection of a passenger train in less than one minute, a job that would have to be done manually by four persons in two hours with traditional maintenance tools.
Shanghai Metro Group is expanding its driverless metro network to build three more auto-piloted metro service lines that will extend to 118 km in length, Yu said.
The advances in the construction of a digital metro system have greatly improved passenger services and experience, including a Wifi-accessible metro service that allows metro riders to bask in a fascinating digital world anytime and anywhere across the metro network.
"Nowadays, riders find it easy to enjoy our convenient metro service, including buying tickets and security checkup before boarding the train, by a simple touch on their smart phones," Yu said.
CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT
China's consumer electronics and home appliances giant, Haier Group Corporation, is a multinational consumer products manufacturer that serves hundreds of millions of global users. The company has long been upholding the quality concept of "The customer is always right."
As a multi-billion-U.S.-dollar consumer products and service provider, Haier Group, which started out as a refrigerator manufacturer, has been pursuing the idea that enterprise standard is defined and driven by users' demands.
"Quality is the top priority of our company," said Ren Xianquan, Haier Appliances vice president, while telling an amazing fridge-crashing tale that occurred more than 40 years ago.
"In 1985, Haier CEO Zhang Ruimin personally smashed 76 defective refrigerators produced by the company to raise the quality awareness of all its employees," Ren said.
Haier is pushing ahead with its quality-first principle to advance with the times and tries to take advantage of the digital-era technology and quality system to offer the best possible experiences for its users, Ren said.
EXTREME CONDITION-WEATHERED CHINESE ENGINES
Tan Xuguang, chairman of China's Weichai Power Co. Ltd, convinced the audience with the high-quality reliability of his company's engine products.
He said his company has a team of young engineers whose major job is to expose Weichai Power's engine products to the most rigid weather conditions to test their quality reliability.
"Our products have to withstand the test of the most demanding weather conditions -- from minus 45 degree Celsius in the northernmost cold areas of China to over 50 degree Celsius in the heat of the Gobi desert in west China," he said.
Weichai's engine products, which are a result of more than 3 billion dollars in research and development investment over the past 10 years, have won China's CNAS lab qualification certification, the U.S. EPA certification, and Germany's TUV certification, Tan said.
"No products will be rolled off the assembly line without being endorsed by nearly 3,000 standards established by Weichai's quality control department," he added.
CHINESE BRIDGES THAT BREAK THE BARRIERS OF NATURE
The pride is attributed in part to China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Co., Ltd. (MBEC), a 65-year-old company that has built more than 2,600 bridges both at home and abroad.
MBEC, which built the first bridge on the Yangtze River in China more than six decades ago, is the multiple-time recipient of the prestigious George S. Richardson Medal, the highest international honor for a bridge project, and the International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering (IABSE) International Award for the bridges it has built over the past 10 years, said MBEC Chairman Liu Ziming.
Bearing in mind the spirit of innovation, coordination, green and shared development, MBEC has been seeking to best protect the environment during its construction of bridges by employing state-of-the-art engineering technology, he said.
Citing the Qinghai-Tibet Railway as an example, Liu said the company exerted the maximum efforts to preserve the thousand-year-old grassland on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, and carved out 33 lifelines for the Tibetan antelope so as to protect the free migration of the rare animals on the plateau.
"We are trying to deliver the goal of a harmonious coexistence of engineering work, art, environment and technology in our bridge construction, a perfect match of man and nature," he said.
IoT-DRIVEN INTELLIGENT PORT CONSTRUCTION
Shanghai Zhenhua Heavy Industries Co. Ltd (ZPMC) has established a solid reputation as a manufacturer of gantry cranes and for its port construction.
Founded in 1992, the company has grown into a world leader in the manufacturing of port machinery, heavy-duty equipment transportation, and intelligent container terminals.
ZPMC Chairman Fred Huang showcased his company's star product, the "Super Terminal," the world's fourth-generation fully automated terminal handling system with zero emissions.
Thanks to the IoT technology in the digital era, the company completed Asia's first fully automated container terminal in Qingdao in northern China in 2017.
The "smart" terminals feature a high degree of safety, zero emissions of polluted materials and an intelligent port handling system, he said.
The intelligent terminal system can enable an operator to control four quay cranes and 12 yard gantry cranes simultaneously, with an improved efficiency of 30 percent more than that done by traditional operations, Huang said.
CHINESE HI-TECH AND QUALITY IMPROVEMENT APPLAUDED
The live display of the tech advances achieved and employed by the Chinese businesses aroused great interest and warm responses from the audience at the summit.
They gave the presenters a big applause after each of them ended his presentation.
"This is tremendous progress achieved by the Chinese enterprises, a very impressive presentation," said an American participant who wanted to be identified as Davidson.
The World Conference on Quality and Improvement is the largest and most influential global meeting on quality, which has attracted about 2,000 to 3,000 participants from more than 50 countries and regions since its inception in 1947.
