Weichai Speeds Up the Upgrading of Marine Engine

Wu Xiuxia

At South Korea's largest fishery show,Weichai Holding Group Co., Ltd. sold out the 6M33 marine engines on the spot, and got several intention orders. Since 2009,Weichai Group has successfully entered the local market through the layout of Baudouin Power, winning the favor of Korean customers. Weichai Baudouin brand became the earliest Chinese brand that enters the South Korean fishing boat market. Due to the advantages of high reliability and low energy consumption,the Baudouin marine engine has realized the batch assembly in the fields of fishing vessels and transport ships. At the same time, in South Korea applying extremely strict emission regulations, Weichai Group first obtained certification of KR and KST among domestic peers.

In 2016, China’s first national standard for emissions of air pollutants from ships was released. Weichai Group responded quickly and actively promoted the energy saving and emission reduction of marine engines, and took the lead in obtaining Phase I emission qualification in the industry in two years. It made a positive contribution to promoting the upgrading of the marine engine industry and won the blue sky protection campaign, and became an important force to promote the green development of China's shipbuilding industry.

Speed up Marine Engine Upgrading

In 2016, the Ministry of Environmental Protection issued the Emission Limits and Measurement Methods of Marine Engine Exhaust Pollutants (China's Phase I and Phase II), which opened the curtain of marine engine upgrading in China. On July 9,2018, the Ministry of Transport issued the “Ship Emission Control Area Adjustment Plan (Exposure Draft)” to solicit opinions on the second phase of the domestic emission control area plan to be implemented from 2019 to 2022. As an established equipment manufacturing enterprise with a history of more than 70 years and starting with the production of ship engines, Weichai Group has taken the lead in upgrading marine engines.

After the release of the ship emission standard, Weichai Group carried out technical reserve, and developed more than 40 series marine engine products to meet the first phase emission requirements in 2 years, some of which directly met the second stage emission requirements. Among them,WP7 series marine engines obtained the first ship Phase I emission certificate issued by the classification society.“If you don't do it first, you're simply messing around.” Jin Liangzhen,director of the Applied Engineering Department of Weichai Heavy Machinery Co., Ltd., said against the backdrop of a new round of marine engine science and technology revolution, the company began to lay out the new energy marine engine industry long ago. Among the full series of marine engine products that meet the first phase emission standard are LNG-fueled gas engines and NG and diesel mixed fuel engines. At present, Weichai Group products cover mechanical pump products, intelligent products, new platform products, green products and so on. In May, the company launched a new generation of M33,WH17, WH20, WH25, WH28 diesel engines and gas (dual fuel) engines,including new electronically controlled pump engines, gas engines and dual fuel engines. Compared with the previous type of marine engines, the upgraded products can reduce nitrogen oxide emissions by 15%-20%.

From January to May this year,Weichai Group's new orders in Turkey were close to the whole of last year. Since entering the market in 2014, Weichai Group has gone through numerous hardships all the way, and its marine power products have quickly accounted for 75% of the local fishing boat market with more than 400 horsepower. In 2015, the company began to introduce Baudouin Power into the Turkish power market, and quickly won the favor of customers with the excellent performance of M series high-power products. At present, Weichai Group whole series of generating power has entered Turkey in an all-round way, and continues to maintain rapid growth. Rapid development has been achieved in the field of generating power and ship power, and it has injected a strong momentum into the “Asia-Europe bridge” economic development.

Innovative R&D Expands Market

In the past decade, affected by various factors, Weichai Group revenue growth has experienced two negative growths. Under the adverse situations, Weichai Group coped with the development “cold winter”through product R&D and technological innovation, sales of WP13 products launched in 2015 topped 5000 units in that year. With the expansion of industrial territory, Weichai Group has gradually explored and established a quality management model of Weichai WOS with customer satisfaction as the core. Through the implementation of this model in the past three years, the company new product R&D cycle has been shortened by 60%, the failure rate of new engines has been reduced by 72%,and the quality and efficiency have been improved in an all-round way.

“Enterprise-based, high-quality development requires technology that can not be taken away by others and can always lead industry technology,technology that can enable enterprises to continuously create value, and technology that can continue to achieve sustainable investment, without these, an enterprise will not do a good job.” Tan Xuguang,chairman of Weichai Group, said his Group has always been focusing on the main business, adhering to innovation drive, striving to master core science and technology, and achieving high-quality development.

As a domestic engine industry leader, Weichai Group has attached great importance to scientific and technological innovation and set up the State Key Laboratory of Internal Combustion Engine Reliability. In recent years, the company's best-selling WP13,WP9H10H engines have been masterpieces of the laboratory.At the same time, Weichai Group led the establishment of the International Technological Innovation Alliance for Internal Combustion Engine Reliability,cooperated with international firstclass universities and scientific research institutions such as Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Southwest Research Institute, and set up cuttingedge technological innovation centers in the United States, Germany and Japan,built a global collaborative R&D platform to ensure that the corporate tech level always keeps up with the forefront of the world.

Aside from keen market insight,Weichai Group's strong R&D soft power provides a strong driving force. In recent years, Weichai Group adheres to the R&D concept of “one generation of production, one generation of R&D, one generation of reserve”. According to statistics, from 2016 to 2018, the R&D investment of the company's engine sector accounted for 32%,36% and 40% of all R&D investment,respectively. In the past 10 years, the R&D investment of Weichai engines has exceeded 15 billion yuan.

At present, the proportion of high value-added products of Weichai Group engines is expanding, and the market share of heavy truck engines has been improved for three years in a row.After more than a decade of R&D, the company has fully controlled the core technology of the powertrain of heavyduty commercial vehicles and won the first prize of the 2018 National Science and Technology Progress Award. In 2018, the company’s 7 billion yuan hydrogen fuel cell manufacturing base was approved as a National Special Pilot Project of Hydrogen Fuel Cells. Construction of the planned new energy power industry park with a total investment of 50 billion yuan is in full swing.