Recently, Chinese shipbuilder Xinneng Shipbuilding’s intelligent upgrade project for its block workshop has reached a key milestone: the newly introduced welding robot system has completed installation, commissioning, and initial verification, and has officially entered the production trial phase.
Next to the traditional manual welding area, brand-new welding robots are operating smoothly and orderly. The robotic arms work flexibly and precisely, forming uniform and smooth welds on segmented components. On top of the hard work inherent in traditional manufacturing, the production site further highlights the precision and efficiency of intelligent manufacturing.
The deployment of this welding robot is not merely a technological upgrade of the equipment, but a systemic optimization of the entire production process. Xinneng Shipbuilding developed a pilot welding plan, selected representative segmented components to design the robot welding operation process, and focused on streamlining the supporting processes such as material loading, positioning, and inspection, ultimately promoting the deep integration of robots with existing production processes.
The head of the manufacturing department of Xineng Shipbuilding said: “Technological empowerment must resonate with management improvement. We not only need to verify the performance of robot equipment, but also to refine a brand-new working mode. By recording the operation cycle time and analyzing the reasons for equipment downtime, we can eliminate waste in the process connection and maximize the efficiency advantage of the equipment to improve the efficiency of the entire production process.”
Next, the workshop will systematically collect and analyze key core data such as welding pass rate and Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE), and conduct a scientific comparison with the traditional manual operation mode. This will provide solid data support for evaluating project effectiveness, optimizing process parameters, and formulating subsequent promotion plans.
The successful deployment of the welding robot in the block workshop represents not only an upgrade of a single piece of production equipment, but also a profound innovation in production concepts and management models. It signifies that Xineng Shipbuilding’s intelligent manufacturing process for ship blocks is progressing steadily and comprehensively.
Next, Xineng Shipbuilding will fully guarantee the smooth operation of the equipment during its break-in period, quickly establish replicable and scalable standardized operating procedures, and continue to inject strong momentum into the high-quality development of the inland waterway shipbuilding industry through intelligent manufacturing upgrades.