From water meters and electricity meters to the country's important instruments, metering protects people's lives and supports the glory of a great country
Digital intelligence "weights and measures", how to dial thousands of pounds in four or two
Metrology is a topic that is both old and new. It is known as "weights and measures" in history, and thousands of years ago, the ancients measured it by "knowing the ruler with the cloth", "taking the hand for the rise" and "taking the weight for the weight". With the development of production and the progress of science and technology, from water and electricity meters to the country's heavy equipment, from agriculture, industry and commerce to cutting-edge technology, metering guards the lives of the people and supports the glory of a great country.
May 20 this year is the 25th "World Metrology Day", with the global theme of "Sustainable Development" and the special theme of China is "Measurement to Build New Productivity and Promote Sustainable Development". In the era of digital intelligence, how can measurement play a greater role? How can it build a new quality of productivity and promote high-quality development? Recently, the reporter walked into a number of national industrial measurement and testing centers and key enterprises in Shandong to explore the mysteries of measurement in the era of digital intelligence.
Metrology and testing escort the safety of high-speed trains
At about 11 o'clock in the morning of May 17, in Chengyang District, Qingdao City, a "Fuxing" Chinese standard EMU train slowly drove out of the factory of CRRC Qingdao Sifang Locomotive and Rolling Stock Co., Ltd. It has just passed all kinds of inspection, testing and test verification projects of the National High-speed Train Industry Metrology and Testing Center, and will soon gallop on the land of the motherland.
"Measurement is the 'eye' and 'nerve' of modern industrial development, only by measuring, can it be made, and only by measuring accurately, can it be refined." Lin Yongqiang, director of the National High-speed Train Industry Metrology and Testing Center, introduced that taking high-speed trains as an example, from upstream industries such as raw material technology innovation, to core industries such as design and development, train manufacturing, and train testing, and then to downstream industries such as maintenance and overhaul, every process and process requires a large number of measurement and testing instruments and data to provide protection.
At the end of April this year, the National High-speed Train Industry Metrology and Testing Center was established by CRRC Sifang, as the first national industrial metrology and testing center in the field of rail transit in mainland China, providing forward-looking measurement and testing services for upstream, midstream and downstream enterprises with full traceability chain, whole industry chain, full life cycle and forward-looking measurement and testing services. At present, 63 measurement standards, 231 measurement and calibration technical capabilities, 56 measurement and testing technical capabilities have been established, and more than 300 enterprises have been served annually.
"On a fast-moving high-speed train, the loosening of a single screw can cause a major accident. Previously, we used an artificial carpet to measure torque. Now, our newly developed bogie automatic assembly line is equipped with electric tightening devices with multiple installation angles to ensure accurate and reliable measurements, effectively prevent misoperation by workshop operators, and help increase the production and commissioning efficiency of EMUs by 20% and reduce the factory failure rate of products by 5%. Lin Yongqiang said.
The average speed of high-speed trains reaches 300 kilometers per hour, which is equivalent to traveling 83.33 meters per second. At such speeds, people don't feel dizzy when they look out the window through the glass, and they rarely feel bumps in the undulating terrain...... Behind every detail, there are countless mock tests. Walking into the National High-speed Train Industry Metrology and Testing Center, there are all kinds of test benches that are amazing, which support more than 80 kinds of dynamic and static tests such as vehicle vibration simulation test and vehicle rolling comprehensive performance test.
As early as the end of 2022, Shandong has introduced measures to promote enterprise measurement to encourage leading enterprises to cultivate and build industrial measurement and testing centers in key economic and social areas such as strategic emerging industries, traditional advantageous industries, and modern service industries. Up to now, our province has built 19 national type evaluation laboratories for measuring instruments, 6 national professional measurement stations, and issued 12,000 various measurement standards, ranking first in the country, and has been approved to build a national carbon measurement center (Shandong) and 26 national and provincial industrial measurement and testing centers.
Solve the problem that water resources cannot be measured, incomplete and inaccurate
Shandong is located in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and as a major economic, agricultural and populous province, the total water resources of Shandong account for only 1% of the country. In this context, making careful use of every drop of water is a must-answer question for Shandong to promote high-quality development.
The first step of "careful budgeting" is to first need a sufficiently accurate amount. The distance between two points on the paper can be measured with a ruler; What is the measurement of a churning wave, or even a river with an undercurrent? How do I measure it? As a new type of infrastructure dedicated to measuring water resources, water metering equipment solves this problem.
"Water metering equipment is mainly used in scenarios such as farmland irrigation, factory pipelines, open channels and rivers to measure the flow and velocity of water resources. Its development is a very key link in the manufacturing chain of the mainland and even the world, and it is of great strategic significance for industrial upgrading, economic development and environmental protection. Hao Jingang, deputy general manager of Lichuang Technology Co., Ltd., introduced, "In recent years, the mainland water resources metering equipment industry has accelerated its rise, but because it is still in its infancy, there are problems of water resources 'unmeasurable, incomplete, and inaccurate' under large-caliber, large-flow, and complex working conditions, and it is urgent to study the mathematical model of simulated fluids in complex water resources application environments." ”
At present, at the foot of Mount Tai and on the bank of the Yellow River, there is the only national industrial measurement and testing center in the field of water resources measurement equipment in the mainland. The center is based on Lichuang Technology and jointly established with Tai'an Institute of Quality and Technical Inspection and Testing, and was approved by the State Administration for Market Regulation in September last year. At present, the center has realized more than 850 traceability projects of industrial parameters, covering 587 key measurement parameters restricting the development of various industries.
"In order to reduce the error and improve the accuracy, the center has independently developed the first set of multi-dimensional variable open channel flow test device in China, which can simulate and simulate the changes of many factors such as complex channel shape, surface roughness, fluid cross-section, water flow morphology, etc., and control the error within 5%, reaching the international leading level." Hao Jingang pointed to the "big guy" next to him with a total weight of 1,000 tons and a total length of 72 meters.
In addition to the large-scale test equipment in the laboratory, the sensor equipment scattered in the major rivers is also an important part of the water metering equipment. The reporter found that beside the Baiji River in Dongping County, Tai'an City, there are many cameras that look like robots, which are called the "water meters" of the Yellow River by nearby villagers.
"In order to grasp the real-time status of rivers and lakes, a large number of open channel metering sensors need to be installed. In order to reduce energy consumption and improve service life, our school and Lichuang Technology have built a cooperation platform for production, education, research and application, jointly developed ultrasonic flow metering chips, enhanced the anti-risk ability of the mainland instrumentation industry, and greatly reduced the price of similar imported chips. Chen Da, dean of the School of Electronic and Information Engineering of Shandong University of Science and Technology, said.
The improvement of new measurement capabilities has driven the industry to achieve breakthroughs
If you want to do a good job, you must first sharpen your tools. In the field of manufacturing, instrumentation is an extremely important "tool". Instrumentation is widely used in industrial automation, electric power and many other fields, with the improvement of measurement capabilities, drive the industry to achieve breakthroughs, and play a key role in "four or two dialing a thousand pounds".
"Why can the price of the same product vary by hundreds or thousands of times? It's all about performance. Sun Zhihong, senior consultant of Hexagon's business operation business group, said that the quality of performance largely depends on whether the final product conforms to the initial engineering design and process design. In order to judge whether the product can reach the envisioned state, analyze the algorithm of various deviations, and target optimization technology and scheme, it is inseparable from the digital "evolution" of instrumentation.
At present, instrumentation has gradually become one of the core links for the deep integration of artificial intelligence, big data, industrial Internet and other technologies with the real economy. In Qingdao Hexagon Smart Industrial Park, a laser sensor composed of more than 10 black spheres is flexibly cooperating with a yellow robotic arm to quickly scan the body of a new energy vehicle. Almost at the same time, on the computer screen next to it, the three-dimensional intelligent composite sensor system has displayed accurate measurement data with detailed features, constructing a three-dimensional simulation model of the car body.
"Through intelligent inspection, we calibrate the exterior dimensions, assembly dimensions, clearances and surface deviations of body parts, and virtually match the simulation technology with the actual measurement data to provide intelligent control solutions from size to performance." Sun Zhihong said that combined with optical inspection, intelligent visual recognition, automated logistics and other technologies, the extremely complex structure of aero engine turbine blades can also be measured with high precision, and the error is controlled within 0.3 microns.
Hexagon is one of the world's top 500 companies and one of the world's top 100 technology companies. In recent years, Qingdao precision instrumentation has been included in one of the key breakthroughs in emerging industries, at present, Qingdao precision instrumentation industrial park has gathered 26 upstream and downstream key enterprises such as Hexagon and Dingxin Communications, and is focusing on building the headquarters base of the northern instrumentation industry.
The person in charge of the Metrology Department of the Provincial Market Supervision Bureau said that all along, our province has integrated measurement into the "blood" of industrial development. This year, our province will explore the construction of a national-level marine industry measurement innovation platform, give full play to the supporting role of measurement services for key industries such as marine high-end equipment manufacturing, marine biomedicine, marine chemical industry, and marine ships, and strive to promote the high-quality development of Shandong's marine industry.
(Popular Daily reporter Wang Heying correspondent Liu Dong)