Weighing industry to promote "green manufacturing"

I. Overview On August 31, 2006, the "Decision of the State Council on Strengthening Energy Conservation Work" was formally released. The "Decision" will have a strong guiding role in accelerating the industrial restructuring of the machinery industry. The relevant experts analyzed that the "Decision" put forward a higher level requirement for the development of China's machinery industry, low-tech machinery manufacturing will be further controlled, and the review of project-related projects will be more stringent. On the other hand, mechanical products with energy-saving technologies will be quickly brought to market. Prior to this, the energy saving situation in the entire machinery industry market was not optimistic.

Weighing instruments as a small branch of the machinery industry, its energy-saving situation is not optimistic. Weighing products from production to the final sales, energy saving has not attracted enough attention, and some foreign suppliers have long noticed this.

We are gratified that the Shanxi Provincial Metrological Supervision and Testing Institute and other units have given us a good start. They have formulated the local standards for the dB14 Hall 128-2005 "SCS Series Truck Scales", which is to improve product quality. Safeguarding the interests of users and standardizing the order of competition provide a certain basis, and it also gives some inspiration for how to weigh products to take the road of green manufacturing and to revise the national standard “fixed electronic scale” in the future to further standardize product design. This article writes about some personal ideas and communicates with peers.

Second, the current situation in the current domestic sales of the largest weighing device - electronic truck scale as an example.

1 Product Conditions (1) Specification issues The maximum scale of electronic truck scale has been developed from the original 30t to 150t, 180t and other large-scale products; its external dimensions are: width 3m, 3.2m, 3.5m, 4m, 4.5m; length 7-21m (module combination).

(2) Material issues Most of the materials used in China's manufacturing of electronic truck scale carriers are steel, although their specifications are different. Only a few companies use reinforced concrete to make carriers, but they are rarely seen in the market.

2 Usage There are several unusual trends in the selection of electronic truck scales in the market:

(1) The bigger the better The national standard GB1589-2004 "Outline dimensions, axle load and quality limits for road vehicles" stipulates that the maximum limit of the car's profile dimensions: the width of trucks and passenger cars is 2.5m, and the delivery is not removable. The width limit of the low plate trailer train for solving objects is 3m; the length of the longest three-axle semitrailer is also limited to 18m. However, we often see on the scene that these cars are weighed with truck scales with a width of 4m (or even 4.5m) and a length of 18m (or even 21m). If you ask the reason for this choice, you only get one answer: Fear of the car dropping the carrier. Imagine that in a city with a speed limit of 40km/h, the width of a lane is generally only about 3m; the width of a freeway toll channel is generally only 3.2m. If you follow this logic, you will often see scraping between vehicles.

Actually, for a vehicle with a vehicle body width of 2.5m, the outer dimensions of the same axle tire are also about 2.2m; for a semi-trailer with a length of 18m, the front-rear wheelbase does not exceed 15m. In this case, When a driver is driving a car with a speed of about 1 km/h, it should be very easy to drive on a carrier with a width of 3m and a length of 18m. Of course, the scale used to weigh electric wheel vehicles used in mines should be another matter.

(2) The heavier the better Because China's electronic truck scale does not have a unified drawing, coupled with no corresponding provisions in the product standards, the design of the truck scale carrier is obvious (of course, this problem occurs at the beginning of the electronic truck scale The relevant leaders and some experts in the industry also want to regulate. However, due to the limitations of the thinking at that time, they did not try to come up with effective methods. In this way, some companies with poor design capabilities and some companies cutting corners and materials, when using the products they produce, continue to have quality problems affecting normal weighing. Because these products generally appear to be lighter in weight, the user creates an unusual impression that the truck scale carrier is "heavier and heavier", and the purchaser always chooses a product with a large weight of the carrier.

(3) Side effects Due to the above-mentioned several kinds of abnormal phenomena, the specifications of the current truck scales are relatively large, and it is precisely because of these large-scale products that China has caused a waste in the manufacturing process of truck scales. . At the same time, it brings another problem, namely the overload in the carriage of the carrier. In the No. 2 decree of the “Regulations on the Management of Roads for Over-limit Transport Vehicles” issued by the Ministry of Communications in 200 years, the total width of cargo vehicles is more than 2.5 meters wide, and the Ministry of Railways also stipulates that the width of goods transported is more than 3.2 meters wide. As a result, products whose carrier width exceeds the above dimensions are subject to many restrictions during transportation and even traffic accidents, which also causes the purchaser to spend more freight.

III. Future Tasks 1. Improvement of Standards In view of the above situations, I think that the first task is to improve product standards. It should be based on the original standards, increase the use of energy standards, reach standards, and can not sell.

In the national standard GBT7723-2002 "fixed electronic scale", the technical qualitative requirements are more, quantitative content is too little; and the measurement requirements and test methods become the main content. This naturally makes each manufacturing company have its own energy environment.

In fact, the weighing industry has a ministry standard QB842-82 "General technical conditions for light industrial machinery weighing instruments" of the former Ministry of Light Industry. It regulates the entire production process of weighing instruments from eight aspects: "basic technical requirements, cast iron, forgings, welded parts, machined parts, assembly, painting and packaging". But for unknown reasons, this standard has not been mentioned for many years. Referring to the standard "General technical conditions for light industrial machinery and equipment" here, I am not asking for a revision of it because the first volume of the Mechanical Design Handbook edited by Beijing Nonferrous Metals Design and Research Institute is for castings, forgings and stampings. The specifications of the design process, heat treatment, surface treatment, assembly process, and other aspects of cold-worked parts for welding, riveting, and welding of parts and components are far more than and better than those specified in the General Specifications for Light Industrial Weighing Instruments. This manual was recommended to young engineering designers several times. Only the person who will use this manual is a real engineer.

The local standards of the dB14 hall 128-2005 "sCs series truck scales" developed by the Shanxi Provincial Measurement Supervision and Testing Institute and other units, to a certain extent, from the "structure, relative deformation of the scale body, welding" and other aspects of the vehicle scale carrier The specification was made, and related test methods were proposed. The idea of ​​this standard coincides with my idea of ​​designing truck scales. Since I designed the truck scale carrier from the early 1990s, I used a centralized loading test method to check whether the data calculated by the carrier is correct or not. . Because the method of measuring measurement accuracy alone is used, sometimes different results may be obtained due to different loading methods, which interferes with the designer's judgment. Therefore, I personally think that although there are still some problems with the local standards, we have given us a further idea to revise the national standard of GB/T7723-2002 "Fixed Electronic Scale".

2. Development ideas (1) As for the steel structure products, since the national standard GB1589-2004 "Outline size, axle load and quality limit value of road vehicles" has a clear rule for vehicles such as automobiles, why can we not carry the carrier? What is the width of the 3m? (Of course, the scales needed for special vehicles may not be included) because the load balances of most truck scales are all 3m.

From foreign product samples, we see a truck-like truck scale carrier that is composed of two long strips of steel beams that are just wide enough to pass through a group of wheelsets. The steel used is significantly more economical than traditional scales. For certain places where the accuracy of measurement is not high and where they are used infrequently, can they be advised to use such products? However, if companies are to manufacture such products, please pay attention to the relevant provisions of the "multi-carriers" in the R76 "non-automatic weighing instrument" international recommendations.

(2) Actively adopting other materials As mentioned above, at present, a small number of enterprises in China have attempted to produce a carrier for reinforced concrete structures. In fact, this is a method that can be achieved at one stroke. First, the anti-slip performance of concrete countertops is better. Second, the anti-corrosion performance of concrete countertops is relatively good, especially for products used at the seaside. Third, the manufacturing cost is relatively low. This may be the reason why European countries use more such products. However, the problem is that if it is produced in a factory, the weight is large and the transportation cost is high; if it is manufactured on the site of use, there is a long construction period and the maintenance quality is relatively poor.

(3) Strengthen management Various manufacturing companies should adopt methods such as green design, green materials, green technology, green production, green packaging, green recycling, etc., and combine the implementation of the 1509000 series of international quality standards and 15014000 international environmental protection standards to enable their respective enterprises to produce Products have the least impact on the environment and the highest resource utilization.

(4) Perfecting service services is the key to promoting the use of new products. Some advanced foreign manufacturers have long noticed this, and they provide users with almost “top-to-bottom” services. The services mentioned here should be all-round from the pre-sale service, sale service, and after-sales service.

IV. Concluding remarks 1. Strengthen publicity To strengthen the propaganda work of the “Green Manufacturing” campaign, we must speak with data. We initially calculated that for a truck scale with a maximum width of 3.5m and a length of 18m with a capacity of 60t, if the width is changed to 3m, about one ton of steel may be used less. The use of reinforced concrete materials to make the same carrier saves about 5-6 tons of steel compared to steel structure carriers. Each ton of steel produced consumes approximately 3-8 tons of water, 600-800 kg of coal, 1.5 tons of ore, and 2 cubic meters of carbon dioxide. Calculating with the annual production of 10,000 trucks in China, this improvement will save 10,000 tons of steel. Of course, this figure is insignificant compared with the output of 350 million tons of steel in 2005. However, please do not forget that natural resources are non-renewable. Strengthen publicity work should consider two aspects: First, tell manufacturing companies to adopt the concept of “green manufacturing”. From the beginning of the design, under the premise of fully satisfying the interests of users, attention should be paid to saving resources; second, it must be in the pre-sale service and user communication. , to fully introduce the user to the situation in order to obtain user support and acceptance. Of course, the industry leaders’ strong advocacy in the industry and the active support of China's metrology and management agencies are the key to the implementation of “green manufacturing”.

2. Active learning is the source of "green manufacturing." The use of new technologies, new materials, and new technologies requires learning. The design of improved product structures requires learning. The promotion and communication to users also need to learn. For example, why are reinforced concrete carriers not being promoted in China, why do companies in the weighing industry do not use such materials? As far as I know, the key lies in the fact that it does not understand the performance characteristics of the material and it will not be designed, constructed or maintained.

3. System Engineering The electronic truck scale has been used in China for nearly 20 years. It is not a simple matter to change it from the structure. It must be valued and supported by all parties. This is why the State Council issued a decision on strengthening energy conservation. If we all can start from the individual and start from the side in the “green manufacturing” activity, it will be a very meaningful job because it will not only save energy but also reduce pollution and protect the environment.