en.Wedoany.com Reported - Recently, at a press conference themed "Strivers on the New Journey" held by the State Council Information Office of China, Hou Junsen, a senior numerical control machining process engineer from Plant 850 of AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Industrial (Group) Co., Ltd., introduced the team's progress in the field of intelligent aircraft manufacturing. The "lights-out factory" for large aircraft structural parts, which he helped build, is the first of its kind in China. It has achieved 24-hour unmanned production line operation and has been selected for the first batch of national top-level leading-grade smart factories cultivation list.
At the press conference, Hou Junsen explained that his main work involves developing manufacturing processes for various aircraft parts. When tackling the group hole machining process for hundreds of thousands of small holes, each 1.2 mm in diameter, on a ring-shaped part, the traditional process required over 100 days to complete. He led the team to independently develop underlying algorithms and specialized equipment, ultimately achieving group hole machining and reducing the cycle time to just over ten days. During this process, the team established mathematical models to find a balance between efficiency and deviation, resulting in optimal process design parameters.
Hou Junsen further elaborated on the technical implementation path of the "lights-out factory." He stated that the team transformed the experience of veteran workers into standardized toolkits and instruction manuals, while also enhancing the sensing and decision-making capabilities of the machine tools. During the machining process, the machine tools can autonomously measure the shape of the part when needed, automatically calculate deformation and displacement amounts through built-in algorithms, and adjust the machining program. The entire process of sensing, decision-making, and execution requires no human intervention. This technology has reduced the time for correcting the origin from over 20 minutes to 6 seconds, and the daily steps of on-site workers have decreased from over 10,000 to approximately 2,000.
Discussing future directions, Hou Junsen pointed out that the "lights-out factory" will continue to upgrade the sensing and autonomous decision-making capabilities of machine tools, precisely monitor the status of cutting tools and machine tools during the machining process, and promote the application of AI, digital twins, human-machine collaborative assembly, and intelligent inspection technologies in various aspects of aircraft manufacturing. The ultimate goal is to build an advanced aircraft smart factory featuring leading technology, advanced equipment, AI empowerment, and green, low-carbon operations. Hou Junsen graduated from Tsinghua University with a major in Mechanical Engineering. After completing his postgraduate studies, he joined AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Industrial (Group) Co., Ltd. as an aircraft manufacturing engineer. His current work involves the development of numerical control machining processes and the construction of intelligent manufacturing systems at Plant 850 of AVIC Chengdu Aircraft Industrial (Group) Co., Ltd.
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