Advancing Towards a Smarter and Greener Future
On April 17th, Rubber and Plastic Molding Technology Conference with the theme “Advancing Towards a Smarter and Greener Future” was successfully held at the
YIZUMI Global Innovation Center (Shunde, China). The conference was jointly organized by Yizumi Rubber Machinery Co., Ltd. (shorten as YIZUMI RIM), Key Laboratory of Polymer Processing Engineering of the Ministry of Education of South China University of Technology, Product Branch of China Rubber Industry Association, and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Technique and Equipment for Macromolecular Advanced Manufacturing, South China University of Technology.
At this conference, prominent domestic experts and scholars, corporate representatives, and industry elites gathered to discuss the trend of rubber and plastic molding technology development and facilitate industry communication and cooperation. The conference focused on trending topics in the industry. It probed into the innovation and application of rubber and plastic molding technology under the new situation, aimed to foster the advancement and development of China’s rubber and plastic molding technology.
At the beginning of the forum, Mr. Wang Shihai, General Manager of YIZUMI RIM, delivered a welcome speech and expressed our sincere welcome and heartfelt gratitude to the specialists and experts, scholars, new and old friends who spent their valuable time for attending this event. He embodied that YIZUMI has always pivoted by the three strategic development directions of technology and product innovation, internationalization development, and operational efficiency enhancement, it continues to increase R&D investment and successfully launches new products and solutions to create value for customers. In the future, YIZUMI is willing to discuss on-trend topics and development ideas in the rubber and plastic industry with industry experts, grasp opportunities in development, achieve a significant leap in challenges, and advance toward a win-win future!
Mr. Qu Jinping, the Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering, Professor of South China University of Technology gave a keynote speech on “Progress in Green Smart Manufacturing Technology of Rubber and Plastic Products”. He introduced that the rubber products industry is one of the traditionally important basic industries of the national economy. It is divided into multiple sub-industries with various products and has wide applications in fields such as aerospace, health care, transportation, petrochemicals, and engineering equipment. In recent years, with the continuous development of the economy, the rubber products industry has also developed rapidly, and China has become a major manufacturer and consumer of rubber machinery worldwide.
Mr. Qu Jinping emphasized that there are still problems, such as weak innovation capabilities and insufficient development potential in China’s rubber processing equipment industry. This requires promoting the high-end development of rubber and plastic equipment and the green collaborative development of the industrial chain to form a first-mover advantage in key segments. At the same time, in order to obtain and maintain an advantageous position in international competition, utilize our own advantages to encounter their weaknesses, rely on independent innovation, and explore a way to upgrade the rubber and plastic industry.
Mr. Lei Changchun, Vice President and Secretary General of China Rubber Industry Association, shared a keynote speech on “Operation Analysis and Prospect of China Rubber industry”. He introduced that according to relevant data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the number of rubber product companies above the designated size has gradually increased, and the industry scale has continued to expand. The average profit and profit margin of the entire industry has declined year by year, but the profit and profit margin of tire manufacturing and rubber shoe manufacturing rebounded significantly in 2022, showing the strong “resilience” of China’s rubber industry development.
Mr. Lei Changchun believes that transformation and upgrading, green low-carbon, intelligence, and high-quality high-added value will be the direction of future development, and efforts will be made to promote the effective improvement of quality and rational growth of quantity in the rubber industry.
Mr. Guo Baochun, Dean of School of Materials Science and Engineering, South China University of Technology, gave a keynote speech on “Design and Manufacturing of Recycled Rubber”. He introduced in detail the design of dynamically covalently crosslinked rubber that takes into account both reinforcement and repeated processing, including interface exchangeable bonds, dynamic covalent bonds/dynamic weak bonds and other dual crosslinking designs. In order to achieve continuous extrusion of repeatedly processable rubber, a multiphase crosslinked rubber design was further proposed. Compared with traditional TPVs, these rubber materials can achieve continuously repeated extrusion and have a distinct lower compression set. It can be said that dynamic covalent crosslinked rubber provides important opportunities for the design of repeatedly processable rubber.
In 2023, the beginning of YIZUMI’s new 20 years, we will embark on a new journey with new missions and goals. In this regard, Mr. Richard Yan, Chairman and CEO of YIZUMI, gave a keynote speech on “YIZUMI Strategy Development Project”.
Mr. Richard Yan stated that in order to better advance towards globalization and create the image of a globalized technology-based enterprise, YIZUMI has made a new development strategy. In the future, we will establish advantages in an uncertain environment by upgrading technology and products, customers and markets, and production and operations. At the same time, drawing on the standards of German Industry 4.0, we strive to build our own YIZUMI 4.0, drive the entire production system with data and interact with customers, to minimize waste and errors in the production process through informatization. With higher production efficiency, we help customers to improve the overall competitiveness, and achieve 'win-win’ value with partners.
“Think Tech Forward” is the new tagline presented by YIZUMI during its brand upgrade, aiming to express our desire to continuously be inspired to innovate. Respecting this aspect, Mr. Zhou Jun, Chief Technology Officer of YIZUMI, shared a keynote speech on “YIZUMI Innovation System and Technology Development Strategy”. He introduced that YIZUMI’s 2025 technology roadmap sorted out 176 core and key technologies and 67 common technologies. With the goal of precision and reliability, it built high-end equipment and constructed the YI+3.0 Internet vertical platform technology to realize the digitalization of equipment. Develop low-carbon technology, Pro new process technology and new material application technology to create a different “carbon neutral” path.
In the next three years, YIZUMI will also gather global insight on the existing basis, cooperate with leading enterprises in the industrial chain and scientific research institutes to jointly build 10 joint innovation centers involving artificial intelligence, intelligent manufacturing, new materials, big data, virtual simulation, low-carbon energy conservation and other fields. And start the implementation of the “Excellent Engineer Plan”, training “10 (YIZUMI) +10 (partners)” high-end technical talents with international vision, engineering concepts, innovation awareness, professional integration, and management operations each year to jointly achieve new breakthroughs in China’s molding equipment field and bring new value to partners.
Mr. Li Minghuan, Chief Engineer of Technical Center, Dongfeng Motor Corporation, shared a keynote speech on “Application Status and Development Trend of Automotive Elastomer Materials”. He introduced that the rapid development of new energy vehicle technology has put forward higher requirements for the performance of elastomer materials. Enterprises can accelerate the research and development process of new materials through collaborative innovation in production, education and research. Rubber has a high carbon emission and cannot be directly recycled and reused. He calls for enterprises to use thermoplastic elastomers to replace traditional rubber.
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Christian Hopmann, Head of the Institute of Plastics Processing (IKV), gave a keynote speech on “European Advanced Rubber Materials and Injection Molding Technology”. He introduced that the rubber industry is currently full of challenges and opportunities. The sustainable development of the environment, the transformation of travel methods, and the equipment manufacturing industry are developing towards automation, integration, and intelligence.
Prof. Hopmann stated that injection molding technology has great potential in terms of energy saving. Among them, the quality of rubber parts should be controlled by the rubber material, and the temperature of the material should be improved and homogenized during the injection process to evaluate machine data based on quality. In addition, he also elaborated on cold runner and mold technology and processing technology.
Mr. Anthony Dossi, Director of OR.P. STAMPI s.r.l., shared a keynote speech on “Mold Innovation in A Greener World”. He introduced that molds and peripheral equipment are the basis for achieving good results in a technical project. The combination of molds, material selection and molding process is the key to achieving mass production. Nowadays, with the rise of material costs and labor costs, automation and serialized production have become critical factors for winning.
In his speech, Mr. Anthony Dossi emphasized that each rubber material and each product have its own production process, which can only be achieved with rich experience and high-quality production equipment.
Mr. Benn Liu, Application Technical Manager of YIZUMI RIM, gave a keynote speech on “Lean Analysis and Automation Technology for Rubber Product Molding”. He stated that nowadays, most rubber product manufacturers are facing labor shortages, rising raw material prices, and high competitive pressure. How to gradually improve the production process to increase production efficiency, reduce labor, and reduce costs? This requires rubber product manufacturers to cooperate deeply with vulcanization molding equipment, automation, mold and rubber material suppliers. According to the production process of different rubber products, the introduction mode of lean analysis technology and automation technology is adopted. In-depth thinking and analysis should be carried out for each process stage. Selecting suitable vulcanization molding equipment and automation devices for the enterprise. This can effectively reduce waiting time and product defects during the production process. To effectively reduce labor costs and labor intensity, as well as to improve the operation environment, increase production efficiency and reduce production costs.
Mr. Zhang Yanfei, Chief Software Architect of Global Innovation Center of YIZUMI, gave a keynote speech on “Innovative Digital Technology Application in Rubber Injection Molding”. He talked that how informatization solves the problem of information islands, and digitalization focuses on new production and manufacturing characteristics such as small batch and multi-variety, large-scale personalized customization, etc. It solves the problem of flexible manufacturing, liberates people from routine work in the future based on digitalization and intelligence, and solves the problem of creative work. Rubber molding manufacturing enterprises have innovative digital application technologies in four aspects, including equipment intelligent control technology, product quality management, equipment predictive maintenance and manufacturing operation management, and drive the comprehensive digital transformation and upgrading of enterprise manufacturing operation management with innovative applications.
Mr. Sun Peizhu, General Manager of Qingdao Aibo Think Tank Technology Co., Ltd., shared a keynote speech on “Countermeasures of Rubber Products industry Under the Policy of Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality”. He introduced that climate change caused by human activities has been identified as one of the world’s greatest challenges. The increase in carbon dioxide emissions from various countries and the surge in greenhouse gases pose a threat to the life system. In this context, countries worldwide have reduced greenhouse gas emissions through global agreements and made effective and gradual responses to the urgent threat of climate change.
Mr. Sun Peizhu emphasized that the “dual carbon” strategy is a new energy revolution to solve environmental pollution, climate change and resource depletion. It is a major strategy for China to achieve green and sustainable development and is also the core support for China’s economy to achieve high-quality transformation and development. Thus, rubber product companies should carefully organize carbon investigations of production systems, subsidiary production systems and auxiliary production systems.
At this conference, well-known experts and scholars in the industry shared many advanced topics on high-precision and cutting-edge technology with beneficial content. Many customers actively interacted and had in-depth discussions on the current problems in the industry.
This conference responds to the trend in current development through the theme “Advancing Towards a Smarter and Greener Future”. In this regard, Mr. Wang Shihai introduced: “Green development is a development that conforms to nature and promotes harmonious coexistence between humankind and nature. It is a development that achieves the greatest economic and social benefits with the least resource and environmental costs. At present, the industry should comprehensively, accurately and thoroughly implement the new development concept, accelerate the construction of a new development pattern, strive to promote high-quality development of enterprises, and create a green production standard.”
YIZUMI RIM has always been committed to the intelligent and simple production of rubber products. By reconstructing R&D, production, management and service etc., which will assist customers to improve quality and efficiency in transformation and upgrading.
