From knock-off old-man's electric vehicles to industrial giant

Chapter 271 Expansion
The next day.

Xu Yi arrived in Luzhou around noon.

We arrived at the Xingchen F2 factory for inspection. It is located in the central and western part of the Economic Development Zone to the southern part. Along the way, a number of automobile and parts, electronic information and equipment manufacturing factories have gathered, including JAC Motors, Guoxuan High-tech, and a large number of tire factories, automobile parts, battery raw material upstream and downstream supporting factories.

The construction of the new plant was mainly handled by veterans like He Jing and Kang Guoyi, who had led the construction and production of the F1 factory, who were transferred to oversee the work and ensure efficiency.

When the Starry Night L7 arrived at the park gate, a group of people were already waiting on site.

The LK Group's ultra-large integrated die-casting machine has reached the planning and construction stage, and President Liu Zhuoming also personally attended the event.

Xu Yi got out of the car and had a warm discussion with the Lijin team.

To know.

The biggest upgrade in equipment and production planning of the Luzhou F2 factory compared to the F1 factory is the presence of two ultra-large integrated die-casting machines.

Moreover, it is not a product with a production volume of 3000 to 5000 tons available on the market.

Instead, it far exceeds that level.

Xingchen's willingness to invest money and manpower in the research and development customization process has greatly alleviated the concerns of the Lijing Group and has also taken a strong step forward in pushing the current industry's development ceiling.

As they entered the factory area, they began discussing the current construction progress.

“Mr. Xu, the power supply and foundation work are now complete. In the next three months, we can gradually complete the module transportation and assembly of the ultra-large die-casting unit,” Liu Zhuoming said as he walked.

The physical infrastructure of the F2 plant area is based on standards jointly customized by both teams.

Because ultra-large integrated die-casting machines have very high requirements for infrastructure compatibility and factory physical conditions, the foundation depth must be two to three times that of ordinary factory areas, and the unit load capacity must be greater than 50 tons/㎡, so as to support the weight of the ultra-large die-casting machine and the impact force of operation.

The initial standard for the clamping force of the super-large die-casting machine customized by Xingchen was over 6500T. However, after collaboration between the two parties, the various technical and modification processes were finally streamlined, and the plan to deploy this 7000T super-large industrial behemoth was finalized.

"Thanks to the LK team for their hard work. Once the project is completed, domestically produced new energy vehicles will be able to avoid the cumbersome welding and integration process," Xu Yi said with a smile.

This time, the Xingchen customized rear floor casting includes the integration of the rear floor and rear longitudinal beams. The planned integrated die-casting unit can completely integrate more than seventy parts of the original vehicle into a single die-casting unit.

This means that by using integrated die casting, more than a thousand spot welding and arc welding points can be directly reduced.

This single component alone can save 25% of the overall cost.

而星辰L7的尺寸是2.1m×1.4m×0.3m，投影面积在2.94㎡左右，这也就意味着起码要6500吨以上的压铸机才能胜任标准。

The larger and more complex the casting, the higher the clamping force required.

At present, the integrated die-casting machine customized and developed by both parties has a clamping force of 7000T, which Xu Yi is already very satisfied with.

This step has been successfully completed.

In the future, super-large die-casting machines with capacities of 8000 tons or even 10,000 tons will not be far off.

Liu Zhuoming said with a hint of admiration, "President Xu, to be honest, I never thought of using one-piece die casting in car manufacturing before. I really admire Xingchen Automotive for having such courage. We are the first in China to do this."

The technology and approach have definitely been validated; both teams have been working on this for a long time, and now we're just waiting to see the results.

However, die-casting machines with clamping forces of over 6000 tons are mainly used in heavy machinery, aerospace, and shipbuilding industries.

Using this thing to build cars?!
If this gets out, anyone will be shocked for a while.

"Someone has to make a breakthrough, and we at Starry Sky also want to try a new direction."

Xu Yi replied with a smile. Tesla's Gigafactory in Shanghai is not even finished yet, and the one-piece die-casting base plate technology was only formally proposed 20 years later. Xingchen is of course the first in this regard!
In fact, implementing technology is not that difficult.

However, the procurement and maintenance costs of ultra-large die-casting machines far exceed those of traditional welding lines, and most car companies lack the motivation to invest in them, nor have they realized the irreplaceable nature of this technology for new energy vehicles.

"Yes, let's try new directions together!" Liu Zhuoming was full of confidence, whether it was for exploring new businesses or accumulating new technologies.

The LK Group is fully willing to cooperate with Xingchen to complete the construction work efficiently.

Because the first phase of Xingchen F2's factory has customized two sets of ultra-large die-casting machines, and two more sets will be customized when the second phase of the factory is built, such a high-end customer deserves to be prioritized in maintaining good relations.

……

Xu Yi met with the LK Group at the factory and inspected the progress.

Then a new round of "experiments" began.

Luzhou New Station District.

The equipment production line construction at BOE's B9 plant has reached the installation and trial production stage, and Vice President Zhang Yu solemnly received the team from Xingchen Automotive.

This wasn't the first time the two parties had met; they had collaborated before, with the LCD screens and touchscreen solutions on the Starry S7 and Starry Mini being customized by BOE.

Based on Xingchen Auto's current sales volume, it ranks among the top five customers of BOE's automotive business.

Xu Yi came to discuss the research and development and cooperation of automotive OLED.

"Mr. Xu, I am very pleased that you trust BOE and that this will increase the opportunity for deeper cooperation between the two parties."

Zhang Yu warmly shook hands with Xu Yi.

He knew that Xingchen Automotive's high-end models used imported Samsung automotive OLED displays.

This market share may not be large, but it is something that BOE has been paying close attention to and intends to penetrate in the past two years.

After all, the LCD market is basically saturated. Samsung has already achieved the largest domestic market share. To pursue higher profits and expand its scale, automotive-grade OLED is clearly a high-end market. Samsung can't let Samsung take the whole cake!

This is a strategic issue.

They also urgently need an automotive-grade OLED screen to enter the market.

“Mr. Zhang, our initial plan is to invest 500 million to 1 billion yuan to solve the existing technology supply problem through joint research and development and customization. As long as BOE can meet our needs, we can switch to the domestic supply chain at any time.”

Xu Yi immediately expressed his opinion.

Xingchen can completely replace its screen with a domestically produced one.

On the one hand, Samsung screens are too expensive, and on the other hand, the stability of the imported screen supply chain is really worrying. As long as domestic products can catch up, then imports will actually have no advantage.

Moreover, Starry Sky plans to accumulate patents and technologies in advance for automotive-grade OLED screens, and develop its own unique solution, which can also be considered as building an ecosystem.

However, there are still some problems with the current industrial chain.

For example, the automotive OLED screens that Xingchen commissioned Samsung to customize have a brightness of over 1000 nits and can withstand very high extreme operating temperatures. They have also passed automotive-grade component and chip certifications such as IATF 16949 and AEC-Q100.

BOE's current OLED production lines are only at the consumer electronics certification stage and have not yet established an IATF 16949 automotive-grade quality management system.

At this level, the two parties found a perfect match, as Xingchen Automotive lacked a good screen and needed to fine-tune it to develop its own screen standards and dimming algorithms, while BOE urgently needed to enter the market.

(End of this chapter)