Moving Towards the New | Nantong's Enterprise Undertakes National R&D Projects Multiple Times

June 8th, World Oceans Day. Early in the morning, Nantong Liwei Machinery Co., Ltd., located in Rugao High-tech Zone, was busy. Several workers in the production workshop were continuously assembling the newly developed full-ocean-depth electro-optical cable winch system. Early next month, this advanced equipment will be transported to the Arctic for its first sea trial on a scientific research vessel.

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has actively promoted innovation in marine science and technology, and building a strong maritime country has become a major strategic task for achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. As a manufacturer of winches for ships and ocean engineering, Liwei Machinery actively implements the strategy of a strong maritime country, devoting all its efforts to pursuing the deep blue.

In 2023, recommended by the Ministry of Transport, the project "Research and Demonstration Application of Full-Ocean-Depth Electro-Optical Cable Winch System and Full-Ocean-Depth CTD Winch System," led by Liwei Machinery, under the National Key Research and Development Program "Key Technologies and Equipment for Deep Sea and Polar Regions," was approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology.

The north and south poles and the deep oceans contain countless mysterious and abundant resources, known as the "holy land of scientific experiments." As marine scientific research gradually moves towards the deep sea and polar regions, it means more challenging operating environments and more precise scientific research needs, placing higher demands on the scientific research winch system.

As the project leader, Professor Li Wenhua from Dalian Maritime University travels from Dalian to Nantong every week to lead the team in researching new topics at the Liwei Machinery graduate practice base jointly built by the university and the enterprise. "Deep-sea and polar scientific research winch systems, as basic equipment for scientific research vessels, are mainly used for the lifting and recovery of deep-sea and polar survey instruments. What we need to do is to break through key technologies such as the design optimization of full-ocean-depth scientific research winch systems under polar conditions, develop full-ocean-depth scientific research winch systems with independent intellectual property rights, and complete demonstration applications on actual ships in polar regions."

It is worth mentioning that in the process of project advancement, the research "union" composed of Liwei Machinery, universities, research institutes, and upstream and downstream enterprises will launch a "production, education, research, and application" innovation and research model, which will not only realize the normalized scientific research operations in the deep sea and polar regions, with broad market prospects, but also improve China's deep-sea and polar ocean engineering equipment technology level, break the long-term monopoly of foreign countries, fill the domestic gap, and provide technological support for China's deep-sea and polar resource development and utilization and the construction of a strong maritime country.

“No task is too big.” In the interview, the reporter found that this is not the first time Liwei Machinery has undertaken national key scientific and technological projects. In recent years, the company has undertaken and led 4 national-level key research and development projects and 3 provincial-level innovation projects. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the domestically produced full-ocean-depth geological winch system it led in the research and development successfully sampled at 7762 meters, and a series of scientific research winch systems have been used on several Russian scientific research vessels for 8 years.

Why can it frequently undertake national-level research and development projects, and where does the confidence to undertake these projects come from? Xue Xiaohong, deputy general manager of Liwei Machinery, explained: It possesses independent technological innovation capabilities.

“Currently, China's full-ocean-depth electro-optical cable winch systems and full-ocean-depth trace metal CTD winch systems are all imported from the United States, Denmark, and other European and American countries, making us dependent on foreign countries.” Xue Xiaohong introduced that the reason why the company actively took on the heavy responsibility of carrying out the independent research and development of domestically produced full-ocean-depth scientific research winch systems is both to keep up with the pace of national development strategy and to meet the needs of market transformation.

“Without transformation, we will be eliminated by the market. Only continuous innovation can give us industry dominance.” For more than ten years, Liwei Machinery has cultivated its innovative genes, transitioning from the traditional winch field with a market share of more than 80% to the ocean engineering equipment field, from shallow sea to deep sea to polar regions. Every transformation has been at the forefront of the times, and the secret is to apply traditional technological advantages to new fields.

Data shows that Liwei Machinery's sales in the first five months of this year increased by 40% year-on-year. “Last year's total profit reached more than 60 million yuan, and we used 60% for product research and development, talent cultivation, and equipment upgrades.” Xue Xiaohong said that the company currently has about 200 employees, with R&D personnel accounting for 1/3.

Because of its willingness to invest, Liwei Machinery's independently drafted international standard "Ships and Marine Technology—Anchor Chain Wheels for Seagoing Ships" was approved and released in 2019, becoming the first international standard in Nantong led by a private enterprise. Relying on its firm commitment to technological research and development, in 2022, this traditional manufacturing enterprise transformed into a national-level specialized, refined, and new "small giant," providing reliable support for China's marine scientific research to "go to the ocean, go to the deep sea, and go to the polar regions."

Written by: Nantong Daily All-Media Reporter Chen Jiayi