Ruiqing Automobile Engine Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Ruiqing Company"), located in Jiaozuo City, Henan Province, is another major project implemented by Chery Automobile in Henan after the Kaifeng base. It specializes in the research and development, as well as the production and operation of small-displacement automobile engines. The small-displacement engines produced by Ruiqing Company are classic engine products independently developed and owned by Chery Automobile with full independent intellectual property rights. The current market exceeds 1.5 million units. The first phase of Ruiqing Company has three engine production lines, currently producing five major series of gasoline and diesel engines: 272, 372, 372A, 472, and 472WF. The first phase production capacity is 440,000 units. In addition to being used in Chery sedans and Kaiqi microvans, Ruiqing's engine products are also independently supplied to motorcycle and non-road vehicle manufacturers.

The engine is the core component of the automobile, featuring a complex structure and many difficulties in mechanical processing. To ensure product quality, the engine production line of Ruiqing Company adopts a large number of advanced manufacturing processes, excellent manufacturing equipment and advanced and efficient cutting tools, making full technical reserves for the long-term sustainable development of the enterprise. With excellent performance and stable product quality, Ruiqing Company has won a good reputation in the industry, attracting the attention of international users. At present, more than 30,000 engine products are exported to Japan and the United States every year.

Advanced cutting tools boost efficiency

In the mass production of car engines, the cost of cutting tools, though only a small proportion, has a significant impact on the overall processing efficiency. In the production process, Ruiqing Company places great importance on the selection of cutting tools. Mr. Guo Wanshan, the Deputy General Manager of Ruiqing Company, has a very clear point of view: "In the production process, production time and production utilization rate affect production efficiency, and the cost performance of cutting tools will directly affect the processing cost of cutting tools. In order to improve production efficiency and reduce production costs, we strictly follow the principle of selecting cutting tools with high durability, high cutting efficiency and low use cost." In order to ensure the efficient and stable production of the engine production line, Ruiqing Company has carried out close cooperation with the internationally renowned cutting tool manufacturer Walter.

In the processing of engine block parts, Ruiqing Company has extensively used Walter's hard alloy face milling cutters and non-standard boring cutters. According to Mr. Guo Wanshan, in actual production, Walter cutters have a high cutting speed. The application of its cutter cutting parameters can improve 20%, the processing time is shortened by 10%, and the single machine production cost can be reduced by 15%. The production cost has been effectively controlled, and the production efficiency has been greatly improved. For example: Walter's hard alloy rough face milling cutter has strong material removal capability, easy chip removal and high life, and the cutting line speed of gray cast iron can reach 250m/min, with a feed of 0.25mm/z. The precision face milling cutter can achieve a very high cutting line speed (305 m/min), a feed of 0.2mm/z, a fast cutting speed, and can achieve a good surface processing quality, achieving a surface roughness of Ra≤1.6µm.

In the processing of engine block, Ruiqing Company has increased the durability of cutting tools by more than one fold after using the new milling cutter disk F4045 and matching cutting blades from Walter, such as the tool T8005 for the front and rear end of the 472 cylinder block, which has increased from cutting 80 pieces to 200 pieces. Not only has the number of tool changes been reduced and the processing efficiency improved, but the product quality has also been greatly improved compared to the original F2146 old type tool. In the view of Xing Shenghua from Walter's automotive industry, there is still great potential to improve the efficiency of face milling of cast iron parts and reduce costs. One of them is the cast iron specific milling cutter Xtra.tec seven-sided cutter F4045 with medium tooth spacing, which has a seven-sided shape and a 45° main cutting edge design. The blade is a negative type blade, which can be used on both sides, and each blade has 14 effective cutting edges. Like all other Xtra·tec® series cutters, the main cutting edge has a positive type geometric design. Therefore, the F4045 also has the typical features of the Xtra·tec® series cutters, which cut lightly and have low power consumption of the machine tool. Another model, F4045 standard product, has a diameter range from 63 to 200mm, with a dense tooth design, which is very suitable for cast iron processing. The coarse milling cutter for the lock mouth surface of the cylinder block has a dense tooth design with a maximum cutting depth of 4mm for the cutter disk, which is generally applicable to the blank allowance of cast iron parts in the automotive and related industries. "The significant structural feature of this milling cutter is that the blade is clamped by a wedge block, ensuring that the indexable blade is precisely and reliably fixed in the blade seat. By operating the clamping screw, the wedge block automatically leaves the clamping surface, thus allowing the blade to be easily and freely changed," said Xing Shenghua from Walter.

Dry cutting technology has good performance.

With the enhancement of environmental awareness, people gradually realize the impact of cutting fluid on the environment. As a new green manufacturing technology, dry cutting can not only avoid the pollution of cutting fluid to the environment, but also greatly reduce the production cost of products, and become one of the development directions of metal cutting processing. As a tool manufacturer, Walter follows the development trend of cutting technology, and successively launches cutting tool products that are also suitable for dry cutting.

Wet cutting can ensure the surface quality of the machined surface, and dry cutting can effectively improve the machining efficiency. In Ruqing Company, the process of rough machining the front and rear end faces and the top and bottom faces of the engine block adopts dry cutting process. After dry cutting with the new F4033 tool, the tool life has increased by 30% compared to the original, reducing the time for tool change and effectively improving the production efficiency. It also reduces the production cost. It is worth mentioning that the face milling cutter of Walter uses a hundred-layer coating (each layer thickness is 50-100nm) technology. The coated cutter can effectively block the expansion of micro cracks, increase the service life of the cutter, and improve the process quality of the machined products.

Xing Shenghua believes that the research direction of tool technology for dry cutting, as a green processing method, is still mainly in coating and tool structure. In order to gradually dilute or cancel the role of the original cutting fluid, the heat resistance and wear resistance of tool coating must be greatly improved; to improve the processing efficiency, the structure must be conducive to chip breaking, chip removal and heat dissipation. Only by comprehensively considering the above factors can dry cutting play a greater role and truly achieve environmental protection, economy and efficiency. Walter's Silver Tiger tool coating is a classic technology that is suitable for both dry cutting and wet cutting, using CVD coating technology and combining the characteristics of PVD coating, which is sharp, heat resistant and wear resistant.

Win trust, win the market

The use of efficient and advanced cutting tools can improve tool life, effectively shorten processing time, improve production efficiency, reduce production unit cost, and is of great significance to the production of engine. In domestic mainstream engine manufacturing enterprises, PCD tools, ceramic tools and composite machining tools are widely used, such as the support boring technology of cylinder block crankshaft hole, the composite boring and hinge technology of cylinder head intake and exhaust guide tube and seat ring, the high-speed cutting technology of cylinder block and cylinder head joint surface, the rough and fine boring technology of cylinder block cylinder hole, the rough and fine boring technology of sand hole, not only improve the surface quality of products, but also the processing efficiency can be increased by more than 50% (CBN tool insert cutting line speed can reach 780m/min), bringing huge economic benefits to the production enterprise.

However, from Walter's perspective, the advancement of the tool itself is important, but what is more important to users is whether this tool can bring them enough economic benefits and sustainable development space. As for how to help customers improve efficiency, Xing Shenghua said that when providing non-standard tools for customers, it is necessary to have a full understanding of the customer first. Secondly, the application of advanced technology must be based on the customer's existing foundation, to maximize the existing value, advanced does not necessarily mean applicable. "In the cooperation with Walter, we can feel their emphasis on communicating with users, emphasizing the potential real needs of users, and striving to become a systematic partner for users to solve metal processing problems, rather than a simple product seller," Mr. Guo Wanshan said.

"Walter will help us choose the appropriate blade type and cutting parameters based on the actual material of the parts we process, the surface quality requirements, the machining allowance, the condition of the machine tool and fixture, and in line with the principle of efficiency and low cost. In the actual production of Ruiqing Company, a variety of Walter's non-standard boring tools are used, which not only reflects the rich variety of Walter's cutting tools, but also fully demonstrates its strong research and development capabilities in non-standard cutting tools. Walter's cutting tools have a very high cost performance, and the machining situation is stable. When there are key projects and tool problems in the production process, Walter's service team can provide us with quick and timely technical support and solutions," Mr. Guo Wanshan said.

The engine is the core technology that Chery Automobile is proud of. In order to maintain the advantage of small-displacement engines of Ruiqing Company, Ruiqing Company has launched the second phase of the project, upgraded the existing products, and invested in new engine products according to market demand. Years of unremitting efforts by Walter have been fully affirmed by users. Mr. Guo Wanshan said: "Based on the previous friendly cooperation, Ruiqing Company will continue to deepen the cooperation relationship with advanced tooling suppliers at home and abroad, including Walter, in the future."