Wire mesh is an important industrial product, closely related to production and life. Wire mesh is indispensable in life, from small sieves, filter elements, window screens, guardrails to large fields such as petrochemicals, automobile manufacturing, medicine and health, and aerospace.
As the world's largest wire mesh production base and distribution center, Anping, Hebei has more than 13,000 wire mesh companies of all sizes; its products cover 6 series, more than 400 varieties, and more than 6,000 specifications. Its woven wire mesh production, sales, and export volume account for more than 80% of the country. In 2023, the output value of the wire mesh industry will reach 100.6 billion yuan, becoming the first 100 billion-level small and medium-sized enterprise characteristic industrial cluster in Hebei.
Make efforts to transform and upgrade the wire mesh industry "all the way hot", tackle the cutting-edge digital technology "all the way breakthrough", break through the development constraints "all the way forward"... Anping, surging with kinetic energy to "new" line!
Digital empowerment
Inspire the wire mesh industry to "move forward"
In the production workshop of Anping County Hexing Metal Products Co., Ltd., automated production equipment operates in an orderly manner. On the production line, the mechanical arms swing up and down. Rolls of stainless steel wire rods are transformed into stainless steel wires with a diameter of 0.08 mm after more than a dozen processes such as straight-in wire drawing, water tank drawing, and annealing. Then they are sent to the inspection link. The staff scans the barcode with a handheld scanner to carefully inspect the production data and surface defects of the product.
"The barcode is equivalent to an exclusive 'identity card' given to each stainless steel wire product. From the raw materials entering the factory to the finished products, each process can be accurately traced back to the raw materials, production, inspection, warehousing, packaging and other links." General Manager Song Xuhao introduced that last year the company invested nearly 1.4 million yuan to independently develop and introduce the "Internet + Digital Management" software platform throughout the factory, integrating the management system and digitalization, realizing equipment interconnection in the production link, and automatically collecting production data, which is transmitted to the terminal server in real time. Through the application of the digital management platform, the company's production efficiency and product quality have been greatly improved, and labor costs have been saved by about 20%.
The digital transformation of Anping County Hexing Metal Products Co., Ltd. is an important focus for Anping County to promote the deep integration of big data and the wire mesh industry and enable high-quality development.
Innovative development
The wire mesh industry is climbing higher
In the midsummer, the heat is full. Anping County Huijin Mesh Co., Ltd. is also a hot production scene. With the operation of machinery and equipment, a series of perforated decorative meshes with different patterns and shapes are continuously produced from the production line.
As a traditional wire mesh manufacturing company, Huijin Mesh has continued to increase its investment in scientific and technological research and development in recent years, and has successively launched wire mesh products such as aluminum mesh curtain walls, aluminum mesh ceilings, carved decorative panels, and wire mesh glass curtain walls, successfully entering the high-end market at home and abroad.
Deep cultivation and innovation have brought gratifying results to Huijin Mesh. Xue Yuanyuan, deputy general manager of the company, said proudly: "In recent years, we have successfully won many domestic and foreign projects such as the terminal building of Beijing Daxing International Airport, Hong Kong Xiqu Center, and Saudi Aramco Oil Research and Development Center, and provided one-stop decoration services for design, production, and installation. In particular, the perforated decorative mesh manufactured in 2022 was unveiled at the Lusail Stadium in Qatar World Cup, which amazed the world."
Xue Yuanyuan pointed to the machine tools running at full capacity in the workshop and said that the high-speed gantry punch press and turret punch press they introduced have realized the upgrade of traditional punch press equipment, which not only enhanced production capacity and improved processing efficiency, but more importantly, greatly improved the accuracy, professionalism and aesthetics of wire mesh products.
Technology empowerment
The pace of industrial upgrading has accelerated
Focusing on the innovation needs of the wire mesh industry, Anping County has built a scientific and technological innovation platform, established a stainless steel wire mesh research and development center and a welding wire mesh research center, and relied on key enterprises and colleges and universities to make every effort to break through a number of core technologies. Explore the expansion and application of intelligence in the wire mesh industry with Hebei Industrial Design Innovation Center, Tsinghua University Tianjin High-end Equipment Research Institute and other institutions. At the same time, the county encourages enterprises to introduce advanced equipment from home and abroad, and significantly increases the incentives for the first set. In 2023, Anping County's wire mesh enterprises invested 210 million yuan in research and development throughout the year, a year-on-year increase of 19.8%. Anping's wire mesh industry is transforming from "Anping Manufacturing" to "Anping Creation".
Nowadays, looking at Anping, there is a vigorous vitality of "new" and "quality", and a group of industry "hidden champions" continue to emerge, forming a "leading industry + single champion + specialization and innovation" high-quality enterprise goose formation cluster. At present, the county has 83 high-tech enterprises, 130 national-level science and technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises, and 5 national-level specialization and innovation "little giant" enterprises.
"Next, we will focus on scientific and technological innovation, talent introduction and cultivation, chain extension and strengthening, digital empowerment, equipment upgrades, and continue to make precise efforts to continuously promote the wire mesh industry to move forward, climb high, and move forward to strength." Mao Haibing, head of the Industry Section of the Anping County Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, said.