Driven by the trend of energy conservation and environmental protection, the lightweight "green driving" of automobiles has become a consensus in the global automotive industry.Recently, the total investment of more than 1 billion yuan of the Land Wheels production line was put into trial operation in Fuzhou, Jiangxi Province. As a demonstration project of the "four-dimensional manufacturing" project, this digital, continuous and automated forged aluminum wheel production line has attracted widespread attention.The "four-dimensional manufacturing" leading the lightweight "green driving" of automobiles is also highly expected.

The wheel hub is the rotating part of the wheel core connected by steel through the column in the inner profile of the car tire, which plays a role of bearing, steering, driving, braking, etc. It is one of the important components of the car.In the long history of the development of automobiles, steel wheel hubs have dominated.Until the 1950s, the technology of cast aluminum wheel hubs gradually matured.Since the 1980s, with the rapid development of the global automotive industry, major automobile manufacturers have been following the trend of automotive consumption, constantly pursuing energy-saving, environmental protection, and comfortable performance lightweight cars, and have gained recognition from consumers.In the great transformation of the industry, forged aluminum wheel hubs came into being, with its superior quality and excellent performance, representing the direction of the fine and lightweight development of the automotive industry.Since the beginning of this century, the market share of forged aluminum automotive wheel hubs has been accelerating.The original market vehicle assembly rate has been continuously improving, and the replacement market for forged aluminum wheel hubs has been continuously updated and replaced, with strong demand.According to the data, in developed countries and regions such as Europe, America, and Japan, the coverage rate of commercial vehicle forged aluminum wheel hubs has exceeded 90%, and the penetration rate of passenger car forged aluminum wheel hubs has also been continuously improved.At present, China's aluminum alloy wheel hub consumption market is 80 billion to 100 billion yuan, and the global demand far exceeds this scale.

China has proposed to make lightweight "green driving" as an important direction, requiring that by 2025 and 2030, the lightweight of fuel vehicles in China should be reduced by 10% and 18% respectively.The foundation of the lightweight of the entire vehicle is to achieve lightweight of each component first, including the widespread application of forged aluminum wheels.

The forged aluminum wheel hub with "four-dimensional manufacturing" has a delicate and beautiful shape, with a 40% reduction in weight and superior comfort and safety.The picture shows some of the products displayed by Fuzhou Land Wheels Company.

The "four-dimensional manufacturing" technology, with the research direction of high-end equipment and industrial machine transformation iteration, and the precise target of "green driving" for automobile industry's saving and lightening, has achieved breakthroughs in basic theory and technical methods.Chen Sigen, a professor of Shanghai Jiaotong University, pointed out that the current automotive industry is widely using new lightweight materials such as magnesium alloy, aluminum alloy, composite materials, etc. The emergence of new technologies and processes such as "four-dimensional manufacturing" will accelerate the progress of automotive lightweight, and provide new technical possibilities for the intelligent and interconnected automotive industry to become a new Internet terminal, and even change the traditional shape of automobiles.

The international market competition is also under way.In order to cope with the trend of large-scale industrialization of high-end forged aluminum wheels, international wheel giants represented by the United States, the European Union, Japan and South Korea have made early arrangements.Looking around the country, there are nearly 300 forged aluminum and cast aluminum wheel manufacturing enterprises, with a production capacity of less than 5% of the aluminum alloy wheel market. Most of them are in the situation of "small, low and scattered", with small scale, low technology content and scattered process flow, which is not commensurate with China's position as a major automobile wheel manufacturing country in the world.

The intelligent forged aluminum wheel hub processing center of "four-dimensional manufacturing" adopts fully enclosed green and environmentally friendly clean production, effectively avoiding the problem of two pollution in metal processing.The picture shows part of the production line of Luvay Wheel Hub.

The former domestic automotive wheel hub products were mainly exported in the low-end market, relying on low prices to maintain their competitiveness.Wang Hongjing, the marketing director of Demar, cited a set of data.In the past, the price of aluminum ingots was 8 yuan per kilogram, and the export price of aluminum wheel hubs made by Chinese enterprises was up to 68 yuan per kilogram. Now, the price of aluminum ingots has risen to 20 yuan per kilogram, and the export price of wheel hubs has fallen by half. Each wheel hub can only earn 10 yuan, 20 yuan, and even some wheel hubs have a profit of only 2 yuan per unit.

"Such meager profits cannot be invested in new technological transformation, and the enterprises' ability to resist risks is very weak. Any slight disturbance in the international market will have a negative impact on them," said Fang Jianru, an expert in the automotive industry chain and the general manager of Dalian Yaming Auto Parts Company.

How to make China's forged aluminum wheel industry bigger and stronger by hard training and taking the initiative in the new competitive situation?"Accelerating the internationalization and globalization strategy is the fundamental way out for China's wheel industry," said Fang Jianru. Land Wheels aluminum wheel has just been put into production and exported to developed countries and regions in large quantities.

The production of the Derma Land Wheels automatic wheel production line has attracted the attention of domestic and foreign peers on the "four-dimensional manufacturing".The picture shows the company's head accompanying relevant European experts to inspect the production site.

It is worth mentioning that China, as a rapidly developing automotive powerhouse, has a car ownership of over 320 million, which has given rise to a huge automotive service industry.According to incomplete statistics, there are currently 400,000 auto modification and repair factories across the country.Liu Jiande, president of the Zhejiang Automobile Service Association, said that some people compare the wheel hub to the "shoes" of the car. With the increase of people's safety awareness and the rise of "car culture", users hope that their cars have higher and more safety and comfort, and they also want to change their "car shoes" often. It is not uncommon for a private car to have several different color and pattern wheel hubs, which increases the application scenario of forged aluminum wheel hubs in the automotive replacement market, namely the automotive spare parts update and modification market.

According to industry practice, the ratio of replacement market auto parts to the whole is 3 to 10 times, that is, the ex-factory price of ordinary cast aluminum wheels is 400 yuan, and the 4S shop charges at least more than 1000 yuan.The ex-factory price of forged aluminum wheels is 1000 yuan, and the replacement market should be priced at 3000 yuan or even tens of thousands of yuan.Liu Jiande pointed out that the Land Wheels have high competitiveness and cost-effectiveness, which is very attractive to many car modification factories and maintenance factories.If further adopting the "trade-in" method, recycling the old wheels of the owner and reducing the cost of replacing the wheels, it will be more welcomed by the market.(Ban Juanjuan)

Responsible editor: Wu Wei