Sitting in Liu's spacious office in the technical center building of Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd., the air is extremely stuffy and the room is fully heated. From time to time, the loud whistle of the locomotive came from the test line track in the factory outside the window. The chief designer of "China Star" and academician of China Academy of Engineering are particularly depressed.
"What can I do? The' China Star' was actually denied by the Ministry of Railways, but our work has a clear conscience. " Liu paused a little and said, "The reason is very simple. The Ministry of Railways just thinks that' China Star' is not reliable. Although more than 500,000 kilometers have been tested, it is not enough. "
As the fastest AC drive centralized EMU independently designed in China, the first whistle sounded by "China Star" was quite loud-it even appeared on the examination paper of current affairs and politics in middle schools. At the end of 2002, when this domestic high-speed train with completely independent intellectual property rights was tested on the main line of Qinhuangdao-Shenyang Passenger Dedicated Line, it once created the "China Railway First Speed" with a speed of 32 1.5 km/h.
But since 2004, "China Star" has quickly disappeared from the news. When Japanese, French, Canadian and German high-speed EMUs won the bid for the procurement project of the Ministry of Railways in China, they did not see the "China Star"-it was not even qualified to bid-according to the tender announcement of the 200-kilometer-per-hour railway EMU project of the Ministry of Railways in 2004, the qualified bidder of this project should be legally registered in People's Republic of China (PRC), have the ability to manufacture railway EMUs and have obtained it.
"Now, our whole team is very depressed." Looking out of the window, Liu recited and said, "Helpless! Helpless! "
Just after the Spring Festival, a leader of Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. told Liu that two technical backbones of the technical center were going to resign, and similar things happened last year. This seems not surprising to Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd., which is known as "the capital of electric locomotives in China".
The academician was very sad, but there was nothing he could do, so he said helplessly, "Let's try to persuade or create some other conditions and let them wait and see. There is really no way to persuade, and the flow of talents is normal. "
When the reporter interviewed Liu, the "China Star" he designed was still running on the Qinhuangdao-Shenyang Passenger Dedicated Line. However, according to the regulations of the Ministry of Railways, the running interval is only from Shanhaiguan to Shenyang, and the maximum speed cannot exceed 160 km.
According to relevant sources of China South Locomotive Group, the parent company of Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd., the "China Star" on the Qinhuangdao-Shenyang line is a test product. "The Ministry of Railways has killed it, and it is estimated that China Star will not be published in the future.
After spending hundreds of millions of dollars on the R&D and manufacturing system of China railway locomotives and years of painstaking efforts by many scientific and technical personnel, this once major national industrialization project almost died halfway on the road to industrialization.
Low-key temporary train
It takes about 4 hours to get to Shanhaiguan ancient city by train from Beijing. A beautiful "big guy" quietly stopped on the platform, with a platypus-shaped power front hanging on both sides and a blue, white and green streamlined body, which made it look so different.
A staff member of Shanhaiguan Station told the reporter that this is the "China Star" high-speed EMU jointly manufactured by Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Works and Datong Locomotive Works, which travels between Shanhaiguan and Shenyang every day.
"China Star" is designed according to the mode of "two moving and nine towing", that is, two motor cars and nine trailers, including two first-class cars, six second-class cars and 1 hurdle cars. The EMU is a high-speed train with a speed of 270 kilometers per hour, but the reporter saw on the front of the power train that it was marked "160km/h EMU".
On February 10, the reporter boarded the L5 17 train from Shanhaiguan to Shenyang, and left on time at 16: 54. "China Star" is driving on the first passenger dedicated line in China, sitting in the spacious and comfortable adjustable soft-seat chair in the first-class carriage, turning on the small LCD TV behind the front seat and enjoying the Hollywood blockbuster "Spider-Man" or the beautiful MTV, which is really something that train passengers have never enjoyed.
However, including the reporter, there are only six passengers in the whole carriage. Although comfortable, it is particularly deserted.
A flight attendant on the L5 17 train told the reporter that "China Star" officially started carrying passengers on August 1 2005, but the Ministry of Railways never made any publicity. Even in Shenyang and Shanhaiguan, not many people know, so there are few passengers every day. Nine carriages can carry 772 people, but there were less than 100 passengers that day. In his memory, from the official operation to the present, it was almost full only once, as if a visiting group had come.
"Up to now,' China Star' still enjoys temporary treatment." The young man who watches the scenery on the Qinhuangdao-Shenyang Passenger Dedicated Line every day said, "Being close to a passenger means not knowing when to cancel."
Outside the window is the vast white snow, and the "China Star" is marching on the land outside the customs, lonely and lonely.
In the afternoon 19: 48, the train arrived in Shenyang. The journey of 389 kilometers takes 2 hours and 54 minutes. The reporter calculated that the average speed is only 134 km.
In an interview, Liu was also very helpless about the current speed limit of China Star.
"The top speed160km is stipulated by the Ministry of Railways. I have repeatedly told the Ministry of Railways that the' China Star' will run to a speed of 200 kilometers per hour after its official operation. " Liu said, "But the Ministry of Railways won't allow it, because the current driving conditions on the Qin-Shen line can't meet the requirements."
This statement made Liu feel very strange, because the Qinhuangdao-Shenyang Passenger Dedicated Line was originally designed as a high-speed passenger dedicated line with a speed of 200 kilometers per hour.
In fact, China Star, which belongs to the 270km/h EMU, limited the speed during the operation assessment, resulting in the 200km/h speed mileage accounting for only 40% of the total assessment mileage. On this matter, Liu He's project team repeatedly asked the Ministry of Railways to resume the 200km/h speed operation assessment of the whole line, but they were not allowed.
After the "China Star" was put into operation, Liu repeatedly suggested to the Ministry of Railways that a trial operation of 200km/h passenger transport should be carried out on the entire Qinhuangdao-Shenyang passenger dedicated line as an extended assessment before industrialization, so as to continue to improve the research work of "China Star". But until today, the Ministry of Railways has not given Liu any reply.
"This makes it difficult to maintain the project construction objectives and further tests that should have been continued, and it has caused waste in engineering construction." Liu said that before the trial operation of 1 "China Star" last August, he also suggested that the operation route should be from Shenyang to Qinhuangdao, because Qinhuangdao is a tourist attraction, so the number of passengers will be guaranteed. However, the Ministry of Railways finally decided to operate the line from Shenyang to Shanhaiguan, keeping a low profile and without any publicity.
"Shanhaiguan is a small place, and the Ministry of Railways does not publicize it, so until now, few people know that China's own high-speed rail runs on the Qin-Shen line." Liu said:
Drop the chain at the critical moment
If it weren't for some things that happened later, perhaps "China Star" has been running smoothly on more passenger dedicated lines today and has been industrialized according to its original goal.
"All this is caused by human factors." Liu Dui said: As a technical expert, he deeply felt the great pressure from the rule of man and administrative authority.
In April 2003, it was reported in China that the "China Star" high-speed train from Beijing to Shenyang would be put into trial operation after the opening of the Qinhuangdao-Shenyang passenger dedicated line on July 1 2003, which was optimistic. In the interview, the reporter also learned that from June 10 to June 18, 2003, the "China Star" EMU was overhauled from the Qinhuangdao-Shenyang Passenger Dedicated Line, with the aim of solving its own problems for various manufacturing units before the Qinhuangdao-Shenyang Passenger Dedicated Line was opened in July. On June 24th, China South Locomotive Group and China CNR Group held a preparatory meeting for the operation of "China Star" EMU with various manufacturers and Shenyang Shen Tie Building where Huanggutun EMU is located. At the meeting, 12 rectification suggestions were put forward.
However, on July 1 day, 2003, "China Star" did not enter the passenger trial operation as scheduled. It was revealed that there was something wrong with the French signal system imported by China Star. Liu told reporters frankly: "There were some problems in the French TVM430 signal system imported at the beginning, but the problems were quickly solved."
He believes that the reason is that the Ministry of Railways is not at ease with the technical performance and safety of China Star.
"In the process of experiment, you are sure to encounter many things. No one knows what will happen at such a high speed. In the process of developing new products, failures and various problems are normal. " Liu said:
However, there are also reasons for the attitude of the relevant leaders of the Ministry of Railways, because the "China Star", which rarely breaks down at ordinary times, fell off the chain at the critical moment when the leaders personally experienced it.
20021October 27th, the second day of the sprint test of "China Star", 165438, with a top speed of 3 12.5km, Fu Zhihuan, then Minister of Railways, wanted to get on the train and experience the speed of "China Star" for himself. On the same day, Fu Zhihuan also brought several deputy ministers.
According to the plan, the official test is at 9 o'clock. To be on the safe side, all testers got up early and ran on the line first, with a top speed of 285 kilometers per hour. However, just before returning to the base 17 seconds, the bogie fault diagnosis system installed on "China Star" gave an alarm.
When the train returned to the base and got off the train, it was found that the bracket bearing seat of one shaft of power car B was smoking. At that time, the leaders and technicians of CSR and CNR were very anxious. It is said that the deputy chief engineer of CSR was anxious to get under the car to check. The leaders of CNR Group are more anxious because this locomotive is made by Datong Locomotive Works under CNR.
The fault diagnosis system was originally used to diagnose the faults of military aero-engines. Developed by Aviation Group "608 Institute" and put into civilian use. Liu quickly sent someone to the car to check the data, and found that the bearing temperature had reached 109 degrees Celsius, which completely exceeded the standard, which was a first-class alarm. Subsequently, the temperature of the bearing seat was detected by infrared thermometer to reach more than 90 degrees.
But ministers are still waiting to get on the bus. Should we continue the experiment or stop it at once? After reading the materials and analyzing the site, Zuowei Liu, the chief designer, solicited the opinions of two leaders of CNR. His personal opinion is that the next experiment should be stopped. "Because it has been included in the first-level alarm, we must trust this system, otherwise there will be a big accident."
Subsequently, the situation was reported to Fu Zhihuan, and Fu also decided to cancel the next experiment.
The faulty bogie was immediately pulled back to Datong Factory for disintegration, which was found to be a quality problem of imported bearings after inspection. After coordination with foreign manufacturers, the bearing was returned. Liu told reporters that there is no problem with the bearings that have been replaced so far. "This also proves that the fault diagnosis system installed by China Star is effective."
"But this incident has become the most important basis for the unreliability of China Star. Some teachers of the Ministry of Railways made a big fuss about denying the' China Star' and said that' the lives of several ministers were almost reimbursed by China Star'. " Liu is very angry with him. "I think this just shows that the safety diagnosis and support system of China Star is very effective and can improve the reliability of China Star, depending on which angle you stand from."
Subsequently, at the "Expert Seminar on High-speed EMU" held in Changchun on September1September-20, 2003, "China Star" was evaluated as "there is still a significant gap in technical level, product maturity and reliability compared with foreign advanced level". This meeting has made it clear that 200km/h EMUs and high-speed EMUs above 300km/h should be imported from abroad, but experts still stressed in the "proposal synthesis" that the test of "China Star" high-speed EMUs should be further improved.
On July 1 1- 12, 2005, the Ministry of Railways hosted a summary meeting on the acceptance of the "China Star" stage, at which the Ministry of Railways verbally expressed its support for the country's independent development of high-speed trains. "But in essence, we have a completely negative attitude towards' China Star'." Liu believes that this acceptance meeting deliberately denied the strict process of design, development, test and operation assessment of "China Star" project and the fact that "China Star" has the technical ability of speed class above 200 km/h.
In 2004, "China Star" was completely eliminated from the bidding for the 200km/h EMU project of the Ministry of Railways. At that time, this magazine published an article that "China Star" was very likely to repeat the mistake of "Yun Shi" of the big aircraft project in that year.
"This kind of acceptance will greatly undermine the confidence of our scientific and technological personnel and damage the integrity image of government departments." Liu was very sad, but more importantly, "China Star high-speed train died, and the high-speed train technology system integration platform just established in China was strangled".
Is it the hope of independent innovation?
On June 26th, 2005, China Academy of Engineering held a symposium on "Improving the Independent Innovation Capability of Equipment Manufacturing Industry". At this meeting, Xu, president of China Academy of Engineering, personally presided over the meeting, and Liu made a report on the difficulties faced by "China Star". "Academicians feel that the problem is very serious after listening to it, and think that this phenomenon is also a common problem facing China's current independent innovation." Liu said.
After the meeting, Liu, together with 52 academicians, including former Minister of Railways Fu Zhihuan, submitted a Letter of Signature to the State Council in the form of red-headed documents from China Academy of Engineering.
"Signature Letter" holds that China is a big railway country, and it can be appropriately introduced and used for reference in its development and industrial upgrading, but it cannot completely rely on technology introduction to solve the problem of China railway; The recent practice of the Ministry of Railways in importing 140 sets of 200km/h EMUs from China, France and Canada shows that it is difficult to obtain technology transfer, including design technology, system integration technology, AC -DC- AC converter technology and network control technology. Enterprises only undertake assembly and manufacturing tasks and are at the low end of the industrial chain, which makes domestic enterprises lose the opportunity of independent innovation and makes the cultivated scientific research team face brain drain.
The "Signature Letter" suggests that relevant departments should organize the identification of the self-developed "China Star" high-speed train as soon as possible and realize industrialization. Academicians stressed: "Cultivating the national brand of high-speed trains can stimulate and develop a number of related industries, and can't let the independent research and development results initiated by the state go away."
Liu has been waiting for the result after the signature letter is submitted.
However, in an interview, an expert from the Ministry of Railways said that "China Star" can hardly reflect China's own technological innovation and system integration ability. At best, it is the assembly of many imported parts, let alone the core technology.
Liu doesn't deny this, but he thinks that although some parts are imported from abroad, it doesn't prevent us from acquiring system integration capabilities. He asked, "Many parts of Shenzhou VI are imported, but can you say that Shenzhou VI is not excellent?"
"More importantly,' China Star' independently solved the main core technologies and independent intellectual property rights of high-speed trains, and initially built a system integration platform for China's high-speed railway technology." Liu believes that "China Star" has independently solved the following core technologies:
The first is the power system, which is the AC drive system. This is the core of the high-speed train. Without strong power, the train cannot run. A complete set of power system of "China Star" power car, from traction transformer to traction converter to AC asynchronous traction motor, is independently developed and produced in China.
The second is the high-speed braking system. The whole braking system of "China Star" has independent intellectual property rights. From the control logic unit of the whole system, to the basic braking, and then to the anti-skid device, the integration of a whole set of subsystems was completed by China himself, and he independently developed a straight-through digital brake for electric regenerative braking and train electro-pneumatic braking.
The third is the bogie. Bogies not only have the bearing function, but also have the functions of vibration reduction and safety. There are two kinds of bogies, one is power bogies and the other is non-power bogies. The power bogies of "China Star" are jointly developed by CSR Zhuzhou Factory and CNR Datong Factory, and the non-power bogies are each undertaken by Changchun Factory and Qingdao Sifang.
In addition, the self-developed systems include "Train Control Network System" and "Aerodynamics and Lightweight Car Body".
"Of course, although system integration and core technology are independent, we do not exclude advanced foreign components." Liu said that high-speed pantographs, vacuum circuit breakers, GTO devices, deionized water pumps, high-speed bearings and screw air compressors are all imported from abroad, "which can make up for the shortcomings of domestic devices and improve the quality level of domestic high-speed trains". After the text is reprinted, please help enthusiastic netizens to reprint it to the major BBS in the country. I hope this article and the appeal of academicians can attract the attention of the broad masses. The tragedy of collusion between external forces and internal vested interests to stifle the independent innovation of national industry has happened once on a big plane (cloud 10). I sincerely hope that this high-speed railway can escape strangulation.
In 2005, the report "China's High-speed Railway Technology Development Route" organized by the National Soft Science Research Program also pointed out that the deeper significance of "China Star" is that although there are still some problems, its reliability is still not high, and there is still a considerable gap with the foreign technical level. "But through this project, China has its own technological development foundation and high-speed railway technology platform."
"China Star is a new thing. It has to go through the same process of birth, growth and maturity as the development of high-speed trains in developed countries. In fact, our current level has far exceeded the level of developed countries such as Japan, France and Germany in the early stage of development. " Liu said, "A backward country like China does have a gap with developed countries in technology, but this cannot be a reason to deny itself."
In major scientific and technological projects, it is an international practice to give priority to protecting national industries and supporting independent technologies. What Liu doesn't understand is: "Can the problems in independent research and development be solved if China Star is not allowed to continue to operate at a speed of 200km/h and further improve its development and stifle it in the cradle?"
"On the contrary, this will only make China enterprises lose the actual opportunity to develop EMUs with a speed of more than 200 km/h". Liu is worried that in the long run, this will bring a fatal blow to the rail transit equipment manufacturing industry in China, which is recognized by the industry as an industry with the greatest potential for independent innovation.
The report "China's High-speed Railway Technology Development Route" criticizes the current thinking of the Ministry of Railways of "exchanging market for technology", and further holds that the railway is a giant state-owned enterprise in China, and its procurement should also be bound by the Government Procurement Law to some extent.
Liu Ye felt the same way. Recently, he noticed that the Law on the Progress of Science and Technology in People's Republic of China (PRC) was being revised, and the new article 52 showed him Xu Shuguang. This clause is a government procurement support policy, which clearly stipulates that government agencies, public utilities and other major national construction projects that use government financial funds to purchase major equipment and products should order or purchase high-tech equipment and products with independent intellectual property rights of domestic enterprises if they can produce them; The state adopts policies and measures to support enterprises to purchase high-tech equipment and products for which domestic enterprises have independent intellectual property rights.
"I hope these legal words can be implemented in reality as soon as possible." Liu Dui said:-After a long wait, I heard the voice of "going up" again, and my heart was filled with emotion. The number in my wallet is still there, but I still need to wander in front of my dream.