World First! The benchmark project of heavy-duty steel pipe intelligent logistics warehousing demonstration center has been successfully implemented

A billion-yuan-level benchmark project opens up a new chapter! Recently, the world's first heavy-duty steel pipe smart logistics and warehousing demonstration center, jointly built by Zhongyou Baoshishun (Qinhuangdao)  Pipe Co., Ltd. and AIMS, has been successfully accepted and officially put into operation. As a benchmark achievement in the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, this project has been highlighted by media outlets such as Hebei Satellite TV, setting a new example for the intelligent upgrade of logistics in China's heavy equipment manufacturing industry.

Zhongyou Baishuisun is a modern steel pipe manufacturing service enterprise that integrates pipe production, anti-corrosion, pipe bending processing and services. It produces over 800,000 tons of steel pipes annually and exports to more than 20 countries and regions. Currently, the manufacturing industry is accelerating its transformation towards intelligence, greenness, and high-endization. Intelligent manufacturing has become the core key to driving industrial upgrading and technological innovation. Baishuisun, with forward-thinking about the long-term development of the enterprise and precise judgment of the industry trend, actively responds to the transformation wave. Against this backdrop, Baishuisun and AIMS have joined forces to launch the construction project of the global first heavy-duty steel pipe intelligent logistics warehousing demonstration center, promoting the comprehensive upgrade of the enterprise's warehousing and logistics towards informatization, intelligence, safety, and lean management.

A comprehensive logistics and warehousing system has carried out a comprehensive and in-depth digital transformation and upgrading of the entire chain. The project has newly built a 8800㎡ high-standard intelligent warehousing facility, and simultaneously completed the digital and intelligent transformation of six logistics transfer warehouses. It has fully connected the core systems such as intelligent production scheduling, unmanned dispatching, automatic unloading, and intelligent warehousing, and applied 7 pioneering technologies to successfully achieve fully automated operations from raw material entry to finished product exit.

Seven Core Technical Highlights, Rebuilding the New Pattern of Steel Pipe Logistics

As the world's first smart logistics warehousing demonstration center for heavy steel pipes, the greatest highlight of this project lies in its breakthrough technological innovation. The project focuses on core aspects such as steel plate entry, warehouse management, and transfer and hoisting, and implements 7 leading technological innovations domestically and internationally. Next, let's delve deeper to explore these cutting-edge technologies.

A National First-of-Its-Kind Major Equipment Application

Intelligent Preparation System: Based on advanced equipment and technologies such as intelligent cranes, hoists, and visual positioning, it adopts the innovative strategy of "single unloading, center alignment preparation, sequential stacking, and multi-unloading transportation", achieving the entire process of steel plate raw materials from unloading, preparation inspection to automatic stacking without human intervention. This system not only significantly improves the efficiency of unloading and entry but also fundamentally eliminates safety hazards caused by manual operations.

Fill in two industry technical gaps

Grid-based virtual storage bay management: In response to the industry pain points of diverse steel plate lengths and widths, an innovative grid-based virtual storage bay management model has been adopted. Virtual storage bays of uniform size are divided within a limited space, which can flexibly adapt to different specifications of steel plates ranging from 12 to 18 meters in length and 1.1 to 4.4 meters in width, achieving high-density and orderly storage. This significantly improves the utilization rate of storage space and operational efficiency, and is a typical application of artificial intelligence in heavy material storage management.

Electromagnetic lifting tool precise splitting technology: Utilizing intelligent electric permanent magnet suction cups, it features intelligent magnetic adjustment and control functions. It can automatically adjust the magnetic force according to the thickness and width of the steel plate, and precisely lift the specified number of steel plates in accordance with the system instructions. Within a range of 6.4 to 40 millimeters in thickness, it can achieve precise splitting for 1 to 6 steel plates in a single lift. The lifting capacity of the tool at the bottom can reach up to 30 tons. The telescopic hanging beam can lift steel plates ranging from 9 meters to 18.5 meters in length, and it also has a power-off magnetic retention function to ensure safety in extreme situations. Additionally, this system is equipped with an information management system to track the entire process of steel plate from storage to loading. This technology significantly improves the accuracy, stability, and safety of lifting heavy steel plates.

First application of four industrial innovation

Production plan-driven logistics and warehousing model: The project builds an intelligent application system. Through the deep integration of four core modules - APS scheduling, YMS vehicle management, WMS warehouse management, and IGV intelligent dispatching - it creates a new model based on the production plan driving logistics and warehousing operations. It realizes digital management of the entire process from raw material storage, production material preparation and feeding, optical pipe storage, anti-corrosion pipe storage, and finished pipe shipment, significantly improving the efficiency of warehousing and logistics collaboration.

Intelligent raw material unloading, sorting and warehousing: Relying on unloading robots, intelligent sorting systems, palletizing robots and intelligent cranes, multiple equipment work collaboratively to create an integrated intelligent operation process for raw steel unloading, sorting, automatic palletizing and automatic warehousing. The system supports two warehousing modes: single-piece lifting of steel plates and batch lifting of multiple pieces. It enables simultaneous and parallel operations of unloading and warehousing tasks, directly increasing the overall operation efficiency of raw material arrival and unloading by 60%.

Finished steel pipe unmanned hoisting system: The first intelligent hoisting system in China applied to outdoor scenarios. Based on machine vision, it integrates multi-feature recognition and point cloud reconstruction algorithms, successfully overcoming the visual recognition challenges in outdoor complex lighting and background environments, enabling the automatic hooking and unhooking of the finished steel pipe hoisting equipment. The system supports the hoisting of single or double steel pipes with a length ranging from 9 to 18.5 meters and a diameter ranging from D350 to D1412 millimeters. It effectively optimizes the out-of-storage and shipping processes of finished steel pipes, and is highly advanced and innovative.

Unmanned IGV vehicle transportation: Utilizing L4-level unmanned driving technology, the vehicle has a load capacity of up to 70 tons and can handle various types of materials such as steel coils, steel plates, and steel pipes. This IGV has extremely strong environmental adaptability and can operate stably throughout the day in harsh weather conditions including heavy fog, moderate snow, and minus 20 degrees Celsius. It can reach a maximum speed of 35 kilometers per hour and can safely and efficiently perform operations in complex factory environments with mixed traffic of manned vehicles and personnel, bridging the logistics gaps between various storage areas and achieving all-day, unmanned, intelligent, and short-distance transportation of heavy materials within the factory.

The establishment of the world's first smart logistics warehousing demonstration center for heavy steel pipes marks an important milestone in Baishoushun's transformation and its journey towards high-quality development. It is known that after the project's launch, it successfully achieved a cost reduction of 800,000 yuan in quality control per year; a reduction of nearly 10 million yuan in loading, unloading, and transfer operations per year; a 200% increase in raw material storage capacity; and a 30% increase in production efficiency. This project innovates the traditional storage and transportation model through digital transformation and deeply implements the "Digital China Oil" strategic layout through actual implementation results.

In the future, AIMS will continue to join hands with Baoshishun, constantly deepening technological innovation and application expansion, continuously optimizing the intelligent logistics and warehousing system, and assisting Baoshishun in steadily advancing towards becoming a world-class enterprise. At the same time, taking these benchmark projects as models, we will accumulate replicable and implementable industry solutions, empower more manufacturing enterprises to break through transformation bottlenecks and achieve digital and intelligent upgrades, and jointly write a new chapter of high-quality development of the manufacturing industry during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period.

About Baisheshun

Zhongyou Baisheshun (Qinhuangdao) Pipe Co., Ltd. was established in August 2006 and is a wholly-owned enterprise of China National Petroleum Corporation's Gemstone Pipe Industry Co., Ltd. It has developed into a specialized steel pipe manufacturing enterprise integrating three main businesses: high-end oil and gas transportation pipe materials, new energy pipe materials, and manufacturing + services.

The company possesses production lines for manufacturing new energy pipe materials, straight seam submerged arc welded steel pipes, spiral submerged arc pre-precision welded steel pipes, as well as production lines for internal and external anti-corrosion and bending of steel pipes. It can produce over 400,000 tons of straight seam submerged arc welding pipes annually, over 400,000 tons of spiral submerged arc pre-precise welding pipes, over 5,000 pieces of bent pipes, and over 600,000 square meters of internal and external anti-corrosion pipes. The products can be widely applied in various harsh service conditions for oil and gas transportation, water and heat supply, engineering pile pipes, and structural pipes on land and at sea.