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China's largest submersible-support vessel was delivered and put into service on Monday in Qingdao, Shandong province, marking a breakthrough in the development of the country's deep-water salvage force, officials said.
Shenqianhao, China's first ship that carries a saturation diving system allowing divers to work at depths of up to 300 meters, is put into operation in Qingdao, Shandong province, on Monday. Yu Fangping / for China Daily
The Shenqianhao is the nation's most advanced submersible-support vessel, capable of completing submarine rescue and lifting missions as well as other underwater projects, according to a statement from the rescue and salvage bureau under the Ministry of Transport.
The ship was built by Wuchang Shipbuilding Industry and will be managed by Shanghai Salvage Co, which is affiliated with the bureau.
The vessel is equipped with a deep-water saturation diving system, which allows 12 divers to work in turns at a depth of 300 meters — 100 meters deeper than in the past, said Shen Hao, director of Shanghai Salvage Co.

The system has living capsules, adapter modules and other life support facilities, the statement said. It allows divers to live in an enclosed pressurized environment before they enter the water.

A diving bell then takes three divers at a time into deep waters to carry out underwater operations, and returns them to the living capsule to change shifts.

The divers can be decompressed to surface pressure only once — at the end of their tour of duty. The process, known as saturation diving, enables divers to work uninterrupted in deep waters for long periods without the risk of decompression sickness.

Saturation diving technology is widely used in underwater operations performed in waters more than 120 meters deep or that require divers to stay in the sea for more than one hour.

The technology is different from that of the Jiaolong, the Chinese manned deep-sea research submersible that can dive to a depth of more than 7,000 meters.

"Divers can work for 28 days straight with the support of the system," Shen said. He said innovations have been made to tackle the technical problems of saturation diving at great depths.

The 13,000-ton ship is 125 meters long — about the length of 28 sedans if placed end to end.

The ship is equipped with a helicopter landing platform and a crane with a lifting capacity of 140 tons, capable of pulling sunken ships and cargo from the sea.

The large submersible carrier fills the vacancy of such ships in the country. It will greatly enhance China's ability to clean up large oil spills, respond to maritime accidents and conduct deep-water, large-tonnage salvage, said Xu Zuyuan, vice-minister of transport.

At Monday's delivery ceremony, Xu also said developed countries have long possessed saturation diving technology, while China's new breakthrough in the field will be further applied to maritime rescue, salvage and ocean resource exploration.

Eight countries have used this technology to allow divers to work 400 meters below sea level, China Central Television reported on Monday.

The ministry's next goal is to develop saturation diving technology that will make it possible for divers to work 500 meters below the sea, the statement said.

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China Shipbuilding Industry Corp. (CSIC), one of the two largest shipbuilding conglomerates in China, said Wednesday that the company is developing a manned submersible that can dive to a depth of 4,500 meters.

The move came as part of a greater plan for the nation to eventually build a deep sea station where submersibles can dock and oceanauts can work.

The CSIC, builder of the Jiaolong manned submersible, said at a press conference that the Jiaolong sub has returned to its test base since completing deep sea diving missions, and it will be handed over for use after maintenance.

The sub, which made record dives of more than 7,000 meters in the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench during a 44-day test mission, will be used to conduct scientific research next year, the Beijing-based state-owned company said.

The CSIC will work with related government departments to further push forward the research and development of deep-sea equipment, it said.

According to a report released at the conference, the company, one of the world's top 500 companies, saw its revenues and profits grow 14 percent and 10 percent, respectively, in 2011, despite a crisis-struck shipbuilding sector.

The CSIC, the country's major navy equipment supplier and shipbuilder, has an annual shipbuilding capacity of 15 million tonnes and its products are sold in more than 60 countries and regions.

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"You need only one cell phone to achieve interaction between human and intelligent machine tools, be informed about the business procedure and operation management of design, process, production, and marketing at any time, and get relevant solutions to any situation that might occur".

Couples of days ago, in the production workshop of Shenyang Machine Tool (Group) Company Limited, Guan Xiyou, chairman of the board of the company, used a cell phone to remotely communicate with a CNC machine tool, giving a demonstration of how the intelligent machine tool operation system, which he nicknames as "5i", carry out remote monitoring, smart cutting, automatic programming, and intelligent diagnosing.

Different from the processing procedure of ordinary CNC machine tools, workers working on the "5i" intelligent machine tools, which install all kinds of software, need only to touch the screen gently and all kinds of information needed for production, including blueprints, production plan, and technology information, are displayed. After data inputting and intelligent analysis and processing by the machine tools, finished products will be presented in front of you.

The preparation, which used to take one hour, is shortened to five minutes, greatly improving the processing efficiency. In the meantime, on the basis of control system R&D, a production management system provided for the clients through informatization has been generated.

The Feiyang series CNC machine tool system that possesses the ability to "think and create", and "solve problems and diagnose" is the world's first intelligent CNC machine tool developed successfully by Shenyang Machine Tool's R&D team at the end of 2011. It extensively integrates information technology, movement control technology, electronic technology, and machine tool technology, and is an innovative result of the extensive integration of Shenyang Machine Tool's industrialization and informatization. It achieves intelligent individual machine, unit automation, and digitalized factory management, successfully tackling the core technology of numerical control system.

CNC machine tools are basic equipments of the modern manufacturing industry, and the numerical control system is the "brain" of CNC machine tools. As the top-ranking enterprise of the global machine tool industry and a leader of the machine tool industry in China, Shenyang Machine Tool's unremitting exploration and breakthroughs in developing the "brain" independently is an epitome of the development of China's machine tool industry.

Currently, boosted by demands from the domestic market, China has achieved remarkable results in the field of industrial automation. Through R&D, Chinese industrial enterprises have made great improvement on the design, production, and manufacturing ability of CNC machine tools, shortening the distance from global leading technologies. In April this year, on the China CNC Machine Tool Fair 2012, hundreds of Chinese machine tool enterprises exhibited their newly developed numerical control products, which was believed to be an active attempt made by China's CNC machine tool industry to march towards the high-end market and key areas.

For decades, China's machine tool industry and enterprises, from following and imitating others' technologies to independent R&D, from import digesting and absorption and re-innovation to integrated innovation, and to original innovation, have repeatedly experienced "lagging behind - catching up and overtaking - lagging behind again - catching up and overtaking again". In recent years, many companies have realized that only innovations centered on the demands of the terminal markets can solve the fundamental problems. The path for innovation is becoming clearer and clearer, and the pace quickening.

Shenyang High-precision CNC Technology Company Limited, who specializes in high-performance numerical control system, has developed the new-generation bus-based fully-digital high-end computer numerical control system and other serialized new products with typical characteristics of the integration of industrialization and informatization, by means of practicing the integration of industrialization and informatization and boosting the performance of products aided by information technology.

By carrying out specialized tasks, Shenyang High-precision CNC has tackled core and key technologies of high-end CNC system, including onsite bus, multi-channels and multi-axe linkage, and multi-channel and compound processing, developed the new-generation bus-based high-end CNC system, established a demonstration base for testing, production, and application, and built up bulk production capability for Chinese high-end CNC systems.

As Chinese mid-end CNC machine tools enter the market in large volume, some high-end CNC machine tools begin to enter key industries and core manufacturing areas, and are being used at initial stage. Tang Limin, director of the CNC Factory of Chengdu Airplane Company, said that: "the average use rate of 4 out of 5 of Chengdu Airplane Company's Chinese CNC machine tools is 85.7 percent, and the use rate of similar imported machine tools is 89.5 percent, Chinese equipments being on a similar level with foreign equipments".

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CHANGSHA -- The world's first super-capacity light rail train was completed Friday by China South Locomotive and Rolling Stock Corporation Limited (CSR) Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co, Ltd in Zhuzhou, central China's Hunan province.

The new type of electric locomotive can be fully charged within 30 seconds during its station stops, as it has a box-type super capacitor on the roof and charge spots at the foot of every compartment, Xu Zongxiang, general manager of the company, said.

The train, which can hold a maximum of 320 passengers, does not need a traditional pantograph installed on the roof to get electricity from the high-tension lines along the track, according to Xu.

Xu said the train, which features low energy consumption and occupies less land, can provide a new solution for the construction of highly cost-effective and environmentally-friendly urban rail public transport.

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zoom said:

I don't think i would feel at ease knowing there is a super capacitor above my head as i travel to work each day.

China produces super-capacity light rail train

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New direct borohydride fuel cell increases peak power density by factor of 1.7–3.7
10 August 2012
Dbfc
Schematic diagram of a direct borohydride fuel cell employing oxygen, air or hydrogen peroxide as oxidant. Source: Ma et al. (2010) Click to enlarge.

Researchers at Xi’an Jiaotong University in China have developed a new direct borohydride fuel cell (DBFC) that shows a peak power density of 663 mW·cm-2 at 65 °C (149 °F)—an increase in power density by a factor of 1.7 to 3.7 compared to classic DBFCs.

The new DBFC uses a polymer fiber membrane (PFM) rather than a polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM); metal oxides, such as LaNiO3 and MnO2 as cathode catalysts; and CoO as the anode catalyst. This fuel cell structure can also be extended to other liquid fuel cells, such as direct methanol fuel cells (DMFCs), according to the team’s paper in Scientific Reports, an open access research publication from the publishers of Nature.

A direct borohydride fuel cell—first demonstrated in the early 1960s—is a type of alkaline fuel cell directly fed by a sodium borohydride or potassium borohydride solution. DBFCs feature a high open circuit voltage (1.64 V), high fuel energy density (9.3 Wh·g-1 for NaBH4 and 6.5 Wh·g-1 for KBH4), and fast borohydride oxidation reaction (BOR) kinetic. In a DBFC, the cell reaction principle is:

Anode: BH4- + 8OH- → BO2- + 8e-

Cathode: 2O2 + 4H2O + 8e- → 8OH-

Overall: BH4- + 2O2 → BO2- + 2H2O

The membrane in DBFC serves both for ion transfer and as a separator between anode and cathode compartments.

Nafion membrane, polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM), is indispensable in fuel cells, which provides electric insulator between anode and cathode and prevents reactant crossover from the anode to the cathode. However, crossover is still a serious problem due to the diffusion and osmotic drag that lower the power output by maximum up to 50% in liquid fuel cells. Much research has been conducted on the details of the transport of protons or ions through the polymer matrix and on novel methods of improving its properties, but the crossover has not yet been solved as well as the cost of the PEM4.

The cost of noble metal catalyst is another factor limiting fuel cells commercialisation...Although the performance and stability of Pt-based catalysts have been greatly improved in H2/O2 PEM fuel cells, its efficiency in DBFCs is still in a low level. The peak power densities ranged at 20–200 mW·cm-2 when Pt or Pt-based catalysts are used, while they were in ca. 1,000 mW·cm-2 when in H2/O2 PEM fuel cells. Crossover is the main reason for this phenomenon. Pt-based catalysts promote ORR and BOR simultaneously when liquid fuel permeates through PEM and arrives in cathodes, thus cathode efficiency is greatly reduced.
—Yang et al.

The team from Xi’an Jiaotong University fabricated a DBFC with polymer fiber membrane (DBFC-PFM) as a separator replacing the conventional polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM).

They found a peak power density of the DBFC-PFM is 663 mW·cm-2, an increase by a factor of ca. 1.7 and 3.7 compared with that of DBFCs employing NRE-211 and N-117 membranes. At 0.6 V, the power density of the DBFC-PFM with LaNiO3 is 640 mW·cm-2 at 65 °C—a level comparable with the power density of H2/O2 PEMFC with the most promising non-noble metal catalyst (750 mW·cm22 at 0.6 V, 80 °C), the researchers noted.

Of the three main obstacles limiting thee commercialization of DBFCs—borohydride hydrolysis, liquid fuel crossover and battery cost—the researchers suggest that they have addressed the last two of those in this structured fuel cell.

The PFM is much cheaper and it is also widely used in Ni-MH batteries as a separator; inexpensive catalysts can be used in both anode and cathode in the DBFC-PFM.

In conventional research, crossover is a serious problem which must be resisted by increasing the thickness of the PEM or developing new PEM. However, increasing the thickness of PEM will increase ohm loss. We solve the problem by a different way that the crossover is allowed. A similar idea of allowing crossover has also been adopted in a swiss-roll liquid-gas mixed-reactant fuel cell. In the situation of allowing crossover, it requires cathodic catalysts decompose O2 only and are inert to all other ions and reactants. It has been proved that the catalysts used in this work have this ability.

This principle could be extended to other liquid fuel cells, such as direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC)...A peak power density of 64 mW·cm-2 has been obtained at 60°C. It is the highest value in DMFCs concerning non-Pt-based catalysts to the best of our knowledge. This test provides us a clue that all liquid fuel cells can be studied in the way that crossover is no need to be considered and we just seek cathodic catalysts with selective catalysis for ORR, especially inexpensive metal oxide catalysts.

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On August 7, high-end hydraulic products of Shandong Nakagawa Hydraulics Co., Ltd. passed the national-level appraisal.

The first- and second-generation hydraulic components for 20- to 25-ton excavators and hydraulic components for 8- to 10-ton small excavators independently developed and produced by Shandong Nakagawa will take the place of exported products from now on.

Currently, China relies on exports for high-end hydraulic components of engineering machinery. The products of Shandong Nakagawa will break the monopoly of Japan in the field.

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News said that School of Instrument Science and Engineering under Southeast University recently developed China's first robot that can work under nuclear radiation.

The robot weighs 30 kilograms and lengthens 85 centimeters. Colored in black, the robot is mainly used for the measurement and sampling of radioactive, chemical and biological pollution and emergency treatment in dangerous fields where human beings cannot reach.

The robot costs CNY 400,000 nakedly and CNY 500,000 totally in consideration of manipulators.

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