After two years' construction, the project of "State Engineering Laboratory of High-efficiency, Energy-conserving and Environment-friendly Internal Combustion Engines" has wound up and was accepted on July 15. So far, the highest-grade R & D platform in China's internal combustion engine industry has emerged in Yuchai.

The "State Engineering Laboratory of High-efficiency, Energy-conserving and Environment-friendly Internal Combustion Engines" is the only state-accredited national engineering laboratory in China's internal combustion engine industry. Based on the pressing demand for the high-efficiency and low-emission development of the internal combustion engine industry, aiming at problems such as raising the combustion efficiency and reducing the emission level of internal combustion engines, it is an advanced R & D base as well as a platform for transformation and engineering application of achievements built for the internal combustion engine industry.

Located at Yulin base and Nanning base, the project was constructed on the basis of Yuchai's existing R & D and test conditions. The total investment budget of 92.4 million yuan was fully used to purchase experimental equipment. 158 units (sets) of sophisticated equipment from countries like Germany, Austria and Japan were added. Through construction, over 30 engine test benches were added on the basis of over 50 existing test benches. The laboratory ranks 1st among domestic peers in the number of test benches, with its test benches covering micro, light, medium and heavy-power engines. The laboratory is capable of testing national V, Euro VI and Tier 3 engines, and conducting 16 categories of special tests of over 80 types of parts. Its test capacity has been up to leading industrial standards.

The laboratory has brought together 12 most outstanding academicians, experts and professors in domestic and overseas auto industries and related industrial fields. With 665 researchers including 28 experts with doctor's degrees or above, 101 with master's degrees and 336 with bachelor's degrees, the laboratory has built a high-caliber R & D team with strong innovation capacity and reasonable age structure.

The acceptance was entrusted by the National Development and Reform Commission, and organized by the Guangxi Development and Reform Commission. The expert panel consisted of seven experts including Yao Mingfa, a professor of the State Key Laboratory of Engines (Tianjin University) and Qin Ricai, director of the Guangxi Automobile & Tractor Research Institute. The laboratory has established a mechanism of cooperation between enterprises and industries, and will improve the innovation capacity of China's internal combustion engine industry in future cooperation, Yao said.

In the coming three years, the laboratory will conduct in-depth R & D in technical fields such as new concept combustion system, emission control, hybrid power and alternative fuel combustion to develop a series of independent and internationally advanced high-efficiency and environment-friendly internal combustion engine products and technologies, apply these advanced technologies to the internal combustion engine industry and related industries, and intensify the achievement transformation, popularization and application of various R & D technologies, thus quickening the pace of Chinese internal combustion engines to overtake advanced international levels.

Yuchai will give full play to the laboratory's advantages in R & D and equipment, and combine the advantages with Yuchai's industry chain advantage, to further improve the laboratory's capability of providing R & D, design and service to the industrial cluster of internal combustion engine and parts, Wu said, adding Yuchai will take full advantage of the laboratory's R & D platform to enhance its R & D capacity and core competitiveness, thus achieving sustained and steady development.

(Wen Zhenghua)