Zichai Company adheres to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, deeply study and understand General Secretary Xi Jinping’s important expositions and important instructions and instructions on scientific and technological innovation, conscientiously implements the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee on scientific and technological innovation, adheres to facing the forefront of the world’s scientific and technological frontiers and major national needs, implements the new development concept, serves to build a new development pattern, and implements the 'Eight Eight Strategy' and 'Three-Step Plan' in depth, promotes the reform of scientific and technological innovation mechanisms, creates special projects for flagship products and the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and accelerates the cultivation of new quality productivity. In the vast blue economic wave, scientific and technological innovation is being used as the engine to write a magnificent chapter of high-quality development.

Build innovative highland to nurture new quality productivity

As a professional engine research and development and manufacturing enterprise affiliated to China Agricultural Development Group, Zichai Company has been developing and growing continuously for 54 years, from a single product to a power coverage of 150kW-5300kW, and an annual production capacity of more than 10,000 units, making important contributions to the development of my country's shipbuilding industry.

Zichai Company has always focused on gathering innovative resources, gathering innovative talents, making full use of the advantages of basic research in universities, giving full play to the role of 'external brains'. By building an innovation ecological platform that deeply integrates industry, academia, research and politics, it will continue to provide strong momentum for the cultivation and formation of new quality productivity.

In recent years, Zichai Company has taken the lead in jointly building a Shandong Engineering Research Center for low-power dual-fuel engines with domestic universities, realizing the seamless connection between university scientific research resources and enterprise practice platforms; jointly successfully applied for the approval of the mechanical industry marine power energy conservation and carbon reduction technology engineering research center, further expanding the breadth and depth of marine power technology innovation; recently, the Shandong Province Low-zero-carbon Fuel Marine Engine Key Laboratory has been approved for establishment, setting up a new milestone in the field of marine clean energy engines, and will continue to lead the development of green low-zero-carbon technology in the industry.

Relying on innovative platforms such as enterprise technology centers, doctoral research workstations, Shandong Province Key Laboratory and Engineering Research Center, we anchored the two core tasks of green, low-carbon and high-efficiency product research and development and industry-bottleneck technology breakthroughs, breaking through the technological blockade of foreign countries in the high-power medium-speed engine industry chain, and enhancing the industry's industrial autonomy and voice in this field.

At the same time, we will build a market-oriented key core technology research mechanism, integrate market thinking into the entire process of implementation of science and technology plans, design and integrated implementation of basic research, applied research, and industrial demonstration, and incorporate the creation and application of intellectual property rights into the evaluation of scientific and technological achievements. Improve the mechanism for generating science and technology projects, highlight the orientation of results transformation and industrialization in key links such as scientific and technological project project approval and task book preparation, and achieve an organic connection from technology research and development to market application.

Stimulate innovation vitality and lay the foundation for innovation

Zichai Company insists on continuously improving the system of science and technology innovation, and has made comprehensive and in-depth improvements and revisions to nearly 20 systems such as science and technology project management evaluation and intellectual property management, and introduced an innovative 'list-based' model to break down complex project tasks one by one, clarify the assessment goals, and greatly improve the effectiveness of science and technology innovation. Implement the responsibility system of scientific and technological innovation project managers, give project managers sufficient decision-making power and the power to allocate resources, so that they can flexibly arrange manpower, material resources and financial resources according to project needs, and improve the efficiency and flexibility of project execution.

Focus on the construction of innovative culture and scientific and technological talent teams, improve academic qualifications through joint training of schools and enterprises, organize backbones to participate in professional training, large international exhibitions and important academic conferences every year, and share and exchange through internal 'instant lectures', taking the opportunity of local governments to introduce various policies to vigorously attract talents, introduce a group of graduates every year to reserve talents for future development, break the ceiling for promotion of technical personnel, improve the level of technical talents, and implement job subsidies, academic qualification subsidies, professional title subsidies, and new product sales commissions to improve positive incentives and stabilize talents.

Improve the market-oriented incentive mechanism for the transformation of results, further deepen and implement the system of distribution of income from the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and improve the market-oriented incentive mechanism for the transformation of results to ensure that the transformation of results meets market demand and stimulates the vitality of the subject. Through scientific researchers and marketers, 'bundle' to form a community of interests, jointly promote the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, close to the needs of market users, and continuously improve the efficiency and success rate of scientific and technological achievements transformation.

Strengthen collaborative innovation to promote core technology research

Zichai Company has coordinated the deployment, focusing on low-carbon environmental protection, energy conservation and emission reduction, and aiming at key core technologies 'bottleneck' problems, strengthening industry-university-research cooperation, and continuously promoting collaborative innovation in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain. R&D investment accounts for more than 5% of the operating income for many years, focusing on basic applied research, research and development key research and technical achievements transformation.

We have carried out extensive and close cooperation with Dalian University of Technology and other universities and institutes in the fields of marine diesel engines, gas engines, alternative fuel engines, etc., and established a complete independent research and development system with the industrial chain, so that key original technologies can be studied in-depth and applied.

In recent years, it has jointly undertaken and implemented three projects including the National Key R&D Plan and the National High-Tech Ship Research Plan, and nearly 10 provincial and ministerial scientific and technological projects such as the Taishan Industrial Leading Talent Project in Shandong Province. It has fully combined with the basic research resources of universities, overcome key technical problems, cultivated high-end scientific and technological innovation talents, and provided solid scientific and technological support for the company's subsequent development.

Strengthen cooperation with supporting manufacturers such as Nanyue Electronic Control, Chongqing Hongjiang, and Osai Neng, as well as users such as Changhang Group and Zhongshui Co., Ltd., to build a R&D community, and share risks and interests.

Signed strategic cooperation agreements with China Yangtze Shipping Group Co., Ltd., Taizhou Shipowners Association, Heilongjiang Shipping Group Co., Ltd., and Yantai Research Institute of Harbin Engineering University to strengthen R&D and technical exchanges in the field of new energy power equipment, give full play to the advantages of each unit, and jointly promote environmental protection technology innovation and industrialization.

Strengthen intellectual property protection and accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements

The company attaches great importance to intellectual property protection and the transformation of scientific and technological achievements. It organizes technical personnel to conduct in-depth discussions and exchanges with patent agencies every year. At the same time, it fully utilizes the professional advantages of 'Science and Technology Vice President' to strengthen guidance and control, deeply explore patent achievements with high innovation, high technical value and good transformation efficiency and promote and apply them. The annual sales revenue of new products accounts for nearly 50% of the operating income.

In recent years, 19 scientific and technological achievements have been approved, including 4 scientific and technological achievements that have reached the international leading level; more than 20 scientific and technological awards such as Shandong Province Science and Technology Progress Award and the Second Prize for Invention of Machinery Industry; 270 patents have been granted, including 28 invention patents; in 2023, the company has obtained international invention patents, achieving the company's international patents from scratch; it has presided over or participated in 18 national standards and 32 industry standards, of which since 2019, it has participated in the formulation of 7 national standards and 2 industry standards.

Zichai Company has always been at the forefront of the industry in the field of low-zero carbon fuel engines. The key technologies of methanol/diesel dual-fuel engines and high-efficiency and low-speed marine LNG diesel dual-fuel engines have been identified as the international leading level. It has obtained the CCS certificate of marine LNG dual-fuel engines and methanol dual-fuel engines in China Classification Society and has been industrialized. The market share of related products is more than 60%. Marine medium and high-speed methanol diesel dual-fuel engines were selected as 'Recommended Catalog of Science and Technology Innovation Achievements of Central Enterprises', and high-efficiency and low-speed marine LNG/diesel dual-fuel engines were selected as 'National Recommended Catalog of Energy-saving and Carbon Reduction Technical Equipment in the Field of Industry and Information Technology'. Five products including methanol/diesel dual-fuel marine engines, 230 diesel engines were selected as the first set of technical equipment in Shandong Province.

At present, the company seizes the opportunity of the new round of state strongly supporting ship scrapping and renewal and promoting the development of green and low-carbon engines, accelerates the promotion of technological upgrades, and carries out the research and development of new generation LNG fuel engines and methanol fuel engines. It has achieved remarkable results, achieving batch orders for LNG single fuel engines, and achieving a market share of more than 80%.

In the next step, Zichai will actively respond to General Secretary Xi Jinping's call for 'concentrating on the construction of a strong maritime country and a strong science and technology country', adhere to the innovation-driven development strategy, continuously improve its innovation capabilities and core competitiveness, and contribute more Zichai's strength to the green development of my country's shipbuilding industry.