Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur Line 3 driverless light rail trains, the pioneering project of China's overseas fully automated driverless light rail vehicles, signed a formal contract recently, marking an important step for China's research and development of driverless trains overseas.

    Recently, Zhongche Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhongche Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive") signed a contract with Malaysian National Infrastructure Corporation for 42 driverless light rail trains on Line 3 in Kuala Lumpur, which is the first time that China has been awarded an overseas contract for fully automatic driverless light rail vehicles. In the first half of this year, the Malaysian government also signed purchase contracts for 13 HEVs and 9 modern super EMUs. Behind the three big orders, China's "invisible champion" Zhong Wang Wang has also contributed to the "power to assist". All the car body aluminum profiles and some deep-processed car body aluminum profiles of the three rail transit projects in Malaysia will be supplied by its long-term strategic supplier, Zhong Wang Wang.

    China Railway Co., Ltd. takes the lead in exporting fully automatic driverless light rail trains overseas

    Unmanned trains reflect the needs of the development of rail transit nowadays and are characterized by high efficiency. As the first six-section fully automatic driverless urban rail transit vehicle in Kuala Lumpur, the driverless light rail train on Kuala Lumpur Line 3 adopts GOA4 technology, which is the highest level of driverless rail vehicles. The technology has no driver and crew involved at all. The vehicle operates fully under the unified control of the control center. It automatically realizes the functions of train dormancy, wake-up, preparation, self-inspection, automatic operation, parking, door switching and car washing, as well as automatic recovery in case of failure.

    In addition, the project will also adopt industry-leading three-rail current collection and four-rail reflux technology, which can solve the stray current leakage from the current to the ballast bed and other objects when the current flows back through the rail, thus further improving the operation safety and stability of the vehicle electromechanical system.

    In order to be more environmentally friendly and efficient, the project uses more lightweight design and new materials. The particularity of the project also makes Zhongwang Group, the main supplier of automobile body aluminium profiles, make great efforts in lightweight design and manufacturing. Cai Hunan, deputy general manager of Zhongwang Group, said: "The unmanned urban rail project in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is the first unmanned urban rail project for Chinese cars to go to sea for the first time. Among the technical requirements signed by both sides for automobile body aluminium profiles, the requirements for complex structure of automobile body aluminium and weight control of automobile body are quite strict. After many technical exchanges, the whole process of design, manufacture and extrusion production of automobile body aluminium profiles is ensured, which is a great challenge to the production and manufacturing process of automobile body aluminium profiles. Now we have tackled the related problems from a technical point of view, to meet all the requirements of the technical agreement and achieve mass production, so as to meet the overall development of lightweight rail transit market.

    Tailor-made rail transit system according to market conditions

    Among the orders for 13 HEVs and 9 modern super EMUs signed by Malaysia and China Railway Corporation, China Railway Corporation specially built the metre-gauge electric hybrid EMUs for Malaysia. With super capacitor technology, it is expected that the speed of the trains will reach 100 kilometers and the passenger capacity of four groups will reach more than 500 people at the time of delivery.

    Because Malaysia has a one-meter wide gauge locally, it is more difficult to develop the metre-gauge EMUs than the standard ones, because the narrower the tracks, the higher the requirements for the smoothness of train operation, the bogies of running parts and the strength design of car body. According to the relevant person in charge, the Malaysian EMU adopts the world's leading European standards and the International Railway Union standards, and the whole vehicle has passed the certification of third-party companies from design, production and test.

    As a long-term strategic supplier, Zhongwang Group has been developing and innovating to provide high-end body profiles. "Zhongwang has reached a long-term strategic cooperation with Zhongche-Zhuzhou Machinery Co., Ltd. in the next year, Zhongwang will not only supply all body profiles, but also increase the supply of deeply processed products." Cai Hunan said.

    This is also the development goal of Zhongwang in China: to upgrade from the simple production and manufacture of aluminium processing products to the "lightweight integrated solution supplier". "Zhongwang not only integrates technological innovation with actual production and manufacturing, but also after the supply of all aluminium extrusion products and deep-processed products, as well as the follow-up overall after-sales service." Cai Hunan believes that the complete set from design to production to after-sales service will become Zhongwang's biggest competitive advantage.

    "Made in China" trains enter the high-end market

    With China's medium-sized cars driving domestic rail transit industrial clusters to "go to sea", China's rail transit equipment in the overseas market is also changing rapidly. Relevant "go out" projects have spread all over the world, including Asia, Europe, the United States and Africa. From parts exports to vehicle exports, from low-end products to high-end products, from underdeveloped markets to developed markets, China's rail transit assembly projects have spread all over the world. Bei has finally entered the world's high-end market and is winning more and more overseas orders.

    As the world's leading manufacturer of aluminium processing products, Zhongwang Group produces aluminium alloy profiles for six main engine factories of China Zhongche in the process of China's rail transit equipment travelling around the world. In recent years, the overseas cooperation between Zhongwang Group and China Automobile has been increasing year by year. "In 2017, the overall growth rate is faster than in previous years. Zhongwang and China Automobile Co-operation are in the leading position in both domestic and overseas new projects." Cai Hunan said.

    China's rail transit manufacturing industry has gone from following and running to leading stage, which also brings huge market opportunities to upstream and downstream enterprises of rail transit manufacturing industry. Lu Changqing, chairman of Zhongwang China, said the company was trying to go further. "We will further expand capacity to meet growing demand and strive to promote China's rail transit equipment to occupy the commanding heights of world traffic development."