The State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body was approved for establishment by the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST)of P.R.C.in July 2006andofficially opened to the publicafterpassing MOST acceptancein May 2010. The laboratorywon good credits in assessment among national key laboratories categorized in engineering and materials science in 2008, 2013 and 2018.Sun Fengchun,member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering(CAE) and professor of the Beijing Institute of Technology,is now the directorof the academic committee of the laboratory;and Li Guangyao,professor of Hunan University, is now the director of the laboratory.
The laboratory focuses on fundamental research for application in design and manufacturing for vehicle body. It adheres to the guide lines on national medium and long-term program for science and technology development(2006-2020) and underlines original innovations and platform development, so as toplay its role as a cross-disciplinary laboratory featuring military-civilian integration. It is expected to make fundamental and exemplary contribution to the development and application of vehicle body technology, so as to incessantly provide innovative achievements and general technical support for the sustainable, healthy and rapid development of China’s automobile industry and its technology.
The lab has been set up with five major research orientations: automotive model and evaluation,vehicle structure and its optimization, vehicle body manufacturing and equipment,vehicle security and human injury, and new materials for automotive applications. These were made based on:
·China’s strategic demands for vehicle body technology in auto industry development;
·The national principle for scientific and technological work of “making innovations and leapfrog advances in key areas supporting development and creating a better future”; and,
·Combination of international development trends of vehicle body technology and laboratory advantages.
At present, the laboratory has ahousing area of over 12,000 square meters, an experimental base of over 20,000 square meters, and a large number of advanced equipment, instruments and software.Itsfixed assets are valued at more than 183 million yuan.
The laboratory boasts a cross-disciplinary research team with reasonable age structure, which is led by outstanding young and middle-aged leaders represented by CAE members Zhong Zhihua,Ding Rongjun and Chen Zhengqing. There are 84 permanent personnel, including 54 professors, 17 associate professors, 6 engineers, and 2 full-time administrative staff. Among the permanent personnel, there are 3 CAE members, 6 members of the Ten-thousand Talents Program, 7 members of the Millions of Leading Engineering Talents,7 members of the Young Overseas High-level Talents Introduction Plan, 2 distinguished professors of the Changjiang (Yangtze River) Scholars Program, 1 member of the Changjiang Young Scholars Program, 6 supported by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, 4 supported by the National Science Fund for Outstanding Excellent Young Scholars, and 1Creative Research Group of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).
With a total of 148 temporary personnel, the laboratory has 49 visiting researchers, 53 open project researchers and 34 postdoctoral researchers. Since the laboratory opened to the public, 158 open projects were approved which gathered outstanding talents from home and abroad. Scholars from Canada, Sweden, the USA, Australia, Japan, the UK, France, Singapore and other countries successively visited the laboratory to exchange views and give lectures. The International Forum of Automotive Traffic Safety, Automotive Innovation Forum, and Forward-Looking Technology & Development Strategy Consulting Seminar for Automotive Design and Manufacturing organized and sponsored by the laboratory had a major impact at home and abroad.
In recent years, the laboratory has made great progress in exploring new theories, methodologies and technologies for vehicle body design and manufacturing; and automotive technology improvement through scientific research achievements; and national defense scientific researches. The laboratory has successively undertaken the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program);projects of the 973 Program and the National High-tech R&D Program (863 Program); Key Technologies R&D Program; National Science and Technology Major Project; National Science and Technology Support Program; the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars; NSFC major research plan, key program, and general program;NSFC Major International Joint Research Projects; and, key projects of fundamental research of the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense of P.R.C. It also developed projects of the Collaborative Innovation Center of Intelligent New Energy Vehicle,the Overseas Expertise Introduction Center for Discipline Innovation of Automotive Lightweighting and the Overseas Expertise Introduction Center for Discipline Innovation of High-performance Computing organized by State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs of P.R.C.,and the project of Analysis on Automobile Crashworthiness and Its Design Optimization for the Creative Research Group of the NSFC. The laboratory undertakes and developsover 400 such projects and researches in total.
The laboratory won more than 40 national, ministerial and provincial-level awards for its scientific and technological achievements, including 1first-class and 2 second-class National Science and Technology Progress Awards, 16 first-class Ministerial and Provincial-Level Science and Technology Awards (including 1 first-class Natural Science Award of the Ministry of Education of P.R.C., 1 first-class Hunan Provincial Natural Science Award, and 1 first-class Hunan Provincial Technological Invention Award), and 19 second-class awards. Its teaching achievements of undergraduates and graduates were awarded with 1 first-class and 2 second-class National Teaching Achievement Awards, and 5 first-class and 4 second-class Hunan Provincial Teaching Achievement Awards. Two dissertations won the award of National Excellent Doctoral Dissertations, and 1 dissertation was nominated for the award. In recent years, the laboratory has published 28 academic monographs and more than 2,800 papers in key journals at home and abroad, among which over 1,390 were included in SCI and over 950 in EI. It has been granted with 280 patents, including 212 invention patents, 22design patents, and 33 software copyrights, and has over 400 patents applications, including 348 invention patents, and 2 design patents. The laboratory has achieved sound economic and social benefits through its industry-university-research cooperation and achievement commercialization.
In recent years, the laboratory cultivated more than 40 postdoctoral researchers (over 20 finished their projects), 386 doctoral students (142 graduated), and 1,395 master students (870 graduated). Meanwhile, the laboratory also made sound achievements in undergraduates training by taking a series of measures including instructing them in Formula SAE (formula-style race car), major scientific research projects, and public courses.
Pic.No.1: On June 13, 2009,Former Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao visits the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body
Pic.No.2: On December 12, 2015,“Key Technologies and Equipment for High-performance Vehicle Design and Manufacturing” led by CAE Member Zhong Zhihua passes expert assessment.
Pic.No.3: The project of“Sheet Metal Stamping Techniques & Mold Design Theory, Computing Methodsand Key Technology & Their Application in Vehicle Body Manufacturing” and the project of “Automobile CrashSafety Design and Improvement Theory, Methodsand Key Technologies” led by CAE Member Zhong Zhihua were respectively awarded with the first-class National Science and Technology Progress Award of 2003 and the second-class National Science and Technology Progress Award of 2005 respectively.
Pic.No.4:The project of “Key and Common Technology and Its Application inDigital Design of Complex Equipment” led by Professor Han Xu won the second-class National Science and Technology Progress Award of 2013.
Pics.No.5-No.7:The laboratory’s base for entrepreneurship and innovation inareas of Tianma Mountain, Fenghuang Mountain and Taozi Lake (shorted as Two Mountains & One Lake).
