Shandong Xinneng Shipyard Co., Ltd. is China's first green, intelligent, and modern inland waterway new energy vessel manufacturing demonstration base, integrating R&D, design, and smart manufacturing. It was jointly established by Shandong Ronghui Group, CIMC Group, CATL, and Wuhan University of Technology. The company specializes in new energy vessels powered by LNG, electricity, hydrogen, and methanol. Phase I of the project covers 1,125 mu with a total investment of RMB 1.83 billion, achieving an annual production capacity of 200 inland vessels and 40 yachts.

However, traditional inland shipbuilding has long relied on manual welding, with each workshop requiring hundreds of workers. This approach suffers from low efficiency and significant quality fluctuations, making it difficult to meet the high-volume, high-precision demands of green intelligent vessel construction.

To address these challenges, Xinneng Shipyard partnered with DIG Automation to introduce a full-process intelligent manufacturing solution. In this collaboration, DIG delivered a panel production line that fully automates the entire workflow—from steel plate edge milling and laser hybrid welding to longitudinal stiffener assembly, dedicated welding, and touch-up grinding—establishing a benchmark project for the intelligent transformation of inland shipbuilding.

In the mass production of standardized vessel types such as the 90m LNG-powered container ship, Xinneng Shipyard faced three core challenges: extremely high panel welding precision requirements, massive longitudinal stiffener welding workloads, and the low efficiency and labor intensity of traditional manual operations.

To tackle these pain points, DIG provided a full-process intelligent manufacturing solution for panel assembly and welding:

• Butt Welding station: equipped with an IPG 16kW laser and CLOOS welding power source, integrated with a piano-type hydraulic clamping system, this station enables automatic steel plate positioning, double-sided edge milling, and one-sided welding with double-sided forming. DIG's mature profile milling process database supports milling speeds of 1–2.5m/min and welding speeds of 1.5–2.5m/min, with weld reinforcement controlled within 1.5–2mm.
• Longitudinal stiffener assembly station: features a 12m-span gantry crane to assist manual positioning and tack welding, covering panels up to 8m × 13.5m.
• Dedicated longitudinal stiffener welding station: equipped with 10 welding systems (paired in groups of 2, capable of welding 5 stiffeners simultaneously), using Megmeet all-digital welders with mechanical seam trackers. The welding speed reaches 550mm/min, with intermittent welding capability.
• Digital management and control platform: the production line's master PLC seamlessly interfaces with upstream systems. DIG's self-developed information software can interconnect with MES and ERP systems, enabling equipment status monitoring, welding parameter collection, and full production data traceability.

Following the commissioning of the smart panel production line, Xinneng Shipyard has achieved remarkable outcomes across multiple dimensions:

• Welding efficiency achieved a qualitative leap: the line's welding speed far exceeds traditional manual operations, and the assembly rhythm has been significantly shortened, with daily capacity fully meeting mass production demands.
• Welding quality significantly improved: the automated welding process ensures stable operation with excellent weld appearance, and the first-pass yield has substantially increased.
• Labor costs drastically reduced: after the intelligent upgrade, the joint workshop's staffing needs were cut by more than half, while safety hazards from manual operations were largely eliminated and the working environment improved notably.
• Overall operating costs noticeably decreased: production efficiency increased, energy consumption decreased, and material utilization improved, effectively controlling overall operating costs.
• Full environmental compliance achieved: the dust collection system achieves ≥99.99% filtration efficiency, and particulate emissions meet the requirements of the "Integrated Emission Standard of Air Pollutants" (GB16297-1996), truly delivering clean production.

As China's first inland new energy vessel manufacturing demonstration base, Xinneng Shipyard's development philosophy of "building green and intelligent ships through green and intelligent methods" places systemic demands on production line automation, intelligence, and sustainability. DIG's smart panel production line precisely addresses every challenge, establishing a replicable industry benchmark for the intelligent transformation of inland shipbuilding.