After more than four years of development, Yun Aluminum Wenshan has become a prominent exemplar in the intelligent transformation of the electrolytic aluminum industry. It has earned numerous accolades, including the Silver Award in the 5th National “Bloom Cup” Competition, designation as a benchmark enterprise for digital transformation in Yunnan Province, recognition as a leading innovative application case on the national industrial internet platform, and a second-place award in the first National Digital Innovation Scenarios Competition. These honors bear witness to Yun Aluminum Wenshan’s relentless efforts in advancing toward the goal of building a smart factory, and they also embody the aluminum industry’s aspirations and hopes for intelligent development.

Acting with the times, traditional industries are forging “new tracks.”

In the early stages of the 500,000-ton electrolytic aluminum project of Yun Aluminum Wenshan in 2020, Chinalco Group proactively took into account the industry’s trend toward intelligent development and proposed deploying intelligent initiatives based on the principles of “standardization, ecological sustainability, and intelligence.”

Yunlv Wenshan responds promptly to every call and has established a smart factory construction task force led by the company’s top executives. In close collaboration with Chinalco International and Chinalco Smart, the team has gradually developed a comprehensive framework for the intelligent construction of electrolytic aluminum production. The team has clearly defined the goal of building a modern plant that features advanced process technologies, a high level of digitalization and intelligence, and strong future competitiveness. Following a three-step approach—achieving designed production capacity in Version 1.0, minimizing operating costs in Version 2.0, and realizing intelligent operations and intrinsic safety in Version 3.0—the company is steadily advancing the construction of its smart factory.

After setting clear objectives, Yun Aluminum Wenshan has actively benchmarked against industry leaders and fully leveraged the advantages of its 500,000-ton electrolytic aluminum production line and its highly advanced supporting equipment. The company has pursued intelligent transformation with high standards, achieving internal business visualization and transparent management, as well as external data sharing and seamless process integration. This has enabled comprehensive interconnection and integration across all production processes, optimized configuration and modeling, and realized the digitalization of multiple business processes and the business application of data. As a result, the company’s overall production efficiency has significantly improved.

The goals set for the second phase were achieved on schedule, resulting in replicable and scalable modules that have become a successful model for traditional industries seeking to embark on a new “smart” growth path.

Roll up our sleeves and get down to business—traditional industries are reaching a “smart high point.”

Following the overall framework of “replacing manpower with mechanization, reducing manpower through automation, and achieving unmanned operations via intelligence,” Yun Aluminum Wenshan has steadily overcome obstacles and achieved frequent successes on its journey toward intelligent development. In June 2022, the first-phase project passed acceptance testing and saw the completion of a unified centralized control center for the entire plant, laying a solid foundation for data integration. Based on the data platform, six end-to-end digital processes and eight intelligent management modules for electrolytic aluminum production were developed from three perspectives: management, decision-making, and operational procedures, thereby realizing the digitalization of business data. In December 2023, the second-phase project also passed acceptance testing. This phase leveraged technologies such as big data analytics, 5G, and artificial intelligence to build more than 70 intelligent business models, thus turning data into actionable business insights.

Relying on an industrial internet platform, Yun Aluminum Wenshan has completed the construction of a data standardization system, developed and established a data mid-platform, and achieved centralized storage of plant-wide data, thereby creating data assets that provide data support for intelligent management modules and digital production processes. According to Ma Shuzhen, Deputy Manager of the Production and Operations Department at Yun Aluminum Wenshan, both the current realization of data-driven business operations and business-driven data utilization are underpinned by the powerful computing capabilities of the centralized control center’s data mid-platform. In the future, the development of a 3.0 version will also be inseparable from the support provided by this data mid-platform.

“By leveraging smart equipment—including digital electrolytic cells, intelligent shell-breaking systems, precise aluminum tapping, and efficient ingot handling—we’ve established digital processes covering the entire electrolysis workflow, the entire aluminum-tapping process, and the entire quality-inspection process. This has made data measurement more accurate, data collection faster, command issuance more precise, and result feedback more timely.” This is the direct impression that Wang Hui, the workshop supervisor of the No. 2 Electrolysis Workshop at Yun Aluminum Wenshan, has gained from his experience working on traditional electrolysis production lines. Thanks to the precise measurement, analysis, and judgment provided by intelligent systems, tasks such as electrode replacement, busbar lifting, and aluminum tapping have become more proactive and guided, while also facilitating enhanced process monitoring and data traceability, thus ushering in a new era for electrolysis production.

In addition, the development of eight intelligent modules—including production scheduling management, production planning management, and energy management—has enabled automatic data aggregation, online tracking of production plans, real-time energy monitoring, and end-to-end quality management. This has improved equipment utilization rates, enhanced coordination among production, supply, and procurement, increased the accuracy of risk assessments for electrolytic cells, and reduced the risk of unsafe operations for employees.

Leveraging the powerful computing capabilities of the data mid-platform, the electrolytic aluminum production line at Yun Aluminum Wenshan has effectively upgraded its “brain,” enabling the traditional electrolytic aluminum industry to reach a “smart high point” in its development.

Digital and intelligent empowerment is propelling traditional industries to achieve “accelerated growth.”

From a blank slate to initial tangible results, Yun Aluminum Wenshan’s implementation of smart factory construction for electrolytic aluminum production has brought about remarkable changes: labor productivity has surpassed 812 tons per person per year; the coverage rate of automation and the data collection rate both reach 90%; eight production processes have achieved remote centralized control; 16 job positions have been fully automated; and multiple production consumption indicators have been further optimized. The company has realized three-dimensional visualized centralized management of all its data, developed eight intelligent management modules, created more than 70 business models and over 300 algorithmic models, and achieved end-to-end digitalization in six production processes. As a result, the company’s cost competitiveness ranks among the industry leaders.

The construction of smart factories has also brought field employees a more efficient, convenient, and safer operational experience. According to Liu Guosheng, the shift supervisor of the No. 2 Electrolysis Workshop at Yun Aluminum Wenshan, the production line has adopted technologies such as intelligent shell-breaking and feeding systems and intelligent identification of blockages in cards, replacing manual inspections. While saving labor costs, these technologies have effectively reduced the frequency of cell effects, extended the service life of components like shell-breaking heads and cylinders, and significantly lowered the power consumption of air compressors. Yun Aluminum Wenshan has also equipped all employees with a smart factory client app, enabling automatic measurement throughout the entire process—from determining the planned aluminum output to the molten aluminum entering the furnace—collecting comprehensive data on electrolysis operations, precisely delivering tasks such as anode replacement directly to operators, and automatically generating tasks for busbar lifting. These features have improved operational efficiency and reduced workers’ physical exertion.

The construction of the Yunlv Wenshan Smart Factory goes beyond just this one initiative—intelligent upgrades are now flourishing across both the auxiliary and downstream production lines for electrolytic aluminum. The gate system and suspension chain in the anode assembly line have been interlocked, significantly enhancing the inherent safety level of the equipment. The ingot casting production line has successfully tackled 11 intelligent projects—including automatic flow control, automatic slag removal, and in-flight marking—achieving unmanned operation at key workstations. Features such as automatic steel claw repair, fault detection and prediction, and the establishment of an expert database have reduced the voltage drop at steel claw connections by more than 10 millivolts, doubled the service life of steel claws, and enabled energy savings of over 30 kilowatt-hours per ton of aluminum, while markedly reducing labor intensity. These improvements not only serve as a prerequisite for optimizing various company performance indicators but also represent tangible “benefits” that workers can feel and appreciate firsthand.

In the digital transformation journey—from “digital workshop” to “smart factory” and ultimately to “future factory”—Yun Aluminum Wenshan is firmly committed to a path of intelligent development, enabling the traditional electrolytic aluminum and related supporting industries to achieve an “acceleration” in high-quality growth and accumulating valuable experience for the industry’s faster iteration and upgrading.

Yunlv Wenshan will continue to invest heavily in advanced technologies such as intelligent remote centralized control, artificial intelligence, and digital twins. We are firmly committed to advancing toward digital transformation, intelligent upgrading, and green development. By leveraging digital and intelligent technologies, we aim to enhance our core competitiveness, risk resilience, and capacity for sustainable development, thus forging an innovative path in the intelligent development of the aluminum industry.

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