CHONGQING (CQNEWS) -- On March 21, the head of Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), the main manufacturer of domestically produced aircraft C919, visited the Chongqing Municipal People’s Government and some universities in Chongqing, and reached a set of agreements on cooperation in various fields such as domestically produced aircraft industry cultivation, material research and application, and digital development.

Why did COMAC come to Chongqing from afar? The answer lies in the competence of Chongqing's research and development institutions and the strength of its manufacturing industry.

Over half of the supporting aluminium materials for C919 were provided by Southwest Aluminium

Southwest Aluminium has built a research and development team, and overcome numerous technical difficulties in succession with multiple universities and research institutes.

In Jiulongpo District on March 21, in the foundery workshop of Southwest Aluminium (Group) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Southwest Aluminium"), in front of the drop port of the melting and casting furnace, a forklift gradually raises the fork and accurately push the ingot raw materials into the drop port. In no time, a large-sized ingot was produced from the furnace.

"This product is called 7050 aluminium alloy, which is the basic material for manufacturing aircraft. Over half of supporting aluminium materials for the domestically produced aircraft C919 are provided by Southwest Aluminium," introduced proudly Zhou Hua, an engineer of Southwest Aluminium’s Technology Center.

In the production and manufacturing of the domestically produced aircraft C919, the 7050 aluminum alloy plays a crucial role in the production of multiple key load-bearing components such as wing spars, fuselage rings, and panels.

Since the project approval of the domestically produced aircraft C919 production, Southwest Aluminium has been responsible for the development and production of 13 key aluminium alloy materials, including plates, forgings, and extruded materials.

However, it is not easy to develop aluminum materials for aircraft, and before all of these materials were imported. In order to break the technological monopoly, working with multiple universities and research institutes, Southwest Aluminium has built a research and development team, overcome many technical difficulties in large-sized ingot preparation and strong deformation rolling in succession, and established a complete industrial manufacturing technology system for 7050 alloy pre-stretched plates in recent years.

So far, Southwest Aluminium has provided over 1,000 pieces of high-performance aluminum alloy materials for C919, with a total weight of nearly 600 tons.

C919 aviation seat belts are “made in Chongqing”

Unlike car seat belts, aviation seat belts have high requirements for flame resistance, antibacterial property, and bearing capacity, etc.

In the Lianglu Industrial Park of Yubei District, a company called Amsafe Aviation (Chongqing) Limited (hereinafter referred to as "Chongqing Amsafe"), mainly produces aviation life-saving safety facilities, seat belts and other aviation facilities, whose products account for more than 90% of current domestic market share of aviation safety belts.

The supporting facilities for the aviation safety belts used in the domestically produced aircraft C919 are provided by this company from Chongqing.

Xiang Qian, the person in charge of Chongqing Amsafe introduced that unlike car seat belts, aviation seat belts have high requirements for flame resistance, antibacterial property, and load-bearing capacity. "Aviation systems in various countries have established standards for aviation seat belt products, to maximize the safety of passengers and clews on board, but it is not easy to meet these standards."

She introduced that aviation seat belts consist of three components: safety release devices, webbing and seat connection parts.

All aviation seat belts must be strictly examined by the aviation department, and can be installed on the aircraft only after acceptance and receiving the airworthiness certificate.

In the end, Chongqing Amsafe's aviation seat belt products, after having passed multiple rounds of verification by COMAC, are designated as the supporting products. At present, Chongqing Amsafe carries out order-based production, making production plans for supporting products based on the order quantity of COMAC.

"There are two categories of aviation seat belts: belts for passengers and belts for crew, in which seat belts for passengers are divided into different categories such as ordinary belts, airbag belts, etc.," said Xiang Qian.

Currently, the company's four intelligent production lines involving sewing, assembly and other processes have undergone technological upgrades and are in place. With the package cooperation agreement reached between COMAC and Chongqing, a large number of orders from COMAC are expected to be accepted in the future. (Translated by Hu Chuanmin, Fathom Language Limited)