(Reprinted from: Ronggui News) 0.01-millimeter welding positioning accuracy, millisecond-level recognition in 0.8 seconds, and equipment failure warnings issued 72 hours in advance—these impressive figures come from Sunwill Co., Ltd., which has been based in Ronggui for more than 30 years.
As a global leader in the air conditioner fan blade industry, Guangdong Sunwill Precision Plastics Co., Ltd. was founded in Ronggui, Shunde, in 1992 and listed on the Shenzhen Stock Exchange’s main board in 2012. Its business spans four major sectors: air conditioner fan blades, automotive parts, modified materials, and smart equipment manufacturing. From traditional manufacturing to AI-driven smart manufacturing, Shunwei is using technology to redefine the precision and efficiency of fan blade production.
In recent years, Sunwill has focused on “digitalization, intelligentization, and automation.” Its independently developed MES system now covers nine production bases worldwide, with all 961 pieces of core equipment connected to the network. The company has been recognized with honors including “National High-Tech Enterprise,” “Guangdong Provincial Manufacturing Single-Champion Enterprise,” “Guangdong Provincial Smart Manufacturing Pilot and Demonstration Enterprise,” and “Guangdong Provincial Specialized, Refined, Distinctive, and Innovative SME.” From quality inspection to welding, and from dynamic balancing to R&D and design, AI is reshaping every step of fan blade manufacturing.
AI Quality Inspection: From the “Human Eye” to the “AI Eye”
Sunwill’s core product—air conditioner cross-flow fan blades—sees a daily output of over 1 million semi-finished units and more than 100,000 finished units. In the past, the quality inspection process relied on manual visual inspection, which was not only inefficient but also prone to overlooking hidden defects such as micro-cracks, color variations, and deformations.
Sunwill took the lead in applying 5G+AI vision inspection to the full-inspection process for cross-flow fan blades, replacing manual visual inspection with high-precision algorithms to ensure that every product stands up to data verification. This benchmark production line—the first of its kind in China’s home appliance components industry to utilize 5G+AI vision inspection—was featured in a special report by CCTV.com and has become a model for digital and intelligent transformation in the home appliance components sector.
▲ CCTV.com Special Interview Report: “Robotics + Manufacturing (Smart Home Appliances) – Industrial Robots”
Currently, in addition to its internal use, this AI vision quality inspection solution has been deployed at several leading home appliance companies, including Midea and TCL, driving the adoption of AI vision quality inspection capabilities from Sunwill’s “benchmark production line” to the entire home appliance components industry.
AI Processes: “Robotic Tactility” with 0.01-Millimeter Precision
In addition to quality inspection, Sunwill has deeply integrated AI technology into two core manufacturing processes: welding and dynamic balancing. This automated solution was successfully selected as a model case in Guangdong Province’s “Robotics + Manufacturing” initiative (first batch).
▲ Fully Automatic Through-Flow Balancing Machine
· AI-Powered Welding: Leveraging millisecond-level identification and pairing (completed in 0.8 seconds) and 0.01 mm positioning accuracy, the system collects real-time data on weld current, pressure, and displacement, and uses AI to continuously calibrate process parameters. The production line is continuously optimized during operation, with precision constantly improving, completely eliminating the reliance on the “expert touch” of veteran technicians.
· AI-Powered Dynamic Balancing: Automatic angle determination takes less than 2 seconds, and residual vibration is controlled to an exceptional level of ≤0.1 mm/s. Through in-depth analysis of the vibration spectrum, the AI-powered counterweight module automatically recommends the optimal counterweight location and weight, replacing trial-and-error based on experience with data-driven decision-making.
AI R&D: Pushing Fan Blade Performance Beyond Limits
Blade profiles directly impact airflow and noise levels. Traditional trial-and-error prototyping involves lengthy cycles, and the number of possible combinations can run into the tens of thousands.
To address this challenge, Sunwill leverages AI algorithms to automatically iterate toward optimal solutions, rapidly narrowing down the options to three optimal blade profile designs; At the same time, the company has established an AI-based R&D platform to automate pre- and post-processing tasks such as modeling and mesh generation, comprehensively accelerating the R&D process from user requirements to product launch and taking fan blade performance to new heights.
▲Sunwill’s Digital and Intelligent Workshop
AI Production Lines: End-to-End Flexible Smart Manufacturing
Building on the mature application of technologies such as AI vision inspection, intelligent welding, and intelligent dynamic balancing, Sunwill is prioritizing the construction of a flexible automated production line for cross-flow fan blades.
▲ Dynamic Balancing Inspection + Final Product Inspection Section of the Flexible Automated Production Line for Cross-Flow Fan Blades
This production line will deeply integrate AI vision and adaptive control technologies, seamlessly connecting processes such as injection molding, full AI vision inspection, AI welding, intelligent dynamic balancing, and automatic sorting and packaging. This will establish an industry-leading flexible automated production line capable of rapidly responding to market demands for small batches and a wide variety of products, while significantly improving efficiency and quality.
The Next Stop in AI-Empowered Manufacturing
Under Ronggui Subdistrict’s comprehensive strategy to vigorously promote the digital transformation of the manufacturing sector, Sunwill is actively advancing in two cutting-edge areas of AI-driven manufacturing, continuously expanding the frontiers of deep integration between artificial intelligence and the real economy.
First is predictive maintenance for equipment—by leveraging time-series data on vibration, temperature, current, and other parameters continuously collected from 961 pieces of equipment, AI models provide precise failure warnings 72 hours in advance, offering a replicable practical model for the intelligent operation and maintenance of manufacturing equipment in Ronggui.
Second is the integration of process knowledge bases with large language models—by distilling over 30 years of fan blade manufacturing experience into more than 2,000 knowledge tags, the company has digitized and preserved the expertise of veteran craftsmen, exploring new pathways for the skill enhancement of industrial workers.
As a benchmark enterprise for Ronggui’s manufacturing digital transformation, Sunwill’s AI initiatives extend beyond its own operations. Ronggui Subdistrict is actively promoting technology spillover from leading enterprises, establishing industrial collaborative innovation platforms, and enabling small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across the supply chain to share in the benefits of digital transformation. In the future, as more AI application scenarios take root and flourish in Ronggui, the seeds of new-quality productive forces will take root, sprout, and thrive in this fertile ground of smart manufacturing.
From the “smart” transformation of a single wind turbine blade, we witness the “qualitative” transformation of a major manufacturing hub.
Sunwill’s practice of redefining wind turbine blade manufacturing with AI serves as a vivid illustration of Ronggui’s cultivation of new-quality productive forces. Guided by Shunde’s strategy of “Manufacturing as the Cornerstone,” Ronggui Subdistrict is assuming the responsibility of a “business partner” to safeguard corporate innovation and drive a large number of manufacturing enterprises to accelerate their transition toward digitalization and intelligent manufacturing.
Riding the “wind” forward, the future looks promising. In Ronggui, Sunwill’s story is by no means an isolated case; an increasing number of manufacturing enterprises are using innovation as their pen to write their own brilliant chapters on the canvas of new-quality productive forces.
Source | Ronggui Economic Development Office
Editor | Xian Haicheng
Reviewed by | Ronggui Subdistrict Office of Publicity, Culture, Sports, Tourism, and Education