Recently, the International Automotive Congress 2019 was held in Shanghai. 7DCT450 of HYCET won the Innovation and Development Project Award at the concurrent Automotive Innovation Technology Award Ceremony 2019, and was recognized by the industry once again for its quality and strength.

Award Ceremony

As one of the key parts of "Era I" powertrain system, 7DCT has been favored by the market since its launch. Since its actual mass production in March 2017, it only took two and a half years to successfully obtain the market share and ownership of 1 million units, and was successively mounted on A-class, B-class and C-class models.

During this period, 7DCT has continuously broken through various barriers and won 85 patents and independent intellectual property rights. It has won the World Best Ten Transmission in 2017 and 2018, and the First Prize of National Automotive Industry Science and Technology Progress Award in 2019. It has passed the dual test of market and industry perfectly. Therefore, HYCET has become one of the most potential and competitive auto parts brands with independent transmission R&D capability in China.

Recently, Zheng Lipeng, Vice President of HYCET, said at the 7DCT 1-million-unit Off-line Ceremony, in China’s DCT industry, without our 1-million-unit production, we think the market would still be dominated by foreign enterprises. However, when we have sold one million units, we can drive the industrial system and establish our own industrial chain, which will undoubtedly affect the pattern of the entire automobile industry.

Meanwhile, from the perspective of the industry, the success of 7DCT is also a “pride” and progress of Chinese auto parts brands. It has greatly improved the design level and manufacturing technology of key auto parts of domestic auto brands, facilitated Great Wall Motors to successfully go global with a unique performance competitive advantage, and made outstanding contributions to the continuously improvement of the strength and international influence of Chinese automobile and auto parts brands.

7DCT has great technical strength

It took HYCET four years to create 7DCT. Gerhard Henning, known as the father of automatic transmission in the industry, also the top transmission expert and technology development promoter in the world, led more than 30 industry experts to build the first-class transmission laboratory in the world and the most advanced and automated transmission factory in China.

Mr. Gerhard Henning

It is reported that Mr. Gerhard Henning has successively served as the head of the R&D Department of Automatic Transmission at Mercedes-benz and Volkswagen, and has more than 20 years of experience in related fields. Volkswagen’s world first 6AT and Benz 7DCT, 7AT, 9AT, 4MATIC are created under the leadership of Henning.

In particular, in terms of the most intuitive performance parameters, 7DCT adopts a number of advanced technologies. It creatively combines drive gear sharing with multi-function synchronizer to transfer power. With the system topology optimization lightweight design, the transmission ratio range is up to 8.0, the maximum torque is 450N?m, and the maximum transmission efficiency is up to 98%. In addition, the assembly testing system based on NVRAM was established, and the matching method of off-line test data and vehicle control software was developed to achieve quality consistency in mass production.

The overall comprehensive performance of 7DCT reaches the world-class level. It not only meets the demand of the current market for high performance and low energy consumption models, but also conforms to the principle and direction of the current industrial structure adjustment in China, which plays a positive role in promoting the development of the core auto parts technology of Chinese auto brands and the automobile industry. 

International first-class automatic production line

It can be said that 7DCT developed by HYCET is a world-class wet-type dual-clutch transmission jointly created by the world's first-class talent using world-class production equipment. 7DCT is worth of both the First Prize of National Automotive Industry Science and Technology Progress Award or the World Best Ten Transmission.

According to Tang Haifeng, Chairman of HYCET, in addition to the mass production of one million units of 7DCT, 9HDCT based on the international next generation of P2 hybrid technology and the leading series-parallel hybrid DHT technology will also enter the SOP stage within the next two years.

At present, 9HDCT and its conventional power version 9DCT are undergoing B-sample model case bench testing, vehicle validation and C-sample design optimization simultaneously, which are expected to be mass produced at the beginning of 2021. The DHT project has entered the A-sample experiment stage, which is expected to be mass produced at the end of 2021.

Moreover, other products of "Era I" powertrain technology has excellent performance in the market, and gradually integrated with new energy, intelligent connected vehicles, artificial intelligence, unmanned driving and 5G technology.

Among them, GW4C20B 2.0T gasoline engine has a maximum torque of 385N.m/1800-3600rpm and a maximum power of 165kW/5500rpm. With six upgraded performances, it won the title of China Best Ten Engine of 2019. Meanwhile, Great Wall Motors won the Technology Pioneer Award for the first time, which is the honorary award of “China Heart”.

At the same time, HYCET has independently developed and produced China's first "flat wire technology" electric drive integrated system, such as 350V-150kW three-in-one electric drive system, 350V-130kW two-in-one electric drive system, 48V-six-phase motor controller two-in-one electric drive system, Hairpin stator sub-assembly and other star products. The motor adopts new technologies and materials such as efficient permanent magnet synchronous motor, H-Pin winding, and thin silicon steel plate, the controller adopts customized IGBT and thin film capacitor, and the reducer adopts planetary structure. As a result, the system has the characteristics of high power density, miniaturization and excellent NVH performance, and the effective power density reaches 5.6kW/kg, far exceeding the 3.5kW/kg target that China plans to achieve by 2020.

Furthermore, in the field of intelligent driving, HYCET has successfully developed its first off-road vehicle DP-EPS (dual pinion electric power steering system), which can meet the requirements of L2 level autopilot and meet the harsh conditions of off-road SUV and pickup. It adopts low speed MCU with high torque, and rack force is up to 12KN. It is developed based on the functional safety process, with two certifications, namely ASILD safety level certification and industry leading ISO26262 functional safety process and product certification. With the application of urban SUV, the controller platform-oriented rate is as high as 95%, which is a strong support for the upgrade of the new generation of steering system, ADAS and auto-pilot technology.

In addition to the transmission, production plans of other new products of “Era I” brand are also moving forward. By 2025, the engine capacity will reach 1.65 million units, the transmission capacity will reach 1.5 million sets, the electric drive capacity will reach 500,000 units, the EPS capacity will reach 1 million sets, the EAB capacity will reach 750,000 units, forming the most efficient and attractive power system solution.

It is worth noting that HYCET now has a R&D team of more than 1,000 people, including more than 50 foreign experts and more than 40 top experts in China, who are engaged in product design, NVH development, CAE simulation, hydraulic control, software development, vehicle calibration, motor simulation analysis and other key fields. It has established four R&D centers in Austria, India, Shanghai and Baoding, and provided strong support for the global automobile industry by cooperating with innovation force in China in multiple segments.

In this regard, Tang Haifeng said that in addition to technological innovation, HYCET will also cooperate with other auto enterprises to innovate the industrial chain model and the international model, drive the domestic auto parts products to jointly expand the market share, and strive to occupy a place in the global automobile industry.

Industry insiders clearly pointed out that HYCET is capable of scale production. In particular, the "Era I" brand is not just one of HYCET's key innovations through technology development. It also reflects that HYCET, in collaboration with Great Wall Motors, makes technology deployment in advance for the integration of the whole automotive industrial chain, continuously carries out product upgrading and iteration, quickly enters the upstream supply chain, and strengthens comprehensive competitiveness. More importantly, it is the key to its breakthrough in the global auto parts market. Therefore, domestic auto parts brands will certainly accelerate its breakthrough in the international market. (photo source: HYCET's WeChat account)