Back to feed
News Story
APriority79
DeepTech深科技
1 sources

Dialogue with PolyU's Lu Jiaxin: How to Turn a Lab Result into a 6,500-Ton Production Line?

Lu Jiaxin, a research assistant professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, was named to the 2025 MIT Technology Review TR35 China list for developing multi-cylinder extrusion wide-width forming technology. The technology has been licensed to Guangdong Lightweight Metal Technology Co., Ltd., leading to the construction of a 6,500-ton industrial-scale wide-width extrusion production line. In the dialogue, Lu discussed the challenges of scaling from lab to industry and the role of industrial AI in improving process development.

SynthePulse Insight · AI deep readingMembers

From Lab to a 6,500-Ton Production Line: The Real Engineering Challenges Behind Multi-Cylinder Extrusion

Version 1 · 1 source

Turning a laboratory technique into an industrial production line is not just about bigger equipment—it's about stability, economics, safety, and translating a master craftsman's 'a little thicker' into machine-readable parameters. The practice of Lv Jiaxin, a research assistant professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, reveals the true distance from principle to industrialization.

  • Multi-cylinder extrusion enables multiple billets to flow cooperatively, achieving in-line solid-state bonding under high temperature and pressure, producing widths over three times that of traditional methods while reducing extrusion force by approximately 70%-90%.
  • The lab answers whether the principle works; industrialization must answer whether it can be reliably reproduced, economically viable, and safe, with process windows that accommodate real-world variability.
  • The most underestimated step is process engineering from 'technically feasible' to 'stable production'—transforming DIY operations into SOPs and standard procedures.
Open section navigationManufacturing Limits: The Real Bottleneck in Lightweighting

Manufacturing Limits: The Real Bottleneck in Lightweighting

Lv Jiaxin's research starts from the recognition that what limits product lightweighting is often not materials but manufacturing capability. Designers want thinner and lighter components, but existing processes cannot produce them. Traditional extrusion equipment can produce profiles up to about 600 mm wide, with wall thicknesses difficult to go below 2.5 mm, while high-speed rail or maglev train wall panels can exceed 2 meters in width, requiring segmented welding.

Traditional extrusion is 'clumsy' and 'heavy': manufacturing a 600 mm wide component may require a 10,000-ton extrusion press, with enormous equipment investment and energy consumption. The original intent of multi-cylinder extrusion is to 'let small machines do big jobs,' by having multiple billets flow cooperatively, achieving interfacial solid-state bonding under high temperature and pressure to form a complete component.

Free for now

Read the full analysis

3 more sections of analysis, plus the full takeaway

Loading

Credibility boundary

This article is primarily based on an exclusive interview with Lv Jiaxin by DeepTech, constituting first-hand interview records; factual content is based on the interviewee's statements. Some performance data (such as three times the width and 70%-90% reduction in extrusion force) are self-reported by the interviewee and have not been independently verified by third parties.

Sources for this version

  1. 对话港理工吕佳欣：如何将一项实验室成果变成一条6500吨级的生产线？DeepTech深科技

Primary report

DeepTech深科技

Primary source