Shanghe county in Jinan, Shandong province has been ramping up efforts to improve  technological innovation and policy support to enhance its smart manufacturing capabilities.

High-tech industries such as biomedicine, chemical engineering, intelligent manufacturing and high-end equipment are currently the main driving forces of the county's transformation and upgrading.

Shanghe-based Linuo Technical Glass, one of the largest pharmaceutical glass producers in China, has continuously enhanced its independent innovation capabilities and accelerated industrial transformation.

The company operates a fully electric smart pharmaceutical glass production line that manufactures items such as borosilicate pharmaceutical glass, heat-resistant glass and electric light source glass. The company's capabilities have helped reduce China's reliance on imported borosilicate glass tubes.

"Launched in October last year, our borosilicate glass tube kiln project has an annual production capacity of about 5,000 metric tons. We have made contributions to China's pharmaceutical packaging industry by utilizing years of accumulated technology in full oxygen combustion, platinum technology and research and development in automation to achieve complex kiln design and process control," said Yang Zhongchen, general manager of Linuo Technical Glass.

Linuo Technical Glass has dozens of patented technologies and has been designated as a "national manufacturing champion" by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Its products are exported to countries and regions such as the United States, Europe, Japan and Australia.

To better support the development of specialized and innovative enterprises, Shanghe county has built the Shanghe Intelligent Manufacturing and High-end Equipment Industrial Park, a national industrial base featuring industrial clusters for general aviation, green and intelligent building and new material companies.

Presently, Shanghe has 35 large-scale high-end equipment manufacturing companies, 34 large-scale industrial enterprises in the bio-pharmaceutical and chemical industry, 14 gazelle enterprises, and 43 specialized and new small and medium-sized enterprises.

The fully electric smart pharmaceutical glass production line in a plant of Shanghe-based Linuo Technical Glass, one of the largest pharmaceutical glass producers in China. [Photo/Jinan Times]