At the IPFM International Plant Fiber Molding Industry Exhibition, held from October 30 to November 1, 2025, at the Foshan Tanzhou International Convention and Exhibition Center, Zhongchuang Intelligent's Dark Factory solution will make its debut.This solution will demonstrate how to reconstruct the production logic of pulp molding through full-process automation and data-driven decision-making.
Driven by global plastic bans and dual-carbon goals, the pulp molding industry stands at a crossroads of transformation and upgrading.In traditional production models, labor costs account for up to 20%, energy consumption costs are more than twice that of traditional papermaking, and the 8% defect rate are forcing the industry to find a breakthrough.
The Dark Factory—a production model integrating intelligence and unmanned operation—is becoming the core breakthrough point for industry upgrading. 

Dark Factory: The "Intelligent Heart" of Pulp Molding 

Dark Factory, also known as "Smart Factory", refers to a highly intelligent factory where machines can operate automatically and run even with the lights off.
Its core lies in achieving fully digitalized production through an intelligent manufacturing collaboration system. All production, storage, handling, and inspection processes require no manual operation and are primarily completed autonomously by smart robots or automated equipment following software system commands.。
Zhongchuang Intelligent's Dark Factory solution adopts a three-layer core architecture:
The top decision-making layer integrates management systems like ERP and MES to achieve global production capacity scheduling and carbon emission monitoring.
The intelligent production layer applies technologies like AI visual inspection and ultrasonic low-temperature molding to replace 90% of manual operations.
The bottom execution layer collects data in real-time via IoT sensors and synchronously adjusts equipment parameters through 5G networks. 
Taking a group in Zhejiang planning to invest 230 million RMB to build the world's first fully-linked pulp molding Dark Factory as an example, it plans to achieve "Three Zeros" upon operation: unmanned operation, paperless office, and zero waste emission.By introducing waste heat cascade recovery technology, steam generated from the hot pressing process is reused for drying, achieving a comprehensive energy saving rate of 50% and reducing carbon emissions by 8,000 tons annually. 

Full-Process Automation, Redefining the Production Model 

Zhongchuang's Lights-Out Factory solution builds a complete intelligent production system through eight core systems: from the central control system for unified command to the visual inspection system for strict quality control; from parallel robots for high-speed sorting to fully automated intelligent cartoning and palletizing; and seamless connection between AGV intelligent transportation and intelligent warehousing, truly realizing the fully unmanned operation from "raw material warehousing to finished product outbound".
At the exhibition site, Zhongchuang vividly demonstrated the entire process of pulp molded products from forming and drying to inspection and packaging through a dynamic model.
Most impressively, the entire process maintained an efficient and stable operational rhythm without any manual intervention, fully demonstrating the mature application of intelligent manufacturing technology.

Smart Energy & Carbon Management Platform: Cooperating with Siemens to Build the Core of Green Intelligent Manufacturing 

As the central nervous system of the solution, the Smart Energy and Carbon Management Platform, jointly developed by Zhongchuang and Siemens, became the technical core of this exhibition.This platform achieves deep extension of energy analysis in the smart factory scenario, covering the entire equipment lifecycle and full production process management:
Precise Energy Consumption Tracking: Monitors data such as electricity and gas consumption of each device in real-time, visualizing energy usage.
Intelligent Early Warning System: Provides early warnings for consumable part lifespan and equipment abnormalities, promoting predictive maintenance.
Carbon Footprint Accounting: Automatically calculates product carbon footprints, providing data support for green manufacturing.
Production Optimization: Continuously optimizes production processes through real-time comparison of data like qualification rates and production capacity.
This platform not only provides strong support for reducing costs and increasing efficiency in factories but also achieves transparent management of the production process through digital means, offering decision-makers real-time and accurate data.

Realizing the Value of the Dark Factory: High Efficiency, Low Consumption, High Quality

The practical application value of Zhongchuang's Dark Factory solution is reflected in multiple dimensions:
Production Efficiency Significantly Improved: Replacing manual labor with automated equipment like parallel robots and six-axis robots enables 24/7 uninterrupted production, significantly increasing capacity.
Labor Costs Significantly Reduced: Processes on traditional pulp molding production lines that required many operators are replaced by smart equipment, reducing labor costs by over 70%.
Product Quality Consistently Stable: The visual inspection system ensures every product is strictly inspected, eliminating quality fluctuations caused by human factors, with product qualification rates approaching 100%.
Energy Management Precise and Scientific: Optimized scheduling through the energy and carbon management platform achieves optimal energy utilization, significantly reducing energy consumption per unit product.

Leading Industry Transformation, Opening a New Chapter in Intelligent Manufacturing

Zhongchuang Intelligent's appearance at IPFM2025 not only demonstrates an advanced technical solution but also provides a practical intelligent transformation path for the entire pulp molding industry.
Against the backdrop of increasingly stringent environmental requirements and continuously rising labor costs, the Dark Factory model is becoming an inevitable choice for industry development.
As global emphasis on sustainable development and green manufacturing continues to increase, Zhongchuang's Dark Factory solution, which integrates intelligent manufacturing and green production concepts, will undoubtedly provide pulp molding enterprises with strong competitiveness, helping them gain a first-mover advantage in the fierce market competition.
At IPFM2025, Zhongchuang Intelligent's Dark Factory solution has attracted widespread attention within the industry, with several well-known companies expressing intentions for in-depth cooperation on site.The intelligent revolution in the pulp molding industry is accelerating into the fast lane, starting from Zhongchuang's demonstration.

Smart Energy & Carbon Management Platform: The Core Engine of Green Manufacturing

In the smart park scenario, the Smart Energy and Carbon Management Platform, co-developed by Zhongchuang Intelligent and Siemens, focuses on the core of energy and carbon management. It enables precise analysis of energy consumption like electricity, gas, and water, provides real-time carbon emission monitoring, efficient microgrid management and control, helping parks achieve green and efficient operation.
In the smart factory scenario, the application of this platform extends further, deeply covering the entire equipment lifecycle and full production process management.This includes single-equipment energy consumption tracking, real-time production data monitoring, consumable part life warnings, product carbon footprint accounting, while automatically generating production reports, pushing predictive maintenance prompts, and various abnormal warning messages.

This platform perfectly addresses the pain points of the pulp molding industry.Through digital twin technology, enterprises can map the status of the physical production line in real-time, and AI algorithms dynamically optimize production parameters, reducing mold changeover time from the traditional 2 hours to 15 minutes. 

Technological Leap: The Ecological Closed Loop from Bagasse Bamboo Fiber to AI Algorithms 

The competitiveness of the Dark Factory lies not only in automation but also relies on the dual drivers of material innovation and intelligent algorithms.
In materials science, bamboo fiber reinforcement technology increases the strength of bamboo pulp molding by 40%, with costs 30% lower than wood pulp; bagasse recycling technology provides microwave-safe tableware for companies like Starbucks, achieving an annual carbon reduction of 350,000 tons.
In intelligent algorithms, AI process simulation can optimize packaging structure, reducing material usage by 20%; predictive maintenance uses machine learning to predict equipment failures, reducing downtime by 60%.
Zhongchuang Intelligent's solution also innovatively applies an AI visual online inspection system, capable of identifying 0.1mm-level defects within 0.8 seconds, reducing the defect rate from 8% in traditional factories to 0.3%, achieving a leap in product quality.

From "Lights-Out Manufacturing" to a Global Ecological Network

The ultimate goal of the Dark Factory is to build a "Distributed Intelligent Manufacturing + Circular Economy" network.
Following the EU's comprehensive plastic ban by 2030, pulp molding's share in the food packaging market is expected to grow to 45%.Through regional layout, the Dark Factory undertakes low-end production capacity at bases in Southeast Asia, focuses on high-value-added products like medical-grade sterile packaging at R&D centers in Europe and America, and simultaneously builds "recycling-regeneration" alliances with catering giants, achieving a material recycling rate of over 80%.
Zhongchuang Intelligent's solution supports the implementation of the C2M (Customer to Manufacturer) model, enabling the customer's factory IoT system to connect directly for ordering, delivering 100,000 sets of customized meal boxes within 48 hours, realizing the shift from mass production to personalized customization.

The Future Vision of the Dark Factory

By 2025, China's bamboo-based material production capacity is expected to exceed 20 million tons, and the penetration rate of Dark Factories in the pulp molding industry is expected to reach 30%.
Future pulp molding Dark Factories will develop towards distributed micro-factories, potentially including community-level pulp molding micro-factories that recycle waste paper locally and produce packaging, reducing logistics carbon emissions.Biomanufacturing integrated with gene editing technology modifies fast-growing plant fibers, realizing "grown packaging materials".
Zhongchuang Intelligent's display at IPFM2025 will demonstrate a sustainable development path characterized by high quality, low cost, and environmental friendliness to the industry.When eco-friendly manufacturing meets the unmanned revolution, the pulp molding industry is writing the future of green packaging.