Bernard Philippe teaches the worker how to operate the machine. (COURTESY PHOTO)

By BI Weizi & LONG Yun

Weifang Tuopu Machinery Manufacturing Co. leads the way in agricultural machinery patents in China, including multifunctional aerial work vehicle, tree digger and orchard picking transport trailer.

As the inventor behind most of these patents, the Chairman of the company Bernard Philippe, who was once a senior racing engineer in France and then, after coming to China, became fascinated with creating machinery products suitable for the country's agricultural production needs.

He said that China's rapid development has allowed him to fully unleash his love for agricultural engineering and provided him with more opportunities for technological innovation and new product development.

"Agricultural machinery suitable for China's geography, climate and crop varieties were not easily available here. So my team, together with Chinese engineers, conducted a lot of field studies to find ways to save labor," Philippe said to S&T Daily recently.

Technological innovation prioritized

In recent years, Philippe has had many achievements in developing new and advanced agricultural machinery, such as the multi-functional aerial work vehicle for gardening, the leaf suction shredder for efficiently cleaning fallen leaves and broken branches, and a tree digger that can pull up the entire tree by its roots after being shoveled into the ground.

"Given urban greening, landscape construction, engineering construction and efficient land use, many tree saplings have to be transplanted, which is quite a tedious task," he said, adding that it takes three people two days to dig up a large sapling with a diameter of 30cm.

More importantly, the transplanted trees are prone to disease and even death due to the uneven cutting of the roots during the uprooting process. So his team designed a tree digging machine that can dig up a 30cm diameter tree in 30 seconds. The trees can then be lifted onto trucks and transported, which not only saves a lot of labor, but also increases the survival rate of saplings, thus realizing the full mechanization of transplantation and cutting.

Abundant opportunities

"China's development is too fast, and more and more product demands are emerging, which also [speeds up] our research and development and [makes] our products more practical," said Philippe, adding that there are promising prospects for agricultural machinery products in China.

As a machinery manufacturing company driven by technological innovation, Tuopu Machinery has committed to R&D and manufacturing machinery products that meet the needs of China's agricultural development, said Philippe.

In recent years, Tuopu Machinery has expanded its market to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, hoping to contribute to the local economic and social development by inventing some agricultural machines suitable for local geographical conditions.

"I like Xinjiang a lot. What impressed me the most was the Duku Highway, a mysterious road that connects the north and south of Xinjiang," he said, adding that visitors can experience four seasons in one day on the road and the local people are very hospitable.

Home away from home

Philippe was awarded the Qilu Friendship Award by Shandong provincial government in 2015. He believes that this is confirmation of the deep relationship between him and China, which he now considers his second home. He has conveyed this feeling when he returns to France, telling his friends there about the realities of China and how friendly the Chinese people are.

"Next, we will introduce more outstanding foreign experts and cultivate domestic R&D teams," said Philippe, noting that China's industrial and agricultural development has entered a new era, and the construction of industrial chains, digital transformation, and green and low-carbon development are the trend of future development.