BEIJING, March 4 (Xinhua) — The following is a summary of published science and technology news of China.

SMART FACTORIES, WORKSHOPS

Beijing plans to add 100 smart factories and digital workshops in the coming three years, according to the municipal government.

The goal was revealed in an action plan for digitalization in the city’s manufacturing sector between 2024 and 2026, issued by the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Economy and Information Technology.

LITHIUM-ION BATTERIES

A group of Chinese scientists has developed a design of electrolytes capable of promoting the charging rate and expanding the operating temperature of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Nature.

This new design can enable lithium-ion batteries to achieve reversibility when the cells are charged and discharged in a wide temperature range from minus 70 degrees Celsius to 60 degrees Celsius. The lithium-ion batteries can also be charged and discharged within just 10 minutes at room temperature, according to the study.

3D-PRINTED TITANIUM ALLOY

A team of international scientists has broken through the technological bottleneck caused by the poor fatigue properties of 3D-printed materials, and proposed an innovative strategy to fabricate an anti-fatigue titanium alloy via near void-free 3D printing.

According to the study published in the latest issue of academic journal Nature, the advantage of 3D printing, or additive manufacturing (AM) technology, had previously been severely compromised by the poor fatigue performance of 3D-printed materials under cyclic loading, which resulted from the presence of microvoids induced by prevailing printing process.