(Yicai Global) Aug. 1 -- Chinese home appliance giant Gree Electric Appliances will set up two academician workstations in partnership with the country's top scientists to develop core technologies to diversify its product line to meet evolving consumer needs, it announced yesterday.

The firm will establish an energy-saving workstation with Prof. Jiang Yi from Tsinghua University, who is also an academician with the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and a motor and control workstation with Prof. Rao Fangquan of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, likewise an academician at the academy, Dong Mingzhu, chairwoman and president of Gree, said at the inauguration of the workstations.

He will work with Zhuhai, Guangdong province-based Gree to research servo motors, which are key components of robots, Rao said, adding that the company, long a mere air-conditioner maker,  is now developing robot products, a field in which the company hopes to achieve world-class status.

The air conditioning industry still has much scope for development, Jiang said, since as the climate warms, demand for air conditioners will keep climbing. Enabling air-conditioning equipment to ease peak energy demand after energy structural adjustment away from fossil to clean fuels is thus a big issue. The academician workstation for energy-saving research will focus on these issues.

Gree can train ten of its own academicians in the future based on these workstations, Dong hopes. They will not just churn out papers, but create real products and values, she said, adding that Gree is no longer a simple air-conditioning maker, and it may establish more such workstations in future.

The company's goal of achieving revenue of CNY200 billion (USD30 billion) this year remains unchanged, Dong also stressed at the ceremony.

Editor: Ben Armour