Chongqing Design Meets Smart Manufacturing | Episode 5: Yongli Knife and Ruizhu Bamboo Materials Lead Smart Manufacturing Upgrade

Editor’s Note

In recent years, AITO automobiles have defined a new paradigm for premium mobility, while Qiteng’s quadruped explosion-proof robot has taken the lead in the specialized intelligent equipment track. Industrial design has become the core enabler for Chongqing’s manufacturing industry to leap to higher value in the industrial chain and achieve iterative upgrades.

As the only world “City of Design” in western China, cutting-edge creative concepts have deeply intersected with Chongqing’s century-old industrial heritage. A large number of “Chongqing Design” masterpieces—distinguished by their aesthetics, quality, strength, and potential—are emerging and gaining acclaim across the Bashu region.

From today onwards, the “Encountering Design·Shaping the Future” series will present a panoramic view of Chongqing’s landmark industrial design projects of 2025. Through words and lenses, the series will immerse you in the mutually reinforcing journey between industrial design and Chongqing manufacturing.

Millennium Forging Craftsmanship Meets Modern “Intelligent Core”
——Yongli Series Knives

Dazu is a major hardware industry base with a long and deep-rooted history in knife manufacturing. As a local knife-making family, Dazu Yongli Knives has upheld the heritage of intangible cultural heritage techniques while embarking on a new transformation through industrial design, completing the evolution from a manual workshop to a modern enterprise.

Yongli Knives has established a professional industrial design center, comprising a traditional knife craftsmanship group, a modern product design group, and an e-commerce visual design group, covering all aspects of industrial design. In material selection, the company collaborates with the Chongqing Beike Industrial Technology Research Institute to develop nano-antibacterial materials. The product draws inspiration from shark fin shapes, paired with ergonomic handles, giving it a stylish and elegant overall aesthetic. The manufacturing process continues the essence of the Liu family’s “Eight Swords of the Shu Lords” and the thousand-year-old Longshui knife forging techniques, producing a single forged knife suitable for both cutting and chopping, meeting household cooking needs. The company has introduced automated production lines, reducing the production time of a single knife to just 45 seconds, completing the upgrade from pure manual forging to fully automated production. The company has also built a smart shared factory, providing quenching and forging services to over 30 knife manufacturers, with a shared output value exceeding 20 million yuan, driving the upgrading of Dazu’s knife industry.

Today, Yongli Knives, grounded in a millennium of craftsmanship and enhanced by intelligent production advantages, has five brands covering all consumer segments, with annual production exceeding 3 million units and annual sales exceeding 100 million yuan. In 2025, leveraging its outstanding e-commerce operations, it ranked first in nationwide sales for single-knife products on Taobao.

The Green Revolution Ushered in by “Bamboo Instead of Plastic”
——Ruizhu Bamboo-Based New Material Series Products

The world is actively exploring green solutions for plastic substitution. Chongqing Ruizhu Plant Fiber Products Co., Ltd. uses bamboo to produce fully degradable, zero-additive bamboo fiber eco-friendly products, becoming the first pure bamboo fiber tableware manufacturer in China and providing a distinctive Chongqing “bamboo solution” to the global plastic pollution problem.

Ruizhu adheres to a design philosophy of “green, circular, simple, and safe.” In partnership with the International Bamboo and Rattan Organization, it has co-established the Bamboo Fiber New Materials Science and Innovation Center under the National Innovation Institute for Bamboo Instead of Plastic. The company has independently developed a physical steam explosion process for extracting bamboo fiber, producing bamboo fiber-reinforced composite materials that are 30% lighter than plastic products and 25% stronger in compressive strength. The entire production process requires no chemical reagents. The products naturally degrade within six months in the open environment and can be absorbed by crops, or recycled into seedling containers, achieving a green cycle of “from bamboo, back to bamboo.” The product design is distinctive, with bamboo-joint anti-slip textures that blend Eastern aesthetics with practicality and brand recognition. The company operates 23 fully automated intelligent production lines, utilizing AI visual inspection technology to control the product defect rate within 0.05%. Currently, the product range has expanded from bamboo fiber food containers to high-value-added fields such as premium packaging, automotive interiors, and bamboo fiber film.

In 2025, over 70% of the company’s products were exported to more than 30 countries and regions worldwide, with export value reaching 120 million yuan, establishing it as a significant global supplier of bamboo fiber eco-friendly products. This industrial development has driven the establishment of a 100,000-mu bamboo plantation base in the Three Gorges reservoir area, increasing average woodland income per mu by 30%, creating employment for nearly 500 people, and contributing to a 3 percentage point increase in regional forest coverage. This paints a vivid picture of how Chongqing’s green design empowers rural revitalization.

Source: Chongqing Manufacturing, “Chongqing Design Meets Smart Manufacturing” Episode 5: The Pen of Design Paints a Better Life