Rebirth 99 to become a car giant.

Chapter 212 I obviously helped build it, but why did the quality exceed mine?

Everyone is familiar with the term special steel.

But what is special steel?

I'm afraid it's a bit difficult to answer accurately.

Actually this is normal.

Because there is no unified definition and concept of special steel in the world.

It is generally believed that special steel refers to steel with special chemical composition, usually alloyed; produced using special processes, with special organization and properties, and able to meet special needs. '

It’s as if this was not said even after it was said.

In short, for Nanshan, most of the various steel materials used in their products are special steel.

Such as bearing steel and gear steel, these are one of the most typical special steels.

In the past few years, Nanshan's special steel has been purchased from outside.

Through various heat treatments and surface treatments, the required performance of parts can be achieved as much as possible.

But the parts produced in this way definitely have certain limitations.

For example, bearings, some smaller bearings, you can improve the performance of the purchased special steel through heat treatment and surface treatment.

However, heat treatment and surface treatment alone cannot fully meet the needs of the special steel used in parts such as crankshafts and crankshafts on large molds and large presses.

It was against this background that Nanshan found Shaogang and entrusted it to build a special steel plant with an annual output of 30 tons.

After more than a year of hard work, this special steel plant was finally completed.

Originally, the offline ceremony could be held in May, but due to special reasons such as the inconvenience of traveling in Yangcheng, it was postponed to the end of June, and finally the official production ceremony could be held.

"Mr. Cao, if all the components of our gearbox are made of materials produced by our own special steel factory, the cost can be further reduced by about 5 points."

"However, switching materials requires customer approval. I am afraid that the production capacity of special steel plants will not be able to explode immediately in the short term."

Ji Hua naturally had to attend such an important event with Cao Yang.

However, he felt that throughout 2003, mass-produced gearboxes might not be able to use materials from special steel mills.

After all, after the special steel is produced, it needs to be produced into a gearbox, and then subjected to SPEC testing of individual products and assemblies, and even installed on the entire vehicle for actual vehicle durability testing.

These tasks cannot be completed in less than three to five months.

"This is indeed a problem. This is not only a problem for gearboxes. The replacement of parts such as bearings, gears and nut plates, bolts and nuts also requires customer approval."

"Unless we provide a substantial price reduction response, customers will not have much incentive to advance this aspect."

"I think the sales department is promoting material switching in conjunction with customers' annual price reductions?"

"This way the other party will be more motivated."

Zhang Fugui's current work focus is on Autohome, but he is still paying attention to special steel matters.

As the former head of the sales department, he could fully understand Ji Hua's concerns.

"What Professor Ji and Mr. Zhang said make sense. Due to special reasons this year, many of our annual price reduction plans have not yet given formal replies to customers."

"We just took this opportunity to ask for help in promoting material switching internally."

"However, before switching materials, customers will definitely ask us to make a series of comparisons between the performance of the original materials and the current materials."

"Whether it is chemical composition, tensile strength, hardness, metallographic structure, etc., or the material's corrosion resistance, acid and alkali resistance, special steel mills need to do the relevant work well."

"Then the factories for each part complete the relevant tests."

"A few months might pass like this."

"I think we can give priority to using materials from special steel mills in the mold center, and then consider selling some special steel to external parties at the same time."

"Let our steel mills run first."

Zeng Tingting is naturally aware of everyone's concerns, and she doesn't want to put all the pressure on the sales department.

Therefore, a more feasible solution was proposed.

"Mr. Cao, aren't we planning to hold the 'Nanshan Science and Technology Day' on June 6th?"

"I wonder if some new breakthroughs in special steel can be demonstrated at the technology day and recommended to some customers."

The group of people took a Coaster, and Mi Ying was naturally in the car.

In fact, if Cao Yang was not in this car, other ministers might take this opportunity to close their eyes and rest.

But with the boss around, everyone must behave well.

So there was no idle time along the way.

While the people in Nanshan were discussing the special steel plant, the people from Shaogang were not idle either.

"Chief Engineer Xie, do you think this special steel plant we helped build in Nanshan can really help us consume 30 tons of crude steel every year?"

Deep down in his heart, Chen Qingwen is not so optimistic about the prospects of Nanshan Special Steel.

In 2003, China's steel production is expected to reach 4.5 million tons, making it the world's largest steel producer.

Due to China's overproduction of steel and fierce market competition, steel prices have remained low.

In 2003, steel prices generally showed a downward trend, especially the prices of cold-rolled plates, rebars and other varieties fell significantly.

However, when steel prices fell, an event occurred that had an important impact on the steel market - the "iron ore negotiation."

Due to the rapid growth of China's steel production, China has become the world's largest consumer of iron ore.

However, BHP Billiton's iron ore suppliers have always had pricing power, and the price of iron ore in China has continued to rise.

In 2003, the China Iron and Steel Industry Association conducted its first iron ore negotiations with iron ore suppliers in Australia and Bahia, and finally reached a price increase agreement.

What impact does this have?

Flour prices rise, bread prices fall...

The life of steel mills is even more difficult.

Especially local steel mills and private steel mills.

"Nanshan now produces a large number of auto parts and molds by itself, and has a relatively large demand for special steel."

"Although the production capacity of special steel plants may not be fully exploded in the short term, starting next year, I think there is still a chance to help us consume 30 crude steel."

"After all, we are a large consumer of special steel."

Xie Lingyun was the person in charge of the construction of Nanshan Special Steel Plant arranged by Shaogang Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. Naturally, he had to be optimistic about the future of this plant.

So no matter who asks him, no matter what his true thoughts are, he will definitely say something good.

"The first batch of molten iron was produced last month, and we also produced some bearing steel and gear steel on a small scale."

"What are the properties of those special steels?"

Chen Qingwen asked casually. In his opinion, Nanshan Special Steel was built based on the Shaogang Special Steel Plant, and the performance of the special steel should be similar to that of Shaogang.

However, Xie Lingyun's reaction was a bit strange.

He said a little tangledly: "Mr. Chen, although we are responsible for assisting in the construction of the special steel plant, Nanshan's technicians are directly operating the alloy formula of the special steel."

"We don't understand their formula; they even gave us different settings for some of the processing parameters."

Special steel may need to improve strength, hardness, toughness, corrosion resistance, wear resistance and other properties, so the formula will contain different elements, such as carbon, manganese, chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, titanium, vanadium, etc. The differences in these elements The proportions and addition methods can determine the properties and composition of the special steel.

In addition, the processing technology of special steel will also affect its performance.

Special steel usually requires cold working, hot working, heat treatment and other processes to meet different application requirements.

Different processing techniques can lead to changes in the structure and properties of special steel to achieve the required performance requirements.

Therefore, the performance of special steel is mainly determined by its chemical composition and processing technology.

Nanshan Special Steel is built and operated with the help of Shaogang, and it is difficult to hide the parameter settings of the processing technology from others.

So Nanshan didn't hide it at all.

For example, for heat treatment, I just set such a temperature and conditions. If you want to learn, you can learn. Anyway, I can't tell you anything.

However, the addition of alloy elements such as manganese, chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, titanium and vanadium is the secret of Nanshan.

As long as this secret is not learned by Shaogang, they will not be able to produce the same high-performance special steel as Nanshan.

There is no other way to teach the apprentice and starve the master to death, but Nanshan will not do it.

This special steel alloy element formula is the core secret of each steel plant.

Why are domestic tools worse than foreign ones for the same machine tools?

After all, it is just the difference in the properties of special steel.

"Isn't this nonsense?"

"Nanshan is a place where laymen guide experts. In the future, the performance of special steel will not be as good as ours, so we cannot rely on us."

Chen Qingwen's first reaction was that the people from Nanshan were causing chaos.

Steel requires data accumulation to produce good products.

Chen Qingwen didn't know who gave Nanshan the courage to adjust the material formula and processing technology at will.

When a pile of scrap metal is produced, who will it be sold to?

Auto giants such as Ford and General Motors will not allow Nanshan to use substandard materials to produce gearboxes, right?

"This one……"

After listening to Chen Qingwen's words, Xie Lingyun's expression seemed to be constipated.

Say no, don't say no.

"What's the matter?"

"Is there something wrong already?"

Chen Qingwen's expression changed, feeling that he was really afraid of something.

Why didn’t Nanshan listen to the advice?

"no!"

"Judging from the current preliminary confirmation results, their bearing steel has better performance than what we produce."

Before Xie Lingyun finished speaking, Chen Qingwen couldn't help but said: "How is it possible? How can the bearing steel they produce be better than ours?"

"According to what I know so far, the hardness of their first batch of bearing steel has reached HRA85 (HRA is the abbreviation for hardnessreliabilityassessment, which means hardness reliability assessment. HRA85 means that the hardness reliability assessment result of the bearing steel is 85%, that is, the bearing Steel has a very high hardness level and good reliability, and is suitable for manufacturing bearings with high precision requirements. The higher the hardness, the better the wear resistance of the bearing, but it will also affect the fatigue life and high temperature performance of the bearing. Therefore, when choosing a bearing When using steel, factors such as hardness, fatigue life, and high-temperature performance need to be comprehensively considered.)”

"Wear resistance: >1200g/1000r (for the meaning of this indicator, please refer to the author's words at the end of the article, otherwise the explanation will be suspicious of hydrology), the high-temperature performance has reached T10 level (also refer to the explanation at the end of the article), and the results in terms of fatigue life are also good. Didn’t come out.”

"But there have been no problems so far. It is said that their goal is to exceed 10000 hours."

"And their bearing steel is non-magnetic, and its performance is not inferior to SKF's bearing steel."

As the deputy chief engineer of Shaogang Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. and the promoter of Nanshan Special Steel, Chen Qingwen is naturally very familiar with the various parameters of special steel.

In particular, the bearing steel of Nanshan Special Steel performs very well in terms of hardness, wear resistance, high temperature performance and fatigue life. It is also non-magnetic and has good surface quality.

"Why do you emphasize that their bearing steel is non-magnetic?"

Although Chen Qingwen is the general manager of Shaogang, he is not a technical person.

On the contrary, he was transferred from another unit the year before.

Therefore, although he has some understanding of some basic processes of steel, when it comes to specific details, it can be felt that he is an amateur.

"Mr. Chen, it's like this. The reason why the bearing steel is required to be non-magnetic is because magnetism will interfere with the stability and accuracy of the bearing during rotation."

"When the bearing rotates, it will be affected by centrifugal force and friction. These factors will change the friction coefficient inside the bearing, thus affecting the life and performance of the bearing."

"If the bearing steel is magnetic, it will be affected by the magnetic field, causing the friction coefficient inside the bearing to change, resulting in a decrease in the performance of the bearing."

"In addition, magnetism will also affect the normal operation of motors, generators and other equipment, so bearing steel is required to be non-magnetic."

Xie Lingyun was not impatient because Chen Qingwen's question was a bit low-level.

Otherwise, he might not be able to keep his position as deputy chief engineer.

Why do the bearing steels in the special steel plants we help build perform better than ours? "

Chen Qingwen asked another low-level question.

After Xie Lingyun was silent for a moment, he said: "I guess it has something to do with them adjusting the process setting parameters and the alloy addition formula."

"It's just that I didn't understand where Nanshan obtained the details of the formula and process parameters of special steels such as bearing steel."

The more professionals you are, the more you will feel the difficulty of producing special steel.

"So, we still have no way to produce bearing steel with such good performance?"

Chen Qingwen didn't feel any shame in this idea at all.

The patent awareness of many managers in China is still relatively weak.

"Yes, unless Nanshan is willing to tell us the secret, it will be difficult to produce it."

"But if we think about this issue from another angle, Nanshan Special Steel has very good performance, which is also a good thing."

"This means that Nanshan Special Steel is very exciting whether it is used by Nanshan itself or sold to external parties."

After Xie Lingyun explained this, Chen Qingwen felt slightly better.

For Shaogang, solving the problem of crude steel production capacity is the most critical.

As for special steel, it is best if it can be done well.

If it doesn't work, it doesn't matter.

After all, there are so many steel manufacturers in China, but few are good at special steel.

Anyway, he will probably be transferred to another place in a few years.

As long as we improve our performance in the past two years, that will be enough.

T10 is a high-temperature performance index usually used to evaluate the high-temperature performance of bearing steel. T10 refers to the ability of bearing steel to maintain hardness and strength in a high temperature environment of 1000°C.

Generally speaking, the higher the T10 index, the better the high temperature performance of the bearing steel.In practical applications, the T10 index of bearing steel should be selected and evaluated according to the specific use environment and requirements.For example, in the use of high-speed and high-precision bearings, a higher T10 index is required, while in the use of ordinary bearings, the T10 index can be appropriately reduced.

Wear resistance: 1200g/1000r, which means that the wear resistance of a certain bearing steel is very good. The friction resistance does not exceed 1000g under 1200 rotations.Wear resistance is one of the important indicators of bearing steel. Generally, higher wear resistance means that the bearing can withstand greater friction and wear during operation, thus extending the service life of the bearing.

Fatigue life refers to the failure life of the bearing due to fatigue damage during operation.Fatigue life is usually expressed in hours and represents the maximum life that a bearing can operate normally.

10000 hours indicates that the fatigue life of a certain bearing is very long and has reached 1000 hours.This means that the bearing can operate stably over a long period of time without malfunction or failure.