The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Chapter 157: Exciting news from Shougang

Soon, the group arrived at Shougang.

This is not the first time Jiang Hui has come to this place.

But the last time I came here was to repair a car, so I never went around the factory, let alone had the opportunity to visit the production site.

This time it was different. After completing the registration at the door, someone took them directly to the conference room to meet up with Zou Yuan and others first. At the same time, they got to know Shougang’s chief engineer, director of the technical department and other related personnel.

"Let me briefly introduce to you the progress of the high-strength automotive steel plate project so far."

Although Shougang is the home team, Zou Yuan is the specific person in charge of the project.

He will certainly not give up the control of the project easily, otherwise when the time comes to reward people for their contributions, the credit will not be his.

Of course, if we really want to talk in detail about who deserves the credit, it might not be Zou Yuan's, because the initial idea was proposed to him by Zhu Jiansheng and Jiang Hui.

When writing the relevant report, Zou Yuan also wrote Zhu Jiansheng and Jiang Hui's names side by side after his own.

This is equivalent to being the co-first author in the paper.

This operation is quite conscientious.

"Last year, Professor Zhu from Capital Polytechnic Institute and Jiang Hui from Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant came to me and wanted to find a production solution for the high-strength automobile steel plates for the new BJ212..."

Zou Yuan glanced around and began his explanation.

There haven’t been many changes in the main processing technology for steel. After all, this is a relatively mature technology, and if you want to change it, you have to make major changes to the equipment.

However, in terms of specific process parameter settings, some adjustments have been made in many places.

In particular, significant adjustments have been made in the proportions of various materials.

Although it may seem like just a simple adjustment of the ratio of raw materials, in actual production you need to know what the adjustment will be, which requires a lot of experiments.

The reason why many companies are unwilling to engage in basic materials science is because this field requires large investment but may not necessarily produce large or even no output.

The fact that Zou Yuan and the Shougang team were able to achieve results so quickly had a lot to do with the fact that the materials Jiang Hui had previously provided already contained a lot of specific information.

This method of "forcing growth" is absolutely effective.

"Everyone, rest assured. Shougang is now applying to the Ministry of Metallurgy to become the first batch of demonstration factories for factory management reform."

"This matter was first raised by the Capital Automobile Manufacturing Plant."

"When the time comes, we will definitely give priority to promoting high-strength automotive steel plates, which are very cost-effective products, and will definitely not delay everyone's work."

As the chief engineer of Shougang, Zuo Guangsheng must speak out at this time.

After all, the technology is actually in the hands of Zou Yuan, and Shougang is also cooperating in the development. There are some key things they have not yet fully figured out.

In this case, if Zou Yuan wants to cooperate with other steel manufacturers, Shougang will suffer great losses.

Although China's industrial level was not particularly high at that time, its industrial categories were actually very complete, and many steel mills were built as key projects.

The construction of Baosteel in Shanghai is also in full swing. In the short term, the domestic low-end steel production capacity is actually a bit oversupplied.

This situation will only change in a few years when all industries begin to develop vigorously.

Even if history does not change, the Ministry of Metallurgy will require domestic steel mills to reduce some of their backward production capacity in the next two years.

In this case, Shougang certainly wants to hold high-strength automotive steel plates, a good product, in its own hands.

"Chief Engineer Zuo, we will report our joint development of high-strength automotive steel plates to the ministry soon. By then, major steel mills such as Anshan Iron and Steel, Mashan Iron and Steel, and Wuhan Iron and Steel will surely get the news soon."

"If we can't quickly launch this product and provide it to various OEMs, it's inevitable that the department will have other ideas."

"Especially Anshan Iron and Steel, which produces most of the domestic automobile steel plates."

Although Zuo Guangsheng has made a promise, Zou Yuan will definitely put some pressure on him for such a good opportunity.

After all, he also very much hopes that this product can be used in the car as soon as possible, which is also a very meaningful thing for him.

Maybe with his achievements in automotive high-strength steel plates, he will be able to successfully become the head of the Department of Iron and Steel Metallurgy.

Some time ago, his old classmate Zhu Jiansheng became the director of the Vehicle Engineering Department of Capital Institute of Technology, and he was a little jealous.

"The largest amount of steel used in cars is mainly rolled plates, which are relatively convenient to transport."

"Whether we transport the products to Spring City or Shanghai after production, it is actually possible."

"There is absolutely no need for Anshan Iron and Steel to produce high-strength automotive steel plates anymore."

"We will also report this to the ministry in the future."

Zuo Guangsheng also felt a little pressure.

Some time ago, he did not pay much attention to this project, thinking that the project carried out by the professors of Capital Iron and Steel Institute in cooperation with Shougang must be of scientific research nature and often has nothing to do with actual large-scale production.

At least judging from some past collaborations, this is basically the case.

The real research and development of steel products still depends on Shougang itself, or the introduction of technology from overseas.

Unexpectedly, in just half a year, Zou Yuan collaborated with some technical personnel from Shougang to launch a satellite.

An advanced steel material such as high-strength automotive steel plates was developed quietly.

You know, even in 2000, domestic automobile steel plates were basically imported, with very few domestically produced ones, and the quality and technology were not very good.

It is conceivable that the domestic steel industry has lagged behind the world for many years in the field of automotive steel plates.

In recent years, limited resources have been invested in steel used in military products.

For example, China has never given up on the research and development of steel used in products such as tanks and warships. Although there is a gap with the world's advanced level, it is not that big.

The situation in the civilian sector is different, and the gap is not just a little bit.

"The Ministry of Metallurgy, the First Ministry of Machine Building, and the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building should all attach great importance to this project. I think it would be a good idea to invite experts from each ministry to conduct a joint review, which would also be considered as a way to determine the nature of this matter?"

Zhu Jiansheng's brain is now much smarter than before.

He took the initiative to report this matter to the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building, saying that he and his students had proposed a technical solution for high-strength automotive steel plates, and had cooperated with the Capital Iron and Steel Institute and Shougang to develop the product, which could be used on a large scale in the Hummer project in the future, and the impact effect would not be so strong.

But if the news comes from other departments, the situation is different.

For the leaders of the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building, the project in which Zhu Jiansheng participated brought them honor.

After all, the development of new steel products is theoretically the responsibility of the Ministry of Metallurgy, and has nothing to do with the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building. If there is a demand for use, the Fifth Ministry of Machine Building can just submit the request to the Ministry of Metallurgy.

"Okay, let us take care of this matter."

Zuo Guangsheng agreed without any hesitation.

After all, Capital Iron and Steel Institute and Capital Industrial Institute have the initiative in this matter.

However, there is no essential competition between Shougang and the two universities. After all, their positioning is different.

In this situation, we must try our best to appease the two great professors, Zou Yuan and Zhu Jiansheng.

Who knows, there may be unexpected surprises in the future.

"Although high-strength automotive steel sheets have been successfully developed, the stamping and welding properties of these steels still need to be confirmed by the relevant supporting factories."

“The higher the strength, the lower the stamping performance should be. It is also a critical issue for existing manufacturers to ensure that parts can be produced without re-opening the mold.”

Jiang Hui, who had been silent, asked a more detailed question.

There are many things to pay attention to in the production of auto parts.

It is just a simple car body stamping part, which cannot be produced by any supporting factory.

Especially in 1979, the technical level of China's supporting factories was far behind that of later generations.

Therefore, whether there are any problems in production after changing the materials is a very important question.

Especially for the new BJ212 and some other models that hope to switch to high-strength automotive steel plates during mass production.

"From the sheet tests we have done so far, although the stamping performance has decreased after the strength has increased, the elongation has not decreased very much. As long as the parts are not particularly complex, they can be stamped out on the original mold."

"For a small number of stamping parts with special shapes, it may be necessary to repair the mold or adjust the parameters of the stamping equipment."

Zou Yuan stepped forward to answer Jiang Hui's question.

For high-strength steel plates for automobiles, in addition to the key parameters of the tensile strength and yield strength of the steel plates themselves, stamping performance and welding performance are also relatively important parameters.

Some steel plates may have very high tensile strength, but their stamping performance is very poor and they cannot be used in automotive stamping parts at all.

After all, the parts on the car, whether it is the four doors and two hoods or the body skeleton parts, all have some special shapes.

Especially for parts like the taillights, deep drawing is often required, and such parts have higher requirements on the stamping performance of steel.

If you are not careful, parts will crack during the processing, which will definitely not meet the requirements.

As for the welding performance, it is also easy to understand. The white body is assembled together through welding technology. If the welding performance does not meet the standards, various problems such as cold welds will occur. At that time, the strength of the assembly parts will be very poor, and even the collision performance of the entire vehicle will be greatly reduced.

This is definitely unacceptable.

"We will compile a list of steel materials in the next two days. Can Shougang see if it can produce a batch of materials for us to debug and confirm as soon as possible?"

Naturally, Chen Qi had to stand up and express his own views at this time.

Since Jiang Hui is worried, he must find a way to support Jiang Hui in resolving this worry.

Otherwise, it would be a pity if the high-strength steel plates could not be used, resulting in the performance of the new BJ212 failing to meet the requirements.

"No problem. After we receive your list, we will immediately organize production and strive to complete the delivery of materials within half a month."

Zuo Guangsheng readily agreed to this request.

Of course, I wouldn’t dare to say that it can be done in a few days.

After all, Shougang’s production is arranged in advance. Once the rhythm is disrupted, it will be quite troublesome.

There are many types of steel plates required for a car, and it is completely unrealistic to get them all done within a few days.

His promise of delivery within half a month is already very fast.

For steel manufacturers in later generations, unless the material you ordered is in stock, it will take at least three months to respond.

Of course, in some special cases, if someone gives you special treatment, it can be done in one month, but it will be very difficult to get it done in a shorter time.

"The main products we are developing now are cold-rolled common plates. Some parts on the chassis, for example, need to be processed using hot-rolled thick plates."

"Some parts also need to be processed using galvanized sheets. Shougang also needs to consider how to enrich this product line as quickly as possible."

“Otherwise, perhaps other steel mills will consider starting to produce other models when they see that Shougang’s models are not complete.”

Zhu Jiansheng mentioned this from the side.

On the one hand, it is an urge for Shougang to speed up, and on the other hand, it is also a reminder.

After all, this is entirely possible.

In an era when there was no concept of patents, other steel mills had a high probability of having the opportunity to obtain high-strength automotive steel plate technology as long as they applied to the Ministry of Metallurgy.

The premise is that they have a plausible reason.

Besides, companies like Anshan Iron and Steel are half a level higher than Shougang.

This half level can play a big role sometimes.

Especially in 1979, the administrative level of the enterprise was basically the same as that of the relevant departments.

"Our technical team will fully communicate with Professor Zou on this issue and strive to develop all of it within this year."

Now that the foundation has been established, it will not be that difficult to expand into other types of steel plates.

Even in the future, it will be much easier for Shougang to develop ultra-high-strength steel plates of 590MPA, 780MPA, or even 980MPA.

Of course, other steel mills will certainly not sit idly by and watch Shougang take the lead.

Afterwards, everyone discussed some specific matters and then went to the production site for a tour together.

In Shougang's laboratory, we witnessed the tensile strength and yield strength sheet testing of high-strength automotive steel plates.

After the whole set of procedures was confirmed, Chen Qi and Jiang Hui had a clear idea of ​​what was going on.

The last important technical problem of the new BJ212 has been basically solved.

The next step is to have each supporting factory start the confirmation work of stamping and welding properties as soon as possible, and then it can be officially installed and used.

(End of this chapter)