The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Chapter 365: A unique idea, ready to overtake
Although Shenzhen University is a very young university, as the first university in the Special Administrative Region, both ministries and local governments attach great importance to it.

Otherwise, they would not have directly invited the vice president of Huaqing University to serve as the president, and asked several top universities to assist in the establishment of related majors.

Other young college students can't even dream of getting this kind of treatment.

Lai Yongfeng's move from Capital University of Technology to Shenzhen University to become the vice dean of the newly established School of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering is definitely a leap in his career.

Building an academy from scratch is also a huge test of his ability.

Although he is the vice-president, the position of dean is temporarily vacant and he is actually in charge of the college.

The principal only occasionally asks about the relevant situation.

After settling down in Shenzhen, Lai Yongfeng wisely decided to visit Jiang Hui.

On the one hand, their college was established because of Jiang Hui’s suggestions.

On the other hand, Lai Yongfeng is very clear about Jiang Hui's abilities.

In the field of automobile design, he has never seen anyone more capable than Jiang Hui.

In other words, Jiang Hui did not choose to stay in school to teach, otherwise there is a high probability that the position of president of Capital University of Technology would belong to Jiang Hui in the future.

"Director Jiang, I didn't expect that we would meet again in Shenzhen."

"I never thought that in just a few years, Shenzhen's automobile industry would grow from scratch to what it is today."

"BMW Automobile, BMW Motor, Nanshan Equipment, Nanshan Technology, Nanshan Engine, Nanshan Transmission, and the automotive industry park built around you, the development of the entire Shenzhen city has become much faster because of your arrival."

Lai Yongfeng's words were not just flattery.

He also made some special efforts to learn about what Shenzhen was like in the past.

It can be said that it is a poor and backward fishing village with nothing to show for itself.

Now it is showing its momentum to become the largest automobile city in China.

"It's mainly because the local support is strong enough. Whatever we want to do, we will get full support."

"Otherwise, it would take a lot of time just to acquire the land and build the factory."

"Unlike in the north, the temperature here in winter is not low, so various construction projects are not affected. In addition, the salaries in various industries are relatively good."

"So once they come here, many people are willing to roll up their sleeves and work hard. This is an advantage that other places cannot match."

Jiang Hui knew that Lai Yongfeng would be developing in Shenzhen for many years to come, so it was necessary for everyone to have a good communication.

"It's true. Shenzhen gives people a new atmosphere that cannot be compared even to the capital. Everyone is very motivated."

"This time my superiors asked me to come and help build the School of Mechanical and Vehicle Engineering at Shenzhen University. I am under a lot of pressure, but I am also very confident about the future."

"With the support of the BMW Group, we can fully utilize the industry-university-research program you mentioned earlier and make the vehicle engineering major at Shenzhen University a distinctive major in the country."

"Capital University of Technology focuses on military and commercial vehicles, becoming the leader in vehicle engineering in China."

"The vehicle engineering major of our school focuses on passenger vehicles, and we aspire to become the third-best vehicle engineering major in the country."

"When the time comes, we will cooperate with each other in the south and the north to achieve a completely different development rhythm for China's auto industry."

"At my alma mater, starting from the second half of this year, the enrollment of the Vehicle Engineering Department has been expanded to four classes. In addition, there are two classes of Ground Weapon Machinery and Its Mobility Engineering, and two classes of Thermal Energy and Power Engineering. In total, there are eight classes that are closely related to automobiles."

"When these people graduate, there will be 240 graduates a year. They will be distributed in automobile factories all over the country, which will surely make the reputation of the Department of Vehicle Engineering of Capital University of Technology more and more famous."

Lai Yongfeng fully combined the situation at Capital University of Technology and discussed the construction and development of the Department of Vehicle Engineering with Jiang Hui.

This way, with some shared memories, many things will be much easier to handle.

"Professor Lai, I think your positioning is very good. The heavy industry in the south is relatively underdeveloped. The Department of Vehicle Engineering of Shenzhen University focuses on the passenger car market. I think it is completely feasible."

"Overseas, more than 80% of the automobile market is actually the civilian passenger car market."

"As long as it is done well, the impact will be something that no one can ignore."

"With the development of reform, there are more and more wealthy people, and naturally more people will buy cars."

"In the future, China's civilian car market will definitely be huge, enough to support Shenzhen University's Department of Vehicle Engineering to become a world-renowned automotive major."

Lai Yongfeng's positioning is completely in line with the interests of the BMW Group, so Jiang Hui naturally fully affirms it.

In the short term, BMW Group will definitely focus on producing civilian cars and developing the export market.

After the Land Rover brand has made a name for itself in the international market, it will once again focus on the domestic market. By that time, the overall environment must have changed a lot.

After more than a decade of reform, more people can afford cars, and BMW Group has a solid foundation for domestic development.

Unlike now, the annual sales volume of BMW Sunshine is more than 100,000, which is basically the peak.

It would be very difficult to continue to make significant improvements in a short period of time.

It’s nothing like the future, when the annual sales volume of the entire Chinese automobile market reached a level of 3000 million vehicles, and the monthly sales volume was several times higher than the current annual sales volume.

"I think so too. When the time comes, our school will have in-depth cooperation with the BMW Group and invite your technical experts to give lectures to students. We can even let some students follow your experts to do research, so that they can understand the needs of enterprises earlier and get in touch with the most cutting-edge automotive technology earlier."

“It is very beneficial to the school, students and the BMW Group.”

"In addition to these actions, I have also been in touch with some of my classmates abroad during this period. One of them, who is engaged in automotive parts technology research, has agreed to return to China to teach and serve as the deputy director of the Department of Vehicle Engineering."

"I am good at chassis, but he is very good at the design and production of body parts, especially in the field of metal forming technology."

"It is said that in Europe, he was deeply involved in the development of a patented technology and became one of the first people in the world to study automotive hot stamping technology."

"This patent was also used by Saab Automobile on its latest mass-produced Saab 9000 last year, which greatly improved the strength of the car body."

In order to show his efforts, Lai Yongfeng also shared some of his arrangements with Jiang Hui.

We will be collaborating more deeply in the future, so naturally we need to make the situation clear.

“Hot stamping technology?”

Hearing this somewhat distant yet familiar term, Jiang Hui immediately became interested.

Others may not know the development of hot stamping technology in the automotive industry, but how could he not know?
This technology was developed in 1977 and was originally used in the production of lawn mower blades and saw blades, but not in the automotive industry. Saab's engineers ingeniously introduced this technology into their own products, achieving a historic breakthrough.

However, the hot stamping technology of this era is not so mature, and it is still very difficult to use it to produce automobile body parts.

This results in very high production costs for parts and a long mold preparation cycle.

When people did not pay special attention to the collision performance of automobiles, the superiority of hot stamping technology was not so obvious.

Especially compared with the high cost, the slight increase in strength is not so obvious.

In order to let everyone fully feel the huge improvement in strength, we need to increase the use of hot stamping parts.

Key body skeleton parts such as the front anti-collision beam, A-pillar, B-pillar, and door sill reinforcements are all processed using this process, which can increase the overall strength to a very huge level.

However, the technology at that time was not enough to support the production of these parts, and the cost was also extremely exaggerated.

An ordinary front bumper beam is made by stamping and welding steel plates, and the production cost of one part in Europe is only 20 to 30 US dollars.

But if hot stamping technology is used, the cost will soar to hundreds of dollars or even higher.

This is definitely unacceptable.

However, Jiang Hui knew that with the rapid development of the automobile industry in countries around the world, the introduction of various regulations would require vehicles to have higher requirements for lightweight and high-strength bodies.

Lightweight and high strength are two contradictory requirements.

After all, for the same steel plate, the thicker the steel plate, the higher the strength.

At this time, in order to simultaneously achieve these two conflicting requirements, hot stamping technology began to be used on a large scale in automobiles.

By around 2020, almost all cars will be using hot stamping parts.

And a car generally has more than a dozen or even dozens of body parts that are formed using the hot stamping process.

If Land Rover SUVs could use this technology in advance...

Jiang Hui suddenly thought of a lot of things.

"Yes, Director Jiang, have you also heard of this technology?"

Lai Yongfeng looked at Jiang Hui with surprise.

He only learned about this technology after communicating with his classmates, but judging from Jiang Hui's reaction, it seemed that he had heard of it before.

"Did your classmate work for the Swedish company PLANNJA before?"

Jiang Hui asked this, and Lai Yongfeng was even more surprised. "Yes, I was in this company before, and then I went to Saab. I just returned to China this month to join Shenzhen University."

"That's because he made enough money in Europe, and with my enthusiastic invitation, he returned to China to try a new job and life."

"My classmate is called Liu Yushu. Did you know him before?"

Although his guess seemed illogical, Lai Yongfeng couldn't understand why Jiang Hui knew so much.

He had never heard of the Swedish company PLANNJA before.

"In recent years, I have been following the development of the global automotive industry. I have read a lot of automotive magazines and related papers in Europe and the United States."

“I just happened to notice the hot stamping technology.”

Jiang Hui made up an excuse casually. Otherwise, he couldn't say that he often heard of this technology in later generations, right?

"Next time I'll bring Liu Yushu over so we can have a good discussion about this technique."

"After returning to China, he also plans to continue research in this area, hoping to use hot stamping technology in China so that our automobile technology can quickly reach the world level. In this regard, his idea is exactly the same as yours."

Feeling Jiang Hui's interest in hot stamping technology, Lai Yongfeng became more active.

Lai Yongfeng, who had some preliminary understanding of this technology, knew that it was actually very expensive to study hot stamping technology.

Not to mention other things, if you want to carry out this technical research, you have to produce several sets of related hot stamping molds, right?
Or why don't you just study the air?
Then, if you have the mold, you must also have matching stamping equipment, right?
Doesn’t this cost money?

When building a liberal arts university, the biggest expense may be just the construction of the school building.

But for engineering-related majors, the situation is completely different.

How can you teach and do research if you don’t buy equipment and instruments?
Although departments at all levels attach great importance to the development and construction of Shenzhen University, the financial support they can provide is relatively limited.

If Liu Yushu's research can be fully integrated with BMW's, there will be no need to worry about funding issues.

Most of the equipment and molds are located at BMW, which is not far away anyway.

"Sure, there's no need to wait until next time, let's go directly to the school to visit some Professor Liu."

"I have quite a few ideas about hot stamping technology."

"I'll have a good discussion with Professor Liu later to see if we can use it on our next car model."

After Jiang Hui said this, Lai Yongfeng immediately became excited.

Although he was not responsible for this technology, he was the head of the college and the director of the Department of Vehicle Engineering.

If the college can achieve some excellent scientific research results just a few years after its establishment and use them in BMW's new products, it would definitely be an impressive achievement.

"Since you are so interested in hot stamping technology, let's go directly to Lao Liu."

Lai Yongfeng was afraid that Jiang Hui would change his mind, so he immediately stood up and prepared to leave.

As the head of several companies, he also knew that Jiang Hui was very busy at work every day.

If I get called away by other people at short notice, I don’t know when I will be able to visit the school for exchange next time.

This is definitely not the situation Lai Yongfeng wants to see.

Soon, several people arrived at Shenzhen University in a modified BMW Light.

(End of this chapter)