The car giant started by marrying the daughter of the king

Chapter 368: Frustrating Conditions, Firm Confidence

Zhu Jiansheng and Jiang Hui, father-in-law and son-in-law, are from the south and the north respectively, so it is not very convenient for them to meet each other normally.

But the two of them often communicated by phone.

After years of hard work by the postal and telecommunications departments, making phone calls is now much more convenient than it was a few years ago.

Even in places like Shanghai, pagers have begun to become popular among some people, and in foreign countries, brick-like communication tools like mobile phones have also appeared and are expected to be introduced into China soon.

So as long as you have money, it is not difficult to make a phone call.

"Wu Ming is an engineer who studies steel technology. What do you want him to do at BMW?"

Early this morning, Wu Ming called Zhu Jiansheng.

If this matter had nothing to do with Jiang Hui, Zhu Jiansheng would probably have given his opinion directly.

But now, of course, I have to talk to Jiang Hui first before making any judgment.

"Last year, Saab Automobile launched its first model using hot stamping technology. I plan to use this technology on a large scale in several brands under the BMW Group as a trump card for future publicity."

"To implement this technology, I am not too worried about the various equipment issues, but there is no hot stamping steel plate in China, so we need to start research and development from scratch. I am more worried about the speed of this research and development."

"My brother-in-law is a steel technology expert. Through the cooperation between Baosteel and Japan, he has a better understanding of the domestic and foreign steel industry."

"I have some ideas about hot stamping steel sheets, and I need someone I can trust to implement them."

"In the future, the patent for hot stamping steel plates may bring us huge benefits."

Jiang Hui quickly expressed his thoughts.

At the same time, he also reported the situation of hot stamping technology to Zhu Jiansheng.

"Hot stamping steel is an important technical means to achieve lightweight automobiles. Its principle is to heat the steel plate to an austenitic state, then transfer it to the die for stamping, and use the heat conduction of the die to achieve rapid cooling of the material to obtain a high-strength martensitic structure. This effectively solves the problems of high-strength steel in cold stamping, such as large springback, severe die wear, and easy stamping cracking of parts."

“To avoid oxidation and decarburization during the heating and transfer process of hot stamping steel, we not only have to develop steel sheets suitable for hot forming, but also special coating technology.”

"I already have a specific idea about the technology in this area, and I'm just waiting for my brother-in-law to come and implement it."

Jiang Hui was very familiar with the situation of hot stamping steel plates. After all, this thing was no longer a secret in later generations.

As for this special steel plate, the technology has long been monopolized by ArcelorMittal.

For a long time, except for Nippon Steel, which obtained the authorization from ArcelorMittal through technology replacement and market sharing, other steel mills were unable to produce the aluminum-silicon coated hot-stamped steel plates developed by them.

The technology was originally developed in 1999, fully perfected and patented in 2006.

In response to different application scenarios of automobile bodies, ArcelorMittal has successively developed products such as aluminum-silicon coated hot stamped steel with strength levels of 1000MPa, 1500MPa and 2000MPa, and has achieved large-scale application in the global automotive industry.

In the following decade, international steel giant ArcelorMittal has completed the global patent layout of aluminum-silicon coated hot stamping steel and its laser welding technology, and has exclusively monopolized the global market. Global automobile companies have to pay an additional usage cost of up to thousands of yuan per ton.

These costs are actually other people’s profits.

Because in theory, the cost of producing this hot-stamped steel plate with aluminum-silicon coating is similar to that of producing galvanized steel plate.

But the selling price is several thousand yuan more per ton.

Jiang Hui wants to eat this big piece of fat.

Even if you don’t have a steel plant now, as long as you master this patented aluminum-silicon coating technology, you will be able to have a very comfortable life in the international market in the future.

After reporting these situations to Zhu Jiansheng, the other party immediately expressed support.

Wu Ming soon received a reply from Zhu Jiansheng, and Jiang Hui also made a special phone call to communicate and explain the matter.

The steel experts belonging to the BMW Group were able to be put in place quickly.

At the same time, Jiang Hui and Zhang Sheng also had a special communication and finalized the matter of the 800-ton hydraulic press.

Although this equipment was developed by Jier more than a decade ago and is not very advanced, Jier has made it clear that it will upgrade this product according to the needs of the BMW Group. By the time the hydraulic press used on the second hot stamping production line that will be delivered next year has significantly improved performance, the equipment tonnage will also be increased to 1000 tons.

This can basically meet the performance requirements of hot stamping presses in the next ten years.

As for further improvement, there is no need to rush.

As for the heating furnace and laser cutting equipment, which will be used as emergency equipment in the first production line, there are ready-made supporting manufacturers in China, and deliveries can begin in a few months.

In this way, the most critical issues lie in the two areas of raw materials and mold processing.

As for the research and development of raw materials, after Wu Ming came over, Jiang Hui immediately shared with him some of his ideas about hot stamping steel plates.

After digesting and absorbing the ideas for a few days, the other party prepared to negotiate cooperation with several domestic steel mills.

After all, even if the BMW Group has a complete set of technical solutions, it still needs to find relevant steel mills to carry out testing and production.

"Director, regarding the hot stamping die processing machine tools, combined with the parameter requirements you told us, we have initially locked in the products of several companies in Japan."

“Toshiba’s five-axis CNC machine tools, Okuma Corporation’s and Mori Seiki’s products all meet our needs.”

"But the other party's conditions are quite harsh and the price is very high."

Jiang Hui now entrusts Fang Huihui with the responsibility for many of the BMW Group's international affairs.

As a native of Hong Kong, it is obviously more convenient for Fang Huihui to do some things.

"What are the specific conditions?"

Jiang Hui is mentally prepared that five-axis CNC machine tools are not easy to purchase.

The main usage scenario of this thing is various military factories. Whether it is on airplanes or submarines, there are many parts that require five-axis CNC machine tools.

Today is an era of competition between America and polar bears. The polar bears' water power has never been as strong as America's.

Not only is there a big gap between China and the United States in terms of aircraft carriers, but there is also a huge gap between China and the United States in terms of submarines.

The main reason is that submarines make too much noise when sailing underwater, and can be easily discovered by the United States.

The main reason for the excessive noise is the propeller problem. Polar Bear does not have a good machine tool to produce the best propeller.

To solve this problem, we basically have to buy five-axis CNC machine tools from machine tool manufacturers in Japan.

In order to achieve this goal, Polar Bear used various special methods and finally spent 37 billion yen to purchase a five-axis linkage CNC machine tool from Toshiba.

The Toshiba people didn't have high hopes for this trade at first, because the polar bears used to bargain too hard, usually at half the price or more, but this time they only agreed to it at 8.7% off the total price, which made the Japanese people ecstatic, so they agreed.

With these machine tools, the noise level of Soviet nuclear submarines dropped rapidly, and the United States was able to find and attack them quickly.

This naturally aroused America's vigilance, and it began various investigations, eventually leading to the identification of Toshiba and the creation of a major case.

Of course, these are all things for later.

Anyway, it is not easy to purchase a five-axis CNC machine tool.

"First of all, Mori Seiki made it clear that they could sell it, but the equipment could not leave Japan. We needed to set up a factory in Japan to use the equipment. This was totally unacceptable."

As soon as Fang Huihui opened her mouth, Jiang Hui's face turned unhappy.

Even though I had expected it, I still felt aggrieved when I actually heard these unreasonable demands.

When I buy a device at a high price, do I still have to listen to the device manufacturer on how to use it?

"What about the other two?"

"Okuma didn't say that the equipment must be restricted from being used in Japan, but they did require us to purchase and install their camera surveillance system at the same time, and to submit surveillance videos to them every week."

Fang Huihui looked at Jiang Hui cautiously and told him Okuma's request.

Obviously, she also knew that this request was absolutely impossible to agree to.

Hot stamping technology is the core technology that BMW Group will use to conquer the world in the future. If everything is monitored and filmed by other people's cameras, then what secrets are there?

Besides, surveillance equipment is not cheap at all in this day and age. If you need to record videos every day, the cost over the years would probably be enough to buy a new device.

So this is something Jiang Hui cannot accept at all.

"What about Toshiba? What are their requirements?"

In the past few years, Toshiba dared to secretly sell five-axis CNC machine tools to polar bears in order to make money. Now China has good relations with Japan and the United States, so there is no reason for the other party not to sell.

"Toshiba's requirements are a little different from the other two. They can allow the equipment to leave Japan and do not require the installation of surveillance cameras, but they require that the equipment cannot enter the Chinese mainland and can only be processed in Hong Kong. Then every year they will arrange people to confirm whether the equipment is still in place."

In Fang Huihui's opinion, the conditions of the several companies were not very good, but Toshiba's proposal was relatively acceptable to her, so after saying this, she added, "Toshiba's current offer is not much different from Okuma and Mori Seiki. I think it would be possible to purchase two machines and place them in Hong Kong City. At that time, the key inserts and water channels on the hot stamping dies can be processed in Hong Kong City, and the rest can be carried out in Shenzhen City?"

Land Rover's off-road vehicle development schedule is very tight and there is not much time to waste.

Therefore, the purchase of the five-axis CNC machine tool must be decided as soon as possible, otherwise it will delay the schedule.

Jiang Hui was naturally very clear about the situation, so even though he felt very aggrieved, he agreed to Fang Huihui's proposal.

Just by doing this, he became more determined to let Nanshan Equipment vigorously enter the machine tool field.

If the key machine tools and equipment are not in place, it will not be easy for the BMW Group to grow and develop in the future.

……

"Chief Engineer Cheng, Wu Ming called me yesterday and said that the BMW Group wants to work with us to develop a new type of automotive steel plate."

"He gave up his position as the head of the technical department and went straight to work for a foreign-funded automobile manufacturer as the deputy director of the technical center. I think Wu Ming is crazy about becoming an official."

In Baosteel's small cafeteria, Li Dagang, director of the technical department, sat opposite the chief engineer Cheng Jianqiang and jokingly mentioned some interesting things that happened around him.

In state-owned enterprises, being a good person is more important than doing good things.

The so-called being a human being, the most important thing is to build all kinds of relationships.

Li Dagang is obviously very experienced in this, otherwise he would not have arrived at Baosteel's project team at the same time as Wu Ming, but he quickly climbed above Wu Ming.

It is obvious that Wu Ming's technical ability is much higher than Li Dagang's, but the position of director of the technical department belongs to Li Dagang.

This should also be one of the reasons why Wu Ming quickly agreed to resign after listening to Zhu Jiansheng's advice.

"Wu Ming?"

"He was so determined to leave at the beginning, leaving no room for negotiation, as if we at Baosteel had treated him unfairly."

"Why are you thinking of cooperating with us now?"

Cheng Jianqiang sneered, obviously dissatisfied with Wu Ming's sudden decision to go into the sea.

No matter what the reason is, the superiors will feel that the technical team led by Chief Engineer Cheng Jianqiang is not doing a good job.

Otherwise, how could I possibly leave a good company like Baosteel?

"Who knows? Maybe it's only after I go abroad that I realize that Baosteel is the manufacturer with the highest level of steel technology in China."

"If you want to develop new automotive steel plates, cooperating with us is the best choice."

"Otherwise, BMW Group used to purchase automotive steel plates from Shougang, so it should have gone to Shougang to discuss the development of new materials."

Li Dagang obviously didn't take Wu Ming's cooperation plan seriously at all.

Baosteel Technology Center has its own R&D plan for automotive steel plates. How could it easily cooperate with other manufacturers?

Their entire set of equipment is imported from Japan and is more advanced than any domestic manufacturer.

Therefore, we will not consider cooperating with other manufacturers easily.

They definitely have this confidence.

"It's too late. What's the point of regretting now? Why didn't you do it earlier?"

"You don't have to pay special attention to him. If BMW wants to purchase our steel plates in the future, let them go directly to the sales office. Don't disturb our work."

Cheng Jianqiang's face was full of disgust and he didn't want to have any contact with Wu Ming anymore.

In his opinion, the idea of ​​collaborating in the development of new automotive panel technology was even more ridiculous.

With Cheng Jianqiang's instructions, Li Dagang felt more confident.

He planned to wait for Wu Ming to contact him next time so that he could ridicule him and make him realize that he would be nothing after leaving Baosteel.

(End of this chapter)