Journey 1995:Non-Stop

Chapter 407 Heng Hui's Future

With this in mind, Yan Hui returned to Heng Hui Chemical and once again approached Chen Jian to discuss the development of new products.

Currently, the company's profit margin on polyurethane products has declined again. At the beginning of 2007, the gross profit margin could reach around 42%, but more than a year later, it has dropped to 36%.

Such a gross profit margin is still unimaginable for factories like those producing tiles, but it also represents a trend: if new products are slow to emerge, the company's products will eventually become just another ordinary product.

Currently, Heng Hui Chemical's laboratory has a research team of more than a dozen people, which is much stronger than when it was first started. The equipment in the laboratory is worth more than 500 million yuan, but there are still many problems to be faced.

The laboratory is simultaneously developing single-component polyurethane with hydrophobic properties and single-component moisture-curing polyurethane with thermal conductivity. Some progress has been made in both, but there is still a distance to go before success.

Here's a brief overview of the technical progress.

Let's start with the hydrophobic properties.

To achieve hydrophobicity, the current approach is to introduce long-chain fluorocarbon groups or siloxane chains to reduce the surface energy of polyurethane. However, these hydrophobic groups have poor compatibility with the polyurethane backbone, and introducing too many will cause phase separation and turbidity in the material, and it will also be difficult to store.

Therefore, it is necessary to develop specialized macromolecular monomers or modify isocyanates to connect hydrophobic groups to the main chain with chemical bonds, making microphase separation controllable.

This step has been successfully developed, but it is only the first step.

The next step is to address the issues of surface enrichment and persistence. The current research strategy involves redesigning molecular structures with "self-migration" capabilities, which sounds extremely difficult.

The hydrophobic properties mentioned here only require a high contact angle greater than 90°, not a superhydrophobic effect of 150°. The latter already creates a lotus leaf effect, and even if it were developed, there would be no market for it at present.

Of course, Heng Hui Chemical also lacks this technological reserve.

Next, let's talk about thermal conductivity.

Sometimes, polyurethane adhesives are used in heat-dissipating coatings, but polyurethane itself is a poor conductor of heat, which can easily cause heat buildup and lead to a significant drop in performance.

Therefore, it is necessary to add high thermal conductivity fillers such as alumina. Graphene and carbon nanotubes can even be added, but the cost is difficult to control.

There are several technical challenges here. First, how to achieve uniform and stable filling of nanomaterials; second, a large amount of rigid filler will severely damage the flexibility of polyurethane, making it brittle; third, some metal oxides contain -OH groups, which will react to remove -NCO groups, directly disrupting the original reaction kinetics.

Currently, the research and development here is half completed. The first problem has been solved, and the second problem is half solved. The surface of the filler has been modified. What remains is to optimize the particle size of the filler.

Solving the first problem here involved using more expensive equipment (high-speed disperser, vacuum degassing equipment) and better processes. The approach to the third problem is to use even more expensive materials like aluminum nitride, boron nitride, and graphene. This isn't impossible, but if industrial products are too expensive, it loses its purpose; a trade-off needs to be struck. "These are the problems. If we're lucky, we can complete both paths simultaneously within a year. If we're unlucky, I think there's still one path that can be successful." Chen Jian drew a diagram for Yan Hui, which looked very intuitive.

"I suggest implementing a reward system. You can break down the steps in each problem into ten or twenty smaller problems and let the R&D staff try them out. As long as it's a breakthrough you approve of, even if the final product doesn't follow that path, you can still get a bonus. The starting bonus is 5000, and the maximum is 10. If it's a breakthrough in a core technical problem, the maximum reward is 50." Yan Hui doesn't understand technical R&D, but he knows that you have to be serious when doing things, and getting people to be serious by giving them more money is definitely effective.

"50?" Chen Jian was stunned. "That's too much! How much do I make in a year?"

"Don't worry, I've already drafted a preliminary profit-sharing plan for this year. Although the company is making large-scale investments, you don't need to worry about the dividends. This year's dividends will be much higher than last year's," Yan Hui said.

"Alright, I'll tell everyone about the reward mechanism you mentioned right away." Chen Jian was also quite looking forward to it.

Last year he received several hundred thousand yuan in dividends, and his family's life has changed ever since. Judging from what Mr. Yan said, he is going to give him one or two million yuan.
"Well, I don't understand the technology, so I can only understand what you're saying now. Tomorrow morning, we'll have a technical analysis meeting, and I'll invite President Song. I've already had President Song collect a lot of information about the market for these two new products we're developing. Tomorrow, we'll analyze our profit margin and production capacity based on several dimensions, including market size, the level of competing products, and market acceptance. Ultimately, I'll readjust our R&D investment based on these expectations. As for bonuses, we can also add more types; we'll discuss that at tomorrow's meeting."

Tomorrow's meeting is crucial; it will directly determine Heng Hui Chemical's path for the next three years. Yan Hui will also have several department heads participate.

"Then I'll prepare more materials tonight." Chen Jian's mood improved as a result.

This new research and development is different from previous ones. This polyurethane material with leading performance faces little competition in the industry because market demand has only gradually emerged in recent years. Previously, only foreign companies possessed this performance, and now, to catch up and become a leading product is naturally a difficult path.

Chen Jian felt that although General Manager Yan always claimed to "not understand technology," it was just a polite way of putting it. In reality, General Manager Yan was very knowledgeable about technology and understood what technology required.

"Okay, thank you." Yan Hui nodded.

After the meeting tomorrow and the follow-up arrangements, he plans to go back to southern Fujian.

Yan Hui had originally planned to travel to Brazil this summer, but due to the major earthquake, many of his plans were postponed. Considering that Brazil is in the Southern Hemisphere, he plans to wait until the weather gets colder before going.

The next day, Yan Hui called together the company's senior management for a four-hour meeting.

This meeting also impressed the company's senior management. Although they frequently attended meetings together, Song Zhiyuan had never had the opportunity to showcase his chemical expertise. Song Zhiyuan's chemical skills were quite good, and his focus was heavily on market and application aspects; he spoke for at least an hour and a half during the meeting.

His speech connected several parts, including technology, market, and R&D, and even Yan Hui took a lot of notes.

Yan Hui even felt that once he had more businesses in the future, he could hand over the chemical business to Song Zhiyuan, and even give him some shares.

(End of this chapter)