Chapter 266 Electric Kettle and Electric Mosquito Swatter
Glory Electronics naturally cannot only make front-end technology products, end-user consumer products are the market leader.
In any industry, there are companies with suppliers and end customers. Some of these powerful suppliers are no less powerful and influential than end brands to a certain extent, but they are also a minority.
In most cases, terminal brand products with hundreds of millions of customers are the ones with the biggest profits and the largest market size.
Similar to the automotive industry, although there are Fortune 500 suppliers such as Bosch, ZF, and Denso, there is still a big gap compared to the end-end BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Volkswagen, and Toyota; a few special cases such as A puppet pushed forward by a certain industry as a supplier is another story.
Therefore, in the electronics industry, the most important thing is to develop terminal civilian products, and as a time traveler, I also have many advantages in this regard, which will be more helpful to terminal civilian products.
"Yang Sheng, please speak." Wang Zhiqun said quickly. He also knew that his boss was best at making inventions.
In the United States, he had heard many people praising sticky notes and trolley cases. These two inventions can be said to have made many people's lives easier;
And if they could Repeating such operations in the electronics field will inevitably change the world to a greater extent and gain huge profits, because the rise of the electronics industry itself is a process in which various new products are constantly discovered.
Yang Wendong first asked: "What do you use to boil water at home?"
"A hot water kettle." Wang Zhiqun also reacted immediately: "Yang Sheng wants to make an electric kettle?"
"Yes." Yang Wendong nodded.
The electric kettle has actually appeared for a long time. It was invented by an American company at the end of the 19th century. It is not a new thing.
However, this thing essentially burns electricity, and in places where electricity bills are relatively expensive, there are fewer of them, because it is not as cost-effective as firewood or even gas.
Wang Zhiqun thought for a while and said: "The structure of the electric kettle is quite simple. It just has a heating wire that can be turned on all the time. Now there are manufacturers in Hong Kong making it."
"I know." Yang Wendong smiled and said: "But there is a problem. What should people do if the water boils?"
Wang Zhiqun replied: "It can scream. The early electric kettles will keep burning. , but as long as the water is boiling, the current hot water kettle will have a strange design on the spout, and the water vapor will make a chirping sound when it passes through it. As long as there is someone at home, it is impossible not to know. ”
"This is indeed a very good design." Yang Wendong nodded and added: "The plan is very good, but the goal is not good. Why only let the kettle make a sound instead of letting the kettle cut off the power by itself?"
Those who were born in the 1980s in the previous life should have memories of the early domestic electric kettles that would chirp after they were boiled.
It was not until the 21st century that hot water kettles that cut off their own power gradually appeared.
"Turn off the power by yourself?" Wang Zhiqun thought for a moment and said, "This is indeed more convenient and energy-saving."
Yang Wendong said: 'Yes, that's what I think, a water supply system that doesn't require customers to worry about it. If it boils, it will cut off the power and cool down on its own;
Secondly, it is safer because it will not boil the water dry, which may cause a fire. '
Wang Zhiqun thought for a while and said, "How to achieve it?"
"What are your ideas?" Yang Wendong did not answer directly, but asked instead.
Wang Zhiqun replied: "You can use temperature control. Once the water temperature reaches it, you can let the kettle cut off the power by itself, or add a delay function, and the water will boil for a while and then cut off the power."
"In theory, you can It can also be realized, but the cost is too high, whether it is temperature monitoring or delay control The system is probably several times more expensive than the kettle itself." Yang Wendong shook his head and said, "My idea is to directly impact it with water vapor to cut off the power."
"Water vapor impact? "Wang Zhiqun was thinking about how to design it, but he couldn't think of it for a while.
Yang Wendong said again: "The existing kettle cannot achieve this function. We need to change its shape, probably like this."
After saying that, Yang Wendong placed a piece of paper on the table. , depicting the appearance of common kettles in previous lives;
Although his painting ability is very poor and he has no talent in this area, he can still draw simple shapes.
“Is this handle on the side?” Wang Zhiqun also saw the role of every place in the portrait.
"Yes." Yang Wendong put down his pen and said: "Now when the kettle is filled with water, the handle is just above the water vapor. Although it has a lid, it can sometimes burn people;
Adopt With such a structure, there will be no problem when pouring water."
Wang Zhiqun looked at it for a while and said: "Then this design uses the lid on the top of the kettle to realize the shutdown switch? "
"Not bad." Yang Wendong nodded.
We are all smart people, so we can’t imagine things we haven’t seen before, but once we see them, we can roughly understand their purpose.
“Good design, it is indeed convenient, can cut off the power by itself, and the cost is low.” Wang Zhiqun was also shocked. No one thought of such a simple design.
Yang Wendong asked again: "Look at this design, are there any shortcomings?"
"It feels a bit small. If this thing is made larger, it will be very difficult to pour water. It's inconvenient." After thinking for a while, Wang Zhiqun came up with a possible problem.
Yang Wendong shook his head and said: "For urban residents, they don't need such a big kettle. This kind of small one is actually very practical. At most, it only needs to boil water once more."
"In that case, I think No problem." Wang Zhiqun said again: "I will let the engineers design it based on this."
Yang Wendong then said: "Okay, I have a second product that I need you to design." "What product?" Wang Zhiqun asked curiously.
Yang Wendong smiled and asked: "How do you deal with mosquitoes in summer?"
"Mosquitoes?" Wang Zhiqun was a little puzzled and said: "Usually you light mosquito coils, or seal the room and spray mosquito repellent."
"That's okay, but what if it's outdoors? Or if you see mosquitoes, What should I do?" Yang Wendong asked again.
Mosquito coils and mosquito killers have long been available in this era, but they are not cheap. There are some homespun methods, but they can easily cause fires.
When he first traveled to the squatters, Yang Wendong could only endure being bitten by mosquitoes for a while, but life was hard at that time and he didn't care about giving a little blood to mosquitoes.
Later, as his career developed, he naturally used conventional methods to kill mosquitoes. However, even the richest man in the world could not escape the trouble of mosquitoes, and occasionally he would be targeted.
Wang Zhiqun said: "If you are outdoors, you can only shoot with your hands."
"Yes, I also shoot with my hands." Yang Wendong nodded and said, "It's just that you don't think that shooting with your hands is too efficient." Is it too low? It still requires hand-eye coordination. Most of the time, you miss the shot? "
"Yes, many times the shot fails." Wang Zhiqun paused and asked: "The second product Yang Sheng mentioned is used to kill mosquitoes?"
"Yes." Yang Wendong said: "We look at the problem of swatting mosquitoes from two directions;
First, the hand area is limited, so I want to make something similar to a badminton racket with a large enough area so that when people see mosquitoes, they can hit them quickly
Second question, I think you should have guessed it? "
"Guessed it. Wang Zhiqun frowned and said, "It's easy to hit a mosquito with something the size of a badminton racket, but how do you kill it?" You can't rely on the force of impact, right? Or two boards clashing? Doesn't seem to work either. "
"That's correct. Yang Wendong reminded again: "Don't forget, am I going to make electronic products?" Of course, you don’t need electricity to swat mosquitoes, so why do you think you need electricity? ”
“Use electricity to kill mosquitoes? "Wang Zhiqun suddenly felt enlightened.
A badminton racket with an electrified front section can easily kill mosquitoes with a high probability of hitting them.
"To be precise, it's high-voltage electricity." Yang Wendong added: "I'm going to call this thing an electric mosquito swatter, but there's a technical problem that I don't quite understand. The power source of this product must be an ordinary battery, so let's Is it possible to convert electricity from ordinary batteries into high-voltage electricity? ”
He already had the idea of the electric mosquito swatter in 1958, when he made his first profit from sticky mouse pads. After Jin, he considered many small things, and the electric mosquito swatter was one of them.
Just considering the research and development of this kind of thing, there will be a lot of difficulties, not only the problem of electricity, but also the control unit on the electric mosquito swatter, the upper grid, the plastic handle, the plastic body, etc. .
Everything requires a lot of money to create molds, design, and test, and may even have safety hazards. This was still too laborious for him who only had tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars at the time.
Later, the sticky note was invented, but due to lack of production capacity, the idea was frozen. Until today, when the foundation of Hong Kong's electronics industry gradually took shape, he picked up the idea again.
The electric mosquito swatter may not become a global super hit product, but it is enough for Honor Electronics to take the first shot. This is enough.
“This is not difficult. Many remote ignition devices also convert small voltage into high voltage.” Wang Zhiqun analyzed: “But this kind of technology on the market generally produces high voltage in a short time.< br>
What we want to do is like a high-voltage power grid, ensuring that it has electricity for a long time. This may consume the battery faster.”
“Let’s build it first,” Yang Wendong. He nodded and said: "It is indeed a problem if the battery consumes too much power. However, rechargeable batteries can be used, but the cost will be higher;
But our initial pricing can also be higher. For new products, we It still has certain pricing power and has no competitors.”
Batteries in this era are very expensive, and their power is far inferior to batteries in previous generations. If they are replaced every day, there will not be much market for any product.
Fortunately, there are already rechargeable batteries, which are at least a backup plan; of course, rechargeable batteries are more expensive, but they are more cost-effective if they are reused more.
Unlike the electric kettle, this product is a creative product. Although there are many piracy issues, at least on the surface, it can only be produced by itself.
"Okay." Wang Zhiqun added: "These two products are very simple electronic structures and can be developed in Hong Kong. It is just that some shape molds may take a while to make."< br>
Yang Wendong said: "I will let Changxing Industrial's purchasing department cooperate with you in doing this. They have enough suppliers, whether it is plastic parts or metal parts."
"That's great." Wang Zhiqun said with a smile: "This will get twice the result with half the effort."
Yang Wendong added: "Then make these two simple products as soon as possible."
In his mind, there are still many There are many more creative small electrical appliances;
But most of these electrical appliances have some technical content. Maybe something could be made in the mainland in the past life by just setting up a small factory, but in today's It just won't work in Hong Kong.
One is that there is not enough technology in this era, the other is that Hong Kong is seriously lacking in electronics talents, and the third is that Hong Kong does not have an industrial chain.
Therefore, the first step in the electronics industry is to make simple products with some creativity. First open the market and get feedback from capital flow, and then slowly tap or cultivate talents to enter the next step of the R&D cycle
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(End of this chapter)