Chapter 378 Hot stamping is coming
Lingnan is very hot in August.
Before air conditioning was widely popularized, it can be said that the office environment in Lingnan was relatively harsh.
Especially inside the factory workshop, it is a bit stuffy.
Even the humming rotation of the big iron for three years could not completely relieve everyone's scorching heat.
However, in the BMW Group's production workshop, the workers are working enthusiastically and do not seem tired at all.
This month, BMW Group paid double salaries to all employees to celebrate the huge breakthrough in Mercedes-Benz sedan production.
According to Jiang Hui's promise, as long as the production and sales of Mercedes-Benz cars can be stabilized at a level of more than 10,000 units per month, everyone will be given double salary in the next year.
In this way, workers' enthusiasm will naturally be high.
The wages and benefits offered to workers in factories in Shenzhen are much better than those in other places.
A normal fourth-level worker earns fifty or sixty yuan a month in the capital area, and this is the result of salary increases in recent years.
But in Shenzhen, you can basically get a monthly salary of 100 yuan.
If a double salary is given, it would be equivalent to about two hundred yuan per month.
This salary can completely exceed the salary of department-level cadres.
You can imagine how motivated everyone is to work.
"Director, this is our hot stamping B-pillar sample. The material is provided by Shougang, and the molds are all designed and processed by ourselves."
Liu Yushu took Jiang Hui to the hot stamping workshop of Nanshan Technology to visit the latest prototypes produced.
After more than half a year of hard work, Nanshan Technology’s first hot stamping production line was finally built.
The first product produced was the B-pillar of the Land Rover pickup truck.
This part is between the front door and the rear door. It is a very critical part to ensure the strength of the body.
In order to ensure the strength of B-pillar parts, general manufacturers use relatively thick high-strength steel plates.
However, as the steel plate becomes thicker, the formability will decrease. If the steel plate is not careful, it will crack during stamping, which will have a greater impact on the life of the mold.
Moreover, the high-strength steel plate itself is not easy to form. The higher the thickness, the more difficult it is to ensure the forming performance.
Well now, after using hot stamping technology, the steel plate does not need to be that thick, between 1.2 mm and 1.8 mm is basically enough.
The thickness of most hot stamped parts is within this range.
“Has Shougang already completed hot stamping steel plates with aluminum silicon coating?”
Compared with the parts themselves, Jiang Hui pays more attention to hot stamping materials. In the future, the BMW Group can rely on this to collect a lot of patent fees.
Especially after everyone sees the benefits of hot stamping parts, global usage will definitely rise rapidly.
"The aluminum-silicon coating itself is not a particularly difficult process. The difficulty is that no one has thought of using this coating to produce hot stamped steel plates before."
"We directly gave the process plan to cooperate with Shougang and authorized the other party to use this patent. They are based on the existing hot-dip galvanized steel plate production process. After slight adjustments, the production of aluminum-silicon coated steel plates was completed."< br>
"As for the production of bare boards, we only need to add boron element to the existing interstitial-free steel with a tensile strength of 270MPA, which can basically meet the initial performance requirements."
"In the next stage, we are also trying to specifically improve the process formula of hot stamping steel plates and launch them as the next generation of hot stamping steel plates."
Wu Ming is responsible for all steel-related development business of the BMW Group, and hot stamping steel plates are naturally the top priority during this period.
The BMW Group has come up with a complete set of process plans, and the Capital Steel Plant is equivalent to doing OEM work.
These hot-stamped steel plates cannot be sold externally without the permission of BMW Group.
Even if it agrees to sell to external parties, 15% of the sales will be charged as a patent royalty.
In order to ensure that this patent fee can be recovered in the future, the BMW Group has registered patents for hot stamping steel plates around the world.
At that time, unless those international automobile giants do not use it, they will have to pay more.
"The research and development of hot stamping steel plates can be regarded as a new breakthrough in domestic automotive steel plates. This credit can be left to Shougang."
“But the price of the steel plates they sell to us must be the most favorable among all customers.”
What Jiang Hui cares about most is profit, not the illusory domestic honor.
State-owned enterprises such as Shougang need to achieve some results to promote promotions and salary increases for some people. When the time comes to pay patent fees, there will be fewer different voices.
"I think so too. Not only the hot stamping steel plates are like this, but also the heating furnaces, hydraulic presses, and laser cutting machines used on the production line are in a similar situation."
"We have worked with relevant supporting units to build the first hot stamping production line in China. The technology and production efficiency of this production line are the most advanced in the world."
"Such an achievement can be fully publicized, and then all related parties will get a lot of benefits."
“Maybe in a few years these production lines will be able to earn foreign exchange through export.”
Liu Yushu has been fully focused on this project during this period, and he has fully felt the prospects of this project.
In the next twenty years, or even in the next forty years, the application scale of hot stamping parts in the automotive industry will definitely become larger and larger.
Not to mention the future growth of the automobile market, the current global production of tens of millions of vehicles per year alone, as long as more than half of the vehicles are equipped with several hot stamping parts per vehicle, the scale is extremely exaggerated.
By then, the world will need at least 100 hot stamping production lines to meet market demand.
If it goes well, Nanshan Technology may become the world's largest supplier of hot stamping parts and successfully enter the supply chain of various automobile giants such as General Motors, Ford, Toyota, and Volkswagen.
This kind of behavior of others taking a fancy to your technology and proactively coming to you for cooperation is definitely much more satisfying than having to go through all the trouble of begging others to give you orders.
It is really difficult for Chinese auto parts companies to enter the international market.
Even in 2020, only a few parts companies have achieved internationalization, and their influence is completely incomparable with giants such as Bosch and Denso.
Looking at the world's top 100 auto parts list, we can also see many things. “Hot-stamped parts have great potential and our Land Rover off-road vehicles and Land Rover pick-up trucks are waiting for them to become a blockbuster.”
"Compared to the fact that Mercedes-Benz cars are simply exported to the United States, this time our Land Rover brand models are preparing to go global in an all-round way and take the initiative to enter the markets in Europe, the Middle East and Africa."
"Even if we are cooperating with General Motors in the American market, we must actively cooperate with them to increase the sales of this car."
"Whether the BMW Group can completely gain a foothold in the global automobile market depends on the performance of the Land Rover brand."
"Although the performance of our engines and gearboxes is not bad, as a new company, it is difficult for consumers to believe that their stability can be better than that of the automobile giants."
"At this time, we need to find some publicity points in a different way. The ultra-high strength and safety performance provided by hot stamping parts are a good entry point."
Although Jiang Hui has emphasized the importance of hot stamping technology internally many times before, there is no harm in saying this kind of thing a few times.
"This is indeed a disruptive change in the field of automobile bodywork, and the impact in the future will be huge."
"As a young Chinese automobile company, if we can lead this trend in the global automobile industry, the potential benefits it will bring in the future should be huge."
"First solve the problem of whether it exists or not, and then solve the problem of how to produce it well, quickly and cheaply as soon as possible."
6◇9◇Book◇Bar
Liu Yushu has made up his mind to compete with hot stamping technology for the rest of his life.
He had a hunch that if he could do a good job in this segment, he would have a place in the Chinese automobile industry and the global automobile industry in the future.
It is definitely not an exaggeration to say that he has gained both fame and fortune.
"Is the production of molds for hot stamping parts a big problem now?"
As a very critical link, the production quality of the mold is related to the accuracy and quality of the parts. Jiang Hui is very aware of its difficulty.
Regardless of the large number of mold manufacturers in China's Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta, basically all kinds of molds can be made.
But this is 1985.
Whether it is the special steel used in molds or the machine tools for processing molds, they are still in short supply in China.
However, if these two problems are not solved well, it will be very difficult to improve the mold level.
"The machine tools we purchased from Japan have been put into use and have helped a lot when processing the mold water channels."
"However, our mold material level is still not enough. It is estimated that if these molds are used to stamp parts, it is estimated that overhaul will need to start at 200,000 punches, and the mold will eventually be re-opened at 300,000 punches."
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Liu Yushu also talked about some of the problems he is currently facing.
Although the sales volume of China's various automobiles are not very high, normally a mold life of 200,000 times is enough.
But he knows that for mainstream automotive stamping parts manufacturers in the world, their molds can generally be stamped 500,000 times without any problems.
Even the stamping dies produced by some manufacturers can still be used normally after being used 1 million times.
"Step by step, hot stamping parts are heated to more than 900 degrees and then formed in the mold, and then undergo a quenching process. This is very different from traditional cold stamping, and it does have a certain impact on the life of the mold."
"The next step is for us to develop special steel suitable for making hot stamping molds."
Jiang Hui is very aware of the importance of special steel.
The BMW Group itself will not build a steelmaking plant for the entire industry chain, but it will purchase crude steel from outside and further process it into the required special steel. This step still needs to be carried out.
Relatively speaking, the finishing of crude steel does not require that much additional equipment, and the pollution to the environment is not that great. It can be considered in Shenzhen or surrounding cities.
"I have communicated with the Human Resources Department and hope that in the future we can recruit some early-retired engineers and technicians from various steel plants to come to our R&D center to engage in the research and development of special steel."
"At the same time, I also arranged for technicians to communicate with Nanshan Equipment to see how to design and produce a special steel processing production line by myself, so as to produce the key core equipment within the group as much as possible."
As an expert from Baosteel Technology Department, Wu Ming is also relatively clear about the level of the domestic equipment industry.
In his view, it is unreliable that key equipment must be imported from abroad, or that Nanshan Equipment must develop it itself and expect to purchase it from other domestic equipment manufacturers.
Otherwise, Baosteel would not need to import all its production lines from Japan.
"This work must be started as soon as possible. Not only does mold production require the use of special steel, but also the various parts on our vehicles basically have this demand."
"Especially in the fields of engines, gearboxes and chassis, the requirements for the performance of special steel are very high. To further improve the performance of our products, we need a relatively large breakthrough in materials."
The profitability of the BMW Group has been greatly improved now, especially after the big breakthrough in earning foreign exchange from exports. Jiang Hui has more funds in his hands to arrange people to research raw materials.
Otherwise, all kinds of special steel need to be imported from abroad, which consumes foreign exchange, has high costs, and has a very long procurement cycle. There is simply no way to meet the development requirements of the BMW Group.
If nothing else, the export volume of Mercedes-Benz cars has suddenly increased. If a large amount of special steel is imported from abroad, the procurement cycle will be more than half a year.
This will directly lead to the inability to increase production capacity, and the impact will be huge.
On the other hand, if the planning is done well and a large amount of special steel is purchased in advance, it will also cause a lot of waste if it becomes inventory by then.
Therefore, in the end, we must purchase from domestic sources and, most importantly, produce them ourselves.
“Currently, the output of special steel in China is not high, and the quality level is uneven.”
"In some places that are not so critical, surface treatment and heat treatment can still meet the performance requirements of the parts."
"To further improve, it is indeed necessary to significantly improve the performance of special steel."
During this period, Liu Yushu was very frustrated by the processing of hot stamping molds, and he also had a lot of experience with special steel.
Seeing that Jiang Hui was willing to spend a lot of money to get special steel, he was very pleased.
Material research and development is very expensive.
The key is when the results will be released. Sometimes it is like buying a lottery, there is no predictability at all.
Therefore, there are not many factories in China that are willing to engage in material research.
(End of chapter)