Screws will be used in aircraft high-speed rail

The screws produced by the production machinery may soon be able to be loaded onto planes and high-speed rails. Recently, the launching ceremony of the “National High-Tech Precision Cold Forming Equipment” in 2013 was held in Ningbo Innovation Harbor. This project was undertaken by Ningbo Sijin Machinery Co., Ltd. As such, it is rare for private enterprises to undertake major national science and technology projects, and it also obtained central government funding of 12.86 million yuan.

Chairman of the company Li Zhongming explained that the cold heading machine is used to produce all kinds of standard parts, fasteners and shaped parts. The steel does not need to be heated and is directly placed into the cold heading machine. It will automatically “spitting” the screws and bolts and shape them once.

China is the world's largest fastener manufacturing country, and Ningbo is known as China’s “fastener capital,” and its output accounts for more than a quarter of the country, but it is used in automobiles, high-speed railways, construction machinery, and large aircraft. Screws with large diameters and high densities cannot be manufactured at home and basically rely on European machines for production. The number of such screws and nuts imported from Europe to the United States is 9,000 US dollars a ton, while the export of ordinary screws and nuts produced by domestic companies is only 1,200 US dollars, a big difference. The machines that make these screws have to be imported from abroad. The price of one machine is as high as ten million yuan.

Can't we make it ourselves? Li Zhongming does not believe this evil.

In 2012, Sijin Machinery applied for the “High-speed precision multi-station cold-forming equipment” project of the “High-end CNC Machine Tool and Basic Manufacturing Equipment” of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in 2013. It competed with a number of companies and scientific research institutions and won the competition. The Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Ministry of Finance have assessed and reviewed and recently formally approved the project.

Li Zhongming said that this is a difficult process of independent research and development and free innovation. Corporate developers are very confident about this project. This month, the nation’s first 200-ton “hard-to-shape parts forming machine” will also be shipped from companies. The price is only 1/5 of that of similar foreign products. The screws spit from this machine will be installed in aircraft, high-speed rail, and nuclear power equipment. on.

It is understood that this technology project will address the demand for high-strength fasteners in the automotive, aerospace, and power generation equipment, and provide equipment and process support for the production of high-strength fasteners.

At the launching ceremony, Wang Changming, executive vice chairman of the China Machinery General Components Industry Association, said: "This project will reverse the situation in which China's high-grade fasteners and exotic parts are over-reliance on imports and realize the substitution of high-end manufacturing equipment in China."

At the scene, Li Zhongming and his team are highly motivated. But five years ago, Sijin, founded in 1995, was still a silently supporting company. In the period of up to 10 years, Sijin has been supporting a Ningbo plastics machine company, and its output value has never exceeded 50 million yuan. In 2006, the company decided to transform and produce "cold machine". At that time, domestic cold heading machines had a drawback. Inevitably, a large amount of soot was emitted during work. Li Zhongming and his research team have set their direction on clean and environmental protection. After the successful development of this competitive product, it won 2 invention patents and 1 utility model patent; the company also won the title of National High-tech Enterprise.

"The money in research can never be saved!" This is the secret of Li Zhongming's success. In 2012, 10% of the company’s sales were invested in R&D, and nine models were developed at a time. Sales reached 130 million yuan, becoming the "invisible champion" of the cold heading machine industry.