At this time in 2007, China's comprehensive national strength is definitely not comparable to that in 2023.
At this time, there is still some distance before China becomes the world's second largest economic power.
People's self-confidence is actually not sufficient in many cases.
As for high-speed rail, it is one of the few relatively feasible projects in China.
Unfortunately, in this project, there are still some key parts that need to be imported.
This is very embarrassing.
It is precisely because of this that the localization of high-speed rail bearings will cause such a big response.
Now according to Nie Jian, the next project will not be less meaningful than high-speed rail bearings.
Cao Yang was naturally very interested.
"Mr. Nie, if you have any orders, just tell me!"
"As long as Nanshan Group can do it, I will do my best."
"Nanshan Group has nothing to do now, so we are concentrating all our resources and working hard to make a breakthrough!"
When it's time to speak louder, don't be polite.
The most important thing is that Cao Yang has the confidence to speak loudly.
"With your words, Mr. Cao, I am completely relieved."
"So far, the main components that our high-speed rail needs to import are bearings, axles and wheels."
"Among them, the consumption of wheels is the largest, and the amount of imports is also the largest."
"This time, what we want to invite Nanshan Group to participate in is the localization project of wheels."
Although Nanshan Group has never made wheels before, Nie Jian is very confident now.
In the past, high-speed rail bearings would be developed by Nanshan Group because Nanshan Group itself is the leader in the domestic bearing field.
Now high-speed rail wheels will be developed by Nanshan Group because of Nanshan Group's impressive performance in the development of high-speed rail bearings.
"High-speed train wheels?"
Cao Yang was naturally somewhat impressed by this thing, but he still didn't expect that Nie Jian would let him do it.
Relatively speaking, this business is really not what Nanshan Group is good at.
Except for Nanshan Special Steel, the other parts Nanshan Group is making are not directly related to high-speed rail wheels.
"That's right, it's a high-speed rail wheel."
"With the rapid development of China-Xiaxia High-speed Railway, our technology and operational level have attracted widespread attention around the world."
"However, the production of Huaxia's high-speed rail wheels has long been dependent on imports, which has raised questions about Huaxia's high-speed rail technology."
"Claim 'Without imported wheels, China's high-speed rail would not be able to run at all'."
"Although this is hard to hear, to a certain extent, it is also true."
"Foreign countries have begun to develop high-speed rail wheels that can withstand speeds exceeding 300 kilometers per hour as early as the 1960s and 1970s. However, China's high-speed rail started relatively late and faces a large technological gap."
“The countries that have mastered the core technology of high-speed rail wheels mainly include Germany, Rome, Japan and France.”
“In order to protect their technology monopoly and maximize their profits, these countries have adopted strict confidentiality measures.”
"Implementing the 'three no' policy for cutting-edge high-speed rail wheel technology, that is, no patent application, no paper publication, and no visits."
"This has limited our country's high-speed rail wheel technology. It is unable to independently master core technologies and has to rely on imports."
Feeling Cao Yang's confusion, Nie Jian naturally wanted to explain the relevant situation to him.
The research and development of high-speed rail wheels will be carried out in detail later, and both parties will definitely need further communication.
"The difficulty of high-speed rail wheels lies in high temperature resistance and durability, which requires the purification of steel and the use of advanced technologies such as composite wheels."
"To create high-speed rail wheels that can withstand huge pressure and high temperatures at high speeds, special alloy materials need to be selected, precision heat treatment and special rim designs are required."
“In the field of wheel manufacturing, high temperature stability, strength and lifespan are the most critical technical problems.”
"For a long time, our country has been restricted by others in these aspects and has been unable to independently produce high-quality high-speed rail wheels, so it relies on imports."
When Nie Jian said this, the expression on his face couldn't help but become sad.
Like high-speed rail bearings, they also suffered a lot from high-speed rail wheels.
The imported manufacturers of high-speed rail wheels are no better than the manufacturers of high-speed rail bearings.
"Mr. Cao, independent research and development and production of high-speed rail wheels can reduce China's dependence on imported wheels and reduce the impact of external risks and potential sanctions on high-speed rail operations."
"Achieving localized high-speed rail wheels is of great significance to China's economic development and transportation."
"I hope Nanshan Group can help us speed up the localization of high-speed rail wheels."
Nie Jian was really worried that Cao Yang would not accept this project.
After all, domestic production has not been achieved for so many years, and the technical threshold must be very high.
At that time, a lot of manpower and material resources were invested, but there was no result.
Isn't that a sign of destroying the Nanshan Group?
The wheels are the part of the high-speed rail that is in contact with the rails. Unlike trains, when the high-speed rail wheels rotate rapidly, they not only have to withstand the huge pressure of the high-speed rail carriages, but also withstand the huge heat energy generated by friction with the rails. Long-term friction and friction bring high temperature.
If a wheel fails, is damaged, or deforms during operation, it will be a devastating blow to the entire vehicle, let alone a vehicle full of passengers.
Therefore, this is not just a simple wheel, but also an important guarantee for the safety of passengers' lives and property.
There was a serious high-speed rail accident in Germany, and the cause was a wheel.
In June 1998, a high-speed train suddenly derailed while passing through a village in Saxony. The train was carrying 287 passengers, causing 101 deaths and 105 injuries. The root cause of the accident was The quality of the wheel is not up to standard, and the friction temperature increases, causing the wheel to explode.
Because of this, the most inconspicuous wheel has become a major problem in the development of high-speed rail.
In order to minimize the probability of wheel failure during operation, it means that the material purity and stability of high-speed rail wheels must be strictly required, and ordinary manufacturing technology will not work.
"Mr. Nie, it is our duty to localize the high-speed rail wheels."
"But frankly speaking, Nanshan Group knows very little about high-speed rail wheels and has never done any research in this area before."
Cao Yang will definitely take on this task, and he has a way to do it well.
But at this time, it is completely meaningless to say that you can handle it yourself.
It would be better to mention more difficulties and give everyone a surprise in the end.
"Qualified high-speed rail wheels have extremely high requirements for load capacity, processing technology, load-bearing design, reduction of wear and thermal expansion and contraction, resistance to metal fatigue, steel properties, casting methods, impurity content, etc."
"If you want to make a high-speed rail wheel, you need to put the wheel steel in an electric furnace fire, burn it and cut it at high temperature, and continue to heat it. After a series of operations, you can create a wheel."
"But if you want the wheels to meet the quality requirements, the wheel steel must be kept clean at all times, and the oxygen content cannot exceed 0.0002%. Otherwise, even if the wheels are made, they will be unqualified."
"For some specific parameters, I will take someone to Yangcheng next week to have a good discussion with your technical staff."
"Nanshan Special Steel can produce excellent high-speed rail bearing steel, and I believe it can also produce qualified high-speed rail wheel steel."
Nie Jian is now very confident in Nanshan Group.
In the past six months, he has been on business trips to Nanshan Group frequently, and he has some understanding of the situation of various business departments of Nanshan Group.
The more you learn about this, the more you will realize how powerful Nanshan Group is.
Nie Jian thought that he had seen a lot in his life.
But there is no domestic manufacturer like Nanshan Group that has mastered so many core technologies.
The key is that the technology mastered by Nanshan Group is relatively comprehensive and covers all aspects.
Therefore, in Nie Jian's view, although high-speed rail wheels are difficult, to decide which domestic manufacturer has the best hope of making a breakthrough in a short period of time, it depends on Nanshan Group.
Nie Jian and Cao Yang chatted about the high-speed rail wheels for almost an hour before reluctantly hanging up the phone.
Cao Yang also took action immediately and called Xie Lingyun and Dai Hanbiao who had just enjoyed the fruits of victory.
He shared with them some of what Nie Jian just said.
"Mr. Cao, CSRC is willing to ask us to develop high-speed rail wheels. This is naturally a good thing."
"But for this project, we probably have to be prepared for a protracted battle."
Xie Lingyun felt a little bitter in his heart, but he didn't dare to show it.
High-speed rail wheels.
As the former deputy chief engineer of Shaogang Iron and Steel Co., how could he not know?
Whether it is CSR or CNR, they have been looking to various domestic steel manufacturers to study the localization of high-speed rail wheels.
Because in order to produce qualified wheels, the most critical thing is to produce qualified steel.
The difficulty of processing is actually ranked second.
But how can foreign giants allow you to break through so easily after covering up something that has been covered up for decades?
Until now, apart from analyzing the high-speed rail wheel samples themselves and obtaining some data, no one from the domestic manufacturers has visited the supplier's high-speed rail wheel production site.
"We are professional in making bearings."
"Although the requirements for high-speed rail bearings are different, they are essentially the same."
"But when it comes to high-speed rail wheels, we really need to start from scratch and start research again."
"This may take quite a long time."
Dai Hanbiao didn't dare to boast easily at this time.
In Nanshan Group, one has to be responsible when boasting about Haikou.
Don’t be embarrassed if you can’t produce qualified products by then.
"I understand everything you said. Take your time and study it step by step."
"Mr. Nie and the others will come over on a business trip next week and will also bring a batch of samples of high-speed rail wheels."
"At the same time, they will also share relevant information accumulated in the past with us, and even arrange for several engineers to be stationed at Nanshan Group for a long time to assist us in product development."
"Although high-speed rail wheels are more difficult, people were able to produce them decades ago, which shows that it is not really difficult to achieve technically."
"It's just that we haven't found the right direction yet."
"Once you touch the threshold, you may be able to achieve a breakthrough soon."
Cao Yang naturally felt that Dai Hanbiao and Xie Lingyun lacked confidence.
Although they all said they would go all out to pursue this project, lack of confidence is not a good thing.
So at this time it was Cao Yang's turn to cheer them up.
"That's true. For example, in some special steels, the proportion of alloying elements added is often unknown."
“Too much is not enough, and too little is not enough.”
"Only adding one or two alloying elements is often not enough. The addition of various alloying elements needs to be comprehensively considered."
"What you may ultimately see is a certain material ratio, but in order to obtain this material ratio, steel manufacturers may have spent many years and conducted thousands of tests."
"The cost of manpower, material resources and time invested in this is extremely exaggerated."
"So for many special steels, they will not apply for patents, nor will they tell customers the detailed and accurate material ratios."
"Even if there are some hints, it's very abstract."
"For example, it is difficult to get the final result without relying on a large number of experiments on your own, such as what percentage of a certain element is contained."
"Of course, we can also infer some material ratios by combining the effects of adding different alloying elements and the various performance requirements of the final material."
"Then verify these inferences through experiments to reduce the related investment as much as possible."
Xie Lingyun felt that he needed to remind Cao Yang that special steel was not so easy to develop.
It was possible to obtain some technical information on the previous high-speed rail bearing steel, but it was hard to say whether the steel for high-speed rail wheels could be obtained.
"Mr. Xie, what you said makes sense. We will formulate our own test plan based on some information provided by CSR."
"Strive to come up with special steel that meets the requirements as soon as possible."
Cao Yang did not discuss this topic with Xie Lingyun for too long.
Anyway, after going on for a period of time, I gave them several plans to try again, and they would definitely be able to find results that meet the requirements.
While Nanshan Group has begun to skip high-speed rail bearings and study high-speed rail wheels, the publicity related to high-speed rail bearings on the Internet has just reached its peak.
As more and more people realize the importance and difficulty of high-speed rail bearings, their evaluation of Nanshan Group will naturally be higher.
However, the higher everyone's evaluation of Nanshan Group and the higher their expectations, the greater the harm some people will suffer.
"Xue Wenqiang, how many years have you been at SKF?"
"Didn't you say you wanted to change jobs several times before?"
"Why haven't you jumped ship yet?"
In a restaurant in Shanghai, Xue Wenqiang had dinner with his old classmate Xiao Qin.
But his mood was not good at all.
"Hey, I used to think that although SKF's orders in the automotive and machine tool fields have dropped sharply, it is still supported by the high-profit product of high-speed rail bearings, so the business will not be unable to survive."
"Who knew that even the high-speed rail bearing project would not be able to proceed now."
'"In order to cope with the rise of your Nanshan Group, the price of our high-speed rail bearings has been reduced by 30% this month."
"And he also promised to continue to reduce prices in January next year, so that SKF can retain a certain share of high-speed rail bearings."
Although the information Xue Wenqiang said is considered company secrets to a certain extent.
But he also knew very well that CSR would definitely share this information with Nanshan Group.
So there is nothing to be afraid of when discussing this topic with Xiao Qin now.
Anyway, although Xiao Qin joined Nanshan Group, he was responsible for the CNC system and machine tool sales related business at Nanshan Equipment, and had no direct competitive relationship with Xue Wenqiang.
"When I first changed jobs, I persuaded you to consider working at Nanshan Bearing. You said you would consider it, but in fact you took no action at all."
"It's okay now. After staying for a few more years, I still have to reconsider this issue."
"But if you want to enter Nanshan Bearing again at this time, I'm afraid it won't be that easy."
"Our sales team has been established a long time ago and is relatively mature."
Xiao Qin is very glad that he switched jobs from Siemens to Nanshan Group.
You know, when she first changed jobs, her salary not only did not increase, but actually dropped.
However, considering the development prospects of Nanshan Group, she made a decisive decision.
Now she is the sales section chief of Nanshan Group's Shanghai office responsible for machine tools and CNC system-related equipment.
"Nanshan Group is very strong, I have seen this for a long time."
"But I really didn't expect it to be so powerful."
"I'm not afraid to tell you, we also have people on the South and North Railway trains."
"We have actually learned about some of the key time points for Nanshan Group's development of high-speed rail bearings."
"According to our original speculation, even if Nanshan Group can really handle high-speed rail bearings, it will only be five or six years later."
"Who knew that it only took them half a year to successfully produce a qualified product."
"This is completely unscientific!"
Xue Wenqiang took a sip of beer very depressedly.
Because of the influence of the Nanshan Group, his bonus this month was wiped out.
The key is that the company's prospects are very slim.
He has even begun to expect that the company will give him N+1 and fire him.
He would not feel unwilling to leave with a sum of money like this.
"I'm not bragging."
"In China, we must not look at Nanshan Group the same way we look at other Chinese manufacturers, otherwise we will definitely suffer."
"As far as the nut plate that our company started from, this part seems not difficult, but there are only a few manufacturers in China who can make it."
"No manufacturer can do it better and cheaper than Nanshan."
"Not to mention the automatic transmission at the back, it still has no rivals in China."
"All the perspectives and attitudes towards Chinese enterprises in the past are destined to fail when it comes to Nanshan Group."
"You're not too old now, so hurry up and find a way to change jobs."
"If Nanshan Group can't go there, you can go to some other parts manufacturers that don't compete with Nanshan Group."
"Otherwise, if I continue to stay at SKF, life will definitely become more and more difficult."
Xiao Qin and Xue Wenqiang have known each other for more than ten years.
Naturally, I don’t want to see my old classmates live in such a miserable state.
To put it bluntly, the rise of Nanshan Group has also destroyed the jobs of many employees of foreign parts giants.
(End of chapter)
