Material Empire

"High manganese steel rake blades? Our supply price is $8."

Dalton was dumbfounded when he heard the translator relay the price quoted by Zhu Detai.

"8 dollars, how is this possible?" Dalton's eyes widened, and he looked at Zhu Detai in disbelief, "Sir, we are talking about the price of bulk purchases, not 1 piece, but...for example, 100,000 piece."

"Purchase rakes, of course, in batches. However, if there are such a large quantity of 100,000 pieces, the price can be lowered. Why, do you have intentions?" Zhu Detai said.

"Uh...we seem to be talking about different things." Dalton was speechless.

In Dalton's view, the so-called price of 8 dollars per piece should be the price quoted by the North Agricultural Machinery Factory as a publicity. It doesn't matter if you sell three or five pieces, as long as you sell more. Because Dalton knows how expensive plasma spraying is now, and only those companies engaged in aero engines can afford such equipment. Using this kind of equipment to do surface treatment on the basic parts of agricultural machinery, can the price of a single piece be lowered?

But what Zhu Detai said was another matter. Qin Hai promised him that using the thermal spraying machine they designed to do surface treatment on the rakes, the cost per piece would not exceed 3 yuan. In addition to the production cost of the disc harrow itself, the final ex-factory price of each piece is less than 10 yuan, which is less than 3 dollars when converted into US dollars. Quoting at $8 a piece is already a high profit. If a customer wants 100,000 pieces at a time, he can drop the price to $7 or even $6.

"If I'm not mistaken, you are coating the surface of the manganese steel rake with titanium nitride, should you use the plasma spraying process?" Dalton asked.

"Plasma_Spray_Coating..." The translator knelt down first, how should I translate this word.

"No, we use thermal spraying technology." Qin Hai came out of nowhere, and gave Dalton a negative answer bluntly. Plasma spraying is called "Plasma_Spray" and thermal spraying is called "Thermal_Spray". There is a clear difference between the two.

"Thermal spraying?" Dalton is worthy of being the chief engineer of a large company, and he is quite familiar with the frontiers of international technology. He frowned and said, "As far as I know, this technology is still in the exploratory stage. The quality of the coating is very inconsistent, and the cost does not seem to be low."

"If I say that we have broken through all the key technical problems, which has greatly reduced the cost and solved the quality stability, would you believe me?" Qin Hai asked with a smile.

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid it's hard to believe." Dalton replied honestly.

"Can you provide a piece of evidence?" Hibbs also interjected, he trusted Dalton far more than he trusted Qin Hai. Since Dalton said that the technology was immature, Qin Hai What Hai said must be bragging.

Qin Hai picked up a piece of rake from the booth in front of Zhu Detai, handed it to Dalton, and said, "Sir, you can take a look at this piece of rake, with your professional eyes, you should be able to see how the coating quality is. .As our factory manager Zhu said just now, we can provide you with 100,000 pieces of these rakes, all of which are of the same quality as this one, and the price of each piece does not exceed 8 US dollars. Is this a proof?"

"Maybe... it can be used as evidence." Hibbs turned his head to look at Dalton, and replied reluctantly.

"But, how did you do it?" Dalton's thinking fell into a self-circulation. He couldn't believe that the Chinese would achieve such high achievements in thermal spraying technology, but he couldn't deny what he saw. It is understandable if the Chinese make a few rakes for the sake of appearance. Now people claim that they can provide 100,000 pieces, and the price is so cheap that it is unbelievable, which obviously cannot be explained by prestige.

Qin Hai smiled and said: "I think there must be many colleagues who have questions like yours. We plan to hold a special report meeting in two days to introduce our achievements in thermal spraying technology. Two If Mr. Wei is interested, please pay attention to our upcoming report announcement."

"Okay, okay, I will definitely come to listen in." Dalton nodded repeatedly.

It was obviously impossible to talk about the technical details any further. Hibbs asked Zhu Detai for samples of two rake blades, and led Dalton away. Zhu Detai watched the two Frenchmen walk away, turned to Qin Hai and asked, "Xiao Qin, is the thermal spraying technology you developed really so powerful? I think these two foreign devils are really convinced. "

Qin Hai laughed and said, "Director Zhu didn't go to see the test results conducted by the organizing committee, did he? Your factory's disc harrows have already ranked second in the durability of the harrow group, and the results are twice as long as those of the manufacturers behind. If you want to be tall, can people not be convinced?"

"Second place, who is the first place?" Zhu Detai asked subconsciously.

"It's Director Liu from Linxi." Qin Hai said.

Director Liu of Linxi refers to Liu Shuo. The test results of the zirconia ceramic harrow produced by them have reached more than 600 hectares, which is a well-deserved first place. Zhu Detai also knew about this matter, because the Brother Ceramics Factory had no experience in making rakes at all. When they opened the mold, Qin Hai specifically asked Zhu Detai, and hired two technicians from the Northern Agricultural Machinery Factory to do it. guide.

Zhu Detai didn't care about this powerful competitor. He smiled and said, "The one made by Director Liu and the others is just a toy, and no one will take it seriously. When I was on the plane, I heard Director Liu say , The wear resistance of their ceramic rake blades is not mentioned, but the toughness and strength are far from enough, so they are not suitable for agricultural production."

"That's the truth. Director Zhu, don't worry. After the wear test is completed, the organizing committee will do a strength test. In addition, the cost factor will also be taken into consideration. In the end, the first place in the overall score must be Director Zhu and you. It's gone." Qin Hai gave Zhu Detai a reassurance.

Hibbs is certainly not the only one who has been paying attention to the durability test. As the test results gradually became clear, the booth of the Chinese delegation began to become lively again. Qin Hai gathered all the translators and did a simple training, told them some professional knowledge about thermal spraying, and unified the caliber, claiming that there will be a report on thermal spraying in two days.

The boring and lengthy durability test is finally over. All the products participating in the test are roughly divided into three echelons according to their durability.

The first echelon is 4 kinds of ceramic basic parts, including the ceramic disc harrow provided by the Chinese delegation, and 3 other ceramic basic parts provided by several western companies. The durable life of these ceramic base parts has generally reached more than 800 hectares, far exceeding the life of metal base parts. However, their defects are also extremely obvious, that is, insufficient toughness and cannot be used in harsh working conditions. In addition, the price of ceramic base parts is also very high, and basically has no practical value.

The second echelon is products using ceramic coatings. What attracts attention is that all the products of this echelon come from the Chinese delegation, more precisely, they all come from the thermal spraying machine in Qin Hai's hands. Although there is only one thermal spraying equipment, the Chinese delegation provided more than a dozen products, covering all the basic parts of agricultural machinery.

Using metal as the substrate and coating the surface with ceramic materials is equivalent to taking into account the high toughness of metal and the high wear resistance of ceramics, but the cost does not increase significantly. The basis for the evaluation of basic parts by the Expo Organizing Committee is a number of indicators such as wear resistance, toughness and cost. The calculation of cost is based on the supply price promised by the manufacturer, which cannot be faked.

The wear resistance of the basic parts treated by the Chinese delegation is more than twice that of other similar products, and there is no obvious disadvantage in toughness, cost, etc. The final comprehensive score of the final evaluation naturally ranks first without any suspense. up.

As for the third echelon, it is the basic parts produced by traditional technology. What everyone competes in is the metallurgical technology and surface treatment technology of metal materials. The surface-treated products provided by the Chinese delegation performed well in the competition with well-known foreign companies, and were basically at the upper-middle level. This result is enough to satisfy Cui Hongchun and the leaders of those companies.

The Chinese delegation won the first place in all individual items of the wear resistance test of basic parts!

This news immediately caused a sensation in the entire expo venue.

For those professionals who have been staring at the testing process, this result has long been foreseen. If there is any surprise, it is that they did not expect the price of these products with such outstanding wear resistance to be so low. For audiences with low professional level, this news is simply unbelievable, because in everyone's mind, China is just a developing country with backward technology. How can it have such terrible achievements?

"Mr. Minister, how do you feel about the fact that the Chinese delegation won all the individual firsts?"

"I heard that these products all use a mysterious process called thermal spraying. Can you introduce the details of this process?"

"Our experts pointed out that spraying technology is a technology widely used in the military field. Does your technology come from the military?"

"What other amazing technology has the Chinese military mastered, can you reveal it..."

The foreign journalists also knew the truth of catching the thief and the king. They first found Cui Hongchun, surrounded him in the center of the cave, and stretched out the microphones so far that they almost poked Cui Hongchun's mouth.

Cui Hongchun was full of joy and talked freely:

"China is committed to agricultural modernization. The investment in agricultural science and technology is very considerable, and it is inevitable to produce some excellent results. I solemnly declare that these achievements have nothing to do with military technology. I believe that in the near future In the future, we will show you all kinds of outstanding achievements in more fields, please pay attention. As for the issues related to the thermal spraying process, we will hold a special report meeting in these two days. Let me explain to everyone, please be patient."

When he said the last sentence, Cui Hongchun had an imperceptible wry smile on his face:

Nima, I still advertised Qin Hai!