My 1979

Early the next morning, Li He started to visit the automobile factory after breakfast. The first stop of almost every factory tour is the stamping workshop. Because, from a lifeless steel plate to a car, stamping is the first step.

He was no exception. He went straight to the stamping workshop at the first stop. The strong noise produced by the large number of shearing and punching equipment during the production process almost knocked out his eardrums.

"Isn't our automated stamping production line? Why is there such a loud noise?" He had been complacent for a long time with the two 10,000-ton stamping equipment dismantled from the Czech Republic. The initial uncoiling and the stamping in the middle only required one Human supervision shows how mature this line is.

Stamping equipment is important equipment related to the national economy and people's livelihood, as well as cutting-edge national defense construction. It is widely used in industrial fields such as automobiles, aviation, and home appliances.

Especially in the automobile industry, a landmark industry that measures a country's industrial level, stamping equipment plays a decisive role, and its technical level directly affects and restricts the development of the automobile industry.

But he couldn't accept such a loud noise.

Chen Zu said, "It was from the former Soviet Union in the 1970s."

"That's right." Li He laughed. Anyone who knows this sentence will understand that Maozi's things are so silly, big and thick, and the most important thing is practicality.

Chen Zu said, "It's a good thing. The best stamping workshops in domestic automobile factories are at Volkswagen and Isuzu, and they only have 5,000 to 6,000 tons."

But then he shook his head and said, "But there is a big gap compared with foreign countries. I visited the Volkswagen factory in Germany. More than 500 stamping equipment have the same specifications and are arranged in a line. Like the thin plate and extra large parts stamping line, the head of the line is 2,000 tons. Double-action stamping machine, with a single-action capacity of 1,000 tons at the back. The typical product is the two side panels of a car, from the headlight to the taillight, including two wheel covers. The two door frames are 6 meters long. One action per product. After stamping, use two hooks to Lifting it from a high place directly to the welding workshop is called modernization."

Li He said with a smile, "What we have done is not bad. I believe it will get better and better in the future. Sooner or later, we will be able to change the situation."

Although his equipment is all second-hand equipment and the models are not uniform, there are a lot of them, at least more than a hundred units. Being able to move them back is an achievement. Not to mention himself, it is a contribution to the country.

As for automotive equipment companies like Jier, they are still trying to learn from others through humiliation.

Watching high-quality cold-rolled steel plates being continuously stamped by multiple high-tonnage hydraulic presses and finally being shaped into complex-shaped, high-precision body sheet metal parts, one can only sigh at the power of industrial heavy machinery to change the future.

He felt another kind of beauty.

Next, he visited various workshops, including welding, painting, final assembly, etc. Different workshops perform the mission of building cars at different stages.

He is very satisfied with the car factory's floor space. The larger the area, the more ample space it will have to perfect every detail at each stage of car manufacturing.

He waved his hand and said, "Buy all the land around here for me."

"Ah!" Yang Yong and others were surprised.

Chen Zu said, "Mr. Li, I think our scale is big enough."

Li He asked, "Is it as big as Dongfeng Factory?"

Chen Zutao shook his head, "Of course not."

"That's alright, let's continue to expand. I hope that future development will not be limited by space." Li He was very determined.

Bai He wondered, "The municipal committee's plan for this area is to be a development zone, so it's probably difficult to negotiate."

Li He smiled and said, "Development zone? To put it bluntly, there are barren mountains and ridges around here. Except for the three connections and one leveling in the direction of our factory area, it is nothing like that. If the municipal committee wants to issue a plan, it must be given priority to the city." Within the scope of the district, we will definitely not be able to develop here in less than ten years. Only the biggest losers like us are willing to set up factories here."

"Then I'll give it a try." Bai He chuckled. He couldn't even imagine why Li He insisted on choosing the location of the factory in Xiaoshan.

The last R\u0026D center we visited was mostly people from the former Soviet Union. There were a total of 8 teams, such as those responsible for interior R\u0026D, chassis R\u0026D, and appearance R\u0026D.

There are only two working languages, English and Russian.

Li He focused on visiting several core departments that are engaged in research and development, including the powertrain planning department, engine department, electronic control department, and transmission department.

"Mr. Li, these are the automobile patents we have applied for over the years, including two-seater micro trucks and motor vehicle gear switching transmissions." Ludovic, the dean of the research center, gushed over to Li He and introduced the research institute's applications in various countries around the world. automobile patents.

"Very good, thank you for your hard work." Most of Li He couldn't understand it, but judging from the simple distribution of patented technologies, technologies such as body and accessories, engines, electronic appliances, etc. are the focus of universal protection by various companies.

When I turned to the last page and saw the numbers, I was surprised. There were actually 500 invention and utility patents. But then I thought about it and it became clear that these people were still relying on the old Soviet Union.

Back in the conference room, everyone held another small meeting, mainly to put forward some specific ideas for the current situation.

Bai He said, "I think the current market environment is still very good. Heavy trucks like Steyr are in short supply. But in the long run, I think there will still be competition. We have a total of 163 automobile manufacturers in the country, which is the largest number in the world." , Survival of the fittest, it is unknown who will be eliminated.”

"Are there so many manufacturers?" Li He was frightened. Before he decided to make cars, he could only count thirty or forty manufacturers. How could he know that there were hundreds?

Chen Zutao nodded in agreement, "That's right. According to statistics from the Ministry of Industry, there are 163 companies. This does not include more than 600 modified cars! Car projects are happening everywhere. The main problem in our country is the lack of scale. A total of only 1 million vehicles are produced a year, and there are only 12 automobile factories that can produce more than 10,000 vehicles annually. For example, less than 10 automobile companies produced nearly 13 million vehicles last year. They did not understand that they need so many vehicles. What does the factory do? The world produces about 50 million vehicles a year, and we can’t even account for 20% of it in Chengdu. Our largest domestic manufacturer is Dongfeng. Last year they broke the record, producing 160,000 vehicles a year, but that’s just one month for General Motors. In terms of output, most small manufacturers are doing manual knocking and assembly of parts. It can be said that our automobile industry is a typical situation of fragmentation, chaos and poor quality. It has reached the point of getting out of control, and the local government ignores this phenomenon. Adopt local protectionism and develop the local automobile industry."

"This gap is a bit big." Li He also had to shake his head helplessly, "But overall we are still improving. It's not a bad idea to be optimistic."

Chen Zutao said, "We started to introduce Soviet technology in the 1960s, and introduced French technology in the 1970s. A few of us have a car history of 30 or 40 years, and we still have a good foundation. It is definitely the right way to introduce technology and open the market. , but the gap has not narrowed. What we are introducing now are still technologies from the 1970s and 1980s, and the copies are all old antiques. The 'Audi', 'Jetta', and 'Golf' jointly owned by FAW and Volkswagen are all replacements in Germany. Technology, to put it simply, for example, carburetors have been eliminated in foreign countries, and they are now using gasoline injection technology, anti-lock braking devices, and continuously variable transmissions. None of our cars are competitive abroad. Yes, even if it is sold, the price is at least 2 times worse than others."