Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

"Peter, why do I feel that hot stamping is suddenly popular in China?"

"The first hot stamping production line put into operation this year may enter full production at the end of next year, and we need to start considering the investment of the second production line."

As the general manager of BENTELER Huaxia Branch, Feng Bo is actually an authentic German.

However, as a doctor, his German surname sounds very similar to "Feng", so after arriving in China, he named himself "Feng Bo".

Even his business card had that name on it.

On the contrary, Pete is actually called Qian Hui, and he is an out-and-out Mordor man.

But after joining Benteler, he gave himself a foreign name.

Even his company email address.

"Feng Bo, I really want to thank Great Wall Motors for this matter. The crash test they created turned the unknown hot stamping technology into a hot technology in the automotive industry."

"Before we have been looking for various customers to promote the use of hot stamping technology, but except for Volkswagen, most of them are not very interested."

"Even the models of Mercedes-Benz and BMW in China don't plan to use hot stamping so quickly."

"Now that Great Wall Motor is doing this, not only Shanghai Volkswagen and Spring City Volkswagen have accelerated the use of hot stamping parts, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Shanghai General Motors, and Shenlong Automobile have also begun to speed up the review of the application of hot stamping parts technology."

"I think it's time to start planning for the second production line."

"Otherwise, when receiving an order, the customer asks whether our production capacity can meet the requirements, and I don't know how to answer it."

Although Qian Hui and Feng Bo were directly subordinate to each other before, they were called by their first names.

This point, in European and American companies, the hierarchical system on the surface is indeed not so obvious.

Unlike Dongying Enterprises and Korea Enterprises, where the positions are one level higher, the level of speaking between them is very obvious.

"The situation is indeed a bit dramatic, but just taking this opportunity, the company is going to hold a hot stamping technology exhibition with various customers."

"If you can get enough orders, we will officially start planning for the second production line."

"In the past two days, I have heard news that Gestamp, our old rival in Europe, has also arranged personnel to visit China. It seems that they are also planning to build a factory here to produce hot stamping parts."

"This is not a good thing for us."

"Once Gestamp is confirmed to come in, it is estimated that Cosma under Magna will also accelerate the pace of entering China."

"After all, if the application of hot stamping forming technology here is advanced, they will definitely be aware of it."

Founded in 1876, BENTELER, as one of the most important suppliers of auto parts in the world, produces supporting products for almost all European and American automakers in the world.

Their products include front and rear suspension modules; chassis systems; anti-collision structures; engine exhaust and control systems.

At the same time, BENTELER has many patents on thermoforming stamping technology, and is the first company in the world to successfully apply thermoforming technology to automobile bodies.

But they are not without rivals in the international market.

Gestamp, which is also in Europe, and Cosma, a subsidiary of Magna, are its old rivals.

Benteler produces chassis parts, as do Gestamp and Cosma.

BENTELER produces hot stamped parts, as do Gestamp and Cosma.

Even before Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory entered the field of hot stamping, BENTELER, Gestamp and Cosma were the only three suppliers of mass-produced hot stamping in the world.

So many times, people in BENTELER regard Gestamp and Cosma as their competitors.

As for those companies in Huaxia, they didn't pay attention.

Even Huaqiang Factory already has 12 points of hot stamping parts used in the H6 of Great Wall Motors, and has attracted the attention of many OEMs.

"When we came to China to invest in the hot stamping forming line, Volkswagen had already committed to a part of the order."

"Although Mercedes-Benz and BMW only contacted them this year, we also supplied them with hot stamping parts in Germany."

"As long as the headquarters and the Huaxia branch work together, I don't think it's a big problem to get their orders."

Qian Hui was full of confidence at this time.

In the field of hot stamping, BENTELER has no rivals in the Chinese market.

"You sort out the hot stamping and forming parts requirements of each OEM, and we will also find a time to hold a conference call with the people at the headquarters to see how many orders we can get."

Feng Bo is also in a very good mood.

The future of the company is bright.

...

Guo Shuyin is very busy.

During this period, wave after wave of OEMs came to visit the factory.

The hot stamping factory next to Great Wall Motors is not so convenient for customers to visit because it is dedicated to supplying parts to Great Wall Motors.

The most important thing is that the headquarters is in Yangcheng, so it is not convenient for Guo Shuyin to travel to Baozhou often.

Fortunately, the new factory built by Huaqiang Factory for Xingchen Automobile has basically completed the introduction of equipment for the hot stamping production line, and has entered the stage of equipment debugging.

So if customers want to come to visit, it is not that there is nothing to see.

"Guo Bu, before visiting the factory, I would like to ask you what is the difference between your production line and the production line invested by BENTELER in Modu?"

Li Jianfeng from Modu Volkswagen came to Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory with Hassan and Bu Defan today.

They have already quoted a round of prices to Huaqiang Factory, and the same parts are 20 to 30 yuan lower than Bentler's quotation.

This is still the case when the parts are transported from Yangcheng to Shanghai, and the transportation fee for each part is a few yuan higher than that of Bentler.

Although China's parts manufacturers have always had an advantage in terms of cost.

But if this is also the case for new technology parts such as hot stamping, he is a little curious.

"Li Gong, I haven't visited the production line of BENTELER directly."

"However, based on the information we obtained from our previous investigation and some introductions from you, Mr. Li, we can generally know where the equipment differences between the two parties lie."

"First of all, for Benteler's hot stamping production line, the heating furnace is produced by Benteler itself and imported from Germany, while ours is a domestically produced equipment produced by Nanshan Equipment."

"Secondly, the most critical hot stamping machine, BENTELER is imported from AP\u0026amp;T in Europe, and we are also a domestic press produced by Nanshan Equipment."

"Then there is the hot stamping mold. As far as I know, although Benteler plans to make it in China in the future, it is still made and imported from Germany at this stage."

"And ours is purchased from Nanshan Mold, from the main material of the mold to the processing, it has achieved localization."

"The last is the laser cutting equipment. BENTELER purchased Trumpf's laser cutting machine, which was also imported from Germany."

"A hot stamping line is equipped with 4 Trumpf laser cutting machines. It is said that the purchase cost of this piece of equipment alone exceeds 20 million."

"And our laser cutting equipment is also produced by Nanshan Equipment."

"Also, we are also researching with Nanshan Mold to see if it is possible to trim the edge directly in the mold in some places where the tolerance requirements are not so high."

"In this way, the amount of laser processing can be greatly reduced, production efficiency can be improved, costs can be reduced, and investment in laser cutting equipment can also be reduced."

Although Guo Shufu is engaged in sales, he is also very familiar with his own hot stamping production line.

This production line is very complicated, but it is not difficult if you just understand the basic principles.

It is not asking you to design this production line.

"Let me interrupt. Just now you said that your company is researching the realization of edge trimming in the mold. Can you introduce this situation in detail?"

Although Dr. Hassan's Chinese has a bit of an accent, there is no problem in communication.

As a quality engineer, he knows why hot stamping parts need laser cutting.

As advertised, the tensile strength of hot stamping parts can reach 1500Mpa.

What is the concept?

In 2005, the highest tensile strength of body parts of most OEMs did not reach 590Mpa.

Even if there is, it is only used on a small number of key parts.

On the 590Mpa steel plate, there are generally 780Mpa, 980Mpa and 1180Mpa ultra-high-strength steel.

Even 1180Mpa is still in the state of the laboratory and has not entered mass production.

Even for 980Mpa automotive sheets, no domestic steel mill has achieved mass production.

One can imagine how high the strength of 1500Mpa is.

If the parts produced in this way need to be punched, trimmed, etc., there is no way to use the punching machine and mold directly.

At this time, the laser cutting process comes in handy.

No matter how high your intensity is, it's not a problem in front of the laser.

But although the laser processing technology is good, the cost is also high.

Take a B-pillar reinforcement plate as an example, there are more than a dozen or even dozens of mounting holes, positioning holes, process holes, and weight-reducing holes on it that need to be processed.

Then the periphery of the part needs to be trimmed by laser to meet the tolerance requirements specified in the drawing.

After all, anyone who has done stamping knows that the parts that come out of the drawing process must be trimmed.

Otherwise, the parts will definitely not meet the drawing requirements.

"Dr. Hassan, that's probably how it goes."

"We can participate in the early drawing design of the main engine factory. For some places where there is no requirement for welding mating surfaces, the tolerance can be appropriately relaxed, and the edges can be cut directly when the mold is formed."

"For some weight-reducing holes and process holes, the tolerance relaxation will not affect the performance of parts, and punches can also be added to the mold and punched out directly."

"Of course, we need to analyze and discuss some specific details in combination with specific drawings."

"However, our Huaqiang Factory has conducted in-depth research with Nanshan Mold in this regard."

With Guo Shufu's introduction, Hassan's confidence in Huaqiang Factory has improved a lot.

This is not a factory that simply processes drawings.

As the quality director of Modu Volkswagen, he has also been to many local suppliers in China over the years.

Many of these manufacturers can only produce parts purely according to the drawings of Modu Volkswagen.

As for improving the process or cost on the basis of the drawings, they will not do it at all.

Even these companies have no R\u0026D personnel at all, and only a few technical personnel do some basic technical work.

"Guo, I also have a curious question."

"As far as I know, the hot stamping equipment of Huaqiang Factory has only been newly invested in the last year, and the amortization of various equipment and workshops is relatively high."

"Why can your price be lower than other manufacturers?"

Bu Defan didn't mind letting Guo Shufu know that their price was lower than Benteler's.

There is no need to hide this matter at all.

"This question, in fact, can be answered in combination with the comparison of production line differences mentioned by Li Gong just now."

"First of all, in terms of equipment investment, I estimate that BENTELER's production line, not counting the plant investment, will exceed 100 million yuan."

"But we only need about half of them."

"Secondly, their hot stamping molds need to be imported from Germany, but ours can be made domestically."

"In this aspect alone, a set of two molds for the B-pillar reinforcement of the Passat model can cost us several million yuan cheaper than Benteler."

"What's more, in terms of raw materials, we use hot-stamped steel sheets jointly developed and produced by Nanshan Group and Baosteel, while Benteler imports them from ArcelorMittal."

"These differences have accumulated. For a part like the Passat B-pillar reinforcement plate, we have at least a 20 yuan cost advantage."

"And we still have room to further review cost improvements."

Quotations have already been submitted to the public in Shanghai, but Guo Shufu is not afraid to share these comparative information.

When he quoted the price to the public in Shanghai, he already set the processing fee relatively high.

The factory equipment is normally amortized according to 10 years, so he directly quotes according to 5-year amortization.

After all, he also knows very well that only Benteler and them can produce hot stamping parts in China.

In this case, it is meaningless to blindly fight a price war.

As long as it maintains an advantage of about ten points over Benteler, it is enough.

To achieve this, in fact, it is enough to reflect the advantages from the mold.

According to the reference information given by the staff at Nanshan Mold, BENTELER imported a set of hot stamping molds from Germany, which cost more than 10 million RMB, which is simply outrageously expensive.

As for the hot stamping mold sold by Nanshan Mold to Huaqiang Factory, the type of B-pillar is one out of two, and it costs about five or six million.

And Guo Shufu reported it to the public in Shanghai, and added 15% of the management fee and 10% of the maintenance fee to the price.

It can be said that if the hot stamping and forming parts of Huaqiang Factory can successfully enter Shanghai Volkswagen, the profit margin can reach more than 20%.

This is still the case when a part of the budget for price reduction negotiations is reserved.

After all, in the procurement of OEMs, before new models are put into production, they will often find suppliers to review and reduce prices again.

"Hassan, I basically understand everything I want to know, why don't we go and see it?"

Bu Defan was quite satisfied with Guo Shufu's answer.

After all, there is no logical problem with this answer.

So soon, everyone entered the stage of on-site confirmation.

The technicians of Huaqiang factory who already have actual production performance can naturally answer these questions with ease.

In the end, Bu Defan and his party came happily and left happily.

Soon, Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory also officially received orders for hot stamping parts from Shanghai Volkswagen.

Of course, that's a later story.

...

"Mr. Cao, our Xingchen Automobile has not been exposed on the Internet for a while. Can you consider disclosing information about the use of hot stamping parts?"

During this period of time, Zhou Yongxiang has been busy with the development of Xingchen Automobile.

The drawings of the first version have been drawn, and the prototypes of the suppliers are also in production.

Soon, the first prototype will be produced.

As long as there are no major problems in the production and assembly of the prototype and some basic tests pass, the supplier can be formally notified to open permanent molds to prepare for large-scale mass production.

"Your suggestion is good. Hot stamping technology is very popular these days, and many consumers who don't pay attention to this knowledge are discussing this topic there."

"Great Wall Motor H6 uses 12-point hot stamping parts, and it has already achieved such excellent results in the crash test."

"As for our Xingchen 1, there are 22 parts that use hot stamping technology, so the safety performance is even more guaranteed."

Cao Yang agreed to Rao Yongxiang's proposal without any hesitation.

Sometimes, how to "leak secrets" during the development of new models is also a good marketing tool.

Don't you see that before the heavyweight models of various OEMs are launched, there will always be some "leaked" camouflage photos.

Although a small part of it was really leaked, it was revealed by internal employees or partners.

But in fact, most of them are the marketing methods of the OEMs themselves.

They deliberately "leaked the secret" by themselves.

"That's right, such a large number of hot stamping parts are used, not to mention in China, even if you look around the world, you can't find a few manufacturers."

"Even the BMW 730 is far from reaching this level. Maybe we can learn from Great Wall Motors and stand on the shoulders of the BMW 730 to win a wave of fame."

Zhou Yongxiang is very confident in the product power of Xingchen 1.

But he is not very confident about the selling price of Xingchen 1.

Because according to what Cao Yang said so far, this car is really aimed at high-end luxury cars.

The price will definitely not be cheap.

"Although this approach can win short-term benefits, it is a bit degrading. I don't intend to do this unless I have to."

"Sometimes blowing out other people's lamps doesn't make us brighter."

"Tearing down each other is also building a wall for yourself."

"If you pour dirty water on others, you will splash mud all over yourself."

Although Great Wall Motors engaged in the Honda business, it was Cao Yang who suggested it to Wang Ying in private.

But it does not mean that he will learn by himself.

The Xingchen car has to go far, and it still needs to use upright methods as much as possible.

Otherwise, it may become a stain in the development process.

You're the one building luxury cars after all.

...

"The new car of Star Motors uses 22-point hot stamping parts, which is too radical."

"Minister, we don't use any hot stamping parts on our next-generation Accord model."

"Will you be criticized by then?"

Yangcheng Honda, Lu Xiangyang and Li Huarong were eating together in the cafeteria, they couldn't help talking about a piece of news they saw this morning.

As the head of the stamping department, he is responsible for both cold stamping parts and hot stamping parts.

Therefore, he pays more attention to topics related to hot stamping on the Internet than ordinary people.

In particular, the CRV of the brother company Xifeng Honda was taken out to flog the corpse and became a stepping stone for the Great Wall H6 model.

This made him even more worried.

"I met the senior management of Honda Huaxia a few days ago and discussed this topic with them."

"From the current point of view, the entire Dongying car company and the models currently under development are not prepared to use hot stamping."

"Of course, it doesn't mean that Toyota and Honda won't improve the body strength."

"As collision-related regulations tighten, the use of high-strength steel will certainly increase."

"However, whether it is Toyota or Honda, they are advancing and using a large number of 980 and 590 high-strength steel plates to meet the collision requirements."

"Theoretically, there is no problem with such a solution, but the weight reduction effect is not as good as that of hot stamping."

"But in terms of cost, there are definitely advantages."

Li Huarong must have more information channels than Lu Xiangyang.

The Huaxia auto market is booming now, and they are naturally worried about whether Yangcheng Honda can keep up with the pace of development.

"I had a conversation with people from Apak in Yangcheng yesterday. Their parent company has also carried out some early research on hot stamping, and the cost will indeed increase a lot."

"However, I think this matter cannot be discussed purely from the perspective of cost when promoting it to the outside world, otherwise consumers will not accept it at all."

"According to my understanding, suppliers from Japan are the strongest in the world in terms of technology accumulation for cold stamping of high-strength steel plates."

"They have now mastered the stamping technology of various high-strength steel plates from 590 to 980. They also have a lot of empirical data on the rebound of steel plates during the stamping process. They can fully consider these factors when designing molds. , so that the produced parts meet the accuracy requirements of the drawings."

"However, some European and American stamping suppliers are not so good at stamping high-strength steel plates."

"That's why they chose a different way of hot stamping to solve the problem of increased stamping difficulty after the strength of the steel plate increases."

"If everyone can accept this point of view, then the debate on hot stamping on the Internet will develop in a direction that is beneficial to us."

When Lu Xiangyang said this, Li Huarong couldn't help but his eyes lit up.

This idea is very good.

We did not use hot stamping, not because my configuration is low and I am reluctant to spend money, but because I have deep technical accumulation in cold stamping, and traditional methods can meet the strength requirements.

The reason why European and American manufacturers and Great Wall Motors are actively promoting hot stamping technology is because they are not good at traditional cold stamping.

This logic is easier to understand than other explanations.