Rebirth 99 to become a car giant

Nanshan Group moved quickly.

July has not yet passed, and the technical solutions and samples of wind power bearings have been produced.

Special steel is naturally provided by Nanshan Special Steel, and no special research is required. Just find a more suitable one among the existing formulas and try it.

As for processing, it is not a special problem for Nanshan Group.

They themselves can produce large-scale forging equipment and stamping equipment, and even have prototypes of various equipment in the factory for debugging and trial production.

Now it is used to produce several wind turbine bearing samples, so there is no problem.

And these movements naturally fell into the eyes of interested people.

"Mr. Fan, ThyssenKrupp doesn't want to cut prices by a penny. It even said that due to the recent increase in steel prices, the price of the next batch of wind turbine bearings will be increased by 10%. We do not rule out the possibility of further increases in the future."

At Modu Electrical Appliances, Fang Hongmei, the director of the purchasing department, reported to general manager Fan Huabo on the procurement status of wind power bearings in a bad mood.

As one of the top equipment companies in the country, Modu Electric naturally regards wind power equipment as one of its key businesses for future development.

However, this seemingly simple device, Modu Electric discovered that it was actually not simple at all.

After years of development, it has only barely reached the 70% localization rate target set by the ministry.

Among them, the most difficult to see hope for localization is the spindle bearing.

Even if manufacturers such as Thyssenkrupp and SKF are producing in China, it is considered domestic production, and Fang Hongmei also sees the possibility of localization.

Because these suppliers simply won’t accept this issue.

Even because of the extremely rapid development of domestic wind power in the past year, bearing prices have increased.

"Where's SKF?"

"Have you asked them for a price?"

In Fan Huabo's view, Mordu Electric does not necessarily have to hang itself on ThyssenKrupp.

After all, although they are the leader in the wind power bearing industry, it is not that there are no other bearing manufacturers that can do it.

"I have also asked SKF, and the price is similar to ThyssenKrupp. We even found Timken in the United States to inquire, but the price offered was higher than ThyssenKrupp."

When Fang Hongmei said this, Fan Huabo's face immediately turned ugly.

As a large equipment manufacturer in China, when has Modu Electric been stuck like this by its suppliers?

In most cases, it's the suppliers who beg them.

If Modu Electric had not been very optimistic about the prospects of wind power equipment and regarded wind power equipment as its next main product, Fan Huabo would not have wanted to make such equipment.

"Can't you handle both Luo Zhu and Wa Zhu?"

"They have also produced large bearings before, so they should have relevant experience."

China is a big bearing country, and its annual output ranks first in the world.

The number of domestic bearing manufacturers is also the largest in the world.

However, the technical level is still far from being the first in the world.

"Wind power bearings are of incomparable importance in wind power equipment. Its accuracy and stability play a vital role in the life of wind turbines."

"Nowadays, wind power equipment continues to become larger, and this trend is becoming more and more obvious."

"As the power of wind power increases, the size of wind power bearings will inevitably increase."

"As a result, the processing difficulty of wind turbine bearings will also increase exponentially, which places more stringent requirements on the company's R\u0026D and production capabilities."

"So far, some of the yaw bearing bushings used to connect the nacelle and the tower, which can track changes in wind direction and improve power generation efficiency, have been produced."

“Pitch bearings that connect the blades to the hub, thereby changing the angle of the blades, can also be produced in part.”

"But the spindle bearing has the largest volume, the highest accuracy requirements, the highest wear resistance requirements, and the highest service life requirements."

“Whether it’s a Wa axis or a Luo axis, we can’t produce it yet.”

“There are only a few companies in the world that can produce this kind of bearings, including ThyssenKrupp, SKF, Timken, Schaeffler, NTT and Toyo Koyo. Among them, the first three account for about 80% of the share. .”

"Domestic spindle bearings are basically made by these three manufacturers."

Fang Hongmei gave Fan Huabo a brief explanation, but this situation obviously still did not satisfy Fan Huabo.

"I remember that high-speed rail bearings were previously controlled by several foreign bearing manufacturers such as Schaeffler and SKF. Later, Nanshan Bearing made a breakthrough in this technology."

"Can't Nanshan Bearing produce this kind of wind power bearing?"

When Fan Huabo said this, Fang Hongmei's expression became a little tangled.

If she had asked this question a month earlier, she could have said with certainty that "Nanshan Bearing cannot make it."

But she also saw some news released by Nanshan Group in the past few days. The other party said that it had the production capacity of wind power bearings.

Fang Hongmei expressed a certain degree of doubt about this statement.

She feels that Nanshan Bearing has just begun to research this kind of parts, and there is still a long way to go before it can actually mass-produce wind power bearings.

Of course, these are all her personal guesses.

Fan Huabo is a smart man. When he saw Fang Hongmei's expression, he knew there must be a story in it.

However, he was not in a hurry and did not continue to ask questions. Instead, he gave Fang Hongmei enough time to think.

"Mr. Fan, I have never heard that Nanshan Bearing has engaged in research related to wind power bearings before."

"However, in recent days, the other party has stated that it has made a breakthrough in wind power bearing technology."

"Our purchasing department is going to contact the other party and go to the site to see what is going on with their wind power bearings."

"Generally speaking, it takes at least three years for spindle bearings to be produced from small batches to large-scale production, because this also includes the customer's verification process of product stability."

"So we still have a long way to go in replacing high-power spindle bearings with domestic ones."

"Traditional overseas giants such as SKF and Thyssenkrupp have the courage not to lower prices or even increase prices based on this industry experience."

Fang Hongmei obviously didn't think that Nanshan Bearing's far water could not quench her near thirst.

Nanshan Bearing's technology in small bearings is quite powerful, but the difficulty of large bearings and small bearings is completely different.

"Is the difficulty of this bearing really that high?"

Fan Huabo's question should be a question in many people's minds.

How can one bearing stump so many manufacturers in China?

However, Fang Hongmei's answer was not optimistic at all.

"Wind power bearings are all large bearings, and the trend in the future is to become larger and larger."

"Large size means higher load, coupled with high rotation speed and long running time, these require comprehensive upgrades in design, materials, hot and cold treatment processes, inspections, tests, etc., and also require more changes in production equipment and testing equipment. for demanding requirements.”

"In addition, in addition to wind load, the main shaft bearing also has to bear the gravity load of the main shaft and impeller, and the working conditions are complex."

“During design, the bearings are required to have good impact resistance, flexible alignment performance, and excellent raceway fatigue resistance.”

"In addition to design issues, materials are also a big difficulty."

"This material has very high requirements on fatigue life, which is closely related to the type, size and distribution of non-metallic inclusions in the raw material."

“Among them, brittle inclusions and large particle inclusions have the greatest impact on life.”

"Therefore, how to further improve the cleanliness of bearing steel, reduce the content and size of inclusions in the steel, and improve the uniformity of carbides has become the focus."

"In addition, the hardness, strength, and core toughness of the spindle bearing are closely related to material selection."

"In order to improve the hardness of the parts and ensure consistent hardness between the core and the surface, the material is required to have good hardenability, hardenability and process adaptability."

"It's very difficult to completely break through these things."

Although Fang Hongmei is engaged in procurement, she is still relatively familiar with the basic technical requirements.

Becoming a buyer with the qualities of an engineer was the goal she pursued in her early years.

"In addition, although the situation in terms of technology is not that serious, the manufacturing process of larger megawatt spindle bearings is much more difficult, such as cold processing dimensional accuracy, heat treatment deformation, rolling element modification, raceway convexity, and material internal structure control. Better surface treatment technology, including how to solve boundary friction and lubrication problems after the intervention of external contaminants.”

“These are not projects that Luozhou and Wazhou can handle now.”

Fan Huabo heard all about difficulties, and the more he listened, the more irritated he became. He couldn't help but said angrily: "Then are we going to let manufacturers like SKF and Thyssen be manipulated?"

"Their prices in the past were already high enough to make a profit, right?"

"Why are you still so greedy?"

Although Fan Huabo is not sure how much a wind power bearing costs, he can tell that there is a huge difference between the cost and selling price after thinking about it.

Now the price is actually going up!

There is no justice anymore!

"As long as no domestic manufacturer can produce wind power bearings, these manufacturers can live a very comfortable life."

"Can't we make domestic manufacturers strive to make a breakthrough?"

"It's hard!"

"Did you just say that Nanshan Bearing said they developed their own wind turbine bearings?"

"Yes, but that's just what they said, no one has ever used it!"

"Nanshan Group is not that kind of unreliable company. It has won the National Science and Technology Award countless times. Since they dare to say that they have developed wind power bearings, they must have developed it."

Regarding Fan Huabo's words, Fang Hongmei remained silent.

Naturally, she also hopes that Nanshan Group will really develop the bearings she wants.

But based on past knowledge, she felt that this possibility was very low.

"Go and contact the other party. I will personally lead a team to communicate with Nanshan Group. As long as they can really develop wind power bearings, all future wind power bearing orders from Modu Electric will be handed over to them!"

Fan Huabo felt that he wanted to give it a try!

The key is that based on his past understanding of Nanshan Group, the probability of success this time is relatively high.

After all, after all these years, Nanshan Group seems to have never failed?

He didn't believe that Nanshan Group's first time would fall on him.

Fang Hongmei naturally felt the anger of her boss. At this time, other than obediently making arrangements, it was inappropriate to say anything.

Soon, the inspection team from Modu Electrical Appliances officially set off. Cao Yang from the Nanshan Group also took Dai Hanbiao and others to personally receive them, saying that they took it very seriously.

After all, during this period of time, although many manufacturers have been inquiring about wind power bearings, some have also arranged to come over for inspection.

But the inspection team from Modu Electric was the highest level.

And Modu Electric is also the largest in size.

"Mr. Cao, has Nanshan Group really developed wind turbine bearings?"

After a brief exchange of pleasantries, Fan Huabo went straight to the topic and wanted to confirm the issue he was most concerned about first.

After all, this is the premise of all communication content below.

If Nanshan Group had never developed wind power bearings, Fan Huabo would definitely not have the confidence to bet all his money on them.

"Mr. Fan, how about we go directly to visit the workshop first?"

"There are several samples of wind turbine bearings there, and I specially arranged to trial-produce a part today."

Fan Huabo attaches great importance to this trip to Nanshan, and Cao Yang also attaches great importance to this breakthrough of Modu Electric.

Just as Fang Hongmei is worried about, many people actually have doubts about whether Nanshan Bearing can produce qualified wind turbine bearings.

Now we need a suitable opportunity to break this situation.

Fan Huabo naturally supported Cao Yang's proposal with both hands and feet.

Soon, a group of people arrived at the workshop.

"Mr. Cao, I have to say that your on-site management of the workshop is very good."

"It's the same workshop. Some manufacturers look dirty and noisy, but yours looks clean and tidy. It doesn't look like a Chinese company."

Fan Huabo has also been to the sites of many manufacturers, especially those that make castings and forgings.

The working environment of these manufacturers is often quite harsh.

Correspondingly, the scene will not look tidy and clean.

After all, it's not an electronics factory. All kinds of big guys are roaring in the workshop. It's strange that the environment is good.

"Without bragging, all the factories in our group are built towards benchmark factories."

"Next time you come over, let's visit Nanshan Robot's unmanned factory. It will definitely feel more different."

Be humble when you should be humble, and there is nothing to be humble about when you shouldn't be humble.

Cao Yang is naturally relatively clear about this situation.

It’s not a bad thing for Modu Electric to see the strength of Nanshan Group.

"Unmanned factory?"

"I only heard about this concept overseas. I didn't expect that Nanshan Group is also building unmanned factories."

"The investment in this equipment is not small, right?"

After all, Fan Huabo is also the CEO of one of the top equipment giants in China, so he naturally has some knowledge.

This saves Cao Yang from saying too many meaningless words.

Just say a few numbers.

"Preliminary estimates indicate that the equipment investment in this factory is more than 500 million yuan. This is because a large amount of equipment produced by our group is used."

"If the same factory was placed overseas, the investment would definitely exceed 1 billion yuan."

"And this factory is only the first unmanned factory of Nanshan Group, and it is neither big nor small in scale."

"In the future, we expect to invest in larger unmanned factories, and the investment will reach several billion yuan."

Management is an art.

The more people there are, the higher the importance of management.

For production factories, it is definitely necessary to prevent workers from being disobedient as much as possible.

As a capitalist, if you can replace workers with equipment, then it will definitely be more convenient to manage equipment than to manage workers.

Of course, the premise is that the equipment investment cannot be too expensive.

Otherwise the capitalists are not stupid.

"We are very confident in the strength of Nanshan Group. If your company can solve the problem of localization of wind power bearings, it will definitely be of great significance to the development of China's wind power industry."

"I see that the production line of your bearing workshop has a high degree of automation. It is fully equipped with high-precision CNC lathes, double-end grinders, manipulators, robots and other equipment. It has a much higher coverage of high-precision equipment than other domestic bearing manufacturers."

While visiting the factory, Fan Huabo exchanged his views with Cao Yang.

"Not only are the production lines better than other manufacturers, our testing equipment is also leading in the country."

"Like this test bench, it can simulate working conditions, monitor temperature rise, grease cleanliness, loading stress, etc. through accelerated fatigue, and finally disassemble and inspect the bearing wear status to verify whether it meets the design goals."

"In terms of testing equipment, we originally have phased array ultrasonic flaw detectors, roundness meters, profile meters, three-dimensional coordinates and other testing equipment, which are basically no different from foreign companies."

Cao Yang personally introduced Fan Huabo, and the treatment was definitely very high.

"Behind the wind power bearings, basic disciplines such as mechanics and tribology are involved. Practical technical issues such as design and processing need to be considered. The requirements for reliability, service life, and safety are very high. To produce high-quality bearings, these technologies need to be overcome. barrier."

"Mr. Cao, it is actually very difficult to produce wind power bearings that surpass manufacturers such as SKF."

Fan Huabo actually gradually gained confidence in his heart.

However, he still expressed his concerns.

Cao Yang naturally had a way to resolve this issue.

The group of people went directly to a laboratory, where a large bearing with a length of 3 meters was being tested.

There is also a record sheet next to it to record some previous test data.

Fan Huabo may not be very clear about these data, but Fang Hongmei definitely feels it after reading it.

Sure enough, when Fang Hongmei saw the situation in this laboratory, she couldn't help but interrupt immediately: "Mr. Cao, your parts have such high precision, what kind of heat treatment process are you using?"

Cao Yang was waiting for Fang Hongmei's question.

So without any hesitation, he answered with a smile: "Our wind turbine bearings are heat treated using induction heating."

"The service life of bearings quenched by induction heating is 10% to 20% longer than that of bearings quenched and tempered in a furnace."

"At the same time, the supporting equipment occupies a small area, saves energy, and facilitates mechanization. More importantly, induction hardening has the advantages of small distortion of parts, no soft zones, less oxidation and decarburization, and high production efficiency."

“Based on the above advantages, the induction hardening process has certain advantages over the traditional carburizing process in terms of bearing performance, efficiency, and cost.”

"I believe that this process route will become a new trend in wind power bearing technology in the future, and other companies will follow suit and adopt this solution."

"We at Nanshan Group have never passively imitated other people's production processes and localized simple products."

"We have always integrated the spirit of innovation into the development and production of each of our products to provide customers with products that exceed customer expectations."

"Either we don't make wind power bearings. If we do, we must be the first."

"Whether it's SKF or Timken, if we can beat them in the field of automotive bearings, we can naturally surpass them in the field of wind power bearings."

Cao Yang's tone was full of confidence.

Nanshan Group is definitely hated among those foreign giants.

Because it has to compete for the first place in everything, international giants lose their traditional technological advantages and cannot make money on their own.

In the past, high-speed rail bearings looked like this, the CNC systems of machine tools looked like this, and carbon fiber looked like this.

In terms of electromagnetic bearings, it is obvious that we will continue to develop them.

"Mr. Cao, if we place an order for your company to produce a few samples now, when will they be available soon?"

Fan Huabo is now more and more confident.

My trip to Nanshan this time was very meaningful.

"In a month at most, we can send the samples to the workshop of Modu Electric."

Wind power equipment is not like other products. Dozens and hundreds of sets are produced every day.

Therefore, as long as Modu Electric starts placing sample orders for Nanshan Group, it basically means that installation has begun.

It is impossible for Modu Electric to produce several pieces of equipment and put them there just to test a few parts.

This cost is too high, even a large company like Modu Electric Co., Ltd. will not be able to bear it.

"Mr. Cao, when I get back, I will send you the relevant technical requirements, and then you will also provide a technical plan and a formal quotation, and then we will discuss the next step?"

Fang Hongmei interrupted again at the right time.

The price hasn't been agreed upon yet, so she definitely doesn't want to lose the initiative.

However, although Nanshan Group wants to make a lot of money in the field of wind power bearings, it will definitely not be as shady as SKF.

We didn’t sell bearings worth 1 million yuan to 100,000 yuan as soon as we started. That would scare customers away.

"No matter what type of wind turbine bearing you ask for from SKF or ThyssenKrupp, we can be at least 30% cheaper than them."

"And our lead times will definitely be shorter than theirs."

The price has been lowered too much.

But it has no price impact at all, and it certainly won’t work.

That would make Modu Electric lose the motivation to promote the localization of bearings.

Cao Yang's current 30% cost advantage is acceptable to all parties, even if it is a relatively balanced figure.

After all, this is the first time Nanshan Group has started producing wind power bearings, and Modu Electric does not want to push the price too hard.

When the time comes, it will be their loss if the Nanshan Group is scared away.

What Cao Yang has not yet considered is that the wind power bearing business will invisibly bring a new opportunity to Nanshan Group.