Economic Herald reporter Du Yang
At this year's Winter Olympics, the snow wax car produced in Shandong stole the show, and the composite material on the car that can withstand impact in an ultra-low temperature environment of -55°C is exactly Developed in cooperation with Shandong Hualing Cable Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shandong Hualing"). Among the many cable companies in my country, Shandong Hualing does not rank first in terms of scale and sales. However, this company located in Jinan Shengjing High-Tech Park occupies the high-end technology of the cable industry.
At the beginning of its establishment, Shandong Hualing was limited by its small factory area and chose to achieve a breakthrough in the field of special cables . Later, it civilianized the special cable standard and created the first 70-year-long-life building wire and cable in the country, " Hualing Cable "" is also among the first batch of " good products Shandong " brand list.
Pan Maolong, chief engineer of Shandong Hualing, said that the core of special cables lies in the comprehensive performance of polymer materials. At present, Shandong Hualing is also using the research and development and application of polymer materials as a fulcrum to solve the difficulties and pain points in rail transit, high-speed rail and other fields, and produce high-quality products such as snow wax cars for Shandong.
(Hualing Cable is a supplier to China General Nuclear Power Corporation and many other companies. The picture shows Unit 1 of CGN Guangxi Fangchengang Nuclear Power Plant)
Breakthrough from the field of special cables
About 2005, as the number of motor vehicles increased significantly, Jinan began to The configuration of the signal lights is set according to the traffic flow, which requires the use of special signal feed lines.
This feeder line may seem inconspicuous, but because of the complex electromagnetic environment around it, special design is needed to avoid the " skin effect "; at that time, this technology was only available to overseas companies, so importing this feeder was not only expensive It is expensive, the delivery time is uncertain, and it may not be completely suitable for Jinan's traffic conditions. According to today's words, it is a "stuck" technology.
At that time, Shandong Hualing was just a small factory located on Beiyuan Street in Jinan, covering an area of only a few acres. However, Shandong Hualing suddenly acquired this "stuck neck" technology and provided services to Jinan and even the whole country. The urban transportation construction has added core competitiveness.
"The profit of special cables is higher than that of ordinary cables; and through the localization of related products, we have also saved customers a lot of foreign exchange." Pan Maolong told the Economic Herald reporter that it is this "win-win" that makes Shandong Hualing determined Take the development route of special cables.
At that time, Shandong Hualing’s positioning was to make achievements in differentiated business segments that large companies were unwilling to do and small businesses were unable to do. But in Pan Maolong’s view, the orientation of the domestic environment is another reason for companies to take the innovative development path of special cables: “It was also in those years that the country vigorously developed wind power, photovoltaics and other renewable energy sources, and our company also responded to national policies. Carry out research and development of new energy wires and cables. "
" It is precisely because of this decision that "Hualing Cable" has established its "good product" status: because of its experience in the production and research and development of new energy special wires and cables, it began to develop nuclear power plants in 2007. The cable passed the provincial and ministerial appraisal in 2008, and then in August 2012, it was granted a license from the National Nuclear Safety Administration to develop cables for third-generation nuclear power plants. After successful product development, it obtained the license issued by the National Nuclear Safety Administration in 2016. Nuclear safety design and manufacturing license.
"We have received support after undertaking national tasks, so we have invested heavily in research and development funds." Pan Maolong believes that it is precisely because of this that Shandong Hualing has developed and produced internationally leading third-generation nuclear power cables.
Bringing "nuclear power quality" to the civilian field
According to Pan Maolong, the structure of wires and cables can be roughly divided into three parts: conductor, insulation layer and protective layer; and the reason why special wires and cables are "special" is reflected in the protective layer .
Take the cables used in nuclear power plants as an example. Cables not only need to transmit power under high temperature, high pressure, and high radiation conditions, but also need to accurately transmit electrical signals. There are also technical specifications required to resist interference, and these are the protective layers of special cables. kick in.
During the research and development process, Shandong Hualing also encountered a difficulty: there is no source of β-ray in China, and it is impossible to simulate the working conditions inside the nuclear island . "Later, with the assistance of , Chinese Academy of Sciences, and other departments, beta rays were generated through an existing ray, and our products finally passed the radiation test." Pan Maolong said.
The cooperation with the Chinese Academy of Sciences does not stop there. Shandong Hualing has also realized radiation cross-linking of protective layer polymer materials, rubber vulcanization , and irradiation production through the former's DiNano accelerator, which has greatly expanded the company's products. , consolidating the position of "Hualing Cable" in the industry.
Although it has developed smoothly in the field of special cables, Shandong Hualing has not forgotten development and transformation. “In 2011, the Fukushima earthquake brought the construction of global nuclear power plants to a standstill, and this also prompted us to think about whether our scientific research results can be used in more fields. Achieve industrial application in a wide range of civilian fields?" Pan Maolong said.
There are many civil fields that urgently need the application of scientific research results. Take the construction industry as an example: Since the 1990s, my country has built a large number of commercial buildings and began to change the wiring method from open wire to hidden wire. However, it is limited by many reasons such as technology, process, and materials. , the service life of national standard products is only 25-30 years, which is far lower than the design life of the house. Shandong Hualing adopts nuclear power standards, uses heterogeneous double-layer insulation structure, radiation cross-linking, and special polymer materials to successfully develop long-life, green, and environmentally friendly high-performance wires and cables, extending the life of building wires and cables to 70 years. , which solves the pain point of mismatch between the existing wire and cable products and the life of the building.
Since then, Shandong Hualing has also presided over the drafting of two industry standards for high-performance cables to promote the upgrade of civil cable standards; in 2021, the Shandong Provincial Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Provincial Market Supervision and Administration Bureau jointly issued the Shandong Provincial Engineering Construction Standard: " Green Building Evaluation Standard " and "Green Building Design Standard", long-life wires and cables are included in the green building evaluation and design standards.
Pan Maolong said that adhering to this concept, Shandong Hualing continues to promote special wires and cables in the high-precision field to the civilian field. "We have developed bending-resistant materials and developed robot wire harnesses that can be bent more than 10 million times. It has reached the international advanced level.
extends from polymer materials
As mentioned above, the core of special wires and cables is the protective layer, and the protective layer is mainly a polymer material with properties such as high temperature resistance, oil resistance, corrosion resistance, and anti-interference. .
However, the application fields of polymer materials are not just cable protective layers. The reason why the snow wax car used in the Winter Olympics can operate normally in an ultra-low temperature environment of -55℃ is due to the composite materials specially developed by Shandong Hualing. .
In 2015, Shandong Hualing and Shandong Academy of Sciences jointly established Shandong Kehua Saibon New Materials Co., Ltd., which mainly develops lightweight, ultra-low temperature, reinforced, toughened and other high-performance composite materials and related products. It is not difficult to see that these requirements are very similar to those for special wires and cables. Before taking the initiative to undertake the task of special development of ultra-low temperature bumpers and treads for snow wax vehicles, the company had developed 12 new materials such as ultra-low temperature high-flow composite materials and ultra-low temperature nylon materials at minus 40°C for rail transit, solving problems in rail transit, high-speed rail, etc. Difficulties and pain points in the field.
In addition to the limelight-stealing snow wax truck, the most important weapon in preventing and controlling the new crown epidemic - masks also embodies the efforts of Shandong Hualing's R&D personnel. In the first half of 2020, after receiving a notice from the Industry and Information Technology Department, Hualing Cable immediately organized key personnel to carry out technical research. It took only a week to draw the mold drawings of the nose bridge strip; within a month, it developed a melt-blown layer that improves the mask Special electret masterbatch with filtration efficiency exceeding 95%.
Now Shandong Hualing has extended its business from cable R&D, production, sales and installation to the R&D and sales of various lightweight, ultra-low temperature, reinforced, toughened and other high-performance composite materials.
Pan Maolong hopes that in the future, the "good products" produced by Shandong Hualing will be more than just cables; products made of various light, tough, low-temperature-resistant polymer materials will continue to add color to the "good products of Shandong."
| Entrepreneur Interview | Liang Zhiyin: Propping up "half the sky" in the special cable industry
Economic Herald reporter Du Yang
As a national high-tech enterprise, Shandong Hualing Cable Co., Ltd. plays an important role in the field of special wires and cables; and as a female enterprise Liang Zhiyin, chairman of the company, relied on the unique sensitivity and dedication of women to lead the company from a small factory covering an area of only "three and a half acres" to today, which can be said to hold up "half the sky" of the special cable industry.
Economic Herald reporter : When you started your business, what kind of opportunity did you get to enter the wire and cable industry? How did you later become “mastery” of this industry?
Liang Zhiyin : In the early 1990s, I opened a small hotel near Jinan Daming Lake Railway Station. One morning when I was making the bed and changing the sheets, I overheard a tourist chatting and said that there was a company on Beiyuan Road in Jinan City that acted as an agent for him in wires and cables and that the business was doing very well. At that time, I asked him directly: Can’t I be your agent? I'll open a hotel here, so you can easily find me if you want. He said yes. That's how I got into the cable industry.
At that time, in 1992, Beiyuan Road already had an electrical and mechanical street, so I would often ride a bicycle from east to west to learn about the market. Later, in order to understand the manufacturing process and pricing principles of cables, I went to Xinhua Bookstore on Quancheng Road, Jinan City, and purchased a set of books on electromechanical aspects. I learned while running, and this is how I came along step by step.
Economic Herald reporter : How did your company transform from a cable agent to a manufacturer? What business concepts have been passed down to this day?
Liang Zhiyin : The hardships of starting a business are self-evident, but after the company got on the right track, a new idea formed in my mind: When can I have my own brand? With this idea in mind, I rented three and a half acres of land in Huangqiao Industrial Park, Beiyuan Road, founded Hualing Cable, and started producing my own products.
When the company was founded, it was a "three-no" company: no capital, no technology, and no talent. At that time, the company's positioning was to do what large companies were unwilling to do and small companies could not do. Differentiated companies were segmenting. It is easy to make achievements in the field. Everyone who runs a business will encounter various difficulties. Since you have chosen this career, you must grit your teeth and persist. We must develop products that satisfy customers without causing any trouble to them.
Economic Herald reporter : Initially, Hualing was a company that produced ordinary cables. How did it later enter the special cable industry?
| Liang Zhiyin : As mentioned just now, we are determined to develop products that satisfy customers. At that time, we had a customer from the steel industry. Since ordinary cables are not heat-resistant, the staff have to endure high temperatures of one to two thousand degrees Celsius every month. It's a lot of trouble to replace the cable three times. For this reason, the customer hopes that Shandong Hualing Cable will develop a new cable that can withstand the test of high temperature and should preferably be replaced once a month. In response to the customer's pain points, we immediately organized technical staff to conduct research and finally developed a new cable product that only needs to be replaced every two months. After using the new products, customers praised Shandong Hualing greatly, which also made us feel deeply honored and determined to continue on the road of innovation.
Later, when the financial crisis hit in 2008, we decided to adjust our product structure from the field of special cables.In 2012, we undertook the research and development and production of third-generation nuclear power cables. Through the joint efforts of our technical team and external teams, we finally overcame this "stuck neck" technology and achieved the localization of raw materials, breaking the foreign precedent. technology monopoly.
Economic Herald reporter : Enterprise development will not always be smooth sailing. When you encounter difficulties in R&D, funding, market development, etc., how do you overcome the past?
Liang Zhiyin: Let me take the research and development and production of mask nose strips by enterprises as an example. The sudden epidemic in 2020 has had a great impact on society and caused great difficulties to business operations. As an entrepreneur, I feel that we should support the "fight against the epidemic" without hesitation. After learning that the mask nose bridge strips had become a bottleneck restricting mask production, we immediately organized a meeting to conduct "cross-border" R&D and production of mask nose bridge strips at all costs while ensuring that the company's epidemic prevention work was done well.
I initially thought that with the ability of our team to develop cables, could such a small thing as a nose bridge be removed? It turned out that it was like a mountain apart! The craftsmanship of the small nose bridge strip is too complicated. It has a crescent-shaped cross-section. If the curvature is not enough, it will be soft, and if it exceeds the curvature, it will be hard, and the fit will not be good. But with an unyielding determination, we still conquered the nose bridge craftsmanship. So, how do you overcome difficulties? It means having the energy to overcome difficulties.
Economic Herald reporter : How does the company attract talents and ensure continuous innovation results?
Liang Zhiyin : Talent is the driving force for enterprise development. This has long been a consensus in the industry. So we joined forces with the Shandong Academy of Sciences and introduced and the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences to create the "China-Belarus New Materials Industrial Park". Through the industrial park, scientific research results are continuously exported to promote the development of enterprises.
Economic Herald reporter : As a female entrepreneur, she must not only develop her own career, but also take into account family responsibilities. What are the advantages and disadvantages of female entrepreneurs?
| Liang Zhiyin : Take myself as an example, I have not been understood by my family and friends when running a business, I have also experienced cynicism from my colleagues in the industry, and I have faced economic crises , but I have embraced challenges, used passion to achieve my dreams, and never give up and persevere. to date. So I think when women run a business, they must first be independent and have strong willpower. Secondly, women are generally dedicated, which is an advantage in running a business. In addition, women are naturally more sensitive to many things, pay attention to details, have keen intuition about the market, and seize every market opportunity. These are women's advantages.
(Hualing Cable is displaying polymer materials)
Corporate face | Three and a half acres of small factory area out of national high-tech enterprise
Shandong Hualing was established in 1997. It just started in an industrial park near Jinan Beiyuan Road. The factory area is only "three and a half acres" and the team only has more than ten people.
In the early days of its establishment, due to the small factory area, it was difficult to win by scale, so Shandong Hualing embarked on a development path of R&D and production of special wires and cables to achieve market dislocation competition.
In 2006, Shandong Hualing moved into the Shengjing High-tech Park located on Jingshi East Road, Jinan City, and began a period of rapid development. Now it is a national-level high-tech enterprise integrating the R&D, production, sales and installation of wires and cables. technology companies.
The current Shandong Hualing factory covers an area of more than 500 acres, with a construction area of more than 80,000 square meters. It has more than 300 of the most advanced fully automatic production lines at home and abroad, and more than 100 sets of internationally advanced testing equipment. There are currently 650 employees, including more than 260 senior engineers and professional technicians in different fields such as wires, cables, nuclear physics, communications, chemicals, and polymers.
The company has the ability to independently develop new cables, and has obtained more than 10 invention patents such as coil feed lines, digital monitoring comprehensive cables, and nuclear power plant cables. It has successively passed "ISO9001 quality management system certification ", "3C compulsory certification" and "ISO10012 measurement Management system ", "ISO14001 environmental management system certification ", etc., were recognized as standardized good behavior enterprises, and became the standing director unit of the Cable Professional Committee of Jinan Quality Association, a member of the Wire and Cable Branch of the China Electrical Industry Association, and a member unit of the Fire Protection Industry Committee of the Shandong Fire Protection Association. .
Enterprises actively recruit talents. In 2013, Shandong Hualing teamed up with the Belarusian National Academy of Sciences, the Shandong Provincial Academy of Sciences, Jinan Rail Transit Group and others to jointly build Shandong’s first M0 new industrial demonstration park, integrating e-commerce, culture and entertainment, modern services and other supporting facilities, with technology R&D and application, green intelligent manufacturing, new material research and development, rail transit, high-end equipment, smart logistics , etc. are the leading industries, and have the functions of integrating the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, gathering high-quality resources, and building a service ecosystem. (Herald Reporter Du Yang)
Reporter’s Notes | Enterprise innovation must identify key points
Innovation is an important driver of sustainable development of enterprises, there is no doubt about this. However, when the development of an enterprise begins to take shape, talents are needed in all positions, and it will take time to straighten out daily business processes, let alone innovation.
When an enterprise has developed to a mature stage, if it wants to innovate, it must identify key points. Shandong Hualing has done a good job.
To identify the key points of innovation, we must first base ourselves on the current situation of the enterprise, especially the shortcomings of the enterprise. Some companies have little capital, and some companies are short of talents. It is not realistic for all companies to take the route of large-scale development.
Secondly, it is necessary to accurately study and judge the market context. Take the cable industry as an example. At the beginning of this century, Shandong's cable market developed rapidly, and well-known brands emerged one after another. However, the market demand for special cables was insufficient at this stage, so there was a possibility that companies would compete with for . Because of this, Shandong Hualing chose to switch to the production of special cables needed in the new energy field under the unfavorable situation of limited scale. Later, it realized the localization of the in-shell cables of the third-generation nuclear power plant. In hindsight, Shandong Hualing’s decision to switch to special cable production was based on an accurate study and judgment of the market.
Based on the judgment of the current situation of the enterprise and the market context, it is not difficult to find the key points of innovation.
After innovation begins to bear fruit, how to normalize innovation and make it a sustainable driving force for enterprise development? Shandong Hualing’s approach is also worthy of reference: relying on external teams, cooperating with scientific research institutes for research and development, and building and operating industrial parks are all critical choices.
In short, the key to enterprise innovation is to find the point that suits itself and the market rules; cooperate extensively to achieve effective innovation. (Herald reporter Du Yang)
