Everyone is familiar with the term special steel.

But what is special steel?

I'm afraid it's a bit difficult to answer accurately.

Actually, this is also normal.

Because there is no unified definition and concept of special steel in the world.

It is generally believed that special steel refers to a special chemical composition, which is generally alloyed; Steels that are produced by special processes, have special structures and properties, and can meet special needs. ’

It's as if he didn't say it.

In short, for Nanshan, most of the various steels used in their products are special steels.

For example, bearing steel, gear steel, these are one of the most typical special steels.

In recent years, Nanshan's special steel has been purchased.

Through a variety of heat and surface treatments, the required performance of the parts is achieved as much as possible.

But the parts produced in this way must have certain limitations.

For example, bearings, some smaller bearings, you can improve the properties of the special steel purchased by heat treatment and surface treatment.

However, the special steel used in parts such as crankshafts on large molds and large presses cannot be fully met by heat treatment and surface treatment alone.

It was in this context that Nanshan found Shaogang and entrusted the other party to help him build a special steel mill with an annual output of 300,000 tons.

After more than a year of tossing, the construction of this special steel mill was finally completed.

Originally, the offline ceremony could be carried out in May, but due to special reasons such as inconvenient travel in Yangcheng, it was delayed to the end of June, and it was finally possible to officially hold a production ceremony.

"Mr. Cao, if the components on our gearbox use the materials produced by our own special steel mills, the cost can be further reduced by about 5 points."

"However, switching materials needs to be recognized by customers, and the production capacity of special steel mills may not be able to explode immediately in the short term."

For such an important event, Ji Hua naturally wanted to follow Cao Yang to participate.

However, he felt that throughout 2003, the mass-produced gearbox would not necessarily be able to use the materials of special steel mills.

After all, after the special steel is produced, it needs to be produced into a gearbox, and then the SPEC test of each single product and assembly is carried out, and even the durability test of the real car must be installed on the whole vehicle.

This work is completely impossible to accomplish without three or five months.

"This is really a problem, not only on the gearbox, but also on the bearings, gears and nut plates, bolts and nuts and other parts to be switched, but also need to be approved by the customer."

"Unless we offer a significant price reduction response, there is not much incentive for customers to move forward with this."

"I think the sales department is not promoting the material switch in combination with the customer's annual price reduction?"

"In this way, the other party's enthusiasm will be higher."

Zhang Fugui's current work focuses on Autohome, but he is still paying attention to the special steel side.

As the former head of the sales department, he can fully understand Ji Hua's worries.

"The words of Professor Ji and Mr. Zhang are quite reasonable, this year due to special reasons, many of our annual price reduction plans have not yet given a formal reply to customers."

"It's just this opportunity to ask the other party to help me promote the material switching thing internally."

"However, before making a material switch, the customer will definitely ask everyone to make a series of comparisons between the performance of the materials originally used and the materials used now."

"Whether it is chemical composition, tensile strength, hardness, metallographic structure, etc., or the corrosion resistance, acid and alkali resistance of materials, it is necessary for special steel mills to do a good job here."

"Then the factories of the individual parts do the relevant tests well."

"A few months like that might have passed."

"I think it's okay to give priority to using materials from special steel mills in the mold center, and then consider selling some special steel to the outside world at the same time."

"Let's get our steel mills up and running first."

Zeng Tingting is naturally very aware of everyone's worries, and she doesn't want to put all the pressure on the sales department.

Therefore, a more feasible plan was proposed.

"Mr. Cao, aren't we going to hold the 'Nanshan Science and Technology Day' on June 30?"

"I think it's possible to show some new breakthroughs in special steel at the Technology Day, and also recommend them to some customers."

The group was riding in a Coaster, and Mi Ying was naturally in the car.

In fact, if Cao Yang was not in this car, maybe other ministers would take this opportunity to close their eyes and rest.

But the boss is next to him, so everyone must behave well.

So I wasn't idle along the way.

And when the people of Nanshan were discussing the affairs of the special steel mill, the people of Shaogang were not idle.

"Chief Engineer Xie, do you think this special steel mill we helped build in Nanshan really help us consume 300,000 tons of crude steel every year?"

Deep down, Chen Qingwen is actually not so optimistic about the prospects of Nanshan Special Steel.

In 2003, Huaxia's steel production is expected to reach 450 million tons, making it the world's largest steel producer.

Due to the overproduction of steel in China and the fierce competition in the market, steel prices have been at a low level.

In 2003, steel prices generally showed a downward trend, especially the prices of cold-rolled plates, rebar and other varieties fell significantly.

However, at a time when steel prices are falling, there is an event that has an important impact on the steel market - the "iron ore negotiations".

Due to the rapid growth of China's steel production, Huaxia has become the world's largest consumer of iron ore.

However, BHP's iron ore suppliers have always held the pricing power, and the price of iron ore for China has been rising.

In 2003, the Huaxia Iron and Steel Association conducted the first iron ore negotiations with iron ore suppliers in Australia and Bahia, and finally reached an agreement on price increases.

What are the implications of this?

The price of flour has risen, and the price of bread has fallen......

Life at the steel mill is even more difficult.

Especially local steel mills and private steel mills.

"Nanshan now produces a large number of auto parts and molds by itself, and has a relatively large demand for special steel."

"Although the production capacity of special steel mills may not be able to fully explode in the short term, I think there is still an opportunity to help us consume 300,000 crude steel from next year."

"After all, people themselves are big consumers of special steel."

Xie Lingyun is the person in charge of the construction of the Nanshan Special Steel Mill arranged by Shaogang in the past, so he naturally has to be optimistic about the future of this factory.

So no matter who asks him, no matter what he really thinks in his heart, he must say good things.

"The first furnace of molten iron came out last month, and some bearing steel and gear steel were also produced on a small scale."

"What about the properties of those special steels?"

Chen Qingwen asked casually, in his opinion, Nanshan Special Steel is based on the construction of Shaogang Special Steel Plant, and the performance of special steel should be similar to that of Shaogang.

However, Xie Lingyun's reaction was a little strange.

I saw that he was a little entangled and said: "Mr. Chen, although we are responsible for assisting in the construction of the special steel plant, the alloy formula of the special steel is directly operated by Nanshan's technicians. ”

"We don't know their formula; Even some of the parameters of the processing process, they have given different settings from us. ”

Special steel may need to improve strength, hardness, toughness, corrosion resistance, wear resistance and other properties, so the formula will contain different elements, such as carbon, manganese, chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, titanium, vanadium, etc., different proportions and addition methods of these elements can determine the properties and composition of special steel.

In addition, the processing process of special steels can also affect their properties.

Special steels usually need to be treated by cold working, hot working, heat treatment and other processes to meet different application needs.

Different processing processes can lead to changes in the microstructure and properties of special steels to achieve the desired performance requirements.

Therefore, the properties of special steels are mainly determined by the chemical composition and processing technology.

Nanshan Special Steel was built and operated with the help of Shaogang, and it is difficult to hide the parameter setting of the processing technology.

So Nanshan simply didn't hide it.

For example, heat treatment, I set such a temperature and condition, you can learn if you want to, anyway, you can't ask anything.

However, the addition of alloying elements such as manganese, chromium, molybdenum, tungsten, titanium, and vanadium is the secret of Nanshan.

As long as this secret is not learned by Shaogang, it is impossible for them to produce the same high-performance special steel as Nanshan.

There is no way, I taught the apprentice, starving the master, Nanshan didn't do it.

This special steel alloy element formula is the core secret of each steel plant.

Why is it that the same tool on the machine tool is worse in China than in foreign countries?

Isn't it the difference in the properties of special steels?

"Isn't that nonsense?"

"Nanshan is a layman to guide an insider, and the performance of special steel in the future is not as good as ours, so we can't rely on it."

Chen Qingwen's first reaction was that the people from Nanshan were messing around.

Steel is a thing that requires data accumulation to produce good products.

Chen Qingwen didn't know who gave Nanshan the courage, and he actually adjusted the material formula and processing technology at will.

When the time comes, a bunch of scrap iron will be produced and sold to whom?

Automobile giants such as Ford Motor and General Motors will not allow Nanshan to use substandard materials to produce transmissions, right?

"This ......"

Listening to Chen Qingwen's words, Xie Lingyun's expression seemed to be constipated.

Say no, don't say no.

"What's wrong?"

"Could it be that something has gone wrong?"

Chen Qingwen's face changed, and he felt that he was really afraid of something.

Why didn't Nanshan listen to persuasion.

"It's not!"

"Judging from the preliminary confirmed results so far, their bearing steel performance is better than that of our production."

Before Xie Lingyun's words were finished, Chen Qingwen couldn't help but say, "How is it possible? How can they produce bearing steel better than us? ”

"From what I've learned so far, their first batch of bearing steels has a hardness of HRA 85 (HRA is an abbreviation for hardness reliability assessment). HRA 85 indicates that the hardness reliability evaluation result of the bearing steel is 85%, which means that the hardness level of the bearing steel is very high, the reliability is good, and it is suitable for manufacturing bearings with high precision requirements. The higher the hardness, the better the wear resistance of the bearing, but it will also affect the fatigue life and high temperature performance of the bearing. Therefore, when selecting bearing steel, it is necessary to comprehensively consider factors such as hardness, fatigue life, and high-temperature performance. ）”

"Abrasion resistance: >1200g/1000r (please refer to the words of the writer at the end of the article for the meaning of this index, otherwise there is a suspicion of hydrology in the explanation), the high-temperature performance has reached the T10 level (also refer to the description at the end of the article), and the results of fatigue life have not yet come out."

"But so far there have been no problems, and it is said that their goal is to exceed 10,000 hours."

"And their bearing steel is not magnetic, and the performance is not worse than SKF's bearing steel."

Chen Qingwen, as the deputy chief engineer of Shaogang and the promoter of Nanshan Special Steel, is naturally very familiar with the various parameters of special steel.

In particular, the bearing steel of Nanshan Special Steel has excellent performance in hardness, wear resistance, high temperature performance and fatigue life, and has no magnetism and good surface quality.

"Why do you emphasize that their bearing steel is not magnetic?"

Although Chen Qingwen is the general manager of Shaogang, he was not born in technology.

On the contrary, he was transferred from another unit the year before.

So although he has some understanding of some basic processes of steel, when it comes to the specific details, people can feel that he is a layman.

"Mr. Chen, that's it. The reason why the bearing steel is required to be non-magnetic is because magnetism can interfere with the stability and accuracy of the bearing during rotation. ”

"When the bearing rotates, it will be subjected to centrifugal force and friction, and these factors will change the friction coefficient inside the bearing, which will affect the life and performance of the bearing."

"If the bearing steel is magnetic, then it will be affected by a magnetic field, which will cause the coefficient of friction inside the bearing to change, which will lead to a decrease in the performance of the bearing."

"In addition, magnetism can also affect the normal operation of equipment such as motors and generators, so the bearing steel is required to be non-magnetic."

Xie Lingyun was not impatient because Chen Qingwen's question was a little low-level.

Otherwise, he will probably not be able to keep his position as deputy chief engineer.

Why do we help build special steel mills with better bearing steel performance than us? ”

Chen Qingwen asked another low-level question.

Xie Lingyun was silent for a moment before saying, "I speculate that it has something to do with the fact that they adjusted the process setting parameters and the formula of the alloy added. ”

"It's just that I didn't figure out where Nanshan got the details of the formula and process parameters of special steels such as bearing steel."

The more professionals you are, the more you can feel the difficulty of special steel production.

"So, we can't produce bearing steel with such good performance?"

Chen Qingwen didn't feel any shame in thinking about it.

The patent awareness of many managers in China is still relatively weak.

"Yes, unless Nanshan is willing to tell us the trick, it will be difficult to produce."

"But thinking about this problem from another angle, the performance of Nanshan special steel is very good, which is also a good thing."

"This means that Nanshan Special Steel, whether it is for Nanshan's own use or for external sales, is very exciting."

As soon as Xie Lingyun explained this, Chen Qingwen's mood was slightly better.

For Shaogang, solving the problem of crude steel production capacity is the most critical.

As for special steel, it is best to be able to do it well.

It doesn't matter if you don't get it right.

After all, there are so many domestic steel manufacturers, and there are few special steel companies that do it well.

Anyway, in a few years, he will probably be transferred to other places.

As long as the performance of the past two years is done well.

T10 is a high-temperature performance index, which is usually used to evaluate the high-temperature performance of bearing steel. T10 refers to the ability of bearing steel to maintain hardness and strength at a high temperature of 1000°C.

Generally speaking, the higher the T10 index, the better the high-temperature performance of the bearing steel. In practical application, the T10 index of bearing steel should be selected and evaluated according to the specific use environment and requirements. For example, in the use of high-speed and high-precision bearings, a higher T10 index is required, while in the use of ordinary bearings, the T10 index can be appropriately reduced.

Abrasion resistance: 1200g/1000r, which means that the wear resistance of a certain bearing steel is very good, and the friction resistance does not exceed 1200g under 1000 rotations. Wear resistance is one of the important indicators of bearing steel, usually the higher the wear resistance, means that the bearing can withstand greater friction and wear during operation, thereby prolonging the service life of the bearing.

Fatigue life refers to the failure life of the bearing due to fatigue damage during operation. Fatigue life is usually expressed in hours, which indicates the maximum life of the bearing for normal operation.

10,000 hours indicates that the fatigue life of a certain bearing is very long, and it has reached 1,000 hours. This means that the bearing can operate stably for a long time without failure or failure.

(End of chapter)