Liu Baoxin: Born in Shenyang in 1939, he graduated from the Metallurgical Department of anshan Iron and Steel Institute in 1962 with a major in ironmaking, and entered the Anshan Iron and Steel Iron and Steel Factory in the same year. In 1964, it supported the construction of the "Third Line", focusing on participating in the smelting of vanadium titanium magnetite and production practice. In December 1981, he was transferred back to Angang Steel from Pangang and served as the party secretary of the former Angang Iron and Steel Research Institute, and later served as the chairman of the trade union of Angang Technology Center, and retired in 1999.
In 1964, he devoted himself to the construction of the "Third Line"
Baoxin and members of the working group take a group photo in front of Tiananmen Square.
In 1964, our country carried out a large-scale construction of national defense, science and technology, industry, and transportation infrastructure in 13 provinces and autonomous regions in the central and western regions with war readiness as the guiding ideology, which was an extremely large-scale industrial migration process in the mainland's economic history.
At that time, I worked in Angang Steel for two years after graduating from college, from a trainee technician to a technician in an ironworks to a deputy foreman of the eight blast furnaces, which was an unforgettable time.
On December 7, 1964, I and more than a dozen colleagues with university diplomas in the iron factory received orders to be transferred to the Anshan Iron and Steel Research Institute (later moved to Xichang City, Sichuan Province, renamed Southwest Iron and Steel Research Institute). Subsequently, on December 17, he informed me to quickly report to the Chengde Steel Factory. A series of changes caught me off guard. Although at that time, it was vaguely known that the country had begun the layout of the "great third line", but why let us go to Chengde, is this related to the construction of the "third line"? I didn't know anything.
Later, when we arrived in Chengde, we learned that our work is indeed closely related to the "big third line", and the reason why we chose Chenggang as a test site is because Chenggang has vanadium concentrate and titanium concentrate, and the composition of Panzhihua ore can be mixed in a certain proportion with these two concentrates, and Chenggang is the only test base that the Ministry of Metallurgy can choose.
At that time, Xu Hongfei, Yin Peiran, and Hu Qingchang, three foremen of the ironworks, were assigned to the blast furnace group of the blast furnace smelting vanadium titanium magnetite working group (actually the scientific research group), which was mainly responsible for the blast furnace operation of the blast furnace smelting vanadium titanium magnetite.
Later, Xu Chi, then vice minister of the Ministry of Metallurgy, presided over the inaugural meeting of the blast furnace smelting vanadium titanium magnetite working group. At the meeting, it was announced that the leader of the working group was Zhou Chuandian (chief engineer of the Ministry of Metallurgy, and later vice minister of the Ministry of Metallurgy), the secretary of the party branch was Lu Yang (professor of northeast institute of technology), the technical person in charge was Du Hegui (professor of northeast institute of technology), Li Yintai (professor of northeast institute of technology), the leader of the blast furnace group was Ye Xushu (director of the baosteel iron and steel mill), the leader of the data group was Zhuang Zhenxi (director of the steelmaking room of the Southwest Iron and Steel Research Institute), and the deputy secretary of the party branch was Shen Haiping (the leader of the Southwest Iron and Steel Research Institute). The secretary is Mai Jiquan (Director of the Southwest Iron and Steel Research Institute). In addition, the leader of the sintering team is Zhang Mingjian (director of the sintering room of southwest iron and steel research institute), the leader of the new technology group is Li Yongzhen (professor of Northeast Institute of Technology), the deputy leader is Wang Wenzhong (professor of Northeast Institute of Technology), and the leader of the design team is Zhang Tianhua (senior designer of Chongqing Iron and Steel Design Institute). Other members of the working group include: two graduate students of Northeast Institute of Technology and more than ten teachers who stayed on to teach; scientific and technological personnel of southwest iron and steel research institute, as well as professor Pei Henian of Chongqing University and fresh graduates; designers of Beijing Iron and Steel Design Institute and Chongqing Iron and Steel Design Institute; pre-furnace technicians, instrument workers and plumbers of Angang Iron and Steel Factory; blast furnace foremen and pre-furnace technicians of Handan Iron and Steel Factory... A total of 108 people (that is, one hundred singles and eight generals who were later talked about).
I clearly remember the first time Zhou Chuandian group leader said at the working group meeting: "The Panxi region of Sichuan on the mainland is rich in vanadium and titanium magnetite, with industrial reserves of more than 8 billion tons, and the vanadium and titanium resource reserves that coexist with iron have a pivotal position in the world." However, the titanium dioxide content in the smelting slag by blast furnace method is as high as 27%-30%, which is a problem that has never been solved in the past hundred years. Our working group is to create a complete set of blast furnace smelting vanadium titanium ore new processes and new technologies through industrial experiments, and contribute to the construction of the 'big third line'. He also introduced that Chairman Mao once said, "I am always uneasy about the Panzhihua Iron and Steel Factory still wanting to do it, and if it is not engaged in it." What if you start a fight? Panzhihua is not good, I can't sleep well. After listening to the introduction of Zhou Chuandian's team leader, I knew that I was going to participate in the construction of the "Great Third Line", and I thought of what I saw in the "Collected Works of Vanadium and Titanium Ore at Home and Abroad": Scholars in the ironmaking community at home and abroad agreed that 16% of the titanium dioxide in the slag was an insurmountable gap in blast furnace smelting. I suddenly understood the importance of the construction of the "Great Third Line" to China at that time, and this experiment was related to the fate of Pangang, and I deeply felt that the mission was glorious and the responsibility was heavy.
1965 The starting point of five years of experimental work
The original appearance of the Pangang steel mill area.
In 1965, the Chengde Iron and Steel Company's ironworks had been dismantled, the workers had been dismissed, only a few technicians were guarding, and the 100-cubic-meter blast furnace was left with only empty shells standing in the weeds, which could no longer be used. In order to test, the Ministry of Metallurgy transferred relevant main bodies and auxiliary equipment from all over the country, and we raced against time to install, debug various parameters, and carry out trial operation one by one. At the beginning of February, the blast furnace finally "changed its old appearance and new look" and successfully opened the furnace. In the middle of the year, it was officially transferred to the vanadium titanium ore test stage.
At that time, I was the deputy foreman of the blast furnace, and I still remember the scene when the slag reached the furnace cylinder under the charge containing 20% titanium dioxide: the air outlet slowly hung slag, the wind pressure slowly rose, and the air volume into the furnace gradually decreased. When the slag mouth is opened, the slag cannot be discharged. When the iron mouth is opened, the molten iron is cut off. At this time, the leader of Zhou Chuandian's group directed everyone to burn the iron mouth with all their might. Listening to his orders, the furnace technician rushed upwards one by one, the bottles of oxygen were used up, the steel pipes were burned out, but only a small amount of slag iron mixture flowed out, and the accumulated slag iron in the furnace still could not come out... More than two hours passed, and there was not a single bit of progress.
At that time, everyone's mood was very heavy, was it that the test was declared a failure? The working group immediately held an emergency meeting, and after some research, Zhou Chuandian, the leader of the group, encouraged everyone and said: "The iron mouth is the breakthrough point, and persistence is victory, and then continue to burn the iron mouth." ”
Soon, everyone was back into the battle, and after more than an hour, suddenly the iron mouth was boiled open, and slag iron spurted out of the iron mouth... Since then, the slag hanging at the outlet has disappeared, the wind pressure has plummeted, the amount of air entering the furnace has soared, and the furnace condition has gradually begun to go downhill. This is really "mountains and rivers are doubtful and there is no way, and the willows are dark and the flowers are bright and another village".
Just when we wanted to celebrate the victory, we found that the furnace condition was good and bad, and the slag iron flowed freely, and the furnace was viscous and uncertain. From time to time, the furnace foremen had to deal with the sticky slag and were exhausted, while the blast furnace foremen were still unstable despite their meticulous operation. Those professors and experts are trying their best to find information and look at data, and everyone is thinking about how to stabilize the blast furnace.
During the day, everyone was at the test site and at night they gathered together to hold academic seminars. Everyone is contributing to the problems and suggestions for tackling key problems. In the discussion, the blast furnace foremen reflected an abnormal phenomenon: when the sticky slag appeared, most of them were clean when the air outlet was clean, and there was no slag sludge. And the thin slag appears after the air outlet is seriously slagged. Is it that the slag has become thinner from sticky, which will be related to the air outlet blowing?
At the same time, the slag iron sample test and lithographic analysis report done by the Northeast Institute of Technology are also being sent to the working group one by one. Looking at that set of data, professors and experts found another phenomenon: the slime residue contains a large amount of titanium nitride, titanium carbide and low-cost oxides. In the slag, their content is very small.
These two strange phenomena have aroused the great attention of the leaders of the working group, through many studies, and finally concluded: First, titanium nitride, titanium carbide and low-cost titanium oxides in the slag, the melting point is as high as 3000 degrees Celsius, they are suspended in the form of solid particles of several microns in the slag, so that the viscosity of the slag is significantly increased, and it is not easy to flow. Second, the slag is deposited near the air outlet area, and the titanium nitride and titanium carbide in the slag are oxidized by the oxygen in the wind to high-priced titanium dioxide, and the titanium dioxide in the slag is in the form of a liquid that is easy to flow. This shows that the titanium nitride and titanium carbide in the slag are the "culprits" who make the slag thicken. As long as titanium nitride and titanium carbide can be reduced or eliminated as much as possible, it is the key to smelting vanadium and titanium magnetic beneficiation.
Everyone was very happy to have made this important discovery. Zhou Chuandian group leader resolutely decided to take two major measures: one is to require the foreman to strictly control the furnace temperature at a low level to reduce the possibility of generating titanium nitride and titanium carbide in the furnace; the other is to require the spraying team to take immediate action to try to blow concentrate powder and oxygen into the blast furnace, so that the titanium nitride and titanium carbide that have been generated in the slag can be oxidized into high-priced titanium dioxide as much as possible. It is precisely because of these two measures that the passive situation of blast furnace smelting vanadium titanium ore has been changed, putting it on the right track.
Not long after, when Vice Premier Li Fuchun, Marshal He Long, and leaders of the Ministry of Metallurgy inspected the Chengde Steel Plant, they fully affirmed the major breakthroughs and fruitful results achieved in the simulation test. Zhou Chuandian, the leader of the group, also wrote in the report submitted to the party group of the State Council and the Ministry of Metallurgy: The simulation test of metallurgical vanadium and titanium ore in the Chengde blast furnace has achieved phased results, and when the content of titanium dioxide in the slag is 30%, the furnace condition is in a downward trend, the slag iron flows freely, and the pig iron is qualified. The construction of the Panzhihua Steel Base can start.
This is really exciting news, and I, as one of the participants, have been awarded three second-class merits because of my outstanding performance in the struggle to repair the blast furnace, process and blow raw materials, and clean up the "sticky slag" and "big discharge".
After the victory of the Chengde experiment, all the members of the working group took a group photo in front of the Jinshui Bridge in Tiananmen Square in Beijing, and then, after a month's leave, they moved to the southwest.
In late October 1965, Xu Hongfei, Yin Peiran, and Hu Qingchang met in Beijing and rushed to Xichang City, Sichuan Province, to report to the working group of the Ministry of Metallurgy and the Southwest Iron and Steel Research Institute on time. In the first two months, we worked with the staff of the institute to build mud houses for our families all day long, and from time to time we had to go to the 410 factory to participate in the preparation of the test.
At the beginning of 1966, the working group conducted the second industrial test of vanadium and titanium magnetic beneficiation in Xichang 410 factory. This time, the "original ore" of the Panzhihua magnetite of the Taihe Mine and the White Horse Mine was used. The reason for selecting raw ore for systematic testing is to provide design and production basis for Pangang to build a concentrator, sintering plant and iron smelter. The test was carried out on a 28-cubic-meter blast furnace, and I also officially served as the foreman of the blast furnace, and was solely responsible for the blast furnace smelting operation on duty. During that time, every day I came early and left late, and when I was on duty, I looked at the wind outlet, looked at the instrument, checked the slag flow, the iron flower condition, and had to analyze and judge. It is precisely because of my serious responsibility that there were no operational errors and accidents during the 5-month test, and the furnace condition was stable and smooth, and the pig iron was qualified, which created conditions for the success of the test.
It can be said that the success of the Xichang experiment has accumulated valuable smelting experience and special technical know-how for the construction and production of Pangang.
There is one more thing that makes me particularly unforgettable. One day I was on the day shift when an old man in civilian clothes and shoes came to the platform in front of the stove to watch the slag out of the iron. He said to our boys, "Young man, do a good job." "Afterwards, I learned that he was actually Marshal Peng Dehuai, (who was then deputy director of the Southwest Third Line Construction Committee). I secretly resolved that I must work well and never fail to live up to the high expectations of the older generation of revolutionaries.
In 1967, the Department of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Metallurgy organized the relevant personnel of our working group to conduct a new industrial test of blast furnace smelting vanadium titanium magnetite on the Shougang 624 cubic meter blast furnace, which was successful, and once again proved that this special technology is not only effective in the production of small blast furnaces, but also in large and medium-sized blast furnaces.
In 1969, the Department of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Metallurgy carried out the last test, which was handed over to the Institute of Chemical Metallurgy of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and achieved the expected results. Since I was the only person in the working group to participate in the final test, I was asked to draft the "Test Report on the Smelting of Vanadium-Titanium Magnetite in Blast Furnaces Using High Sulfur Coke", which brought to an end five years of blast furnace smelting vanadium-titanium magnetite.
1970 The beginning of the fate with Pangang
Liu Baoxin (center) takes a group photo with colleagues as he leaves Pangang.
On July 1, 1970, Pangang No. 1 blast furnace was completed and put into operation. At that time, the blast furnace foremen were all transferred from Angang Steel, although they were very experienced, but the special iron ore used in smelting pangang had a situation where slag iron could not come out and the furnace condition was abnormal. Although every effort has been made, the effect is not obvious. To this end, Pangang requested assistance from the Southwest Iron and Steel Research Institute.
At that time, Wu Xichun was the director of the scientific research office of the Southwest Iron and Steel Research Institute, and he led the team to set up a team to support the Pangang research team, and I was also one of them. After arriving at Pangang, Pangang Ironworks decided that the comrades of our southwest courtyard would serve as the foreman of the blast furnace, and the foreman of the pangang blast furnace would be the assistant. After starting the work, we took measures such as low furnace temperature, large air volume, and increased the number of iron production, and the blast furnace reached a normal smelting state in only three days, and the key task was successfully completed.
This was the first time I walked into Pangang, and I didn't expect to be transferred to Pangang Ironworks in 1972.
After entering the factory, I was assigned to the No. 3 blast furnace as the foreman of The First Shift. For various reasons, 3 blast furnaces are always in a "small wind" state. In addition, the operation ideas of the foreman of each shift are not uniform, and the furnace condition often fluctuates greatly. At that time, I combined my own experience to suggest to the furnace director and formulated the "vanadium titanium magnetite smelting technology operating procedures". Because of the unified standard, the furnace condition will soon be stable and downward, and even for a long time the economic and technical indicators exceed the First and Second blast furnaces.
One morning in August of that year, a fire broke out at the ironworks. Because a shed caught fire first, the fire took advantage of the wind, and in less than half an hour, a sea of fire was formed, burning all the property of the shantytown workers. At that time, many employees ran to the fire to find relatives and things. The furnace director called me: "There are only two furnace workers on the blast furnace, and you are about to take up the shift." "In this way, 3 of us were left with 14 people to complete the work, which was 56 hours. After coming down, I only rested for one night and went to work normally again. At that time, the furnace foreman was talking in private: "No one should provoke him, he can do whatever he calls." "After hearing such a discussion, I realized that I should not let the workers be afraid of me, but really admired, so I took advantage of the gap in the slag iron to teach the basic common sense and safe operating procedures of ironmaking to the furnace workers in this class, and took the initiative to help them deal with some things, and slowly established a deep friendship with them.
In 1977, I was promoted to engineer and deputy chief of the production section, in charge of the smelting operations of the whole plant and handling major matters related to production. At that time, in view of the problem of the large burn loss of the cast copper slag mouth, I proposed to promote the use of copper plate welding slag mouth and blowing mechanical slag blocking machine; I also designed and installed the sinter screening and dust removal equipment under the ditch with Comrade Su Zhizhong, another deputy section chief of the production section (later served as the deputy chief engineer of Pangang); presided over and operated and handled some large-scale events such as the two furnace cylinder freezing accidents of the No. 1 and No. 2 blast furnaces and the burning through accidents of the air outlet of the three blast furnaces. He also taught blast furnace operation skills and vanadium titanium smelting special techniques to the foreman and gas workers once a week, which was very popular with everyone, and many of the trainees at that time later became the technical backbone of the ironworks, and even two of them served as the directors of the ironworks.
At that time, because I was a smelting engineer at the factory and single, I was on duty every holiday. One Sunday afternoon in July 1978, Pangang held an emergency conference call. Li Ming, the deputy manager at the time (later deputy director of the Ministry of Metallurgy and commander-in-chief of the Baosteel Engineering Headquarters), said that the upper reaches of the Jinsha River were raining heavily, and there were 10,000 cubic meters of logs piled up on the river, and if the logs were washed into the river by water and went down along the river, it was possible to wash away the "floating boat water" equipment of Pangang, and the blast furnace cooling equipment would also be burned out due to water cuts. Speaking of this, he warned me: "Liu Baoxin, you must seize the precautionary measures, and if something happens, I will ask you." I immediately replied, "No problem, if something goes wrong, you'll send me to the 'stoop tree' (the name of the prison)." ”
Of course, I am aware of the importance of this matter, the blast furnace water must be cut off urgently, if not handled properly, not only will it burn a large number of coolers, but also the top of the furnace gas explosion may occur in a very serious accident. To this end, immediately after the meeting, I summoned gas technicians and plumbers, installed a pipeline temporarily carrying steam to the roof of the furnace, transferred two locomotives from the Ministry of Transport, put them on standby with enough steam, and arranged for the blast furnaces to be prepared for emergency rest. To ensure that nothing goes wrong, I also organized a drill. At 6 a.m. the next morning, I was relieved to hear from the company that the alarm had been lifted. Afterwards, the chief dispatcher of Pangang said to me: "Your courage is really not small, and you dare to call the manager." ”
In 1978, in order to solve a series of technical problems plaguing the development of production, we equipped the blast charge with appropriate ordinary ore without titanium, optimized the structure of the charge, and the blast furnace utilization system also broke through the design level for the first time. As a result, I was also rated as an advanced worker of Pangang and recommended to become a deputy to the People's Congress of Dukou City (later renamed Panzhihua City) at that time.
In the years I have worked in Pangang, I have had the privilege of participating in many scientific research projects, the scientific experiment of blast furnace smelting vanadium titanium magnetite won the first prize of national invention (collective); the article "Reasonable Upper and Lower Adjustment System of High Titanium Slag Smelting" written by me, participated in the academic exchange of the 1980 Ironmaking Seminar; the articles "New Breakthrough in Long-term Recuperation Operation Technology of Pangang Blast Furnace" and "Blast Furnace Smelting of Vanadium Titanium Magnets Rich in Mineral Powder" were included in the collection of "Theory and Practice of Blast Furnace Smelting Vanadium Titanium Ore"; in 1999, Pangang blast furnace smelting vanadium titanium ore technology won the "First Prize of National Science and Technology Progress", and I am also one of the participants.
In 1998, Liu Baoxin and his wife took photos on the Li River.
By the end of the 1970s, the state began to solve the problem of supporting the separation of spouses of third-line construction workers in batches. Because xu Hongfei and Hu Qingchang's families had already arrived in Pangang, only me and Yin Peiran returned, and at the end of December 1981, I received an order from Angang Steel. I am very happy to learn that I can return to the familiar Angang steel and be reunited with my family. The only regret is that he left the vanadium titanium ore blast furnace smelting business for nearly two decades.
Today, I am 80 years old and have been away from Pangang for 38 years. In October this year, panzhihua city reporters and relevant personnel of the science and technology commission came to Anshan three times to interview and visit me, listened to me introduce some people and events of that year, made audio and video recordings, and made propaganda reports in Panzhihua city. The Pangang History Exhibition Hall displays the original certificate of the first prize (collective) of the National Invention Award I won and the article "I Dedicate My Youth for the Motherland" written by me.
Recalling the 17 years of participating in the construction of the "Big Third Line", it can be said that it is the best years in my life, in that era of passionate burning, I can contribute to the scientific research of blast furnace smelting vanadium titanium magnetite and the front-line work of blast furnace, I think it is very meaningful, it can be said that youth has no regrets.
Liu Baoxin Dictated by Wang Ying