Preface
Tearing steel has been monopolized by Western countries for many years, and China has to spend 1.64 trillion yuan a year to buy from foreign countries, and sometimes it is even impossible to buy it.
After many years of research in China, we finally mastered our own R&D technology, and we not only broke through the monopoly of the West, but even surpassed the technology to become the world's first.
So, what kind of scarce material is this "hand-torn steel"? How does China achieve technological overtaking?
China's own "hand-torn steel"
In 2019, Shanxi Taigang Stainless Steel Precision Strip Co., Ltd. successfully developed a hand-torn steel with a thickness of only 0.015 mm.
This thickness successfully broke the 0.02 mm previously developed by TISCO, and at the same time, the new hand-torn steel of 0.015 mm also broke the world's new record.
The successful research and development of this technology has successfully made the "Made in China" hand-torn steel famous.
Not only that, the 0.015 mm ultra-thin hand-torn steel rolled by Qingtuo Technology Co., Ltd. in November 2023 has broken through the traditional hand-torn steel production process, making a new breakthrough in hand-torn steel technology.
The 0.015 mm ultra-thin hand-torn steel rolled by Qingtuo is thinner than the 0.015 mm hand-torn steel of TISCO, and the feeling of being as thin as a cicada's wings surprised Guoguo.
At present, the hand-torn steel developed by Qingtuo is the thinnest stainless steel in the world.
"Thin as a cicada's wing, only 1/6 of the thickness of a hair, and the price is comparable to gold", this is everyone's general evaluation of hand-torn steel.
Only 0.015 mm of ultra-thin hand-torn steel, not even the thickness of a hair, that is as thin as a cicada's wings.
As for the price, it is almost the same as the price of gold.
In the past, when China did not have its own hand-torn steel technology, we only had to import from abroad, and it cost a lot of money just to buy hand-torn steel every year.
So, what's so good about tearing steel?
Hand torn steel, as the name suggests, is steel that can be torn by hand, its softness is much higher than ordinary people think, and the toughness is very strong.
However, shredded steel is very different from traditional steel.
It is said that steel "would rather bend than bend", but hand-torn steel is the opposite, it is very flexible, no matter how bending is made, it will not break.
Even if it is repeatedly bent, the hand-torn steel will not break, and there is not even a little wrinkle, which makes the hand-torn steel very "popular".
Therefore, hand-torn steel is often used in many highly specialized industries.
For example, in the semiconductor industry, tearing steel is one of the most important raw materials, as well as in the aerospace field, military, medical and other industries, almost all can see tearing steel.
Including the folding screen we are using now, the raw material used in it is hand-torn steel, which is why the folding phone can be opened and closed many times without affecting the screen.
It can be seen that the importance of tearing steel to the development of all walks of life in China is self-evident.
Before China developed its own technology, hand-torn steel has always been monopolized by Western countries, and if we want to buy it, we have to pay a high price.
Western monopoly
Initially, the two countries with the most mature hand-torn steel technology were Germany and Japan, and China did not have the corresponding technology at that time, mainly relying on imports to buy hand-torn steel.
It's not that we didn't develop it, but we never developed the corresponding technology, and many times, we were only a few steps away from success, but the end result was failure.
To this end, China has also invited experts from Germany and Japan to come and give guidance during the research and development period.
But they also know very well that once China has its own technology, it will definitely not spend a lot of money to buy hand-torn steel, and they will also lose a stable and rich customer.
You know, foreign countries have always been "asking for a sky-high price" on China, and they sell to us for an amount that exceeds the market price.
A piece of hand-torn steel the size of A4 paper even sold us 400 sheets at one point.
Therefore, when foreign experts came to the Chinese laboratory, they laughed at us and "will never develop China's own hand-torn steel technology" and left.
Not only that, but every time we import hand-torn steel, these countries will also give us "tricks".
Many times when we buy, we simply can't buy the thinnest tear steel, and they have clear thickness regulations for the tear steel they sell to us.
For example, we can only buy hand-torn steel larger than 0.03 mm, and those below this thickness are only used for their own research and development.
Not only that, but there will be some defective products mixed in the goods sent to us, which are not very good quality hand-torn steel.
As a result, Germany and Japan earn enough money from us every year to eat "with a mouthful of oil".
It is in such a situation of cynicism that China has finally relied on its own efforts to create our own hand-torn steel.
At the beginning of 2018, TISCO finally succeeded in manufacturing hand-torn steel, and the hand-torn steel made by TISCO was the world's thinnest 0.02 mm hand-torn steel at that time.
It can be said that China's shot is a high-quality product, we don't do it, just forget it, since we do it, we must do the best.
In the face of the joy of success, TISCO did not stop, but worked hard to directly roll 0.015 mm hand-torn steel three months later, directly creating a world record.
It can be said that it is quite difficult for China to take the road of manufacturing hand-torn steel.
So, what's the use of this tearing steel, and what does it cost us so much effort?
All-rounder "tearing steel"
Hand tear steel is actually ultra-thin precision stainless strip steel.
Its status in the steel material can be said to be the "king", from our high price of imported hand-torn steel and research and development process can be seen, this stainless strip steel is very important to the development of China.
Otherwise, we would not have let foreign countries "stuck their necks" for so long.
The application range of tearing steel is quite wide, like the electronic folding screen mobile phone I just mentioned, there is tearing steel, and tearing steel is also one of the important raw materials.
When you buy a folding screen mobile phone, you will worry about the impact on the screen for a long time, and it will be damaged over time, but with the hand-torn steel as a "guarantee", this situation will hardly occur.
In addition, a large number of tearing steel is also used in the aerospace field, because the tearing steel has strong high temperature resistance.
Critical components such as the blades of combustion chambers for engines and jet engines require steel materials that are extremely flexible and resistant to high temperatures, such as hand-torn steel.
Because of this characteristic, hand-torn steel plays an important role in automotive machinery and solar panel substrate materials, and it is one of the important raw materials.
In addition, hand-torn steel also has a very powerful position in the field of military defense.
National defense is the foundation of China, so it requires a lot of scientific and technological means, such as signal shielding technology, which requires extremely high technology and materials to support.
Because of its advantages of lightness, durability and good flexibility, hand-torn steel is the most suitable for adding shielding jammers.
It can be said that the practicability of hand-torn steel is very high, and after China has its own hand-torn steel technology, it can also lead the development of other industries faster.
It is only when technology is no longer beholden that we will be able to make drastic technological developments.
After all, hand-torn steel is also a "consumable" steel, although its manufacturing process is quite complicated, but the effect it can bring is a chain reaction.
So, what efforts has the country made to break through the "stuck neck" technology, and finally successfully developed hand-torn steel?
All-rounder "tearing steel"
Since 2014, China's import of hand-torn steel has encountered obvious obstacles, if foreign prices to China, products have specifications and so on we can accept.
However, European and American countries have filed the so-called "anti-dumping, anti-subsidy" investigation on China's steel, which has directly ushered in a cold winter for China's steel exports, among which TISCO has suffered a heavy blow.
Although China's steel production is the first in the world, we mainly produce crude steel, such as special steel technology, China has very little mastery.
Therefore, in 2016, TISCO decided to transform from traditional crude steel to "high-precision" products, and the team that developed hand-torn steel was born.
During the research and development period, the R&D team has experienced more than 700 failures, and they have also fallen into confusion about the future and despair of being unable to overcome difficulties.
The road to success is always full of thorns, and this is unavoidable.
In those years, these R&D personnel worked every day, except for eating and working, they had no time to spend with their families, all they had to do was to make China's own hand-torn steel.
When the R&D personnel entered the most difficult time to overcome, General Secretary Xi's personal visit gave everyone confidence again.
As a result, TISCO's R&D team worked hard again, and finally successfully developed the hand-torn steel in 2018, and directly broke the world record as soon as it succeeded.
It has turned China from a position that was once ridiculed to a position that makes other countries blush.
Later, TISCO completed a breakthrough in the thickness of 0.015 mm of hand-torn steel, and since then, China has its own hand-torn steel technology.
Not only that, after China broke through the hand-torn steel technology, it immediately announced that it would restrict the export of the most advanced hand-torn steel products, and return to the other side what we had experienced.
This move by China is not only an expression of our breakthrough and ability in independent technological research and development, but also a countermeasure to the monopoly and sanctions of Western countries.
epilogue
China has never stopped in technological innovation, we have always wanted to share resources reasonably, and we have never targeted a certain country.
But if we are bullied and treated unfairly, China will also break this phenomenon and take back the initiative.
Again, China will eventually have its own confidence only if it continues to carry out independent research and development and master the core technology in its own hands.
I hope that in the future, China can make major breakthroughs in various special fields, and thanks to the hard work of scientific researchers, China's future will be bright.
Resources:
CCTV: Duan Haojie: The production of the world's thinnest and widest stainless steel is 0.015 mm and sticks to it for ten years
The surging news: as thin as cicada wings, on gram pricing, TISCO's "hand-torn steel" has created the world's thinnest stainless steel record
China News Network (Fujian): The world's thinnest hand-torn steel, Qingtuo manufacturing!