Invisible "quality controller" in the non-special new foundry industry

Ceramic core is one of the core products of NTN. The picture shows workers performing piece-by-piece quality inspection of foam ceramic filters. Courtesy of the surveyed companies

Grouting, drying, sintering... Pieces of pale yellow industrial sponge, under the change of multiple processes, from soft to hard, successfully "promoted" to foam ceramic filter. After receiving the piece-by-piece quality inspection by the workers, these foam ceramic filters produced by Foshan Non-special New Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Non-Special New Materials") will be sent to major foundry production bases at home and abroad.

Foam ceramic filter is an excipient material used to filter metal solutions, with excellent strength and high temperature impact resistance, can withstand high temperatures of 1400 ° C - 1750 ° C. Its use can significantly improve the quality of castings and reduce scrap rates, so in recent years it has been widely used in the production of castings such as auto parts.

Since its establishment in 2005, Fei Te Xin has been focusing on the research and development and production of foam ceramic filters and precision ceramic cores, and has quickly occupied the industry market with its professionalism and focus on technological innovation. From traditional casting, precision casting to high-end aerospace fields, from Toyota auto parts to a high-end sports equipment, and then to the production process of parts for large passenger aircraft, there are non-special new figures.

●Chen Xitong Li Huijun

Concentrate on the research and development of "non-mainstream" products

Change the casting quality in 10 seconds

The boiling hot molten steel pours down, filters out the inclusions through a foam ceramic filter, and enters the cast. This is a common scene in a foundry. "The foam ceramic filter has a lifespan of only 10 seconds, and as soon as the molten steel passes, its mission is completed." Peng Gang, general manager of Fei Te Xin, said. Inclusions are the most important factors leading to casting defects, which not only affect the surface finish of the casting, but also affect the safety performance of the product. Although the service life of foam ceramic filter is only 10 seconds, the role and significance of castings such as auto parts are indescribable, which can be called the invisible "quality controller" in the casting industry.

At the beginning of the establishment of the non-special new, China's automobile industry has just started, the casting process of auto parts in the foam ceramic filter is still a "non-mainstream" product, a few companies using the product, completely dependent on imports. How to "localize" foam ceramic filter products, which made Peng Gang fall into contemplation.

These include two challenges – there is no ready-made equipment and raw materials. Therefore, in addition to independent research and development of proprietary technology, Non-Techn also needs to find and cultivate suitable production equipment and raw material suppliers. "Our products are hidden in the process of pouring, its role is invisible to the naked eye, there was no domestic production at that time, there was no reference model." Peng Gang introduced.

In the case of not being able to find the existing supporting resources, the non-special new technology team can only "roll up the sleeves and do it themselves", independently develop the production line, and make the impossible possible. To this end, Peng Gang led the R & D team, the foam ceramic filter production process carried out a series of innovations, not only spent a lot of time to develop production equipment, but also according to the characteristics of domestic raw materials, the process was optimized, to achieve technology and equipment innovation, and formed a large-scale development of independent research and development.

But this only solves the first stage puzzle. Since the supply of some raw materials has not yet been standardized, it has put forward a great test for the stability of product quality. Although the price of a piece of foam ceramics is not high, it directly affects the production process and product quality of the foundry, as long as a scrap product appears, the fully automatic production line at the back end of the foundry may be stopped instantly, and the loss caused by it is often tens of times the value of the foam ceramic filter itself, hundreds of times.

So how to standardize non-standard raw materials? Peng Gang humorously gave an example of dumplings. The quality of the flour bought today is not the same as that bought yesterday, how to ensure that the skin of the dumplings is consistent? Then, according to the taste as the standard, mix and ratio different bags of flour to form a stable base material, you can wrap the dumplings with the same export feeling.

After continuous deployment and optimization, Non-Texin finally controlled the scrap rate at 1 in 50,000. "Only one of the 50,000 (waste products) is allowed to be found, which is the technical difficulty mastered by Fei Texin." Peng Gang said.

With the development and growth of the automobile industry in China, the domestic automobile manufacturing industry has gradually realized the importance of quality and have changed to high-end manufacturing, and non-special new has also ushered in a broader market. Despite this, Fei Texin has never stopped the pace of technological innovation. Every year, the investment in research and development of non-special new accounts for more than 5% of sales, and the annual research and development of no less than 5 projects, the conversion rate of more than 95%.

14 years of careful pouring

Professional achievements in the domestic market first

On the non-special new product brochure, there is a line printed - professional, focused and poured. This is not only a non-special slogan, but also three keywords that stabilize the tide of the industry.

In 2007, another core product of non-special new ceramic core began to be put into production, and its precise design and professional quality made a number of precision casting enterprises marvel.

As an adapter mold that forms a casting cavity, ceramic cores are often used to make complex or difficult casting cavities. Such application scenarios make customers have extremely high requirements for the dimensional accuracy of ceramic cores, and under the condition of one-time molding without the help of machining, the dimensional tolerance of ceramic cores is required to be controlled to a few millimeters, and the difficulty of production can be imagined.

With the customization threshold and technical advantages, Non-Tech often intervenes in the design stage of castings at the request of customers and evaluates the possibility of using ceramic cores in the design.

In 2018, at the request of customers, Non-Texin developed a special ceramic core for the peripheral oiling parts of the turbine for auto parts, which solved the problem that the oil-through parts around the traditional supercharger could not be formed in one piece, and achieved the purpose of the integrated casting of the oil-filled accessories, so that the precision and mechanical properties of the accessories met the higher production requirements.

In 2019, Fei Te xin achieved a 100% growth rate in sales of ceramic cores.

Today, fei te xin has gone through 14 years. In the past 14 years, the non-special new market has been expanding, and the products have been constantly updated, but what has not changed is the professionalism of product innovation and the focus on the foundry industry, which is the "double axe" of the non-special new market.

With this, Fei Texin not only reached cooperation with Toyota, but also became the designated supplier of high-end sports brands, and cooperated closely with large domestic sports equipment manufacturers. "In the domestic civil ceramic core field, such as the high-end sports equipment market, hardware market, pump valve market, we basically have no competitors." Peng Gang said.

According to statistics, the high-temperature zirconia foam ceramic filter independently developed by Non-Techn is the first in the domestic market share, and the ceramic core ranks first in the domestic civil ceramic core market share. Products are also exported to Japan, the Americas, Europe, Southeast Asia, Australia and Africa and other countries and regions, and in the United States, Thailand and other major casting areas occupy a place.

"Professionalism, focus, pouring, although it is a slogan, I hope that this is a non-special new entrepreneurial spirit for many years, focusing on doing a thing, doing it best in a certain subdivision industry, and striving to do the best in this industry." Peng Gang said.

Moving closer to high-end

Let the "Made in the South China Sea" soar

At the American Foundry Exhibition at the end of April this year, Fei Te Xin brought its own new products - aerospace special high temperature filter materials and impeller cores, which showed the determination of Fei Te Xin to open up the high-end market.

As an expert in foam ceramic filters and precision ceramic cores, since 2016, Fei Texin has reached a cooperation with an aero engine manufacturing co., LTD. in Chengdu to provide ceramic cores to it in the production of civil products.

But the vision of Non-Special New is by no means limited to this, it also wants to get a piece of the military field. On December 5, the C919 large passenger aircraft 105 aircraft successfully completed the first long-distance air transfer flight. This allowed Fei Texin to affirm the future direction of development. "There are already domestic enterprises interested in long-term cooperation with our company in the research and development of aircraft landing gear." Peng Gang revealed that in the future, Non-Special New will make more efforts in aerospace parts, and even enter the military field.

The layout of non-special new to open up the aviation casting market has already begun. "We are a qualified supplier of a large foundry company in the United States, this company is to make parts for a certain aviation equipment, we spent 5 years into their system." Peng Gang introduced that the CF610 series of high-end foam ceramic filters specially developed by Non-Texin have been used by foreign aviation companies for many years.

With the advancement of military-civilian cooperation, many domestic foundry companies have gradually intervened in the field of high-end castings for aviation and gas turbine demand. In Peng Gang's view, because imported materials are easily affected by the international situation and patent authorization, the market space for manufacturers of domestic materials in high-end industries such as aerospace is very huge in the future. He said that although the capacity of filters and ceramic core products in the entire market is not large, it is also a key part of production, "such as aero engines, as well as high-temperature alloy base materials and metallurgical casting, which we often say, they all need these." ”

In addition to aerial castings, Fei Texin has also set its sights on the expansion of the application of foam ceramics. At present, the direction of domestic development has shifted from the pursuit of GDP to a green economy, and the concept of environmental protection and energy conservation has spawned a large number of new materials. In the future, Fei Texin will expand the application of foam ceramics in sewage, air purification, separation media, catalyst carriers, burners, sound absorption and environmental protection, soilless cultivation and other fields, and tap more new momentum for development in the subdivision industry.

■ Handwriting

Independent innovation makes the road to enterprise development wider and wider

"We have always been rooted in the foundry industry and grown with the industry, which has allowed us to occupy a certain position in the market." Peng Gang said that the key to becoming a market leader in Non-Texin.

Growing with the industry means that companies must keep up with, or even lead, the speed of development of the industry. How exactly can we "go first" in the industry? The key lies in the independent innovation ability of enterprises.

Leaders in all walks of life in China, such as Huawei and Alibaba, have broken the situation of "lack of core and few souls" in China's mobile phone industry with self-developed chips, and one has created the era of mobile payment with the third-party payment platform "Alipay" APP. But no matter which one, it is inseparable from the independent innovation of enterprises.

As Huawei Chairman Liang Hua mentioned at the 2018 Sustainable Development Report in July this year, "Taking technological innovation as the foundation of its establishment, long-term investment and accumulation of basic research and engineering technology have enabled Huawei to move forward steadily in the face of external pressure." "Only independent innovation can make enterprises go farther and farther in the market, lead the public in the industry, and make the road of enterprises wider and wider."