As we all know, there has been an insurmountable bottleneck in the field of machinery manufacturing in China, that is, the lack of refined spare parts. Excellent craftsmanship requires time and experience, and it is not an overnight achievement.
It is precisely because of the existence of this bottleneck that we are often faced with the situation of being stuck by the Western powers on the road of national construction and economic development. In order to prevent them from holding us by the nose forever, for decades, several generations of technical practitioners have endured humiliation and forged ahead, overcoming one difficulty after another.
Among them, the most representative is the female engineer "Cui Lianshun" who does not let the women shave their eyebrows. She withstood the tremendous pressure and led the team to break through the technical blockade of external forces in only 9 months, and achieved amazing results in the construction of "West-East Gas Transmission".
So, what kind of story is this?
Cui Lianshun: Build up the "dragon vein" between the east and the west to solve the problem of uneven distribution of resources China's land area has reached more than 9.6 million square kilometers, containing rich mineral resources, which is an important part of supporting billions of people.
However, these resources are not evenly distributed. According to statistics, nearly 94% of the country's population lives in 44% of the country's land in the southeast, while 56% of the country's land in the northwest can only support 6% of the population.
If this continues for a long time, the country will inevitably face the greatest risk. In order to achieve stable and all-round development, it was decided to implement the strategy of "large-scale development of the western region," the most important of which was the "west-to-east gas pipeline" project.
The project is planned to start from Xinjiang Lunnan Railway Station and extend to Baihe Town in Shanghai through a 3,843-kilometer ultra-long gas pipeline. This "dragon vein" connecting the east and the west will help solve the problem of uneven distribution of resources, promote economic development, and ensure people's livelihood needs.
Once successfully implemented, the abundant natural gas resources in Northwest China will be fully developed, benefiting not only North China, East China and South China, but also promoting the economic development of the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta.
At the same time, the economic resources of these developed regions will also feed back to the northwest, attract a large number of laborers, and achieve synchronous coordination and harmonious development of the whole country. However, such an ambitious undertaking is not an easy task, and it is a world-class pipeline project, which is a very bold plan even in the developed countries of the West.
Although China has the successful experience of the "Three Gorges Project," there is an essential difference between water conservancy and pipeline projects, and this will be an unprecedented "pioneering journey."
In order to make the project more stable, the relevant departments decided to introduce foreign-funded enterprises and carry out completely market-oriented operation. This move has two advantages: first, China was negotiating to join the WTO at that time, and the introduction of foreign-funded enterprises can show the world our determination to take the initiative to accept the global industrial chain; Second, the participation of foreign-funded enterprises gives us the opportunity to learn the advanced technology and experience of similar projects, from which they profit, and we benefit from it, forming a mutually beneficial and win-win situation.
Unfortunately, the results did not meet expectations.
China's pipeline projects adopt a three-stage construction of upstream, midstream and downstream, in which the upstream controls resources and the downstream is responsible for pricing, which is a key link related to the lifeline of the national economy and national defense security.
However, some foreign capital attempts to gain pricing power by participating in the construction of these projects in order to obtain the wealth of our nationals to fill their inputs. After years of consultations and discussions, in August 2004, the U.S.-led foreign investor announced its withdrawal.
This decision may cause dissatisfaction among some capitals, but we firmly believe that it is the right choice to safeguard national interests and safeguard ***.
China's machinery industry is facing a challenge - pressurization station technology. Although China has made a major breakthrough in the construction of east and west pipelines and the training of special steel, we are still in a blank stage in the field of pressurized station technology, which plays a driving role in the process of natural gas transmission.
The pressurization station is a key piece of equipment to ensure the smooth transportation of natural gas in the pipeline. As natural gas is subjected to frictional resistance in pipelines, the flow rate will decrease and the volume will increase, which in turn will increase the resistance, which may eventually lead to serious accidents such as sedimentation and even overflow and leakage.
We need to make a breakthrough in pressurized station technology to ensure the stable delivery of natural gas.
To address this critical issue, a pressurization station is set up every other section of the pipeline to re-pressurize the natural gas. According to the calculations of technicians, at least ten such pressurization stations are needed to ensure foolproof.
The core drive equipment in the station is the compressor, which is the most common equipment in our daily life, such as the electric fan, which pressurizes the air behind through the rapid rotation of the fan blades, forming a violent air flow.
Now we need to have a huge fan in every booster station to propel the gas forward. To achieve this, each compressor must have 30,000 kilowatts of power, which is equivalent to 600,000 fans in the pipeline.
Such facilities can not rely on electricity, can only be driven by fuel, when the "fuel" and "pressurized fan" combined, it becomes the "turbofan engine" of aviation aircraft, which involves a pain point of China's industry - aero engine.
Aero engines are the jewels of industrial machinery and place extremely high demands on materials, theories and processes.
Our research base is relatively weak, and it was not until 2015 that a major breakthrough was made. In order to make up for the shortcomings, we had to look overseas for partners.
Due to the importance of aero engines, countries like Russia impose a strict export and technology blockade. At that time, there were only four companies willing to negotiate with us, and three of them were in the United States.
Unfortunately, the "Puhui & Whitney" company was urgently stopped because of the engine technology involved in the US aircraft, and we had to give up cooperation.
Excluding the non-compliant "Sola Turbine", only the American "General Electric" and the British "Rawls" remained at the negotiating table. While GE seems more suitable, its demanding requirements may be motivated by retaliation for failing to participate in the construction of the project.
Not only did GE ask us to pay a hefty deposit upfront, but it refused to re-produce engines suitable for pressurization stations, accepting only their stock or repaired engines.
What's more, they demanded that we must hire their professionals for maintenance and repair, and at the same time forbade our personnel to observe and replace the parts in *** and not in advance in our country.
GE seems to have formed a kind of control over us, but the market for capital is relative, not alone. After some negotiations, in 2004 we chose to work with Rawls in the UK and purchased fifteen fuel compressors from them.
The name Rawls may be a little unfamiliar to us, but its other name in the automotive field, Rolls-Royce, is well-known. It is said that the American side, after hearing about our success, stomped its feet in anger and claimed that it would make us pay the price.
Of course, Rawls is not a philanthropist, and their demands on us are a bit more relaxed than those of General Electric, but they are still full of exclusion and lockdown. Rolls does not allow our technicians to access the core components, so all of our replacement parts can only be imported.
When there is a problem with our equipment and parts need to be replaced, if Western countries cut off supplies for various reasons, then the whole"West-to-East Gas Transmission"The project will be at risk of being shut down, which will bring incalculable losses.
It's not impossible, and GE's eyes are even more alarming. Therefore, we must master the core technology, independent research and development, independent production, and not let others lead us by the nose.
When we announced the news of our own R&D, GE's contemptuous and mocking attitude was distressing. You must know that manufacturing parts is not a simple copy, it requires complex raw material proportions and forging processes, and most of the patents in this area are in the hands of the United States.
Therefore, we cannot rely on others and must be self-reliant.
In the face of severe R&D tasks, Shenyang Blower Group was ordered to be in danger, and Chairman Su Yongqiang immediately held a mobilization meeting to assign the task. However, he was in a dilemma on the issue of compressor parts manufacturing, and in desperation, Su Yongqiang locked his eyes on a low-key and calm female engineer who was responsible for the design of the "impeller".
Although there are not many female engineers in the Shenyang Drum Group, they are all heroines who do not let women shave their eyebrows, and Cui Lianshun is one of them.
Cui Lianshun received a challenging task, which surprised and delighted her. Surprised, she was well aware of the difficulty of this task and the benefits involved, and she couldn't help but worry a little about whether she could afford it.
However, what made her even happier was that the superior leader gave her such a key task, which was undoubtedly a high recognition of her and the team's technical strength. What's more, it's a rare opportunity that many people dream of.
After a short period of thought, Cui Lianshun accepted this test without hesitation. In order to live up to everyone's expectations, she moved her "home" to the laboratory and workshop, and ate and lived next to her drawings.
She understood the meaning of the time set for her "the sooner the better", no one can guarantee which will come first tomorrow or the crisis, so there must be a race against time.
As the core of the compressor, the manufacturing of the impeller requires extremely high requirements for the billet, such as wear resistance, temperature resistance, camber smoothness, etc., which are all challenges that we need to overcome.
Cui Lianshun and his team have made great efforts in this regard, they have conducted in-depth research on low-temperature forging, found a unique forging path, and finally achieved remarkable results through round-the-clock experiments.
But that's just the beginning. Like jade, if it is not carefully crafted, it is no different from ordinary stone, and even if the quality of the forging of a billet is good, if it cannot be polished into a usable impeller, it is just a useless piece of steel.
Imagine how difficult it would be to create dozens of regular and perfect turbine grooves on a single billet.
Every place, every line must be refined, even if there is a slight deviation, the previous efforts will be in vain, and everything will start again. We have no way of knowing how many times Cui Lianshun and her team have failed and how much effort they have put in, and whenever she is asked about it, she always responds with a smile.
Behind this smile lies a lot of effort, but it turns out that everything is worth it, and they finally get a fruitful result after going through all the hardships. Looking back, it took them only 270 days, just nine months.
Even Chairman Su Yongqiang was very surprised that in such a short period of time, Cui Lianshun and her team broke the technological blockade and successfully developed a technology that has been dominated by the West for decades.
GE still questions us about being swollen and fat, but facts speak louder than words. As we began to replace parts on our own, they had to believe it. Cui Lianshun's team successfully completed the replacement of compressor parts for the "West-East Gas Pipeline", avoiding production stoppages and reducing the high cost of purchasing spare parts from the West.
In this way, we can save more than 200 million yuan a day, and we can even build an aircraft carrier in a year. Teacher Cui Lianshun's contribution is not too much to call her a national scholar.
In today's period when chips are stuck in the neck, a countryman like her is more worthy of our learning and reference. As the leader said: "History will prove that it is itself that suffers in the end by taking a choke-neck approach to China." ”
I believe that in the near future, domestic chips will also become famous in the world.