[Editor's note].
Spring is getting stronger, and Vientiane is renewed. In 2024, the two sessions of the National People's Congress will come as scheduled. The Paper will go to this "spring event" with you, pay attention to front-line workers from all walks of life, and record their "dream stories". This article focuses on how Cao Yanju, a front-line worker working in the new energy vehicle industry, has grown from a rookie to an "all-round welder" with excellent skills.
Photo courtesy of Cao Yanju interviewee.
After working as a welder for ten years, Cao Yanju, a "post-80s" generation, completed the counterattack in his life. He has transformed from an ordinary migrant worker and welding rookie to an "all-round welder", leading the team to overcome welding technical problems repeatedly, and won the title of "BYD Golden Emblem Craftsman" in 2022. In the past ten years, Cao Yanju has repaired the old house in his hometown and bought a house in the county seat, "life is getting better day by day".
As a welder in the new energy vehicle industry, Cao Yanju has witnessed the rapid development of this industry. He said that when a new car is put on the market, they will also be proud as welders.
Looking forward to the future, Cao Yanju wants to continue to work in the field of welding, "learn more, make more progress". He is worried that more welding work will be replaced by mechanization and automation technology in the future, and believes that it is necessary to strengthen learning and continuously improve technology.
He dropped out of school at a young age and changed careers repeatedly.
Cao Yanju, 37, from Pingdingshan City, Henan Province, was born into an ordinary rural family. Due to poor academic performance, Cao Yanju dropped out of high school before graduating.
At the age of 17, Cao Yanju was making doors and windows with others in his hometown and came into contact with welding. He said that when he first started working, he only earned more than 20 yuan a day.
Cao Yanju was a "restless" person when he was a teenager, and he always wanted to "try a different industry". After working on doors and windows for 3 years, Cao Yanju went to the construction site as a rebar worker for 2 years, and then went to do interior decoration for more than 1 year.
Later, he went out of Henan and went to Fujian to work in the factory, working on the assembly line, with a monthly salary of 1,200 yuan. Not satisfied with the status quo, he also worked in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province for 1 year, and then went to Jieyang, Guangdong Province to learn to make molds.
Jobs come and go, and it's not ideal. Later, Cao said, a former colleague of his worked at BYD, and in 2014, the colleague told him, "You have welding skills, you can try it here."
Hearing that the environment and treatment were okay, with the idea of giving it a try, Cao Yanju came to Shenzhen and became a welder at BYD.
From a rookie to a technical backbone.
When he entered BYD, Cao Yanju was still a rookie in welding technology, but he felt that the atmosphere here was good and secure, "the masters were very enthusiastic, would train newcomers, and took good care of me", and the salary was thousands of yuan, as well as five insurances and one housing fund.
In the past, in my hometown, I welded anti-theft window anti-theft nets, and the process was simple. After Cao Yanju joined BYD, he entered the Automotive Engineering Research Institute, saw more advanced welding equipment, more exquisite welding technology, and felt unprecedented pressure and challenges. The welding process group he belongs to needs to deal with welding problems in the automotive R&D stage, which has high welding requirements and generally requires manual welding. While learning from the master, he accumulated experience in practical work, kept pondering, and improved his skills by reading textbooks and **.
Cao Yanju welding. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
In the impression of the outside world, welders hold masks for welding, but in the automotive industry, many times welders have to lie on the ground and weld on their backs, commonly known as "back welding". This means that hot and flying sparks during welding can fall on you at any time, even when wearing protective clothing.
The process requirement of a weld is that it cannot be stopped halfway, and it must be maintained in a posture in one go, and backache is common. In order to practice welding skills, Cao Yanju often opened a "small stove" for himself, "I have to practice often, and if I don't practice for a day, my hands will tremble when I hold the welding gun."
In order to maintain his arm strength and balance, Cao Yanju has to practice holding a welding torch every day. The "mirror reflective welding method" that uses mirror reflection to see the welding joint is an additional gain of Cao Yanju in his daily practice - in order to weld the chassis structural parts with complex structure and narrow working space, he used chopsticks to sort peanuts left and right in front of the mirror at home, practiced repeatedly, and finally solved the welding problem that could not be directly operated visually due to obstacles.
Before I came, I only knew the basics of manual arc welding and carbon dioxide shielded welding, and the technology was very average. After arriving at BYD, I gradually mastered more cutting-edge welding technologies such as gas shielded welding, gas cutting, argon arc welding, MIG welding, TIG welding, etc. Cao Yanju said.
After ten years of sharpening his sword, Cao Yanju has grown from an apprentice to a senior welder. With excellent welding technology, he has successively solved many major projects such as the trial production and development of a certain model torsion beam, VWEA all-aluminum frame subframe welding, airport double-decker bus chassis welding, etc., and also won many honors from 2017 to 2022 such as "the third place in the 2017 Shenzhen Pingshan District Carbon Steel Intermediate Welding Competition", "the first place in the 2019 Shenzhen Factory Welding Competition for the frame", and "the first place in the 2020 BYD Carbon Steel Thin Plate Welding Competition". Today, Cao Yanju's products are welded with zero defects, and the first-time pass rate remains at 996% or more.
On August 19, 2022, Cao Yanju, a senior welder who has been in the industry for many years, was awarded the title of "BYD Golden Emblem Craftsman". From a nameless workshop apprentice to a technical backbone with all kinds of experience, Cao Yanju spent 8 years.
After Cao Yanju won the title of "Golden Emblem Craftsman", there was a saying among colleagues: "Cao Yanju's welding techniques are better and faster than robots." In this regard, Cao Yanju was a little shy, he said, "In fact, machine welding is more process-based and standardized, while manual welding can be flexibly adjusted according to the thickness of the material and the size of the weld." ”
A colleague commented on Cao Yanju: "He really loves the welding industry, and he usually loves research and practice." Although there are many high-level welders in the workshop, there are still a few Cao workers in terms of comprehensive level. Cao Yanju always said all the hardships behind it, "It is hard work to do this, and you have to be patient and meticulous."
An all-round welder who overcomes difficult problems.
After years of hard work, Cao Yanju became the leader of the welding process group, managing a team of more than 10 people. Cao Yanju said that BYD has many models, and there are many welding problems that need to be dealt with in the research and development stage, and they are very busy with their work.
After ten years of grinding a sword, Cao Yanju has been very confident in his welding technology. "Is it a welding problem, or is it a design problem? "This is a question that the welding process team often has to face. Cao Yanju said that today, basically all welding problems, their team can solve them, unless it is caused by design flaws.
Cao Yanju welding. Photo courtesy of the interviewee.
In April last year, it was always impossible to debug the frame, so Cao Yanju and his team were busy for 2 days, non-stop debugging and welding, and finally solved the problem satisfactorily. Cao Yanju said that they are fighting in the research and development stage of the car, and when a new car is put into the market, they will also have a sense of pride and feel that they have also made a contribution.
At work, Cao Yanju pays attention to team training and the strength of the team, "Many large-scale products require teamwork and cannot be completed by one person. For new colleagues, I usually tell them and do them to them. ”
In his spare time, Cao Yanju used the waste materials from the non-standard workshop to process a large number of test plates and put them in the repair welding area for the welders to practice in their spare time. He encouraged his team members to use their spare time and waste plates to practice different welding techniques such as fish scale welding and crescent welding.
While helping the team improve their skills, Cao Yanju did not hesitate to sacrifice his rest time and give full play to his strengths to carry out various small inventions and creations, so as to provide various conveniences for the "back waves" in the workshop. He made his own flip tooling and changed the upward welding to horizontal welding, which not only solved the difficulty of vertical welding, but also provided convenience for everyone to carry out vertical welding, flat welding, reverse welding and other directional welding. He used the remaining materials of stamping plates to independently weld labor protection cabinets for the workshop, which met the material needs of the workshop personnel expansion.
Over the years, Cao Yanju has led his team to overcome welding technical problems many times.
In 2017, Cao Yanju's department undertook the chassis welding project of the airport double-decker bus. Because the project is a new product, the conventional welding deformation of the upper and lower thrust rods in the rear section of the chassis is serious, which has a great impact on the post-assembly and installation. After receiving the project, Cao Yanju first identified the difficult problems: the weld was long, and the welding temperature was too high, resulting in welding deformation. After prescribing the right medicine, he skillfully adopted symmetrical welding plus multi-layer multi-pass welding and anti-deformation welding, which successfully solved the welding deformation problem, greatly reduced the welding defect rate of thrust rods, and generated an annual income of 33 for the project9.12 million yuan.
The most difficult and the most rewarding is the trial production and research and development project of a certain model torsion beam. Cao Yanju clearly remembers that in 2021, the factory undertook the trial production and research and development project of a certain model torsion beam. The welded torsion beam assembled at the beginning of the project was found to have torsion beam weld cracking in the product after test and inspection. Because the torsion beam has added a lot of welded parts compared with other frames, there are many welds and the welding surface is an arc surface, the same weld needs to be welded in multiple directions, and at the same time, in response to the needs of lightweight body, the torsion beam plate is thinner, easy to weld through, undercut, and deform. The problem facing Cao Yanju's team was extremely tricky.
In the face of difficult problems, Cao Yanju, who has been experienced for many years, has his own set of coping strategies. He led the research team to conduct a comprehensive investigation, and finally found that the crux of the problem was caused by the unreasonable assembly process and the excessive welding current and voltage, resulting in heat concentration and non-dispersion. After several adjustments and many attempts, Cao Yanju's team developed a set of effective improvement methods.
In view of the unreasonable assembly process, Cao Yanju led the team to readjust the assembly steps, assembling the product components from large to small pieces in order, then fixing the assembled products, and finally welding symmetrically from the middle to the outside in sections to reduce deformation. In view of the excessive welding current and voltage, they adjust the specific welding current and voltage according to the material and thickness of different components of the torsion beam to ensure the penetration of the weld.
In view of the problem of deformation and cracking, Cao Yanju's adjustment of the welding process is also very exquisite: the whole welding process is first fixed and then fully welded. At the same time, the arc starting position and the closing position were changed to improve the weld force, and the starting point and closing point were extended by 15cm to improve the heating of the workpiece. As a result, the yield of the project's products increased to 99 in December9%。
Meticulous and keep improving. Cao Yanju used this craftsman spirit to lead the team to overcome a number of similar major project problems from 2018 to 2021, such as stainless steel chassis body welding, VWEA all-aluminum frame mouth subframe welding.
Struggle changes lives.
After working at BYD for ten years, this is the longest job Cao Yanju has done. He is very satisfied with his current job, first of all, he has a guaranteed income, a monthly salary of more than 10,000 yuan, and other benefits are very good, and he is very competitive in the welding industry. Moreover, in recent years, the new energy vehicle industry has developed rapidly, and he is optimistic about the prospects of the new energy vehicle industry and feels that his future will be better and better.
As a witness to the rapid development of the new energy vehicle industry, Cao Yanju's feeling is that ten years ago, everyone's overall impression of new energy vehicles was not very good. Ten years later, the new energy vehicle industry has developed rapidly, and new energy vehicles can be seen everywhere on the streets.
After ten years of struggle, Cao Yanju's life is also improving. He repaired the house in his hometown and bought a house in the county seat. Today, his two children live with their grandparents in their hometown, and his wife accompanies him to work in a circuit board factory in Shenzhen, earning about 6,000 yuan a month.
Shenzhen is a very nice city to stay in. "Cao Yanju likes Shenzhen very much, its openness and tolerance make him very comfortable, and he wants to stay in Shenzhen and continue to struggle.
Looking to the future, Cao Yanju's idea is to continue to work in the field of welding. Cao Yanju noticed that many welding links have begun to be mechanized and automated, and Cao Yanju was afraid that he would be eliminated, so his response was to strengthen learning, "learn more, make more progress".
Design White Waves.
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