Weighing In
Innovation reinvigorates a time-honored compressor factory By Li Yifan
Less than a year after he started working at the Shenyang Blower Works Factory, the predecessor of the Shenyang Blower Works Group (SBW), Wang Chuanghua was assigned a task in May 1992 to design two compressors with a pressure of 160 kg for a national-level chemical fertilizer project.“I was very excited to receive such an important mission not long after arriving in the factory,” Wang, SBW Associate Chief Engineer, who had just returned to Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, from the company's production and test base in Yingkou, told
Beijing Review .
Established in 1934, the factory became China's first blower manufacturer in 1952. For over 60 years, SBW has focused on manufacturing equipment for energy and chemical industries, creating a number of records in China and establishing itself as an industrial leader. The company, however, suffered diffi culties in the early 1990s.
近日，《小主人报》携手贝恩口腔医院，开启了名为“小牙医体验”的活动。在工作人员的带领下，小记者们参观了整个医院，不仅看到了各种各样的先进仪器，还了解了牙齿健康检查和治疗的流程。学习完了相关的理论知识后，小记者们穿上白大褂，化身为小小牙医。他们拿起口腔镜，走进诊室，帮助小伙伴们检查口腔健康情况。通过此次参观，小记者们表示一定会好好爱护自己的牙齿。
At the same time, domestic equipment manufacturers fell far behind their foreign counterparts, with SBW only capable of producing small-sized equipment. Compressors of larger sizes had to be imported. “In the early 1990s, our company would get orders only for the simplest compressors. The pressure of the compressors I designed could rarely surpass 40 kg, and even the 160-kg compressors were simple ones based on current standards,” said Wang.
Trying times
Every member of SBW was a participant in the innovation revolution, since it could not be realized overnight. For instance, Ma Jiangfa, former SBW Chief Engineer, managed to continue R&D despite financial hurdles. Chen Fufang and other engineers gave up their management positions and devoted themselves to technology development, working to improve the efficiency of compressor impellers. Young engineers such as Wang, while learning from senior engineers, brought innovative energy to the company.
一是加强乡镇水利站规范化建设。省政府安排专项经费支持全省2 392个乡镇水利站规范化建设，县级水利部门对站长的任免、人员的配备、工作的考评等方面加强管理和指导，乡镇水利站服务功能大大提升。
结构由薄壁U型、L型铝基复合材料以及铝材角铁通过螺栓连接而成，采用壳单元对U型、L型型材和角铁进行有限元建模，采用刚性单元模拟螺栓连接，对底部Y向的U型型材下部节点施加约束，将其6个自由度的变形都设定为0，以此来模拟固支。这样建模能较精确模拟结构形式，又能得到较好的计算效率。其中四边形壳单元19 842个、三边形壳单元2 466个、刚性单元324个，节点总数24 673个，去除约束后结构的总自由度数为103 278。各种型材的材料厚度和力学参数如表1所示。
It is widely accepted in many industrial sectors that compressors decide the profitability of a factory. Transmitting various gases and liquids through the use of energy, a compressor acts like the heart in a human body; thus it is called the heart of industry.
As it advances innovation, SBW has accumulated enough strength for success. In 2011, the National Energy Administration (NEA) assigned SBW to develop compressors to serve air separation units capable of producing 100,000 cubic meters of oxyen per hour, a national-level key project. This was part of a large coal liquefaction project by China Shenhua Energy Co. Ltd. and Wang was selected to lead the project. At the time, he was a senior engineer with over 20 years of experience in air compressor design.
Road to innovation
As China's reform and opening up advanced in this period, a large number of enterprises were established, stimulating the market demand for various kinds of equipment. However, SBW received few orders because of its poor technology capability, leading to fi nancial diffi culties.
A compressor being assembled at the Shenyang Blower Works Group (SBW) in Shenyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province, on September 6
Wang Chuanghua, SBW Associate Chief Engineer
During the 1990s, most compressor designs were hand drawn and usually an engineer could design only one or two compressors a year. Although computers were in use in SBW's design department, few gave them a try since no one had studied computer-aided design. “I was thinking of how to create a computer program to fi nish a design quickly that used to take one or two years,” said Wang. He received three orders in one month and using computer drawing, fi nished all of them within fi ve months.
课后笔者和部分学生也进行了简单交谈，笔者了解到，学生不仅预习了本节内容，而且书后的习题也做了，基本没遇到困难，但预习时只是读了两遍课本，没想那么多，上课时才发现证明“l1⊥l2⟺k1k2=-1”原来有那么多好的、简单的方法．学生普遍反映这几种思路对自己启发很大．这促使笔者对以下问题进行了思考：
In addition to encouraging innovation, SBW also emphasizes the training of talent, creating an environment of respect for knowledge, talent and technology, while offering competitive salaries and benefits for technology and research professionals.
At SBW, three career paths are provided: skill, technology and management. From junior skilled worker to professor-level specialist, from ordinary engineer to professor-level senior engineer, and from offi ce clerk to general manager, the three different paths provide every SBW staff member with career prospects and help the company establish a sound talent pool of all ages. “Among equipment manufacturers worldwide, such a large core team is very rare, and SBW has enough qualifi ed talent to pass on technologies,” Wang said.
Since SBW regards innovation as the source of development power, it has always provided awards for innovation. Every year the company rewards achievements made not only by engineers, but also by workers. It has adopted stock option incentives and introduced a profi t-sharing mechanism concerning the intellectual property rights developed by staff members. These measures have helped establish an atmosphere of innovation and forward thinking in the company among all staff.
A key project
SBW made it its goal to improve technology capability and develop compressors on par with foreign products as quickly as possible. The only solution was to promote innovation as well as research and development (R&D).
An air compressor of this capacity is regarded as the Mount Qomolangma of the compressor industry because of the extremely complicated technologies it requires. The Chinese market had long been monopolized by two German producers, Siemens AG and MAN Energy Solutions. Wang understood it was an arduous task since he knew of a number of cases where Chinese enterprises had no choice but to choose large foreign air separation compressors.
分析方法：对同等面积(24.325 mm×23.5 mm)的切口型翅片施以同样大小的力(600 N)，以比较它们的应力及位移，模拟效果如图3(常规切口翅片的应力及位移)和图4(加强型切口翅片的应力及位移)。
“Developing large air separation compressors is something that is required by China's energy mix,” Wang said. “China has abundant reserves of coal, but its reserves of oil and natural gas are inadequate, so we are now heavily reliant on imported oil and gas.” To change this situation, China must readjust its energy mix, making the development of the deep processing of coal necessary. Air separation compressors that are able to produce oxygen serve as the core equipment of coal liquefaction, for which large amounts of oxygen and water are needed.
Wang and his team spent hundreds of days developing the huge air separation compressor. In August 2015, SBW's fi rst compressor of this kind was successfully tested at the company's Yingkou test base and passed the NEA's acceptance check. In April 2018, the compressor, which had been in operation in Shenhua for a year, passed the expert appraisal organized by the China Machinery Industry Federation. After the success of SBW's 100,000-cubic-meter air separation compressors, the prices of those same foreign products were cut in half, and SBW became known as a “national weight” in China's petrochemical equipment manufacturing in the country's competition with foreign producers.
“The Shenhua project alone needed 12 air separation compressors with a capacity of 100,000 cubic meters per hour, which means broad market prospects. The first compressor helped us gain client trust,” said Wang. After the project was completed, Wang and his team didn't stop innovating, further improving the structure and effi ciency of the compressor.
In addition to the 100,000-cubic-meter air separation compressors, SBW has also achieved breakthroughs in the domestic production of equipment such as million-ton-level ethylene compressors and 10-million-ton-level oil refi ning compressors, among others. While breaking the monopolies of foreign corporations in technologies and keeping Chinese-made equipment up to world advanced levels, SBW has established itself as a key segment in China's industrial chain.
(Reporting from Shenyang, Liaoning Province )
Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo
工程从规划、设计、施工到决算的每一步，虽都有专门部门进行材料成本管理，但部门间的横向联系、相互衔接工作做的还不够，未能达到密切配合、相互监督的高度.虽都已认识到成本管理是全员控制和全过程控制的工作，但在具体的工作实践中，还是存在各部门间因横向联系不畅或信息传递不及时，达不到精细化管理要求的情况.
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