Recently, in the new factory area of Luoyang Hongyuan Bearing Technology Co., Ltd. in Changdai Town, Mengjin District, the newly completed enterprise exhibition hall welcomed a special "housewarmer" - a German rotary table surface grinder produced in 1960.
"It is '63 years old' so far. We can become the 'hidden champion' of high-precision bearings, it is an 'old hero'." Looking at the rusty old grinding machine in front of him, the eyes of Zhou Shuzhou, the chairman of the company, became gentle.
For a grinder with an average service life of 20 years, the grinder in front of you is truly "longevity". Relying on it, Luoyang Bearing broke the import monopoly and ushered in a bright moment. What is the story behind this?
The relationship with grinding machines stems from the feelings of "localization"
The reporter saw at the scene that the German word "Glauchau" was written on the white signboard of the grinding machine. When the word is translated into Chinese, it is the city of Grauhaus in southeastern Germany, showing its "extraordinary background".
In the global grinding machine industry, there is a saying that "the world's grinding machines look at Germany". The connection with this German grinding machine originated from Zhou Shuzhou's insistence on "domestic substitution" for high-end precision bearings at the beginning of his business.
Bearings are known as the "heart" of equipment manufacturing, and high-end precision bearings are even regarded as "the jewel in the crown of the manufacturing industry". Without it, industrial robots and machine tools would stop. However, due to lack of core technology, domestic high-end precision bearings were once dominated by industry giants such as Europe, America and Japan. For example, YRT turntable bearings, which are widely used in the field of high-precision machine tools, were basically monopolized by Schaeffler in Germany before 2007.
Zhou Shuzhou, who used to work in a state-owned enterprise, always has a feeling of "domestic substitution", hoping that key components will not be "stuck". "When I first started my business, I wanted to make products that no one else had made, so I resolutely chose high-precision bearings." Zhou Shuzhou said.
Buying a 47-year-old grinder for 50,000 yuan encountered peer "do not understand"
To develop and produce high-precision bearings, it is necessary to buy high-end equipment. However, an imported high-precision grinding machine costs 3 million yuan, which deters Zhou Shuzhou, who has only 400,000 yuan in venture capital.
Just when he was at a loss, Zhou Shuzhou learned from a friend that a certain company in our city had a second-hand German grinding machine produced in 1960. Although this machine is "advanced", it is still "not old" - it can achieve a processing accuracy of 2 microns, which is equivalent to 1/30 of a hair. More importantly, the price only needs 50,000 yuan!
"The first time I saw it, it was covered with a layer of dust and greasy, but it was like seeing an old friend." Zhou Shuzhou described his excitement at the time, "You can buy a machine tool with a machining accuracy of 2 microns for 50,000 yuan. , this is the highest precision equipment you can buy at this price. I decided to buy it immediately."
However, because of this incident, Zhou Shuzhou was not understood by his peers.
Zhou Shuzhou said that at that time, my country's home appliance and automobile industries were developing rapidly. "My colleagues think that buying a domestic grinding machine with relatively low precision to produce low-end bearings for home appliances and automobiles will not be able to do business. Why spend 50,000 yuan to buy a second-hand grinding machine that I don't know how long it will last? Isn’t it asking for trouble to enter an unfamiliar field that few Chinese companies have set foot in?” Zhou Shuzhou still remembers the confusion of his peers.
Attracted orders from Europe's largest machine tool company to help break foreign monopoly
Soon, it turned out that Zhou Shuzhou's vision was correct.
After the grinding machine was introduced, the company carried out technical transformation on it to give it a new life. It was on this machine that the company's first set of high-precision YRT turntable bearings was born.
In 2008, after learning that the company had developed the YRT rotary table bearing, DMG, the largest machine tool company in Europe, expressed its cooperation intention to Hongyuan Bearing—requiring the rotation accuracy of the bearing to reach the European standard of 2 microns. At that time, it was not easy for domestic companies to reach 4 microns, and Hongyuan Bearing successfully won the order.
In the next few years, with the help of this grinding machine, Hongyuan Bearing started from a little-known start-up company, and now it has occupied 80% of the domestic YRT rotary table bearing market, not only breaking the monopoly of foreign companies, but also becoming the subdivision The "hidden champion" in the field is also exported to Europe, North America and other regions, which makes many old international strong companies look at each other with admiration.
Times have changed. In 2015, with the advancement of domestic machine tool technology, the company purchased a domestic high-end precision grinding machine. This German grinding machine was officially "retired" and is now placed in the company's exhibition hall in the new factory area.
The name of this exhibition hall is "Hongyi", which coincides with the spirit behind the grinding machine.
"Every time I see it, I seem to see the courage of the newborn calf not afraid of tigers, as well as the days and nights of technological breakthroughs." Zhou Shuzhou said, "I hope this grinding machine can always inspire us to be ambitious and firm-willed. Go firmly along the road of making China's precision bearings stronger."
