In front of the gate of Taicehng Metal Composite Materials Co., Ltd. located in the East District of Titanium Valley, Baoji City, Shaanxi Province, an oversized metal plate stands obliquely, which looks like an ordinary corporate publicity board at first glance. However, it is this seemingly inconspicuous board that has attracted many people in the industry to fly to Baoji from all over the world to visit, and even many experts have repeatedly come to inspect it.
Standing in front of this 12-meter-long, 3-meter-wide, and 36-square-meter super-large titanium-steel composite board, He Baoming, chairman of the Taicheng Metal Composite Materials Group in Baoji City, Shaanxi Province, told the Economic Daily reporter that this titanium-steel composite board is a one-time The direct "explosive forming" has set a new record for domestic titanium steel explosive composite plates. This product can be used as the blank of large-format ultra-thin titanium-steel clad plates to provide reliable titanium clad plates for domestic marine engineering equipment, the national defense and military industry, the petrochemical industry, sewage treatment, electric power, and other fields.
"The composite metal surface has become so much larger all of a sudden, which not only means that our process technology has achieved a new breakthrough but also means that its application field will be greatly expanded." He Baoming said.
New materials are the key guarantee for manufacturing and defense industries. In 1963, DuPont of the United States successfully explosively composited the world's first titanium steel composite plate, which opened the application of explosive composite materials in the industrial field. Over the next half century, the fields of application of explosive composites gradually broadened. In 2018, the largest titanium-steel composite plate in China was born in Baoji Taicheng, which means that domestic enterprises have reached a new peak in this field.
Success takes a long time to brew. As early as the 1980s, He Baoming started to manufacture titanium materials. In 2005, he founded Baoji Taicheng Technology Co., Ltd., and since then he has focused on one industry. After years of development, Baoji Taicheng has become one of the top four companies in the domestic industry, and is currently one of the very few companies in China that can achieve large-scale production of wide and thick composite plates through the "explosive rolling method". With a series of technological and product breakthroughs, the company has also grown from a small workshop more than ten years ago to an industry leader with 5 branches, an annual production capacity of 30,000 tons, and an annual output value of 450 million yuan.
"Titanium is characterized by high strength, corrosion resistance, lightweight, and has many 'friendly advantages' such as biophilicity, no heavy metal precipitation, and color. We call it 'future metal' in the industry. We have customized for a city A group of composite titanium metal bamboo forest sculptures have been built for many years, without any rust, and the cost is not much higher than that of copper.” He Baoming told reporters that China’s proven reserves of titanium resources currently rank first in the world, and its processing and manufacturing technology has also ranked among the top in the world. Go ahead. With the rapid improvement of titanium metal smelting and application technology, titanium will change from a rare metal to a "big metal".
Baoji Taicheng can gain a firm foothold in the fierce market competition and achieve rapid development, not only relying on the "one trick" of explosive composite technology but also the persistence of specialization in one industry and the R&D advantages of collaborative innovation are its core where the competitiveness lies. Over the years, Baoji Taicehng has extracted 3% of the company's sales revenue for research and development every year. At the same time, the R & D department was established, and together with Baoji Titanium Industry Research Institute, Northeastern University, Beijing Institute of Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, and other colleges and scientific research institutions, it successively undertook the "China Petroleum Sinopec Metal Explosive Composite Technology Center" and "Titanium Valley". The work of the East District New Material R&D Center" and "Titanium Steel Explosive Composite Material R&D Center". More than 40 technologies developed by the company, such as multi-layer large-format titanium and various metal explosive composite plates, titanium-molybdenum-nickel-titanium composite plates, multi-layer super large-area copper-steel, aluminum, and stainless steel explosive composite plates and their manufacturing methods, have obtained national patents.
Through a series of research and development, Baoji Taicehng has achieved the "small goal" of "leading the domestic counterparts in technology and reaching the international advanced level in quality". Thanks to this series of innovations, in recent years, the sales performance of Baoji Taicheng Engineering has grown at an average rate of 20%.
He Baoming told the reporter that Baoji Taicehng currently has more than 300 employees, of which R&D personnel account for a high proportion, and the R&D system is very stable. The technology and products of Baoji Taicheng have passed the certifications of IS09001 quality system, 14001 environmental management system, and 18001 occupational health management system, and have international R&D and production capabilities.
Taking advantage of the "Belt and Road" initiative, today's Baoji Taicehng Engineering Co., Ltd. has gone to the world, and has successively contracted the first phase project of K0ST0LAC-B power station in Serbia abroad, and the 1×670MW supercritical coal-fired power project in Banten, Indonesia.
He Baoming said that the level of research and development and application of titanium and titanium alloy materials has become an important manifestation of a country's new material research and development application level and comprehensive national strength. In the future, Baoji Taicehng will continue to improve product quality and market competitiveness with new products such as ultra-large-format titanium-steel composite plates and ultra-large and ultra-thin titanium-molybdenum-nickel steel composite plates for power plant chimneys, and strive to become an important composite plate in Northwest China. Board production and processing research and development base.
