Rebirth 2008: I Can Make Money Reading

Chapter 24 New Planning - Surfacing Cobalt-based Alloy STL6

(In this chapter, the explanation is more detailed, and there may be more professional knowledge, which seems to be brain-burning; but all the data are true, and the author was responsible for this part a few years ago. It can be regarded as the author's experience, a novel, and I processed it.)

The business opportunity that Mu Yang took a fancy to was the surfacing welding of the sealing surface of the valve:

Special surfacing materials cobalt-based hard alloy STL6 and nickel-based alloy 625, in 2007, also had a global market size of two to three billion US dollars.

In the production and manufacture of industrial valves, welding is the most problem-prone process. Leakage, cracks, corrosion, etc. are mostly caused by welds.

Therefore, in special material valves, welding costs occupy a large part of the cost.

It will be easier to understand by comparing and explaining with a relatively easy-to-understand example.

For example, the steel bar material used in residential buildings is Q235B (Q means "yield strength", 235 means the minimum yield strength of the material is 235MPa, and the tensile strength is not less than 375MPa), and the matching domestic brand solid welding wire welding material ER50-6 (50 means that the minimum tensile strength of the weld is 500PAa, and the strength of the welding consumables is stronger than that of the base metal). In 2008, the price of a certain brand of welding consumables was 8 yuan/KG, which was about twice the cost of steel.

As for the special welding material cobalt-based hard alloy STL6, the current domestic market price is 250 yuan/KG, and the import price is doubled.

The price is expensive because STL6 contains high cobalt content, accounting for about 50%, and the target cobalt market price is about 320,000 yuan/ton.

A 10-inch gate (the important part of the valve, which is equivalent to the sealing structure of the faucet, must have wear resistance), and the weight of the wear-resistant material cobalt-based alloy STL6 is surfacing on the wear-resistant part. The weight is about 2KG, and the cost of the welding material alone is low Less than five hundred.

If the size of the valve is larger, the amount of welding consumables will be even greater. For some valves, more than tens of kilograms of special welding consumables will be piled up, and the cost of the welding consumables alone will cost tens of thousands of yuan.

If Muyang wants to engage in this industry, he has to talk about its background and development.

The research work on valve sealing surface surfacing welding technology in my country began in the early 1960s. After 40 to 50 years of development, the valve surfacing welding method has changed from non-automated and low-efficiency to manual arc welding and oxygen-acetylene flame surfacing welding. The traditional surfacing method has been developed to the widespread use of efficient and automated surfacing methods, such as flame surfacing, plasma arc surfacing and laser cladding.

However, the development of automatic surfacing is not smooth, and there are many technical problems to be overcome.

So where is Mu Yang's advantage?

First, equipment.

He is going to use plasma spray welding, the welding efficiency is several times faster than traditional methods!

And what about the amount of welding?

Only 0.7 times the amount of conventional welding!

(It can be welded more evenly, with less machining allowance)

Don't underestimate the coefficient of 0.7. Among the special welding consumables, the welding consumables are so expensive, and the coefficient of 0.3 is a major technical reform.

The cost of light welding materials is saved a lot.

At present, most valve manufacturers have not yet applied plasma spray welding. It will be two or three years after the start of application, and it will be five or six years after the general application.

Second, the repair rate.

Because the hardness of STL6 reaches 330-450HV (the hardness of ordinary steel Q235B is only about 150HV)!

Among metal materials, the greater the hardness, the worse the plasticity, so it is easy to crack.

The repair rate of conventional manufacturing is very high, reaching 20%!

Such a high repair rate will delay the cycle, and the cost of repairing a workpiece is almost the same as manufacturing a new one.

However, the repair rate of the equipment and techniques explored by Mu Yang in his previous life in the past few years is as low as less than 1%.

Third, craftsmanship.

The surfacing welding STL6 produced by conventional methods has excessive iron elements (corrosion resistance will be deteriorated), and it is difficult to meet the requirements of foreign customers.

Such products with excessive iron elements can be exported. Most of them are foreign customers who are greedy for cheap Huaguo valves.

Or because the small-sized valve has already been assembled, it is inconvenient to use a spectrometer to detect alloy elements due to the small space, so the customer only looks at the leakage and does not detect alloy elements.

However, medium and large-sized valves can still be detected if they want to detect them.

If the problem of iron element exceeding the standard can be solved and the production capacity can keep up, domestic manufacturers can easily grab international orders with their price advantage.

In his previous life, Mu Yang worked as the person in charge of welding in a valve company. In order to solve this problem, he visited many welding equipment manufacturers on business trips, and then explored the process. It took three or four years to completely solve the problem of excessive iron. The advanced degree has reached the top level at home and abroad.

He is familiar with the manufacture of plasma spray welding equipment, commissioned a non-standard manufacturer to manufacture one, and the company spent 450,000!

But it couldn't meet the usage requirements, so I rectified it for half a year, and then copied four sets for the company, and the cost of one copy was less than 70,000 yuan.

If it is imitated again, the cost will be lower.

Then Mu Yang, how to make money?

Why do these valve manufacturers provide OEM for him?

In fact, Mu Yang just grasped the poor technical information and the particularity of the surfacing welding process of the valve sealing surface.

For example, the conventional process is artificial argon arc welding STL6. It takes more than 2 hours for one person to surfacing an 8-inch gate, the labor cost is about 50 yuan, the welding material needs more than 2 kg, and the welding material cost is 500 yuan. Gas, electricity and other costs are about 80 yuan, and the cost of light welding production is about 700 yuan.

That is, the production cost of welding consumables, 1KG = 350 yuan!

Workers will also be tired. In fact, a welder works for eleven hours and can weld up to 9 kg of cobalt-based alloy welding consumable STL6.

If the repair rate is high, the welding production cost will reach more than 1,000 yuan.

Counting the repair rate and the production cost of welding consumables, 1KG≥500 yuan!

Most importantly, repairs were delayed, resulting in delays in delivery.

In 2008, the 8-inch ram surfacing welding STL6, the general foundry fee is 1,200 yuan (according to the price of welding materials),

That is, 1KG welding material OEM fee = about 600 yuan!

The production cost of 1KG welding consumables is only 350 yuan, and there is room for a gross profit of 250 yuan.

However, the 600 yuan OEM fee includes not only the cost of materials, but also the cost of repairs. If the ratio of repairs is high, the OEM will lose money.

If it can’t be done well, Baigan has to make up for the cost of other people’s workpieces, and he still can’t get the foundry fee.

Therefore, there are not many outsourced manufacturers who can make OEMs, so they earn a hard fee, and most of the products produced can only be accepted with concessions.

But if it is handed over to Muyang as an OEM, he can save 75 yuan (0.3×250=75 yuan) for every 1KG of welding consumables in light of the material cost.

The labor cost is about 15 yuan, other costs are slightly less about 30 yuan, and the repair rate can be controlled within 1%.

Comprehensive cost: 1KG welding material processing cost = (0.7×250+15+30)/0.99

= about 220 yuan!

Therefore, the OEM fee for an 8-inch gate is 1,200 yuan, and the gross profit is about 760 yuan, which is not lower than the profit of selling finished valves.

That is, the gross profit of processing 1KG welding consumables = 380 yuan!

For large-sized valves, dozens of kilograms of welding consumables are used, and one OEM can earn tens of thousands of dollars.

With machine welding, one worker can weld 10 tons of welding consumables a year!

With conventional equipment and technology, a worker can only weld 2.5 tons of welding consumables a year.

Because the machine welds well, the welding amount is only 0.7 times, and the actual welding efficiency is 5.7 times that of manual labor.

If factors such as low repair rate, less machining amount, high weld appearance quality, easier subsequent processing, concentrated technology, large quantity, and less picky foreign customers are taken into account, the production efficiency is higher than that of valve manufacturers with traditional surfacing welding. 7-10 times higher.

The above are Muyang's advantages and ways to make money.

For example, Huazheng Valve, his old employer in his previous life, has an annual output value of about 500 million yuan, about 800 employees, and only 20 welders. There are 7 welders in charge of surfacing STL6, and the annual consumption of STL6 welding consumables reaches 18 tons, the cost of light welding materials reached 4.5 million.

Welding material costs, gas and electricity costs, wages of production workers and extracted employee welfare funds, waste loss and repair costs, workshop expenses, enterprise management fees, production delays, customer fines due to welding quality, and other welding factors.

Huazheng Valve only spends 11-15 million yuan a year on the welding of cobalt-based alloy STL6.

If spending about 10 million yuan can solve the headache of STL6 welding, there is no doubt that they will be happy.

Moreover, if the requirements of foreign customers are met, more foreign orders of this kind can be accepted.

This status quo is not limited to Huazheng Valve, Muyang's previous club.

Nowadays, most domestic valve factories are troubled by the ST6L surfacing problem, which cannot be solved after many years of exploration.

As long as we have the strength to solve this problem, we can't finish this kind of orders.

However, the production capacity is limited and there are many problems, so a large amount of welding business has to be assigned to capable outsourcing manufacturers.

Of course, outsourced manufacturers use traditional craftsmanship. Even if the repair rate is high, as long as there is a quantity, they are happy to make hard money.

In addition, in order to reduce operating costs, improve quality, and concentrate human resources, if the outsourcing quality meets the requirements and the price is not high, it will outsource some uncontrollable business, which can liberate the organization to focus more on core business. The reason why most companies outsource part of their business.

If Muyang can manufacture plasma surfacing equipment and then produce according to his new technology, even if it is an OEM production, the profit will not be much lower than that of Party A selling finished valves, and it is a monopoly technology, which can earn four to five years.

Of course, the biggest fear of doing business is that the money will not be collected.

Therefore, it seems that the profit is very high, but the money you get in the end is definitely not so much.

After figuring this out, Mu Yang began to plan and make preparations, and made his own plasma spray welding equipment for surfacing cobalt-based alloys.

Many parts of this equipment can be purchased, such as the motor of the positioner, but some can only be made by ourselves, such as the structure of the welding torch.

To manufacture these parts, there must be CAD drawings first, otherwise workers cannot manufacture them.

Using a notebook to run the trilemma software may get stuck, and Mu Yang had to buy a desktop computer to make 3D Soliwoks first, and then convert it into a 2D CAD drawing.

He has imitated this equipment, and he must remember the structure, but some dimensions are a little blurred. There are about a hundred pictures to be drawn. If it is fast, it will be completed in ten days, or if it is slow, it will be half a month.

After the drawing is finished, rent a factory building, hire personnel, buy materials and equipment for manufacturing, commissioning, and then weld samples to valve manufacturers for negotiation and cooperation.

If you build your own factory, firstly, the time is not in a hurry, and secondly, there is not enough funds.

In the book review area, created by colleagues, there is a video of plasma spray welding that I recorded in an outsourced manufacturer. If you are interested, you can go and watch it.