Traditional hardware is "new" The annual output value of hardware is more than 20 billion yuan
Forging automation, assembly line sharing, design innovation......
The annual output value of Chongqing Dazu Hardware is more than 20 billion yuan
Traditional hardware is "new".
"Hiss ......" is located in the hardware production workshop of Hexin Group in Dazu Industrial Park, Chongqing, and a batch of knife embryos are being grinded. From sharpening the knife surface, installing the handle, to opening the cutting edge and marking the trademark, in less than 45 seconds, a forging tool with Dazu characteristics was made by the intelligent robotic arm.
Dazu District, Chongqing City, as an important centralized production area and distribution center of hardware products in China, has an annual output value of more than 20 billion yuan in the hardware industry. There are more than 1,500 hardware production enterprises in the region, more than 100,000 employees, and the business area of the hardware professional market group reaches 360,000 square meters, and the products cover more than 2,000 kinds of models in more than 10 categories such as daily hardware and tool hardware, which sell well in domestic and foreign markets.
While adhering to the traditional production process, Dazu Hardware has integrated innovative models such as intelligent manufacturing and digital sharing into production in recent years, promoting the industry from "small and scattered" to "large and excellent".
01 Inherit skills and innovate production
Dazu Hardware has a long history. According to the record of "Dazu Hardware", during the period of Tang Zhaozong, in order to excavate Dazu stone carvings, a large number of craftsmen such as hammers and carving knives were produced. Agricultural and life hardware tools are also developing simultaneously. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, due to the large output of hardware and good workmanship, Dazu has become a well-known "hometown of hardware".
After the founding of the People's Republic of China, especially since the reform and opening up, Dazu hardware ushered in industrialization and large-scale development, and became a key production area of hardware tools in the country. "The fire is ringing, and every household is busy with iron", which is the prosperity of Dazu hardware industry.
Why does Dazu hardware last for thousands of years? Many locals believe that the special forging process inherited from the late Tang Dynasty to the present day is the mystery. Taking knives as an example, after the base material of knife making is heated at high temperature and cooled by roll forging, Dazu people will put it on the flat pier and repeatedly hammer and straighten it until it is shaped, and then polish the blade, and the knife created through these steps is called "forging knife". "Thousands of tempers make good steel! Compared with the common non-forging 'stamping knives' on the market, forging knives have high hardness, strong wear resistance, and are sharper to use. Deng Jianjian, general manager of Chongqing Deng's Kitchenware Manufacturing Co., Ltd., said.
With his excellent forging skills, Deng Jianjian became the inheritor of Chongqing's intangible cultural heritage "Longshui Small Hardware Forging Skills", and registered the brand "Dengjia Knife" to sell forging products. Local enterprises such as Qiaofeng and Wynn are also producing forging knives on a large scale, with a total annual output of more than 100 million, which also makes Dazu known as "China's forging knives and scissors center".
"Although forging knives is good, they are only produced by manually wielding hammers, and even if the workers work day and night, the output cannot be increased. If you want to make a name for yourself in the country, you must rely on machine automation. Chen Pinzhong, general manager of the Chongqing section of Hexin Group, said.
The process of automating the production of forged products is fraught with hardships. Chen Pinzhong recalled that the common automation equipment on the market is mostly for stamping products, and the R&D team has no ready-made standards to refer to, and continuous trial and error is the norm, "For example, the grinding surface, in order to polish the appropriate inclination of the knife body, we have gone through nearly 10,000 simulation tests, and finally determined the optimal angle value of the robotic arm operation." "In November last year, the fully automatic grinding production line built by Hexin Group for forging tools was put into use, which can save 20%-30% of production costs.
At present, Dazu hardware leading enterprises have established automated production workshops, local independent innovation and research and development of production and processing equipment, can achieve quenching, cold forging, grinding and other key processes of hardware forging machine batch processing.
02 Digital empowerment, shared technology
Due to the "business secrets" such as process skills, hardware practitioners are accustomed to working separately and lack organic connection, which can easily lead to low industrial concentration, small enterprise scale and overall dispersion. In order to avoid Dazu Hardware falling into the predicament of "small and scattered", the local government actively uses digital technology to promote industrial agglomeration.
In the exhibition room of Chongqing Qiaofeng Hardware Manufacturing Co., Ltd., the digital QR code engraved by laser on the surface of the product attracted the attention of reporters. Take out your mobile phone and scan, the electronic identification analysis report comes into view, the product name, tool handle material, production date and other information are clear at a glance, and you can also click the relevant link to enter the company's online store.
Qin Yong, deputy director of the Dazu District Economic Information Commission, told reporters: "Previously, local businesses were accustomed to manually pasting paper QR codes at the knife body for anti-counterfeiting, and after converting them into digital QR codes, the machine printing speed of 0.64 seconds not only does not affect the production efficiency of enterprises, but also saves material and labor costs, and can obtain more 'cloud' information." ”
The laser marking two-dimensional code system is led by the Dazu District Party Committee and the district government, and is part of the construction of the "Industrial Internet Platform and Hardware Products Identification Analysis Secondary Node" project. The project integrates all kinds of information from the production to the sales of hardware products, and uses a digital network to connect local hardware enterprises. The connected enterprises can realize product collaborative design, intelligent manufacturing quality traceability and supply chain collection and sales, which is conducive to the standardization of the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, cost reduction and efficiency increase. Among them, the hardware analysis secondary node platform has been connected to 138 hardware enterprises in the region, with about 825 million codes, saving more than 3,300 yuan in costs for application merchants.
The construction of intelligent sharing factories (assembly lines) is also an innovative attempt to speed up the agglomeration of the hardware industry - developed by leading enterprises and provide high-tech production equipment, open to small and medium-sized enterprises to share and use, to solve the problem of insufficient equipment investment and low process level of a single enterprise.
The reporter came to the production workshop of Chongqing Mingyou Steel Tool Manufacturing Co., Ltd., and Chen Mingyou, chairman of the board, was operating the heat treatment automatic production line built by him. "This production line uses isothermal classification technology, which can process steel into bainite steel, making the finished cutter blank more tough, and the production efficiency is more than 7 times higher than that of the traditional process." Chen Mingyou said that he has shared the production line, and other companies can produce the required knife embryos according to their own needs.
Chen Pinzhong also shared the group's grinding automation production line, and he believes that the shared assembly line will help promote the standardization of Dazu forging hardware. "Due to the different operating equipment, craftsman skills and other conditions in each factory, the forged products produced often have differences in the thickness of the knife back, cross-section taper, etc., and quality control has become a big problem. Nowadays, it is only necessary to input the corresponding data into the control computer of the shared assembly line, and the error of the thickness of the blade and the sharpness of the blade can be well controlled. ”
03New design to broaden sales
"In terms of function, there is not much difference between hardware products of the same category. If you can't make characteristics, it will lead to homogenization of the product, and the market will also be affected. Liu Chuan, general manager of Chongqing Yongli Tool Co., Ltd., said a major problem faced by hardware practitioners.
How to break the game? Dazu Hardware chooses to innovate in design and enhance product competitiveness.
In the Yongli knife product exhibition room, the staff let the reporter see a kitchen knife with a delicate design: the kitchen knife is set up with a pushable bayonet at the junction of the back of the knife and the blade, and the switch located at the handle is pressed, and the bayonet is opened, and the blade can be removed for replacement.
Making new ideas for daily hardware products such as knives and scissors is the direction that Liu Chuan has been working on since taking over the company. In recent years, Wynn Tools has cooperated with industrial design companies to launch a series of creative "Internet celebrity" hardware products, which are welcomed by young consumers and open up a new market space.
Using industrial design to promote the development of enterprises is the consensus of many Dazu hardware enterprises. There are 23 enterprises in the district included in the list of design-driven enterprises in Chongqing, and leading enterprises such as Qiaofeng Hardware have also set up a special knife and scissors industrial design center. "'There is a product without design' is the inherent impression of Dazu hardware in the past." Li Guangming, chairman of Qiaofeng Hardware, said, "The addition of industrial design will inject new vitality into Dazu hardware products. ”
With good design and good products, how can more people see new changes? Dazu hardware people have taken a fancy to the traffic advantage of e-commerce live broadcast.
Liu Chuan, who has a keen insight into market trends, began to deploy online sales in 2013 and has accumulated rich experience in e-commerce, which also makes Yongli Tools perform well in live broadcasts. "Our current e-commerce annual sales exceed 30 million yuan, and nearly 200 products are sold online, of which the sales of slaughtering knives rank first among all e-commerce platforms." Liu Chuan introduced.
Dazu has built an e-commerce industrial park covering an area of more than 20,000 square meters, where more than 600 enterprises have registered, with an annual transaction volume of more than 6 billion yuan. A warehousing area is set up in the park, gathering more than 120 logistics companies, and "e-commerce live broadcast - parcel packaging - logistics delivery" can be completed in one stop, which is conducive to Dazu Hardware to better "grab orders" on the online platform.
Dazu Hardware is also actively "going to sea" to reach and expand the international market through various measures. Qi Yonggang, chief of the Foreign Economic and Trade Section of the Dazu District Commission of Commerce, introduced that in September last year, the Longshui hardware market in Dazu District was approved as a pilot market procurement trade method, and local enterprises can carry out cross-border trade exports through this method, which solves the dilemma of "small orders, miscellaneous supplies, and difficult to obtain export qualifications" for small and medium-sized hardware enterprises. Dazu's first customs supervision operation site has also recently passed the comprehensive acceptance, which will link the "Yuxinou" international railway channel and help Dazu Hardware to better go to the world.