"Pete, why do I feel that hot stamping has suddenly become popular in China?"

"The first hot stamping production line put into operation this year may be able to reach full production by the end of next year. We need to start considering the investment issue of the second production line."

As the general manager of Benteler's China branch, Feng Bo is actually an authentic German.

However, as a doctor, his German surname sounded very similar to "Feng", so after arriving in China, he gave himself the name "Feng Bo".

Even his business card has this name printed on it.

On the contrary, Peter's name is actually Qian Hui, and he is an out-and-out native of Shanghai.

But after joining Benteler, he gave himself a foreign name.

Even his company email address is.

"Feng Bo, I really have to thank Great Wall Motors for this. The crash test they conducted instantly turned the unknown hot stamping technology into a popular technology in the automotive industry."

"We have been looking for various customers to promote the use of hot stamping technology, but except for Volkswagen, most of them are not very interested."

"Even the models of Mercedes-Benz and BMW in China have no plans to use hot stamping so soon."

"Now that Great Wall Motors is doing this, not only Modu Volkswagen and Spring City Volkswagen have accelerated the use of hot stamping parts, but BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Modu GM, and Shenlong Motors have also begun to speed up the application review of hot stamping parts technology."

"I think we can really start planning for the second production line."

"Otherwise, when receiving orders, customers ask us whether our production capacity can meet the requirements, and I don't know how to answer."

Although Qian Hui and Feng Bo were directly superiors and subordinates before, they were addressed by their first names.

In this regard, in European and American companies, the apparent hierarchy is indeed not that obvious.

Unlike Japanese companies and Korean companies, where the position is one level higher, the level of communication between each other is very obvious.

"The situation is indeed a bit dramatic, but taking this opportunity, the company is preparing to hold a hot stamping technology exhibition at various customers."

"If you can get enough orders, we will officially start planning the second production line."

"In the past two days, I have heard news that our old rival in Europe, Gestamp, has also arranged for personnel to inspect China. It seems that it is also preparing to build a factory here to produce hot stamping parts."

"This is not a good thing for us."

"Once Gestamp is confirmed to come in, then Magna's Cosma will probably accelerate its entry into China."

"After all, if the hot stamping technology here is applied in advance, they will definitely be aware of it."

Founded in 1876, Benteler is one of the world's major suppliers of auto parts and produces supporting products for almost all European and American automakers in the world.

Their products include front suspension and rear suspension modules; chassis systems; anti-collision structural parts; and engine exhaust and control systems.

At the same time, Benteler holds many patents for thermoforming stamping technology and is the first company in the world to successfully apply thermoforming technology to automobile bodies.

But they are not without rivals in the international market.

Gestamp, both from Europe, and Cosma, owned by Magna, are its old rivals.

Benteler produces chassis parts, as do Gestamp and Cosma.

Benteler produces hot-stamped parts, as do Gestamp and Cosma.

Even before Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory entered the field of hot stamping, Benteler, Gestamp and Cosma were the only three mass-produced hot stamping suppliers in the world.

So many times, Benteler's people regard Gestamp and Cosma as their competitors.

As for those enterprises in China, they didn't take it seriously.

Even Huaqiang Factory has already used 12-point hot stamping parts in Great Wall Motors' h6, and has attracted the attention of many OEMs.

"When we came to China to invest in the hot stamping forming line, Volkswagen had already promised part of the order."

"Although Mercedes-Benz and BMW only contacted them this year, we also supplied them with hot stamping parts in Germany."

"As long as the headquarters and the Huaxia branch work together, I don't think it will be a big problem to get their orders."

Qian Hui can be said to be full of confidence at this time.

In the field of hot stamping molding, Benteler has no rivals in the Chinese market.

"Please sort out the requirements for hot stamping parts from each OEM. We will also find a time to hold a conference call with people from the headquarters to see how many orders we can get."

Feng Bo was also in a very good mood.

The future of the company is bright.

…

Guo Shuyin is very busy.

During this time, waves of OEMs came to visit the factory.

The hot stamping factory next to Great Wall Motors is dedicated to supplying parts to Great Wall Motors, so it is not very convenient for customers to visit.

The most important thing is that the headquarters is in Yangcheng, and it is inconvenient for Guo Shuyin to travel to Baozhou often.

Fortunately, the new factory built by Huaqiang Factory for Xingchen Automobile has basically completed the equipment introduction of the hot stamping production line and has begun to enter the equipment debugging stage.

So if customers want to come and visit, they won’t have nothing to see.

"Guo Bu, before visiting the factory, I would like to ask you what is the difference between your production line and the production line invested by Benteler in Shanghai?"

Li Jianfeng from Modu Volkswagen followed Hassan and Bu Defan to the Yangcheng Huaqiang Factory today.

They have already quoted a price to Huaqiang Factory, and the same parts are twenty or thirty yuan lower than what Benteler quoted.

This is still the case when parts are transported from Yangcheng to Shanghai, and the transportation fee for each part is a few dollars higher than that of Benteler.

Although China's parts manufacturers have always had advantages in terms of cost.

But if this was the case for new technology parts such as hot stamping, he was a little curious.

"Gong Li, I have not directly visited the production line of Benteler on site."

"However, based on the information we have obtained through previous investigations and some of your introductions, Mr. Li, we can generally know the differences in the equipment between the two parties."

"First of all, Benteler's hot stamping production line and heating furnace are produced by Benteler itself and imported from Germany, while ours is domestic equipment produced by Nanshan Equipment."

"Secondly, the most critical hot stamping machine, Benteler imported it from ap&t in Europe, and we are also a domestic press produced by Nanshan Equipment."

"Then there is the hot stamping mold. As far as I know, although Benteler plans to make it in China in the future, at this stage it is still made and imported from Germany."

"Ours was purchased from Nanshan Mold, and everything from the main materials to processing of the mold has been localized."

"The last thing is the laser cutting equipment. Benteler purchased the TRUMPF laser cutting machine, which was also imported from Germany."

"A hot stamping forming line is equipped with four TRUMPF laser cutting machines. It is said that the purchase cost of this piece of equipment alone exceeds 20 million."

"And our laser cutting equipment is also produced by Nanshan Equipment."

"Moreover, we are also studying with Nanshan Mold to see if we can cut the edges directly in the mold in places where the tolerance requirements are not so high."

"This can greatly reduce the amount of laser processing, improve production efficiency, reduce costs, and also reduce investment in laser cutting equipment."

Although Guo Shufu is in sales, he is also very familiar with his own hot stamping production line.

This production line is said to be very complicated, but if you just understand the basic principles, it is actually not difficult.

It’s not like I’m asking you to design this production line.

"I'll interrupt. Just now you said that your company is researching edge trimming in molds. Can you give a detailed introduction to this situation?"

Although Dr. Hassan speaks Chinese with a slight accent, communication is no problem at all.

As a quality person, he clearly understands why hot stamping parts require laser cutting.

As advertised, the tensile strength of hot stamped parts can reach 1500mpa.

What is the concept?

In 2005, the maximum tensile strength of most OEM car body parts did not reach 590MPa.

Even if there are, only a few key parts are in use.

On top of the 590mpa steel plate, there are generally 780mpa, 980mpa and 1180mpa ultra-high-strength steel.

Even 1180mpa is still in the laboratory state and has not entered mass production.

Even for 980MPa automotive sheets, no domestic steel mill has achieved large-scale mass production.

You can imagine how high the intensity of 1500mpa is.

If the parts produced in this way need to be punched, trimmed, etc., it cannot be done directly using a stamping machine and mold.

At this time, laser cutting technology comes in handy.

No matter how strong you are, it won't be a problem in front of the laser.

Although laser processing technology is good, the cost is also high.

Take a B-pillar reinforcement plate as an example. There are dozens or even dozens of mounting holes, positioning holes, process holes, and weight-reducing holes that need to be processed.

Then the surrounding parts need to be laser trimmed to meet the tolerance requirements specified in the drawing.

After all, anyone who has done stamping knows that parts coming out of the drawing process will definitely need to be trimmed.

Otherwise, the parts will definitely not meet the drawing requirements.
To be continued...