Establishing a research and development platform for sharp innovation
In August of this year, Henan Huanghe Whirlwind Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Huanghe Whirlwind Group, was selected as a leading enterprise for key cultivation in Henan Province's manufacturing industry for 2021. The selected enterprises are mostly strong manufacturing companies with leading comprehensive rankings in the industry in Henan Province, providing strong support for the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry during the "14th Five-Year Plan".
Huanghe Whirlwind was selected for this list mainly due to its strong scientific research platform and scientific research capabilities. The scientific research platform is an important carrier for improving the innovation and practical capabilities of scientific research personnel and enhancing the innovation level of scientific research institutions. Strengthening the construction of scientific research and innovation platforms and improving technological innovation capabilities are of great significance for promoting the sustainable development of enterprises.
Currently, Huanghe Whirlwind Group has three national-level research platforms, including a national-level enterprise technology center, an enterprise post-doctoral research workstation, and a diamond standardization working group. It also has seven provincial-level research platforms, including the Central Plains Scholar Workstation, the Henan Province Large Single Crystal Diamond Synthesis Technology and Application Engineering Research Center, the Henan Province Superhard Composite Materials and Their Products Engineering Technology Research Center, the Henan Province Key Laboratory of Diamond Optoelectronic Materials and Devices, the Henan Province Special Pre-alloyed Powder Engineering Technology Research Center for Superhard Materials, the Huanghe Whirlwind Co., Ltd. Enterprise Technology Center, and the Henan Province Superhard Material Synthesis Compaction Sealing Medium Industrial Public Technology R&D Design Center.
Huanghe Whirlwind has utilized its own scientific research platform to undertake 2 projects for the "National High-Tech Industrial Chain of Regional Characteristic for Superhard Materials and Products", 9 projects for the "National Torch Program", and 2 projects for the "National Science and Technology Promote Trade Program". It has won 16 awards for scientific and technological progress at or above the provincial and ministerial level, 26 scientific and technological achievements in Henan Province, and currently holds 307 valid patents, including 16 invention patents, and has participated in the formulation of 3 national standards and 9 industry standards. Through continuous innovation, it has filled many gaps in diamond equipment, products, and applications in China.
"The Party Congress report clearly proposes to cultivate innovation subjects and support the construction of enterprise R&D institutions," said Zhang Zhenqiang. "We will seize the opportunity, build and operate the R&D platform well, continuously improve our own development quality, consolidate core competitiveness, further expand and strengthen, and better play the leading, supporting, and demonstrative role of the leading enterprise, promoting the high-quality development of the city's economy.
Cultivating professional talents and building an innovation highland
Innovation is the "first driving force" for development, and talents are the "first resource" for promoting development. Talents are the solid foundation of innovation and the breakthrough and focus of the innovation-driven development strategy. The Party Congress report clearly proposes to strengthen the learning and training of Party members, cadres, and enterprise executives, continuously improve their ability and quality, and build a highland of talents.
"Without talent advantages, there can be no advantages in innovation, science and technology, or industry," said Jiang Gailin, Minister of Human Resources at Huanghe Whirlwind Group. For enterprises, establishing an innovation consciousness and cultivating an innovative spirit are the keys to cultivating talents.
Huanghe Whirlwind Group vigorously promotes the spirit of model workers, labor, and craftsmen, insists on making scientific research and innovation the main battlefield for Party members and cadres to play their roles, establishes a scientific and technological research team led by Party members, and promotes the high-quality development of the enterprise while empowering the restructuring of products and improving the quality of products in the superhard materials industry.
It is reported that Huanghe Whirlwind Group's "reserve talent plan" vigorously selects excellent young reserve Party members, cadres, and talents to the front line of production and operation. 218 outstanding talents have entered the reserve cadre library, and 56 "post-80s" cadres have taken on important management positions. Among all cadres and talents, Party members account for 95%. In recent years, a large number of advanced and model figures who love their jobs, innovate, take responsibility, and make selfless contributions have emerged among the company's Party members, including 1 national People's Congress representative, 3 national model workers, 2 Henan model workers, and 1 Central Plains master craftsman.
"Huanghe Whirlwind Group continues to innovate in talent team building. During the '14th Five-Year Plan' period, we will take the principles of 'high-end talent quality, precise job configuration, and market-oriented salary system' and use a market-oriented model to vigorously introduce leading talents who can break through key technologies and drive technological innovation, striving to introduce a group of high-end talents, create an innovative team, and achieve a major breakthrough," said Jiang Gailin. In addition, we will continue to hire high-level industry-renowned experts to carry out technical cooperation, establish an "expert think tank," and use the "external brain" to overcome key technical problems to provide strong talent support for the development of enterprises.
Improving the incentive system to stimulate innovation
For many years, Huanghe Whirlwind Group has spared no effort in research and development investment. The group has invited nearly 100 experts, including academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and dozens of professors, and invested more than 200 million yuan in research funds. It has successfully developed a diamond synthesis equipment that meets the needs of China's development -- the Hexagon Diamond Synthesis Press.
Based on this, it has been continuously improved and enhanced, with the press tonnage developing from 6,000 tons to 22,000 tons, and the single synthetic output increasing from the original 15 carats to 360 carats. The product grade has also been greatly improved, not only replacing imports but also achieving batch exports.
Huanghe Whirlwind Group focuses on superhard materials, from industrial-grade diamonds to cultivated-level diamonds, and has entered the main development channel of hundreds of billions. "This is inseparable from the group's seizing historical opportunities and continuous innovation. Enterprises have both experimental technology innovation and engineering application innovation, which cannot be separated from a good environment such as innovation system and incentive measures." said Wu Xiwang, director of the Huanghe Whirlwind Group R&D Center.
It is reported that the R&D center of Huanghe Whirlwind Group has undergone organizational reforms--established an Innovation Research Institute, responsible for basic research and innovative research on new materials and technologies; set up a Policy Research Office, responsible for analyzing policy information, formulating medium- and long-term technology development plans for the company, and docking with various external resources; established an Expert Committee, regularly organizing technical exchanges, responsible for policy formulation, project approval, promotion, transformation, assessment, and incentive work for various scientific and technological projects of the company; established an Application Service Center, providing targeted products, complete solutions, and incubating new products and projects for customers.
"The Party Congress report proposes to 'establish a technology innovation incentive fund, increase research and development investment, and optimize the innovation environment' to stimulate the internal motivation of talents for innovation." said Wu Xiwang. The group is improving the assessment and incentive system for scientific research innovation, accelerating the efficient transformation of scientific research results, and continuously improving the company's scientific research innovation capabilities and product comprehensive competitiveness.
Accelerating technological transformation to achieve innovative development
Huanghe Whirlwind Group will focus on expanding in the direction of coarse-grained, high-performance, and serialization in the field of superhard materials and products. It will further expand the research and production of high value-added products such as superhard composite materials, metal powders, coarse-grained high-grade diamonds, gem-grade large single crystals, and micro-powder diamonds. At the same time, it will extend and expand the industrial chain, make scientific research breakthroughs in gem-grade large single crystal and ultra-large single crystal diamond high-temperature and high-pressure synthesis, and enhance the company's core competitiveness.
"The group has achieved the transformation from manufacturing to creation, from speed to quality, from products to brands through scientific research and innovation in development, which has stimulated the vitality and creativity of the enterprise, and enhanced its core competitiveness and sustainable development capabilities. Gradually achieving 'equipment replacement, machine replacement, and production line replacement' will promote the development of the enterprise towards specialization and intelligence." said Zhang Zhenqiang. This coincides with the report of the Party Congress to "deepen the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, complete a new round of technological transformation, and achieve high-end, intelligent development."
It is reported that Huanghe Whirlwind Group is seizing the opportunity of new infrastructure, playing the "pioneering role" of superhard materials as an industrial "tooth" in new infrastructure, and expanding the application scenarios of "5G+ industrial Internet." By promoting "5G+ smart factory," optimizing production processes, improving product quality, reducing production costs, and realizing big data management and control, it will help industrial upgrading.
In addition, Huanghe Whirlwind Group, which is committed to revitalizing national superhard materials, will continue to adhere to the concept of "for the country, for the people" during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, and leverage the characteristics of diamonds to enter more important industries.
It is reported that diamond, with its super-strong thermal conductivity and optical properties, has become an important raw material in the third-generation semiconductor materials that China has determined to develop, and semiconductors are an application field mainly based on large-carat high-purity diamonds, with a trillion-dollar market scale. Huanghe Whirlwind Group has already begun to layout the fields of optoelectronic and thermal applications, third-generation semiconductor applications, high-end diamond and product applications, military and aerospace, etc. It has established cooperation relationships with many universities, established provincial-level key laboratories for optoelectronic materials, and has reserved a large number of related talents, which will play an important role in solving engineering problems such as chip "neck bottlenecks.
Promoting Industry Integration, Stimulating Innovation Achievements
To achieve high-quality development of manufacturing industry, it is necessary to promote the deep integration of advanced manufacturing industry and modern service industry, and promote the prosperous development of modern service industry such as R&D, consulting, financial services, logistics, etc. that are upstream and downstream of the manufacturing industry value chain, to effectively reduce the intermediate input costs and greatly increase the value-added of manufacturing industry products.
"The Party Congress report proposes to vigorously develop high-end and specialized production service industry, promote deep integration of production service industry and advanced manufacturing industry, which can not only promote the high-quality development of manufacturing industry, but also effectively drive the development of production service industry." In Zhang Zhenqiang's view, the most intuitive effect of the integration of the two industries is to accelerate the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and even stimulate new production service fields.
To promote the technological development of superhard materials industry, Huanghe Group has established a shared experimental center. The center has a total area of approximately 2,000 square meters, with 56 sets of various large, medium and small testing and experimental equipment, including 16 sets of industry-leading equipment. The center has two national-level experts in the industry, six doctoral students, 12 master students, and more than 50 other technical personnel who are familiar with the operation of various types of instruments and testing equipment and proficient in various professional knowledge in the industry.
"With the advent of the sharing economy era, shared bicycles, charging treasures, and automobiles have brought many conveniences to people. In the field of scientific instruments, the opening and sharing of large-scale scientific research equipment has also become a major trend in the industry." Wu Xi-wang introduced that Huanghe Group's shared experimental center relies on the group's R&D center, integrates the company's internal large-scale instrument equipment and talent resources, and builds a first-class comprehensive open experimental platform in the industry, providing testing, characterization, analysis, testing, technical consulting, project cooperation and other services for the entire industry.
Shared laboratories not only allow enterprises to maximize the use of laboratory equipment, but also bring profits to enterprises. At the same time, it also facilitates the smooth conduct of analysis and testing work for companies in need. In addition, shared laboratories between companies promote technological exchanges, which is conducive to the development of relevant cooperation and has important significance for the development of the instrument industry.
While strengthening technological R&D and capacity release, Huanghe Group will continue to pay attention to industry development trends, take the customized road, produce different products according to customer needs, and improve product value-added and popularity. The Huanghe Diamond Business Unit has successfully developed "Life Source" diamonds, which extract carbon elements from human hair or bones and synthesize diamonds through special processes. Currently, research is underway to further enrich customization of diamond colors, shapes, sizes, and even materials.
"In the future, Huanghe Group will unswervingly adhere to the road of innovative development, break the rules, arm its mind with innovative thinking, integrate innovative concepts into the company's business development, and improve employees' innovation awareness and ability." Zhang Zhenqiang said that a more magnificent journey has begun, and a greater victory is ahead. Huanghe Group will contribute to the construction of a more powerful, vibrant, charming, and collaborative Changge with an unwavering spirit, practical responsibility, and the courage to overcome difficulties.