Put candy from a small box, the Engineer Zhao Wenlong poured out several pen tip. He pulled out the reporter's ballpoint pen with pliers, put on a new pen, draw a smooth line. "You took the first step with the ball point pen made in china." Zhao Wenlong told reporters.

One hundred meters, Taiyuan iron and Steel Group steel rolling workshop, stainless steel column is pressed into thin red hot steel; after the steel wire is stretched into cutting out the media attention again; domestic ball pen.

In February 7th, the reporter visited the Taiyuan found that pen tip steel is a steel factory specializes in old industry, the natural result accumulate steadily. TISCO engineers listen to user feedback, not to mind taking the trouble improvement, so that the old tree blossoms sprout.

Although China's annual output of 38 billion ball pens, but the ball point of the steel and processing machinery are imported, most of the profits have been earned by foreigners. This situation was repeatedly mentioned in the two sessions of the country, and ultimately be seen as a microcosm of China's manufacturing industry is not strong. "Why is it so easy to resonate with the Chinese public and the media?" Xu Guanhua, former Minister of science and technology, said in a special forum on 2010, on the national leaders, under the newly enrolled students, we have to use a pen. So talk about Industrial Hollowing, ballpoint pen this case is very suitable."

To this end, the Ministry of science and technology to support the national science and technology support program key projects, key materials and manufacturing technology development and industrialization of the pen industry, the core goal is the localization of ball point pen. "In 2011 we received a project from the Ministry of science and technology." Wang Huimian, an engineer involved in research and development, said, led by the pen business, TISCO and Chinese Academy of sciences. In support of this project, we basically made out the secrets of the nib steel in 2014. From 2015 to the present, we have been trying to get the nib steel on the production line to ensure its quality and stability."

After the engineer received the task, first from the research mechanism.

Stainless steel ball point pen can be traced back to 50 years ago in japan. A Japanese small business R & D SF20T stainless steel, is the only suitable NIB steel materials, the company's long-term monopoly supply.

Stainless steel can not be processed with the ball pen head: the hole in the nib is drilled out, drilling ordinary steel, the steel wire will not be able to cut off the hole diameter. The steel is not so strong, it will not drop the spiral steel. But on the other hand, the thickness of the top of the pen is less than 0.4 mm, to cut out a step with a groove microstructure, to achieve micron level accuracy, the pressure is huge, if the nib steel is too brittle will crack under the knife.

Wang Huimian said that the difficulty of the development of NIB steel, it can not be too strong and not too tough, very narrow range of performance.

It is not equal to understand how to make steel by testing the approximate element ratio of Japanese steel. In general, most of the additives used in stainless steel is carbon, silicon, manganese, phosphorus, sulfur, chromium, steel is used more than 10 kinds of elements. How to add these elements is a trade secret, add the wrong method, the elements can not be evenly distributed in the whole furnace steel, steel is not qualified.

"There is no information," said Wang Huimian. "We started the experiment with a few kilograms of furnace, thousands of times, and the number of failures was not clear."

To achieve uniform is not easy, not a good mix of molten steel soup, adding elements can not loose aggregation. After each smelting, it is necessary to test thousands of data, and then analyze and adjust. Engineers can try to grind the bulk of the material into the powder, can also be made into strips and wire feed, with years of experience in steelmaking.

When the preliminary test was successful, the engineer continued to experiment with a one hundred or two hundred kg furnace. Then there is a 1 ton furnace; the ultimate goal is a melting pot of 45 tons and a total of 90 tons. From small to medium, and then trial production, each link must rely on patience. The goal is to see the uniform distribution of the crystal under the electron microscope, as well as the qualified elongation, tensile strength and hardness.

Refining special steel is a fine job. From raw materials to the tip of the wire, the need for more than 50 processes. Zhao Wenlong told reporters that each process requires quality control. If there are tiny bubbles in the steel, the steel wire can be perforated on the machine. In order to wire appearance by a little scratch, they are lifting the volume when the steel wire, can not use the fork, but with a belt; then packed in wooden cases.

"Users tell us that they don't need 100 minutes of material, but that they need to perform a steady 80 points. Zhao Wenlong said that in order to this goal, TISCO is still improving quality control.

Now TISCO has begun to supply enterprises such as BEIFA pens. TISCO delivered to the user's steel volume increased from a few tons to more than ten tons, the future is expected to achieve import substitution. The price of imported steel has fallen by 1/4.

In January the development of domestic ball point pen sharp news spread throughout the country, and even pushed up the number of days of TISCO stainless steel stocks, which makes the management of the people's Congress from the grassroots level to the surprise.

Taiyuan Iron and steel industry is China's top students, but also the world's largest producer of stainless steel. Its production scale ranked 20 in the country, profit margins are ranked in the top fifth, the top sixth. Since the plant, it has been relying on the characteristics of development, and now also adhere to the transformation does not change the focus on the internal strength of stainless steel. TISCO engineers are proud to say that the stainless steel ball from home brush pot, to the rocket