According to statistics, during the “Tenth Five-Year Plan” period, my country’s annual demand for spring steel (materials) will reach 350,000 tons. According to research, the total demand for spring steel in my country’s automobile and railway industries will account for more than 90% of the total in the future.
At present, there is a basic balance between spring steel production capacity and demand, but there are still contradictions in varieties. The production of high-grade and deep-processed varieties cannot meet the demand and needs to be imported to make up. The main imported products are spring steel for cars (about 5,000-10,000 tons per year), spring round steel for railways, and spring steel wires for oil pump valves. Among them, spring round steel for domestic cars needs 9,000-10,000 tons per year, and imports account for about 30-40%. The spring steel wire for automobile valves needs about 2,000 tons per year, basically relying on imports. According to SAIC Zhongxu Spring Company, they consume about 10,000 tons of spring steel each year, of which 4,000 tons are used to make automobile suspension springs, 1,200 tons are used to make car valve springs, and 3,000 tons are used to make automobile stabilizers. It is used to manufacture automobile joint springs, oil pump springs, etc. On average, a car requires 30 kilograms of spring steel, while passenger cars and trucks use more spring steel. At present, 70% of the spring steel for automobile suspension springs produced by Shanghai Zhongxu Spring Company is imported from abroad, while 100% of the spring steel used for automobile valve springs and automobile stabilizer bars is imported from abroad.
With the continuous development of the spring application industry, the requirements for springs are getting higher and higher. For example, due to the speed increase of railways and the heavy load of freight cars, buffer springs require good performance, which meets the requirements of “speed increase” and “heavy load” of trains. Therefore, new requirements are also put forward for spring steel. From the development trend, springs have higher and higher requirements for the mechanical properties, fatigue properties, elastic resistance, physical and chemical properties, and process properties of materials. To this end, the Shanghai Baosteel Group No. 5 Steel Corporation and the General Iron and Steel Research Institute jointly carried out the mechanical properties and rotating bending fatigue test research of the speed-increasing railway spring steel; and the Northern Jiaotong University carried out the fatigue test research of the cylindrical spiral spring. Through scientific and technological research, Wugang has successively provided spring steel samples for speed-increasing railways to locomotive and rolling stock factories in Qiqihar, Guiyang, Xi’an, Tianjin, Jinan, Zhuzhou and other places; it has also developed large-size over-sized rail spring steel silver bright bars , Adapt to the spring steel required for passenger cars to speed up.
Shanghai No. 2 Steel Company invested more than 400 million yuan to build a new suspension spring steel wire oil quenching-tempering production line with an annual production capacity of 10,000 tons. Currently, the production line has been put into trial production and has successfully developed a high-stress oil quenching-tempering production line. Fire suspension spring wire. This kind of domestic spring steel wire is mainly used for suspension springs of cars, mini-cars, high-grade motorcycle damping springs and other springs with high fatigue resistance and high relaxation resistance. This will greatly promote the increase in the localization rate of my country’s cars. Now, Shanghai No. 2 Steel Company has put domestically-made automobile tempered suspension spring wires on the market, and the varieties and specifications are relatively complete, including 55CrCi, 60Si2MnA, 60Si2Cr, 65Mn, etc., and organize production according to international standards to replace imports. The “Car Railway Spring Steel” successfully developed by Jiangsu Xigang Group Corporation was included in the 2003 National Torch Program. It is understood that the spring steel developed by Xigang Company mainly includes 60SiMnA(T), 60Si2CrVA(A), 60Si2CrA, 50CrVA, etc., which are mainly used in railway and automobile manufacturing.
The huge spring steel market in China has attracted the attention and optimism of foreign investors. According to reports, recently the world-renowned high-strength induction heat treatment suspension spring wire (ITW) manufacturer of Japan High Frequency Refining Co., Ltd. will unite Shanghai Automobile Co., Ltd. and Japan Mida Wang Company, jointly invested 15 million US dollars to establish a joint venture to research, produce and sell ITW and other metal products for automobile and motorcycle shock absorbers to meet the increasing quality requirements of the domestic automobile industry for spring steel. It is estimated that by 2006, the joint venture will have an annual production capacity of 14,400 tons. According to the market forecast of this joint venture company, by 2010, China’s car production will reach 4.4 million vehicles, requiring high-strength induction heat treatment of suspension spring steel wires of 40,000 tons, and the company’s products will have a market share of more than 60% in China. Ranked first in the industry.
Due to the accelerated development of my country’s spring industry, the spring market continues to expand. Similarly, the domestic spring steel market prospects are also expanding day by day, but its competition will be more intense. How to occupy the market of domestic spring steel is a major issue.