oral history | xie xiangxin and the three stages of valve core development in china
confucius said: stand at thirty, don't be confused at forty, and know the destiny at fifty.
"it took us 30 years to catch up with the century old international development history. now china's valve core development has basically caught up with the international level." xie xiangxin is confident in the development of chinese valve core.
valve core is known as the heart of the leader. the development of china's leading valve core reflects the production logic of china's sanitary ware from small to large and from weak to strong. in a short period of 30 years, there are a group of outstanding chinese bathroom people who have studied and invested in research, creating chinese made products that are not inferior to international quality.
guangdong hent technology is also the leader. the chairman of the board witnessed the development of the new technology in the past 30 years. the development of faucet valve core is becoming more and more healthy and intelligent. in his eyes, the development of ceramic valve core has experienced three stages!
the first stage: in the turbulent 1990s, the quick opening faucet rose
before the 1990s, the development of sanitary ware in china was backward. at that time, the faucet was mainly spiral. the spiral faucet needed to rotate repeatedly. the water was slow, inconvenient to use and easy to leak. however, at this time, the development of foreign leading valve core has a history of more than 100 years. xie xiangxin saw the backwardness of china's faucet at that time and secretly emerged the idea of changing this situation.
in 1991, xie xiangxin followed his uncle xie qingjun to shenzhen to develop a quick opening faucet and apply for a patent. this is also the first generation of ceramic valve core faucet in china. the quick opening faucet, which promoted the development of china's leading valve core industry, opened the prelude and became an important turning point of the sanitary ware industry in the 1990s.
in the 1990s, under the spring breeze of reform and opening up, fujian sanitary ware market grew rapidly. driven by the development and growth of a number of leading enterprises represented by luda, songlin and jianlin, fujian sanitary ware industry formed a cluster effect.
xie xiangxin saw the development prospects of fujian. in 1993, he resolutely left guangdong and came to nan'an, one of china's three plumbing production areas. at that time, nanan ceramic faucet was blank. for him, this is both an opportunity and a challenge.
at that time, shenluda invested in ceramic grinding equipment. xie xiangxin chose to cooperate with shenluda. the rapid rise of nanan ceramic quick opening faucet has driven the development of the whole bathroom industry.
the second stage: the popularity of thermostatic faucets in the new century
in 2000, with the accumulation of previous experience, the industry entered a period of rapid development.
at that time, foreign markets had begun to promote the use of thermostatic faucets, which was undoubtedly a great progress in the industry. however, thermostatic faucets were still in a bottleneck state in the chinese market. at that time, solar water heaters were very popular in china, and the chinese market had great potential. some international leading brands of constant temperature entered the chinese market one after another. however, on the land of 9.6 million square kilometers, the water quality conditions in various regions of china are different. foreign thermostatic faucets can not adapt to china's water quality conditions, and the thermostatic faucet has unstable temperature controlled effluent. so that consumers and agents have a questioning attitude towards the thermostatic faucet and dare not easily try to use and sell it.
constant temperature faucet is the development trend of the industry. only chinese people can study the thermostatic faucet that can be used in the chinese market. in 2005, xie xiangxin and experts in the valve core industry jointly invested in research, which is bound to develop thermostatic faucets suitable for china's water quality conditions. after analyzing the water quality conditions in china and the thermostatic faucet, they found that the two check valves of the traditional thermostatic faucet are not resistant to high temperature and are easily affected by the water quality conditions, which limits the normal use of the thermostatic faucet. they resolutely abandoned the check valve and developed and designed the world's first thermostatic faucet without check valve. this is a thermostatic faucet that really meets the water quality conditions in china.
after the thermostatic faucet is put into use, new problems are gradually exposed. in the past, the faucet was mainly made of copper, which was easy to absorb heat, which had an error impact on the temperature sensing element of the faucet.
in 2008, they invested heavily and spent more than half a year with engineers at home and abroad to jointly develop a new environmental protection material to replace the original copper. after it was put into operation in 2009, xie xiangxin found that the production speed of the new material is also faster because the main body will not conduct heat, it can withstand high temperature and is not easy to burn during use, and the constant temperature is more stable. the humanized design and the original double insurance technology make the optimized and upgraded thermostatic faucet quickly popularized and used in the chinese market, and have been highly praised by all walks of life.
the third stage: new technology breakthrough, lead-free leading to the end
no rules, no boundaries. after 2010, the innovation of enterprises has driven the development of the industry. in addition, after the formulation of the new national standard, there are new requirements for product quality and new breakthroughs in industry technology.
the new national standard has rigid provisions on the precipitation of heavy metals. the production of lead-free copper has always been a major difficulty in the development of the industry. under the requirements of the new standard, xie xiangxin tried to solve this problem from ceramic valve core. the ceramic valve core not only avoids the complexity of the main structure and reduces the cost of the water nozzle, but also meets the requirements of the new national standard. this technology is very popular in the industry.
although the problem of heavy metal content in the faucet was solved, the lead content of the angle valve was also another problem faced at that time. the angle valve is installed at the front end of the faucet, which is in contact with water for a long time and is normally open. if the lead content of the angle valve exceeds the standard, it will also affect the outlet water quality of the tap.
in 2015, xie xiangxin initiated the idea of designing lead-free angle valve. it was proposed to use lead-free copper material to design angle valve, but this proposal was rejected by xie xiangxin. "the angle valve is under high pressure for a long time, and lead-free copper is easy to burst." therefore, the design of explosion-proof lead-free copper angle valve has become the direction of his efforts.
due to the direct contact between the inner wall of the copper body and water, xie xiangxin injected plastic into the copper body. under the cumbersome and demanding injection molding process and many experiments, he finally successfully developed a lead-free explosion-proof angle valve. in 2015, hante launched the world's first lead-free explosion-proof angle valve, which has become a major contribution and breakthrough in the industry.
xie xiangxin pointed out that the development of international sanitary faucets has a history of more than 100 years. in just 30 years, chinese sanitary faucets have gradually been in line with international standards and even exceeded international standards. it is precisely because a generation of industry pioneers who continue to explore and innovate have created the quality of sanitary ware products that are not inferior to international brands, and created the star river brilliant chinese sanitary ware for 30 years!
chen jiamin of zhongjie.com