The heat treatment industry is a large energy consumer. While consuming energy, the emissions from the factories are eroding our beautiful home - the earth, causing serious environmental pollution, air pollution, noise pollution, etc., destroying the healthy lives of residents near the heat treatment factories, and also posing a great threat to the living environment of future generations.
In view of the current situation, energy saving, consumption reduction and emission reduction are urgent issues to be solved by heat treatment and all energy-intensive enterprises. China Metal Processing Online reporter interviewed Professor Wen Xinlin, Secretary General of Baoding Heat Treatment Industry Society and Association, on the current status of energy saving and emission reduction in the heat treatment industry, existing problems and how to solve these problems.
China Metal Processing Online Reporter (hereinafter referred to as Reporter): At present, my country's heat treatment industry has begun to consciously carry out energy conservation and emission reduction. Please briefly talk about the current status of energy conservation and emission reduction in my country's heat treatment industry.
Wen Xinlin: In 2006 and 2007, the United States released a strategic roadmap for the heat treatment industry in the United States, one of which was to achieve zero pollution in the heat treatment industry in a few years. This shows that the heat treatment industry association and the government in the United States attach great importance to energy conservation and emission reduction in heat treatment. In China, in the past two or three years, the National Heat Treatment Industry Association, the National Heat Treatment Industry Association, and the heat treatment societies, associations and professional committees of various provinces and cities have begun to pay attention to the problem of heat treatment pollution and have held many discussions.
From 1978 to five years ago, China's heat treatment industry had basically not made any progress, and even regressed. In the past five years, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Mechanical Engineering Federation have begun to pay attention to the heat treatment industry, with advanced heat treatment equipment, such as vacuum furnaces, mesh belt furnaces, etc., as well as a variety of advanced quenching media, and have begun to operate tentatively in large laboratories and factories. However, since a considerable number of heat treatment workers have conservative and outdated ideas, they dare not boldly use these so-called water-based quenching media. Every time they mention it, their first reaction is to use oil quenching for alloy steel and water quenching for carbon steel, and they are very slow to accept new things.
Now every city has a small machinery manufacturing plant. In the past, every small plant had a heat treatment workshop. Since the reform and opening up, most of these heat treatment workshops have been disbanded. The heat treatment workshops of state-owned enterprises have closed down one after another, and scientists with ideals and foresight have begun to do heat treatment projects themselves. Despite this, due to the limited personal strength, some of their equipment is bought new and some is bought old and repaired. Such equipment is bound to result in the quality of parts generally not being particularly fine, environmentally friendly, and clean, wasting a lot of electricity, coal, and oil.
Now, there are only a few heat treatment workshops left by state-owned enterprises in each city. Most of them are self-employed and township enterprises, which are small-scale and not conducive to the quality of heat treatment. Some joint ventures, especially the bright spot projects supported and fostered by the government, have invested a lot in heat treatment in recent years. Now we can say that there are three aspects of heat treatment. First, state-owned enterprises have retained some heat treatment workshops, with outdated equipment and outdated concepts; although self-employed households have advanced ideas, they cannot afford advanced equipment due to limited funds; joint ventures and government-supported bright spot enterprises may invest a certain amount of money in heat treatment, and the quality of heat treatment will be greatly improved.
Reporter: What do you think are the main problems in energy conservation and emission reduction in my country's heat treatment industry? How can these problems be solved?
Wen Xinlin: The main problems in the heat treatment industry at present are that the equipment of small heat treatment factories is outdated, the thinking of enterprise managers is outdated, and enterprises do not have sufficient funds to update the newly developed advanced equipment.
To solve these problems, the most fundamental thing is to scrap those backward, seriously polluting and energy-intensive heat treatment equipment, and force heat treatment plants to replace new equipment, environmentally friendly equipment, energy-saving equipment, and clean equipment; update concepts, use new quenching media, and start using water, air, oil and water-soluble media alternately, using whatever should be used, so that our energy conservation and emission reduction can be improved.
Premier Wen Jiabao recently said that the country has not met the energy conservation and emission reduction targets. The government promised to meet the targets in the next few years, which should also include heat treatment. We must force those outdated furnaces to be eliminated and replaced with new equipment. Otherwise, those furnaces will burn 24 hours a day, which will cause more waste and cause great pollution.
Reporter: In view of the current status and problems of my country's heat treatment industry, how do you think enterprises should proceed to achieve energy conservation and emission reduction?
Wen Xinlin: I just talked about the main problems existing in the heat treatment industry. To address the problems existing in the industry, what companies need to do most now is to eliminate obsolete equipment, introduce new energy-saving and environmentally friendly equipment, organize employees to learn advanced technologies, cultivate high-tech talents, and strengthen enterprise management, so that a virtuous cycle can continue.
Reporter: The problems existing in my country's heat treatment industry are still very serious. In order to achieve energy conservation and emission reduction and reduce environmental pollution, a lot of work and efforts need to be done in all aspects. So what effective measures will industry associations and societies take to help heat treatment companies save energy and reduce emissions?
Wen Xinlin: Industry associations and societies are not supported by the government. They have no salary and no source of income. Some of the activities they organize are also taken from the people and used for the people. As early as around 1970, the mechanical engineering societies of various cities gave some activity funds to the heat treatment branches, but these funds have disappeared since the reform and opening up. Now there is no administrative management above the heat treatment associations and societies in each city. That is, the national heat treatment industry associations and societies hold a meeting, which has no binding force from the economic and administrative perspectives. Enterprises can listen to or not listen to the instructions of the association or society. If the enterprise is happy, it will attend the meeting. If it is not happy, it may not even be allowed to enter the factory. Therefore, energy conservation and emission reduction in the heat treatment industry cannot be achieved by relying solely on the power of associations or societies. The government and the Development and Reform Commission must take the lead, invest a certain amount of funds, and add administrative guidance and control, and assist implementation through heat treatment industry associations and societies.
If there is administrative and economic support from the government, associations and societies will take the following measures to promote energy conservation and emission reduction in enterprises:
1. The technical staff and experts of the association and society go to the factory to check some indicators. If the indicators are met, the factory is allowed to open, and if they are not met, it will be shut down for rectification. Just like the Environmental Protection Bureau, if the water flowing out of the factory is measured by them and the acidity and pollutants are not up to standard, they will force the factory to close down, stop production, and purchase new equipment until the discharged wastewater meets the indicators. The transformation of the heat treatment industry must learn from the environmental protection department and the government's compulsory orders, otherwise it cannot be controlled.
Second, associations and societies organize some training courses to introduce the benefits of new products and new quenching media. Or publish some popular science books to compare new equipment and new processes with old equipment and old processes, and explain the advantages of new equipment and processes, and how much energy and money the new equipment and processes can save in a few years, so that they understand that what is being advocated now is a responsible behavior for future generations.
3. Strengthen the formulation of energy consumption assessment standards for heat treatment production, and establish standardized energy consumption standards and acceptance standards for heat treatment equipment, so that everyone has sufficient theoretical basis in actual production.
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