A visit to the transformation and upgrading of the

Hejian craft glass industry transformation and upgrading visit

at that time, a group of educated youth from Beijing Glass Instrument Factory came to the countryside in nandashi village, xingbieying Township, Hejian City, and taught the villagers the skills of glass deep processing

at present, there are thousands of enterprises producing craft glass in xingbieying, Li folk houses, Shawa, Jingneng and four towns in Hejian City, including manual workshops and large-scale enterprises, which are also used by villagers

in recent years, Hejian City has adhered to stimulating endogenous power with innovation, promoting the transformation and upgrading of the process glass industry with industrial design, continuously improving the added value of products through innovative and creative design, and actively building platforms, building bases, hiring famous teachers, cooperating widely, and cultivating talents, and has embarked on a new road of taking industrial design as the guide, combining products with culture, and realizing branding, artistry, and internationalization. More than 40 years ago, the "small workshop" production has developed into today's "big industry", with 252 registered enterprises and nearly 60000 employees, forming a product system of seven categories and thousands of specifications. It has become the "capital of China's technological glass" and the "production base of China's heat-resistant glass". In 2018, the output value was 5.5 billion yuan, and the annual consumption of glass was 100000 tons. The products were exported to North America, Europe, Southeast Asia and other places

industrial design endows products with "soul"

wire drawing, tyre blowing, back sealing, mouth bursting On April 22, the homogenization phenomenon was serious. In the production workshop of Hebei mingshangde Glass Technology Co., Ltd., after a while, after several processes, the glass raw materials became exquisite glass products. In a few days, these glass products will be placed on the shelves of Europe, America, Japan and South Korea

"my father has been a glass apprentice since he was 14 years old, which has also planted a seed for the development of our enterprise." Gao Mingliang, chairman of Hebei mingshangde Glass Technology Co., Ltd., said that when he was a child, his father ran a small-scale workshop organized by Hongwang group in important areas of North China to manufacture test tubes for chemical plants. Slowly, small workshops developed step by step, and new factories were built. At the age of 17, Gao Mingliang's son inherited his father's career and continued his family's glass business

at first, he didn't realize that glassware had a "soul". "We will process whatever customers want." Gao Mingliang recalled that in those years, he didn't have his own design at all, let alone market competitive advantage. Through going out to study, he gradually realized that simply following the old road of modern processing was not enough, and it must be changed. "We adhere to the concept of industrial design, combine the intangible concept with tangible products, slowly expand from simple tea sets to tableware, coffee sets and other glassware in life, and transform and improve the performance, appearance and production skills of products, so as to inject 'soul' into products, so that craft glassware is more high-quality and applicable, more in line with aesthetic requirements, and higher added value and efficiency."

in order to establish a high-level industrial design center, Hebei mingshangde Glass Technology Co., Ltd. specially hired a foreign design expert and set up a R & D and design team with more than 20 members to provide product R & D and design services for 7 subsidiaries, as well as design services for other surrounding companies

from the beginning of its establishment, Hebei mingshangde Glass Technology Co., Ltd. has developed into a well-known enterprise of craft glass products with three brands and thousands of varieties, focusing on laboratory glassware products. Its products are sold to 55 countries and regions in the world, and it has carried out cooperation with Starbucks, Nestle and other enterprises

now, with Hebei mingshangde Glass Technology Co., Ltd. as the leader, the scale of Hejian craft glass industry is growing, and the products are becoming more and more diversified. The initial stage of Hejian craft glass industry is limited to industrial instruments and craft decorations, mainly producing beakers, measuring cups, test tubes, water appliances and other traditional glass products. Hejian City adheres to promoting the design innovation of products and production processes, accelerating the integration of industrial design and glass manufacturing, and accelerating the design and development of new product categories around diversified market needs. At present, it has gradually developed into a product system with thousands of specifications in seven categories, including industrial instruments, craft wine sets, craft tea sets, etc., which has high practical, ornamental and collection values

in 2015, Hejian was awarded the honor of regional evaluation of Chinese arts and crafts characteristics by the China Arts and Crafts Association - "the city of China's arts and crafts glass", and became a county or city with this honor for the domestic glass industry; In 2017, it was awarded the title of "China heat resistant glass production base" by China Daily Glass Association. At present, there are 252 registered enterprises and nearly 60000 employees

innovation gives enterprises inexhaustible impetus to move forward

with the continuous improvement of living standards, people's living standards are also gradually improving. The requirements for glass products are not limited to daily needs, but pay more attention to the combination of artistry and practicality of glass products. To this end, Hebei mingshangde Glass Technology Co., Ltd. has never stopped the pace of innovation, investing seven or eight million yuan every year for technological innovation

"you see, this back cover device is independently developed by us. Now we have realized semi-automatic production." Fu Wei, the manager of the company, pointed to the equipment not far away and said, "it used to take 4 minutes to manually seal the back of a large coffee cup. Now, a worker can look at 3 devices and seal 3 cups in 3 minutes. This greatly improves efficiency and saves a lot of raw materials."

nowadays, in the production of glass products, kerosene furnaces for heating are developed into oxygen combustion supporting natural gas, and the raw materials are also developed from ordinary glass to high borosilicate glass. Fu Wei said that ordinary glass is easy to crack when exposed to boiling water, while high borosilicate glass has excellent high temperature resistance and corrosion resistance, which means that it is not easy to explode when it is hot or cold

"Although high borosilicate glass has many advantages, single-layer high borosilicate glass is easy to be hot when it is just poured into boiling water. We thought about how to make it not hot. Double layer glass has slower heat dissipation and stronger heat preservation than single-layer glass. At that time, no domestic enterprise had mastered the technology of high-temperature and heat-resistant double-layer glass. In 2003, chairman Gao Mingliang led the technical backbone of the enterprise to start a difficult technical breakthrough. When we first began to trial produce cups, we encountered When the cup is closed, it is easy to bubble, and the mouth is easy to crack. We just grope a little bit, and use some auxiliary tools in the production process to improve the flatness and stability of the seam. In order to trial produce a qualified cup, we consumed more than 20 tons of glass tubes, equivalent to 120000 glasses. " Fu Wei recalled, "in 2004, the double-layer glass was finally developed successfully, and we also opened the overseas market with this product, and the orders began to increase. Since 2009, the company has changed from OEM production to independent brand export. Now, the sales of our products in the foreign market account for 60% of the total sales."

Hebei mingshangde Glass Technology Co., Ltd. has 196 national patents so far, from the invention of auxiliary machinery such as a pipe blowing machine, a pipe blasting machine, a bottom sealing machine, and an automatic screw thread machine, and from the design improvement of "two threads" to "one thread"

the innovative development of enterprises cannot be separated from the policy support and guidance of Hejian municipal Party committee and government. The municipal finance establishes a 30million yuan craft glass industry development guidance fund every year to support enterprises to increase investment in R & D and equipment renewal. Relevant documents have been issued to fully mobilize the enthusiasm and initiative of enterprises in talent introduction, innovation and development

with the support of Hejian municipal Party committee and government, Hebei mingshangde Glass Technology Co., Ltd. prepared to build Shangde glass cultural and creative park, covering Shangde Glass Museum, glass theme hotel and studio, maker space, and provincial industrial design center. Hejian municipal government, Tsinghua Academy of fine arts and Hebei mingshangde Glass Technology Co., Ltd. have also reached a cooperation agreement. They have been working hard to find new packaging materials and jointly build achievement transformation bases and teaching practice bases. Hebei mingshangde Glass Technology Co., Ltd. has become a national double base for achievement transformation and teaching practice of Qinghua Academy of fine arts

Wu Bingkun, deputy director of Hejian science and Technology Bureau, introduced that in order to comprehensively improve the cooperation level and design innovation level of government, industry, University and research in the process glass industry, and further improve the popularity and influence of Hejian process glass industry, since 2016, Hejian municipal government has decided to hold a China Hejian process glass design innovation competition every year, and launched the annual China Hejian international lamp glass art festival in 2017, It aims to show the innovative achievements and leading direction of the craft glass industry, build a bridge between design, research and development and production enterprises, stimulate the innovation ability of Hejian craft glass, and build Hejian into a studio and gathering place for world craft glass design talents, as well as an exhibition and trading center and art Center for world craft glass artworks and products

"in 2018, the Suntech glass museum was officially opened to the public, so that you can understand the origin and development of glass and witness the inheritance of this traditional craft. During the 'one festival, one competition', in the museum, you can not only enjoy the works of various countries, but also experience the production process in the experience area." Gao Mingliang said, "in the past, our company was looking for others to cooperate. Through these activities, many universities and enterprises took the initiative to cooperate with us. I have more confidence in the future development."

craft glass manufacturing is mainly manual, and mature skilled workers need years of careful training and years of accumulation, mainly in the form of teachers and apprentices. Hejian takes the construction of talent team as the key to the sustainable and healthy development of the industry, and has established and improved the training mechanism of skilled workers. After years of development, Hejian has nearly 50000 glass craftsmen, which provides a strong guarantee for the development of craft glass industry

after years of accumulation and innovation, craft glass has become a bright business card of Hejian City and an important medium for promoting oriental culture. Hejian has won the titles of "national foreign trade transformation and upgrading base" and "famous city of craft glass industry in Hebei Province"