Seals that Made a Difference

MANY CHINESE MAY FAIL TO KNOW SHAOYANG in central China’s Hunan province, as it is one of over 300 major cities scattered in China’s vast territory. Shaoyang Xingda Precision Machinery Manufacturing Co,Ltd, however, has risen into national prominence in the country’s automotive manufacturing industry.

The national standard for nitrogen gas springs, now widely used in dies for automotive manufacturing, was established around 2010. Xingda began to do research into springs around 2003 after starting up almost from scratch from a state-owned automotive parts manufacturer that was on the verge of bankruptcy. And it put its springs into production around 2008.

“The development of Xingda was not always smooth. Before Xingda was reshuffled from a state-owned company, about 400 of its employees often went unpaid. The whole company was characterized by an atmosphere of anxiety,” Xingda’s general manager Zuo Mingliang recalls.

At the very beginning, Xingda made shock absorbers and supplied them mainly to vehicle repair shops. But they soon found a market gap.

A fascination with springs

A shareholder of Xingda, named Wang Yihuan, found that imported dies of a car manufacturer needed repair because of a malfunctioning nitrogen gas spring. When Wang took the dies back to Xingda and tried to repair the spring, he was fascinated by the nitrogen gas spring.

“The traditional spring is prone to go out of shape. But this will never happen to nitrogen gas springs as long as no air leakage occurs,” he concluded.

The first spring manufacturer

At that time there were no spring manufacturers in China. Despite limited access to information and knowledge about the spring, Zuo and his colleagues did not hesitate to start to do research into the product.

However, Xingda lacked funding and had to invest almost all profit it made from shock absorbers into research and development. Four years later, they invested about 2 million yuan, most of which was borrowed.

The company soon came across new challenges. “Imported nitrogen gas springs dominated the domestic market and many car manufacturers were suspicious of the quality of Xingda’s products,” says Zuo.

To persuade vehicle manufacturers to try their product, Zuo and his colleagues had no choice but to give some of their product away for free.

While this worked and won them trust from customers, another problem emerged. “Air leakages happened because of inadequate seals, which made service life short,” he says.

A seal to stop leakage

In the following three years, Xingda tried various sealing solutions suppliers, but still failed to achieve a satisfying result.

Trelleborg came into Zuo’s sight for the first time when he looked into an imported nitrogen gas spring and found Trelleborg’s logo. He knew then that a world-leading nitrogen gas spring manufacturer was using Trelleborg’s solutions.

Zuo soon turned to Trelleborg for sealing solutions. Considering the high quality, he extended it to all Xingda’s products around 2015. “Sealing is key in nitrogen gas spring manufacturing to ensure quality and performance. Trelleborg’s solutions, such as the U-Cup, polyurethane O-Ring and Guide Ring, have greatly improved our product’s quality,” Zuo said, adding that Xingda’s sales have expanded by 20 to 30 percent since 2013 and they reached more than 60 million yuan in 2017.

“We have been in close communication with Trelleborg. At the very beginning, engineers from Trelleborg came at least twice a month. Even now, they come about once every month,” says Zuo.

Xingda has been increasing its R&D investment to upgrade its product line to become a world-noted supplier for the world’s robot industry.

“Sealing is key in nitrogen gas spring manufacturing to ensure the quality and performance.”

-ZOU MINGLIANG, Xingda Precision Machinery

An ongoing cooperation

Trelleborg and Xingda have increased their cooperation recently in an effort to win a contract for robots.

“Instead of only supplying tailor-made solutions to fix our products, Trelleborg this time was involved with us at a very early stage in our design. This helped Trelleborg know our products better and to offer more suitable solutions,” he said.

Xingda has also been working on an intelligent tailgate lift system for cars. A new factory that covers three hectares is now under construction. Zuo expects to increase Xingda’s annual sales to between 500 million and 1 billion yuan before 2025.

“Trelleborg is a world leader in sealing solutions. With support from Trelleborg, we could concentrate on R&D of other products related to nitrogen gas spring manufacturing,” Zuo says.

“We hope that Trelleborg will be more involved with us in design as we upgrade our products,” he adds.