HFD's Second Revolution: "For Tomorrow, We Must Correct Today"
HFD's mining equipment business was started from scratch by three people. For survival, for their ideals, they devoted all their time and energy to research and development, sales, and service. They worked tirelessly, often staying at the company day and night, sometimes even neglecting to return to their dormitories. It was during this time that our company's "sofa culture" began. HFD's factory sales staff also traveled far and wide, especially to remote areas, without hesitation. The survival of the company during the early stages of entrepreneurship depended on the "no-holds-barred" attitude of the research and development personnel and sales staff.
Passion can start a business, but passion alone cannot sustain continuous and smooth development of a company.
Regarding research and development, in the early days, HFD's product development was not much different from that of many other companies. There was no strict concept of product engineering, nor were there standardized scientific systems and processes. Whether a project was successful or not mainly depended on the decisions and courage of the leaders. With good luck, the project could proceed smoothly, but with bad luck, it could end in failure, as uncertainty and randomness were very high.
In the early days, HFD's DTH hammers always had problems with hardness. During the research and development process, we tried at least a thousand methods and tested over a hundred materials. It often took more than six months to test a single material in the mines.
In deep hole drilling applications, down-the-hole (DTH) drill bits can not only reduce drilling costs but also improve drilling efficiency. DTH Drill Bits have two structural forms: medium and low air pressure DTH drill bits and high air pressure DTH drill bits, solving the problem of short tool life in strong and weak rock formations and achieving good results.
The difficulties encountered in traditional deep hole drilling are long construction periods and unstable borehole walls. As the depth of the borehole increases, the stability of the borehole decreases, and the likelihood of accidents inside the borehole increases. Frequent lifting and lowering of the drill string exacerbate drill rod damage. Therefore, according to the characteristics and conditions of deep hole drilling, the longer the lifting interval and the return stroke, the better. DTH drill bits are specialized tools for rock drilling and play an important role in deep hole drilling applications.
DTH impactors are widely used. As everyone knows, the working principle of DTH impactors is that compressed gas enters the impactor through the drill rod and then is discharged from the drill bit. Our research and development personnel are very proficient in this principle. The main difference between us and big brands lies in the materials of the impactor itself and the details that many manufacturers overlook. Details determine success or failure, and details are accessories. The piston and inner cylinder are the core components of DTH hammers. The piston moves back and forth in the cylinder to generate impact energy. The inner cylinder guides and withstands the impact force. The material and structural design of the piston and inner cylinder have a crucial impact on the performance and life of the impactor. The performance of the impact piston is closely related to its manufacturing process. Different materials have different manufacturing processes. The manufacturing process route for pistons made of high carbon vanadium steel (such as T10V) is as follows: raw material inspection (chemical composition, microstructure, non-metallic inclusions, and hardenability) → material → forging → heat treatment → inspection → grinding. The manufacturing process route for pistons made of 20CrMo steel is forging → normalizing → inspection → machining → heat treatment → shot blasting → inspection → grinding. The manufacturing process route for pistons made of 35CMrOV steel is forging → heat treatment → inspection (hardness) → machining → carburizing → inspection (carburizing layer) → high temperature tempering → quenching → cleaning → low temperature tempering → shot blasting → inspection → grinding. The second important component is the distribution seat and valve plate, which are the control components of DTH hammers. The distribution seat is responsible for introducing compressed air, while the valve plate controls the direction of compressed air flow and the size of impact energy. The structural design of the distribution seat and valve plate can affect the reversing accuracy and impact force of the impactor, thereby affecting the quality and efficiency of drilling. The variable diameter design is a unique structural feature of DTH impactors. This design can reduce the resistance when drilling stones and soil get stuck, effectively reduce the probability of failures that the impactor cannot lift, and adjust the cone angle of the variable diameter design according to different working conditions, making the DTH hammer impactor more adaptable to drilling operations in various complex environments. When the company solves these materials, our impactor can be said to be on par with big brands. But how can we open up the market and win the trust? The first hurdle is to survive at all costs. At this stage, grand ideals have no practical significance and can only be used to inspire employees. Vision and speed are the most important, and team efforts determine everything. Overly standardized processes are harmful. This is a heroic stage, driven by values, and also the most thrilling stage. By the second stage, companies must form their own corporate culture, and management begins to take precedence, moving towards professionalism and standardization. The company starts to appear somewhat bland. Many companies that were thriving died at this stage because they failed to translate their scale into quality and fell into the strange phenomenon of "the average lifespan of Chinese companies is only three years."
Every step we take is extremely difficult, and we treat every customer seriously because we believe that the cultural characteristic of our company is service. Only service can bring returns. When our minds are very clear and we need to work hard, the first thing we need to do is survive, and the full and necessary condition for survival is to have a market. Without a market, there is no scale, and without scale, there is no low cost. Without low cost, there is no high quality, and it is difficult to participate in competition. We have deep cooperation with South Africa, North America, and some countries in the Middle East. These cooperations have undergone long-term communication and negotiation. We always consider issues from the customer's perspective, address the customer's urgent needs, and actively help analyze and solve problems for the customer, becoming a more trustworthy partner for them. Customer orientation is the foundation, future orientation is the direction, and serving customers is our only reason for existence. Besides customers, we have no reason to exist, so it is the only reason.
HFD must shift from being product-centric to being customer-centric, with business investment at its core, to achieve professionalism and standardization. The company's top management highly values talent and recruits capable and knowledgeable talents. The company needs a blood transfusion, needs to recharge, and needs to switch brains from one to two times, evolving from guerrillas to regular troops, from PR-oriented to market-oriented. The truth is understood by everyone, but whether it can be achieved is another matter altogether.
This reminds me of the "great blood transfusion," full of the sacrificial spirit of the wolf pack. The three major characteristics of a wolf are: sharp sense of smell, unyielding and selfless spirit of attack, and consciousness of group struggle. "When narrow roads meet, the brave win." In this commercial war, batch after batch of up-and-coming talents enter the fray. How to stand out depends on spiritual support and persistence.
"For tomorrow, we must correct today." To make the wolf pack stronger, everyone is moved by this scene, which is very tragic.
