In order to protect the patent right of the Olympic torch design and manufacture, the Olympic Organizing Committee signed a confidentiality agreement with this mold factory, which is not convenient to disclose now.
On the evening of April 26th, 2007, BOCOG officially showed the torch "Xiangyun" of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games to the world at the China Millennium Monument. Do you know that a mold factory in Ninghai has overcome the most challenging process of torch thin-walled integral molding? Yesterday, Han, the head of the Olympic Torch Technology Realization Sub-team and the chief technical expert of Lenovo Innovation Design Center, confirmed this to the reporter.
On April 3, the moire pattern design of the Olympic torch came to an end, and the team led by Han began to make scaffolding with the design scheme of "Xiangyun". In two weeks, they will break through a series of complicated processes, such as integral forming of torch thin wall, moire etching and carving, and two-color oxidation dyeing. The most challenging process is the integral forming of torch thin wall. "The creative prototype of the Olympic torch is paper roll, but the design scheme is aluminum alloy." Han said that the pipe wall on the upper part of the torch is quite thin, the thinnest part is less than 0.4 mm. Unlike paper, aluminum alloy needs to be processed into a "thin wall" as a whole, and the technical difficulty coefficient is extremely high. If the technical bottleneck cannot be broken, the torch production plan will be postponed.
According to the plan, the process of thin-walled integral molding must be completed within 6 days, and a mold factory in Ninghai was selected as a supplier to realize the process. Han personally rushed to Ninghai and selected the highest-level mold master of this mold factory to cooperate. For five days and five nights, everyone hardly slept a wink.
Han told reporters: "It's not like making a three-dimensional model with plasticine, but it can be repaired. As long as there is a slight error in aluminum alloy cutting, the whole processing process will fall short. " When the inner and outer surfaces of the torch are formed by wire cutting, the processing speed is very slow. In those days, my mind was full of the shadow of' Xiangyun', so I simply went to the workshop with the mold masters to watch the wire cutting machine day and night. "
"The mold master didn't let me down." Han said that in the final stage of cutting the upper and lower end faces, with the professional sensitivity formed by decades of work experience, mold masters felt that there might be problems in the machining process and stopped cutting immediately. After verification, they found a procedural problem. After reprogramming that night, everyone stood by the machine tool again until the final end cutting was completed, and the overall shape of the torch was successfully realized.
Speaking of why I chose to tackle key problems in Ninghai at the beginning, "Ninghai deserves to be the hometown of molds in China." Han replied: "Ninghai Mould City was awarded the title of China's first China Mould Industry Base and China (Ninghai) Mould City last year, which represents the highest level of the mould industry. I believe it can succeed here. "