He loves to delve into research, and engages in multi-disciplinary knowledge for technological breakthroughs. He strives for excellence, fears of no challenges, conducts “knife tip revolutions”, and reengineers the processes; he is willing to dedicate himself to “cultivating technical talents.” However, the rarest thing is that he has great passion and persists in his work. He has been devoting himself to CNC machining for 30 years. He, a little-known technical school graduate, becomes a master craftsman in Beijing through self-taught..

“The value of man is shown by the value he creates in his post.” This is the original intention of Wei Jianping from Shougang Machinery & Electric Co., Ltd.   as Beijing master craftsman.

Be toughened and hardened into steel: start from scratch and become a CNC master

“The competition is all about accuracy.” The Beijing Master Craftsman Final is still fresh in Wei Jianping’s memory. In the competition, contestants were supposed to make a pump. The difficulty was the accuracy requirements for the cylinder and piston. A hair is generally 0.06 mm but the diameter of the piston made in this competition was 24 mm. The error must be controlled at -0.02 to -0.04 mm, and the precision was 1/3 of the hair. The manufacturing requirement for cylinder was more stringent, and the accuracy error range was controlled at 0 to +0.016 mm. A total of six contestants entered the final of the CNC machine processing competition. It was ruled that the design, manufacturing, assembly, and functioning of the pump must be completed within three hours, and a balloon would be blown at last. Wei Jianping successfully entered the final and competed with a young contestant who used to be the national top three, in the age of 52, though he was weak in physical strength and vision, so he could only take the advantage of manufacturing process setting and process route selection. He eventually won the championship with a score of 0.2 points higher than his opponent and won the title of Beijing master craftsman.

This title not only records his love for the job, his dedication to learning, his growth experience from an ordinary operator to a famous CNC machining expert, but also his adherence to his beliefs, his courage to innovate and change, and his great contributions in the transformation of traditional manufacturing industries with modern information technology and in exploring new ways of manufacturing metallurgical equipment with high efficiency, new technology, and advanced management.

Some people may ask, “Which university did he graduate from? From whom did he learn?” I am afraid ordinary people will think so. I can tell you that he gains all this through self-taught.

April showers bring May flowers. From an ordinary operator, Wei Jianping grows to be the leader in the CNC industry in Beijing with 20 years’ experience. While working, he went to college and obtained three junior college degrees and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical design and manufacturing, computer and applications and other majors.

Recalling the past, he regarded the hardships of struggle as unforgettable as the harvested happiness. “Many years later, you will find difficulties are so precious to your growth. You even need to thank them sincerely, because they would stimulate your courage, strength, and potential that you have no way of knowing.” Wei Jianping looked dignified while saying that. 

Wei Jianping did not have a high starting point compared with his peers. After graduating from junior high school, he was admitted to Shougang Technician College  . After graduating in 1984, he entered Shougang repair workshop to work as a fitter at the age of 18. “In those two years when I worked as a fitter, I visited almost all the workshops of the Shougang Courtyard. During that time, the working environment of mill overhaul was very poor. The oil sludge of some equipment, without exaggeration, was half a meter high. I worked hard with the master in the first three days to clean the sludge. It was not until the screws were exposed that we dismantled the equipment.” Wei Jianping recalled the scene at that time. He thanks the experience of that stage very much because it was the hard work of that time that became a stepping stone in his growth process, exercised his strong will power to overcome all difficulties, and gave him courage and confidence to fear no challenge.

People always have to pursue something, so does Wei Jianping. In the early period of Shougang’s “contracting system” reform in the 1980s, an upsurge of learning was created. Wei Jianping felt that because he didn’t study hard in high school, he had a low level of culture, so he decided to go to night school for tutoring. “I remembered I went to school after work in the afternoon without having dinner and left at 10 p.m. When I got home, I felt exhausted, so I fell asleep directly, got up at 6 a.m. and went to work. It was my routine every day.” Wei Jianping clearly remembers that in 1986, Shougang’s “mechanical technology class” recruited students. As he kept improving his cultural knowledge level in night school, he successfully passed the exam. After two years of study, he obtained a diploma in mechanical technology and was assigned to the Shougang Machinery Factory to work as a lathe operator from a fitter. In 1988, the Shougang Machinery Factory purchased the first domestic advanced CNC lathe. Wei Jianping was chosen to become a CNC lathe operator because he loved to study. At that time, he saw the English letters on the interface and really didn’t know how to use this modern machine. Wei Jianping said, “At that time, there was only a very thin manual for the CNC lathe. No other books were available. What should I do? I didn’t leave after work. I turned on the machine tool and wrote all the G codes inside down a note. Then I pondered over the path every day. No one taught me at the very beginning. I learned step by step. At that time, I obviously felt that my knowledge and ability were not enough.”

In order to conquer the blast furnace sealing cover that had always been imported at a high price and had a complex geometric shape, Wei Jianping learned programming on his own by referring to the manual. At that time, the module memory was so small that only 5,000 characters could be stored, so he had to clear it and reprogrammed. After three day-and-night’s of continuous work, he finally captured the hard work that even baffled the “senior eight-level” lathe operators. Since then, he had had dreams and goals for CNC machining. In the second year, he was admitted to the University of Science and Technology Beijing   and learned top-up courses of mechanical design. During two years of part-time study, he did not miss any class and finally achieved a bachelor’s degree diploma and a bachelor’s degree in engineering with excellent results.

The operation of CNC machine tools is inseparable from programming. In order to overcome this difficulty, Wei Jianping applied for the “computer and application” class in Shougang Employee Amateur College. In order to learn and practice more, in 1992, he, who had been married for less than two months, borrowed money from his relatives and bought a 386 Computer with 11,000 yuan. Speaking of buying the computer, Wei Jianping said frankly, “At that time, my wife and I got less than 400 yuan a month. It took the family income of more than 2 years to buy the computer. Moreover, 486 Computer was launched before long with a price of more than 7,000 yuan. In the face of devaluation and borrowing, I regretted for a long time.”

With a computer of his own, Wei Jianping studied DOS system, BASIC, FOXBASE, and C programming language as soon as he got off work and mastered programming. Several small programs that he programmed during this period are unique and still used in the factory. Since then, Wei Jianping has become an expert at CNC programming and research. The factory would turn to him for important and difficult work. In the 1990s, the Shougang Machinery Factory successively purchased a variety of CNC equipment. Every time a piece of equipment was purchased, Wei Jianping would put it through preliminary tests, trial processing and tracking in the whole process. With such opportunities to study a variety of equipment, he had accumulated a lot of rare practical experience in the field of CNC machining.

Wei Jianping, who has been immersing himself in learning technology, studying business, and engaging in CNC programming, is a “technical expert” in CNC programming in the eyes of acquaintances. Whenever there are major jobs and difficult problems in CNC machining, he can solve them in a timely manner. The task of research on CNC machining often falls on him. And every time he does not live up to expectations and completes the task successfully.

In 1999, the National Metallurgical Bureau   localized the core components of the thin slab continuous casting equipment for the major scientific and technological projects that were introduced, and organized the nation’s relevant forces to tackle the problem collectively, among which the task of processing crystallizer copper plate parts was handed over to Shougang.

After receiving the drawing, Wei Jianping exclaimed, “Oh my God, I have met difficult jobs, but I haven’t met such a complicated job.” It was a machined piece weighing nearly 1 ton, which was very complex and looked like a wedge. The upper part had a semi-circular space surface, and the bottom had a lot of grooves and many deep holes which were 9 mm in diameter and 690 mm in depth. A variety of complex and variable surface angles couldn’t be expressed clearly in words.

Wei Jianping was puzzled by the processing of the crystallizer copper plate. In order to tackle the problem, the factory sent him to visit MS Siemag   in Germany. He opened his eyes wide and looked around. He could visit the bright corridors and clean offices, but he wasn’t allowed to go close to the precision machining workshop. A German named Ross in his 40s showed him around. With a smile, he said with disdain, “Do you see the crystallizer copper plate placed outside the door? It was the first product we processed. It was an unqualified waste product. It’s placed there to tell everyone that it’s difficult to produce this product.” The implication was, “Can you do it? Never brag about your own abilities. Leave it to the Germans.”