Fang Bai came to Nanjiang Company's production workshop and took a tour, surprisingly finding Huang Xing in the pressure testing workshop, currently conducting a leakage pressure test.
Huang Xing, in his early thirties, was wearing a worker's uniform, with two employees assisting him.
"It's installed perfectly, but I don't know where it's leaking. Adjust the flow rate to be a bit larger; the leak is too severe."
"Boss, could it be a problem with the sealing ring?"
"The sealing ring is fine. We replaced it with a new one; it's not aged, and the dimensions are all matching."
Huang Xing and the employees were talking, with several 6-inch globe valves on the ground, not noticing Fang Bai approaching.
Fang Bai heard their conversation and realized they were either prototyping a new product or optimizing an existing one.
Regardless of whether it was a new or old product, it wasn't appropriate to inquire about their work.
In reality, globe valves are largely similar; just by looking, one can't discern much.
Even with the same blueprint, if the parts, machining processes, and assembly processes are different, the final product will also be different.
Therefore, they were openly testing here. Factories often walk through this area and bring clients to tour; it's the same in every factory.
Fang Bai saw a worker remind Huang Xing. He turned his head, paused, looked at Fang Bai's attire, noticing the pager, realizing he wasn't a worker. Then he politely asked, "Hello, who are you looking for?"
"Hello, General Manager Huang, I've come specifically to visit you." Fang Bai extended his left hand, intending to shake his hand.
His opponent found his hand dirty, but Fang Bai couldn't miss the opportunity and quickly shook it.
Otherwise, how could he gauge his thoughts?
After shaking hands, Fang Bai handed over his business card.
Huang Xing was impressed by Fang Bai's enthusiasm and his disregard for his dirty hands, which increased his goodwill. He carefully looked at the business card, which had a name, a pager number, and on the back, the phrase "I'm always here when you need me," which felt quite good.
He needed help right now. Could Fang Bai solve it?
However, Fang Bai couldn't possibly help him with highly specialized matters.
"Hello, General Manager Fang, what can I do for you?" Huang Xing was busy, and with a military demeanor, he spoke directly.
"I'm looking for cooperation and to see if there's anything I can help with to strengthen our collaboration.
I see, General Manager Huang, you're testing for globe valve leakage. I have some understanding of diagnosing faults. If it's inconvenient, then I won't ask further." Fang Bai also spoke frankly. He was busy, and had no time for pleasantries, probably thinking about how to send him away.
Through Huang Xing's thoughts, he learned that they were testing a new product for leakage, one level higher than the old product's 150-pound pressure, which was 300 pounds (4MPa).
With double the pressure, there were more problems, making leakage even more likely.
Upon hearing Fang Bai's words, Huang Xing became interested: "It's not inconvenient at all. General Manager Fang, please take a look at what's wrong with this globe valve. The leakage is between the disc and the sealing ring, and the parts themselves are fine."
"Let me take a look first."
Fang Bai received his permission, squatted down, flipped the globe valve over, and examined it from left to right.
Then, he directly used his Golden Finger to inspect it.
Middle finger LV1: It was all green, indicating that the components were good and not damaged.
There was some light yellow in the middle of the valve body, likely due to sand holes inside the casting, but it didn't affect the sealing.
Middle finger LV2: Design Leak Detection. It showed a red circle around the sealing ring groove, with no other issues.
[Detection result: Sealing groove designed too deep, poor sealing]
It didn't specify how deep was appropriate, just a single sentence, only telling Fang Bai that the design of the sealing groove had a problem.
Fang Bai examined one item, then another, with the same detection result.
Then, he tried to move the disc and the sealing ring, and based on his many years of experience with valves, he found it to be quite tight.
However, as the pressure increased, the fit of the mating surfaces might not be sufficient.
If the sealing groove were shallower, the sealing ring would have a greater clamping force against the disc. This principle is relatively simple.
Alternatively, if the sealing groove were wider, using a wider sealing ring might also solve the problem, but the Golden Finger didn't specify this point. Perhaps it thought that a shallower sealing groove would solve the problem, or perhaps Fang Bai's understanding was not thorough enough.
Huang Xing and the workers stood by, watching Fang Bai inspect, not disturbing him.
Anyway, they couldn't detect the cause, so what if someone else looked at it?
A few minutes later, Fang Bai stood up, clapped his dirty hands, and frankly told Huang Xing: "General Manager Huang, your globe valve is 300 pounds, and the pressure is twice that of 150 pounds. It seems the structure is completely that of a 150-pound valve. I don't know if your design has optimized the sealing groove compared to the 150-pound one.
I feel the sealing groove is a bit too deep, and the clamping force between the sealing ring and the disc is a bit weak. If it were a 150-pound globe valve, there probably wouldn't be any problem.
If you don't change the sealing groove, there's another way: replacing it with a sealing ring with better elasticity should also work.
But I suggest that a shallower sealing groove can solve the problem, reducing the amount of machining. Finding a sealing ring with excellent performance is not easy; it would have to be imported."
As soon as Fang Bai finished speaking, Huang Xing fell into deep thought, as did the other two employees.
"Boss, our design is identical to the 150-pound one; we directly applied it. What General Manager Fang said really could be the reason."
Huang Xing heard the technical staff next to him confirm it, and he himself felt that Fang Bai's words made a lot of sense. He said to Fang Bai: "General Manager Fang, what you said really could be due to the sealing groove being too deep. We can try it."
After speaking, he instructed the technical staff to have the workshop supervisor issue a task to machine a globe valve for testing, with the sealing groove 0.3 millimeters shallower, but not too shallow, otherwise the gate would not close.
He told them to let him know after it was machined.
After giving instructions, he politely said to Fang Bai: "General Manager Fang, please come to my office and sit down. Let's chat. I apologize for the poor hospitality just now."
"General Manager Huang, you're too kind. I really came at the wrong time, right when you were busy. Besides, what I said might not be correct; it's just a suggestion to try."
"No, General Manager Fang, you came at exactly the right time. You might have truly helped me solve a big problem.
Alas, optimizing products is not that simple. For the development of a new product, which one of us doesn't try many times?" Huang Xing laughed.
Fang Bai followed Huang Xing to the office. They both washed their hands in the restroom before going to the office.
Huang Xing politely poured tea for Fang Bai. Fang Bai's actions just now truly made him admire him, and it was possible he had genuinely helped.
He had been struggling with this globe valve for two months, having tested it countless times.
The two chatted for a while. Fang Bai directly stated he was seeking cooperation for OEM gate and globe valves, and his prices were much cheaper than others, making Huang Xing's heart directly stir.
However, he still said: "Our gate and globe valves are indeed all outsourced for processing, and the contracts are already set. I, Huang Xing, am also a man of integrity.
General Manager Fang's quote is so low that I have no reason to refuse. We can only discuss it after my current contracts are finished."
Huang Xing didn't agree immediately, but if there were no problems and the price was low, it was indeed worth trying. His only concern was quality.
"I've done OEM for several companies, and the quality is guaranteed, receiving praise from the clients.
How about this: I see General Manager Huang is quite busy, so I'll visit again after some time." Fang Bai felt it was enough; further conversation would be idle talk. He was indeed busy, with his mind completely on R&D, which he couldn't help but admire.
"Okay, I'll contact you when I have news, I'll call you directly."
Huang Xing hadn't expected Fang Bai to know when to advance and retreat, unlike some salespeople who would cling to him until he had to dismiss them.
After Fang Bai left Huang Xing's office, Huang Xing went back to the workshop and directly urged the workers to machine the sealing groove.
Half an hour later, they performed another leakage test.
"Hey, it's not leaking anymore! General Manager Huang, that General Manager Fang is truly amazing; he spotted the problem with one glance!" The technical staff exclaimed in surprise.
"It's genuine skill; he's very familiar with our products."
Huang Xing was also pleasantly surprised by the result, but he still calmly said: "Extend the test time, and have the workshop machine a few more to try. One non-leaking one doesn't mean anything."
"Okay, I'll go tell the workshop supervisor right away." The technical staff heard this and went to find the workshop supervisor.
Huang Xing stayed put, thinking and continuing to observe the test.
Normal leakage tests only take two or three minutes, but ten minutes had passed, and there was still no leakage, indicating good sealing.
Indeed, a miss by a hair is a miss by a mile.
Breaking through a key point isn't something that can be thought of instantly.
If it weren't for Fang Bai's reminder, he probably wouldn't know when he would find a solution.
"It seems I owe him a favor."
Huang Xing didn't like owing favors. He had originally thought of giving Fang Bai some orders as a trial, but now it seemed giving him all of them was fine, as long as the quality was guaranteed, just to repay the favor.
0.3 millimeters shallower might not be optimal; he needed to test several depths.
That afternoon, Huang Xing tested sealing grooves of different depths and found that 0.33 millimeters shallower than the original depth was best, directly solving the problem that had bothered him for two months.
He had already decided that once the old contracts ended, the orders for gate and globe valves would go to Fang Bai.
He had also considered inviting Fang Bai to join their company for research and development, but then he thought about Fang Bai's pager and his successful business, estimating his income was not low. He wouldn't work for him, so he could only invite him to help when they encountered research difficulties.