The wheel spins, the welding torch produces an arc of light, and sparks fly to create a bright firework display. It is an arresting sight. After this, it takes a while to adjust to the smoke-filled room shot through with ear-piercing screeches and flashes of light. It is in this environment that Xu Zhiping has worked for 27 years. A worker at the Shanghai Electric Power Station Auxiliary Equipment Plant, Xu Zhiping was forged by this kind of environment. Today, he is a national machinery industry expert known by all his friends as "the steady hand". In 2018, he was named a new "Shanghai Welder".
Xu Zhiping name card: Shanghai Electric Power Station Auxiliary Equipment Plant Finishing Shop Military Section Electric Welding Shift Manager Senior Technician Chief Welder Office Manager
The story of a nameless hero
People born in the 70s are often tough dreamers with a sense of responsibility. Born in Shanghai in the 70s, Xu Zhiping has another identity too: a child born of educated youth who returned to the city. Perhaps that is what makes him more able to appreciate his hard-earned job.
Xu joined the plant and began his welding career after graduating from vocational school in 1994. When he saw the huge products in the production shop, he was itching to get to work, eager to apply the skills he had learned in school to this world of iron and steel. However, when he finally got on the job, he quickly discovered that his technical skills had not prepared him sufficiently for the task. He realized he would have to become a master of his field to meet the standards of a professional welder. So, he put his head down and began honing his skills. He was humble enough to ask his colleagues all kinds of technical questions and kept focused on the road ahead of him even when facing challenges and tiring tasks.
During this trial by fire, Xu developed the habit of keeping a small notebook in his pocket. Whenever he had a problem welding or figured something out, he could jot it down so when he had more time, he could look back over it and consolidate his learning. And he didn't stop there. Back then, he would often use his lunch breaks to find pieces of discarded steel and practice his welding, applying the experience and practical skills he had learned to further master his craft. His efforts did not go to waste. Over a long period of trial, error and hard work, Xu managed to greatly improve his welding abilities.
After 10 years of practice, Xu joined the Military Section Electric Welding shift. To work on military products, you have to be willing to become a nameless hero. The plant's military product team has thirty years of experience producing military products. They have to dare take on the most difficult tasks, relying on their collective knowledge and skills. The section requires loyalty to the mission, self-sacrifice, and a dedication to one's role.
"The military section is the toughest. You can see military values on display every day, so I feel very honored to be here," Xu said proudly. The military voltage regulator uses special materials, so it is easy to leave flaws such as seams and melts when welding. The tasks are overwhelmingly difficult, and Xu is responsible for one of the most critical: safety end adapter welding. As the military section's youngest ever senior welding technician, Xu is the life force of the team. He has dealt with a huge number of challenges welding some of the most critical military products, but also seen a string of accomplishments.
The job that remains freshest in Xu's mind is the emergency cooler. This important product has eight critical welding seams. Each one must be up to standard and cannot be repaired again later. The radiographic test must not reveal even a single defect. As a senior technician, Xu was the one to take on the challenge. To ensure the product was finished on time, he worked into the night on successive days, always paying extreme attention to detail. In the end, his efforts paid off as he produced outstanding welding work. Radiographic testing showed that every single one of his seams met code.
Teaching apprentices and never holding back
As the old saying goes, teaching an apprentice can starve the master. But Xu, ambitious as he is, does not accept this aphorism. "People need to be more generous. You should teach the best to your apprentices. Anyway, teaching is a mutual learning exercise—your apprentice can often become your teacher!" Xu continued, "When it comes to skills, there is no one right way to do something. Each person has their own approach. What we need to do is use thorough analysis and detailed comparisons to whose welding method is best suited to the particular situation." For many years now, skilled and seasoned Xu has been actively nurturing the next generation of welding technicians.
For the past two years in a row, he has also won first place in the technician group in the welding tournament held in the factory, making his name well-known across the company.
Colleague Ma Shunyang speaks of him with heartfelt admiration. "Mr. Xu has always been a hands-on kind of guy. Once, we asked him something about overhead welding techniques, and he not only gave us a full explanation of it, but even helped us adjust the current and demonstrated the technique for everyone." It is well-known that overhead welding is the most difficult of the four basic welding positions. The molten bath is below the weld parts, and the force of gravity on the molten metal bead on the welding gun prevents the use of an excessive amount of bead. Gravity also means the molten metal sags down. The temperature of the molten bath increases along with its mass, but larger mass reduces the bath surface tension. With overhead welding, this can lead to sagging in the back of the weld bead and overlapping on the front side. Forming the pass is very difficult. Overhead welding is also extremely dangerous, because welding sparks can fall on the welder's body. "Lots of holes were burned in his uniform while he was giving us this demonstration, but he still did all he could to show us the key points of the technique."
Discussing Xu's selfless devotion, colleague Zhou Benqiang was visibly moved, "Mr. Xu knows how hard it is for us laborers to support our families, and he is always very considerate of us. He often shares the knowledge that he has gained with us in the hope that we will all improve and master the craft, and that the welding shop can stand on a firm footing."
Xu stresses that teaching apprentices requires a lot of patience and attention to detail. You have to put your whole heart into it. "First you have to teach your apprentice how to behave and how to work with other people. You also have to instill a love of learning and an enthusiasm for the work. When the young person can uphold this end of the bargain, then you can begin to pass on your skills and be sure that you will see results. When asked why he does not hold some of his tips and tricks back for himself like other teachers, Xu shook his head and said, "Why would I hold them back? As long as I am always improving, what do I have to fear?" Xu is confident in his ambitious and conscientious approach.
He is also a forthright fellow. He praises his apprentices when they are successful, and patiently helps them work out their thoughts when they are depressed. He has earned himself everyone's genuine respect. Under his tutelage, all his apprentices have gained a solid foundation in the basic techniques.
The source of his "steady hand"
It is now twenty years since the fresh-faced young Xu joined the plant, who has become a senior welding technician. Throughout all these years, to make sure his work goes according to plan, he has left his home at 6 a.m. to arrive at the shop half an hour early and get everything ready for the day ahead.
Over the past few years, the number of nuclear products produced in the auxiliary equipment plant has gradually increased. Equipment like 1000MW nuclear oxygen extractors, diesel fuel tanks, moisture separator reheaters and ordinary residual heat extractors have become mainstream products. Even though "Steady Hand" Xu is one of the top experts in the shop, the nuclear processing sector proved to be a new test of his skills. For example, the workspace for welding the integrated water tank in the 1000MW nuclear oxygen extractors was incredibly small, and the welding location was completely hidden. For the end girth welding for the nuclear cold water storage tank and the compressed air container, he was required to weld single-side but form a double-sided weld and avoid common defects such as air pockets and incomplete penetration.
When faced with welding challenges for key projects, Xu first gets firsthand experience with the materials. Then, based on his practical experience, he develops his own technique for this particular problem and starts work. This approach ensures that each welding task meets timing and quality requirements, and greatly reduces production costs.
In the spring of 2008, Xu took part in the production of China's first set of 10,000-ton desalination equipment, which was designed by the auxiliary equipment plant. Metal parts deform very easily during the welding process, making cylinder joining and internal sheet welding extremely difficult. In addition, no-one in the welding shop had experience with welding this type of equipment before, meaning that the welding technique and specifications had to be developed from scratch.
At that time, he was studying an advanced technician course at Shanghai Electric Li Bin Technician Institute and also competing in the Shanghai welding skills competition. However, when the critical production phase of the desalination project began, he came back to the front line of production without hesitation. In the daytime, he would explore welding techniques with other welders, and during night he would look for new welding methods, searching in a huge number of welding books. In the end, with the support of the shop supervisors, he adopted the CO2 flux-cored arc welding method and made innovative improvements to the original working techniques to control the deformation of the thin walls and girth welding defects and ensure that the desalination production project ran on schedule.
He later passed his senior technician exam without a hitch and even won third prize for electric welding professionals in the Shanghai Vocational Skills Competition. He also won first place multiple times in a row in the plant's welding skills competitions. Today, in addition to manual electric arc welding, Xu is also learning manual argon-shielded tungsten arc welding and other techniques, giving rise to his reputation as a "steady hand".
Welding his professional and private life
The novelist Yi Shu once wrote: It's easy to see how a person has used their time. Xu Zhiping, professional and hardworking as he is, rarely gets to spend much time with his daughter. Despite this, he still finds ways to communicate with her as much as he can. The two share special messages each day. Each night before she goes to bed, his daughter writes thoughts she wants to share with her father on a piece of paper. It could be a message that she is missing him, or a request for him to help check her homework. When Xu gets home in the evening, his daughter is normally already asleep. He carefully reads the note his daughter has left for him, and then writes his ideas and suggestions on the paper as a response.
Xu has benefited a great deal from studying with his daughter. He has already filled his office bookshelves with a large number of technical books. If he has time, he takes one down to learn about the latest welding technologies and techniques in China and abroad, and jots down notes in his notebook when something inspires him. Xu does not miss the chance to recharge his batteries each weekend. If he is free, he will also go to the library or a bookshop to read recently published welding tool manuals and mechanical drawings. Books and paper have already become an indispensable part of his home and working life.
Xu also motivates his shift workmates by donating technical books and establishing a small shift library, inspiring the spirit of education among his colleagues. This idea has united Xu's team and increased his crew's competitiveness. "The act of welding and the act of reading are different. Mastering theoretical knowledge is one thing, but if you don't practice, you still won't understand the lesson," Xu pointed out. After all his professional accomplishments, it seems that simply studying and working hard is his "secret sauce".
Xu said, "Football isn't played by just one person—a team isn't good if only one person is good. We can only widen our thinking and expand our learning if everyone studies and works hard together."
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