China’s stainless steel industry continues to unleash robust innovation momentum and accelerate technological upgrading.
2026-05-29 19:08:26
Leading enterprises in the sector, including Wuzhou Xinfeng Special Steel, Zhejiang Jiuli Special Materials, and TISCO Stainless Steel Precision Strip, have secured pivotal technological breakthroughs in three core fields: the localization of high-end rolling equipment, the innovation of special pipeline prefabrication processes, and the independent R&D of ultra-thin precision materials. These innovative achievements have helped the domestic stainless steel industry break free from low-end homogeneous competition, advance toward high-precision, high-value-added and integrated high-end development, further consolidate the independent and controllable industrial foundation of domestic high-end stainless steel materials, and empower the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry.
The full localization and commissioning of high-end rolling equipment has built a solid hardware foundation for precision production. The 1000mm twenty-high cold rolling mill for stainless steel precision strips, fully designed and developed by China National Heavy Duty Research Institute for Wuzhou Xinfeng Special Steel, has successfully passed hot load test runs and been put into official operation with all indicators of trial products meeting standards. Integrated with a host of cutting-edge industrial technologies, the mill is equipped with an integral high-stiffness frame, full AC variable frequency drive control system, full hydraulic automatic gauge control system and distributed network intelligent control system. It realizes micron-level precise thickness control of steel strips through multi-dimensional regulation including pre-control, feedback, mass flow control and eccentricity compensation. Meanwhile, the professional shape control system supports work roll crown adjustment, automatic intermediate roll presetting and online traversing, supplemented by innovative designs of high-efficiency oil removal and high-stiffness coiling support. With a maximum rolling speed of 600m/min and a minimum finished thickness of 0.1mm, the equipment features sufficient frame stiffness, stable operation, high rolling accuracy and superior intelligence. The commissioning of this localized core equipment fills the equipment gap in high-end precision stainless steel rolling, enables enterprises to expand high-end deep processing businesses, and greatly enhances the core market competitiveness of domestic precision stainless steel products.
Innovations in special pipeline prefabrication processes have comprehensively upgraded the integrated service capacity of high-end pipeline systems. Zhejiang Jiuli Special Materials has conquered the ultra-high difficulty factory prefabrication technology for 15Ni1MnMoNbCu+ER347H composite pipes, realizing one-stop integrated delivery covering composite pipes, pipe fittings, flanges and overall pipeline prefabrication. This marks a new milestone in China’s integrated technology for high-end special pipeline systems. The core innovation lies in the breakthrough of in-depth factory prefabrication, which subverts the traditional on-site construction mode. Complex, high-risk and quality-sensitive processes such as pipe opening, weld overlay cladding, post-weld heat treatment and support frame welding are all completed under standardized and intelligent factory conditions. Adopting special CNC equipment and customized tooling, the team strictly controls the machining accuracy of large thick-walled high-strength steel components, limiting the misalignment of large components with a maximum outer diameter of 1016mm and a single weight of 25 tons within 1mm. Furthermore, by optimizing the nickel-based alloy welding material ratio and welding process, pre-weld overlay pretreatment is completed in advance, eliminating complicated on-site preheating procedures and completely avoiding quality fluctuations caused by harsh outdoor construction environments. This innovative mode effectively reduces on-site construction difficulty, greatly shortens the project construction period, improves overall engineering quality, and provides a low-site-dependence, high-stability and high-reliability integrated solution for high-end special pipeline projects.
Continuous in-depth R&D of high-end precision materials and independent patent clusters lead the industrial upgrading trend. The R&D team of TISCO’s ultra-thin stainless steel foil (known as “hand-tear steel”) has continuously tackled core key technologies for ultra-thin stainless steel materials. Up to now, the team has obtained 46 national patents in total, including 32 invention patents, forming a well-established and independently controllable intellectual property system for core technologies. As a benchmark product in the high-end segmented stainless steel sector, the successful R&D and large-scale mass production of hand-tear steel have effectively solved the bottleneck of key ultra-thin materials in high-end equipment and precision manufacturing, and strongly promoted the material iteration and technological upgrading of downstream high-end industries such as new energy, precision electronics and high-end equipment. Featuring extreme dimensional accuracy, stable performance and excellent adaptability, TISCO’s hand-tear steel continues to lead the global technological development of ultra-thin precision steel strips, serving as a core symbol of the high-end, high-quality and differentiated development of China’s stainless steel industry.
The simultaneous breakthroughs of the three leading enterprises in core equipment, production technology and high-end materials cover key segmented fields including stainless steel precision rolling, special pipeline application and ultra-thin precision steel strips, making up for numerous industrial technical shortcomings. As the industry shifts from traditional scale expansion to competition centered on quality improvement and technological innovation, domestic stainless steel enterprises continue to deepen independent innovation, tackle core technologies, and accelerate the localization substitution of high-end products. These efforts inject sustained core impetus into the green transformation, quality and efficiency improvement of China’s iron and steel industry, as well as the high-quality development of the high-end manufacturing industry.
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