In 2020, Jiang Xiaofeng, the director of the Materials Research Institute at Lanzhou Jinchuan New Materials Technology Co., Ltd., was responsible for the development of a new product - carbonate based cobalt trioxide, which was in a blank state in Jinchuan at that time.
Jiang Xiaofeng, the director of the Materials Research Institute at Lanzhou Jinchuan New Materials Technology Co., Ltd.
Even with the support of the group, Jiang was well-aware that the high-voltage carbonate based cobalt trioxide process was a highly challenging technological process. Insufficient experience, a lack of professional technical talent, and late start were very real obstacles.
Under this circumstance, Jiang continuously recruited young technical talents in the field and established a talent development career path of "assistant researcher - researcher - senior researcher - chief researcher - chief engineer," which significantly boosted the enthusiasm of scientific research personnel.
At the same time, Jiang also developed a comprehensive wet-process pilot plant, which served as a scaled-down version of a production workshop, allowing for small-scale production before formal product launch, effectively testing the stability and reliability of new product processes.
Jiang Xiaofeng (right), the director of the Materials Research Institute at Lanzhou Jinchuan New Materials Technology Co., Ltd.
Eventually, Jiang and his team successfully overcame the technical challenges of high-voltage carbonate based cobalt trioxide. The cumulative production and sale of this series of products exceeded 3,000 tons, generating approximately 670 million yuan ($93.08 million) in additional sales revenue, filling the technological gap within Jinchuan Group.
Jiang said, for scientific research, in addition to meeting market needs by industrializing high-quality products to bring benefits to the company, it is also crucial to have a long-term vision, deeply explore the technical connotations, and continuously develop high value-added new products because innovation knows no bounds.
