Legend of Refrigeration, series one：

Written by: Chen Zhijiu, The Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics in Shanghai Jiao Tong University

By the New Year Eve of 2016, also the down to the 120th anniversary of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the refrigeration and cryogenic engineering major also arrived. In the past 60-year development, our alumni have worked hard to start businesses and contribute to society in the world and all parts of the motherland. Without those contributions, the refrigeration and cryogenic engineering major would not have made great progress. In er to make students better understand the history of this major, inherit the fine tradition, and cultivate professionalism, we will successively launch a story series called \"Legend of Refrigeration\", to share the inspirational stories that alumni successfully started enterprises, set good examples, and encourage and motivate the growth of students. It also aims at building a world of nostalgia, to appreciate the friendship in old days, thank the alma mater for training, witness the celebration together, and work together to the future.

On the development and reform of the \"Industry-University Association\"

After the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee in 1978, domestic academic community was active in thinking and innovating. Private enterprises in Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu were booming, but they lacked technical strength, so professors who worked for enterprises on weekend were called \"engineers on Sunday\". And against this backdrop, some activists in state-owned enterprises and colleges and universities began to participate in business. Ren Shiyao, who worked in the power department in the laboratory of the Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, recuperated in the ryside of Shangyu due to illness. He began to help relatives to make fan type cooling towers. Two teachers from the Institute of Vibration and a test engineer from the machinery department also joined the four-person collective. They quickly founded Shangyu Fan Factory, Lianfeng Glass Cooling Tower factory, and the output value soon exceeded 10 million RMB. And the benefit they returned to school was about 300,000 RMB. In 1984, Wei Chibin asked whether I could take part in business like them and try to catch up with Shangyu. Huang Zide, the director of the laboratory and me, were touched by the sincerity of Zhang Daocai of Zhejiang Xinchang Refrigeration Accessories Factory (currently the chairman and president of the board in Sanhua Holding Group Co., Ltd.), and embarked on the road of \"industry-university association\". At that time, the guiding ideology was: if the enterprise developed well, it was a successful cooperation, and there was no concept of win-win and all-win. Therefore, from the summer of 1984, I helped the factory train talents. We lived in the Great Buddha Temple of Xinchang and organized a basic training course. The company did not have any technician at that time, and I started to teach knowledge about refrigeration accessories, including the ABCs. The course lasted two weeks. Private enterprises had institutional advantages, and they were supported by the local government. The secretary of y party committee, Wang Xianfang met all lecturers and engineers (or more excellent experts) who came to Xinchang. Then Wang Xianfang and I became good friends, and workers in the factory were full of enthusiasm. From the development of hinges to new thermodynamic expansion valves, shut-off valves, the output value quickly increased from 460,000 RMB each year in 1984 to over 10 million RMB each year. In 1986, I got the first two-position three-way solenoid valve for refrigerator from Danfoss to analyze its key technical points and then gave them to the factory, and the factory produced a qualified prototype in a month. In that year, the factory made more than one million RMB profits for the first time, and received 3 million RMB loans from the government to form a production line. In 1987, the output value of the factory surpassed 50 million RMB, bigger than that of Shangyu. In 1985, together with Director Zhang Daocai, we invited Wang Qinyao, a graduate of the 61st class of internal combustion engines of Shanghia Jiao Tong University, who had been working in the Xinchang Planning and Economic Commission, to the factory. The reason why we invited him was that my main energy was still on teaching and scientific research and it was only available for me to stay in the factory for 3-5 days a month, and to finish such schedule was very hard for me. And since there were two alumni of Shanghai Jiao Tong University who could cooperate with each other, the development of the factory was accelerated, so the factory gradually formed its own young technical team. By 1989, the output value of the factory exceeded 90 million RMB, and with \"new thermostatic expansion valve\", the factory and the university were honored the second prize of scientific and technological progress by the State Commission. By virtue of the support from Ministry of Light Industry, the factory developed clients like Qingdao Haier, Guangdong Kelong and other leading enterprises in home appliances, yielding a virtuous circle of growth. Leaders of the factory wanted to go abroad to learn from top enterprises, and I have a good relationship with leading enterprises such as Danfoss in Denmark and Egelhof in Germany. In June 1989, Zhang Daocai, the director of the factory, the chief engineer and me (technical consultant and translator) visited Denmark and Europe for the first time, and went to Danfoss. Back then, a special historical event happened. The European put embargo on China, and the business negotiations failed. But we successfully visited major enterprises and research institutes in the university. Immediately after returning, the company established its own translation and foreign trade team in 1990. In the market economy, capital boosted economic growth. Soon, the four-way reversing valve of Sanhua was launched. By means of Shanghai Jiao Tong University\'s technological advantage, we detected the acceleration and deadband of the four-way reversing valve with a ruby laser, and established a thermostatic laboratory. Shi Chuliang, a 1989 graduate from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and Chen Yuzhong, a graduate from the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Zhejiang University, were recommended to Sanhua and soon they were promoted to chief engineers, and Sanhua built its own young technical team step by step.

The factory and the university formed a consortium since 1985, the annual profits shared by the university were about 100,000 RMB. The development of four-way reversing valve was a scientific project worth over 170,000 RMB. Sanhua was greatly benefited and our institute developed more cross sectional researches. At the end of the year the institute gained some commissions.

In fact, since 1990, Sanhua had founded the technical team, and employed talents for foreign trade and language, but the university lost advantages day by day. Considering the strength, policy and the status quo, the university only provided two things, \"academic research and comprehensive analysis\", and gradually lost influence on enterprises. In 1992, Sanhua and a Japanese company, Fujikoki formed a joint venture, engaging in air conditioning of automotive, while part of the funds was invested in the real estate industry. During that time, I became Sanhua’s technical consultant. Sanhua set up the R&D Center, and the product strategy changed from the \"cost leadership\" gradually to \"technology leadership\". It merged Ranco, a company from the United States, and Aweco, a company from Germany. The output of electronic expansion valve, directional valve’s production was 30 million per year, and that of four-way reversing valve was 86 million per year. The sales reached 13.2 billion RMB per year, and the profit was up to 1.1 billion RMB. And one postdoctoral research station, and one national technology center were established in Sanhua. By means of \"flowers of management, talent and technology\", Sanhua has become the leading enterprise in automatic control parts in the world. On the rostrum of the conference celebrating the 30th anniversary of the establishment of Sanhua Holding Group, I said to President Zhang Daocai: \"30 years ago, if we exchanged lives, I would not be able to improve a factory with output over 400,000 RMB a year a large ship-like enterprise with an output more than 10 billion RMB today, and you would be very tired as a professor.\" He laughed but didn\'t answer me. He was hired as an adjunct professor of management at three universities. I have reflected, as self-comfort, that acter determined fate, and my end now was already the proof of seizing the opportunity.

Due to the internal changes of Shangyu Fan Factory, the enterprise has been stuck in tough times in recent years, and the relevant teachers of Shanghai Jiao Tong University have also retired to take rest. However, compared with Sanhua and Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s consortium, if the university only engaged in theoretical projects and ignored the manufacturing process and multidisciplinary synthesis, the advantages of the university would eventually be lost, the win-win cooperation would also become theories in a ruthless market. Professor Chen Jiangping and I have been friends for many years and we have been aware of this problem from the beginning. He has visited domestic and foreign automotive air conditioning companies, and paid special attention to the research of manufacturing processes. How can the university-enterprise consortium form a win-win model in the new century? The R&D Center established in Liyang, Jiangsu Province, is a new model worth exploring. In the final analysis, if professors want to engage in university-enterprise cooperation, the core was the \"strength policy\". If the professor from universities was in lack of special features and exclusive advantages, the cooperation would not step sustainable development.

New era brought new opportunities and challenges. As a veteran who has struggled in the front line of refrigeration, I am pleased to see the courage and efforts of the younger generation in the new era of change, and I also hope that the younger generation will develop and inherit the cause of refrigeration career better.

About the Author:

Professor Chen Zhijiu has successively served as the director of the Refrigeration and Air-conditioning Teaching and Research Department, the director of The Institute of Refrigeration and Cryogenics, and the vice dean of The Institute of Power and Energy Engineering. Former professor and doctoral supervisor of refrigeration and cryogenic engineering major in Shanghai Jiao Tong University, corresponding academician of The National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, one of young and dle-aged experts with outstanding contributions in Shanghai, recipients of governmental special allowances, vice chairman and director of the academic committee of the Shanghai Society of Refrigeration, executive director of the National Association of Experts with Outstanding Contributions, expert of the Technical Committee of China Household Electrical Appliances Association, member of the Teaching Advisory Committee on Compressors and Cryogenics Technology in Higher Education, and so on.