On June 5th, "Yantai Story" column of Yantai TV published an article with the title of "A Leader Hardworking at the top of the industry", focusing on the technological innovation story of Tian Hongchi, General Manager of Dawn Polymer, and his team.

This is Tian Hongchi from Dawn Polymer. I am Engaged in the manufacturing and R&D of high polymer materials. Dawn’s products are mainly used in automobiles, home appliances, communications, consumer goods, aerospace, medical and health care, and consumer product upgrading fields.

What we saw was our new non-medical mask. We call it reusable mask. It is a mask that can be used normally after being washed for three times. This material accounts for 50% of the entire market, which means that one of each two masks used this material during COVID-19.

Washable and reusable masks are a special emergency plan proposed by the Ministry of Science and Technology for the resumption of work and production during the COVID-19 in 2020. The purpose was to develop a kind of washable and reusable protective masks that yet not exist in the world within just four months to ensure a sufficient supply of masks while reducing environmental pollution caused by a large number of discarded masks.

Dawn is a leading domestic enterprise in the field of melt blown fabric and melt blown material for the core material of masks. At that time, we issued a promise with the relevant ministries and commissions: We would solve this problem. We routinely reported our progress to the government and relevant departments every day.

A small mask contains a number of difficult-to-break technologies, the core of which is the layer of meltblown fabric in the middle.

The core of masks is that the melt blown fabric must be electrostatically charged to catch various germs. In everyone’s understanding, static electricity may disappear after being washed by water. Just like there is no static electricity in our hair when we get it wet and comb our hair. At that time, one of the problems that Dawn had to solve was the seemingly insoluble contradiction-the masks had to maintain static electricity after being washed by water.

In order to complete this short-time and heavy-duty problem, Tian Hongchi called R&D team from three centers located in Beijing, Qingdao and Longkou, led them to rotate around the clock and worked all day and night to conduct thousands of tests.

Our employees wore masks every day, cleaned them every 3 hours, 6 hours and 8 hours, and then observed the attenuation degree of the masks. We used data from thousands of people to accumulate and verify whether it could meet the needs of users or not.

Our employees worked overtime in the workshop for 4 or 5 days until 1 and 2 am but none of them said they were sleepy or tired. Everyone thought we could do it.

After R&D for 4 months, the reusable mask debuted in China. 60% to 80% of the masks in the world are supplied from China which are made of melt blown fabrics. During COVID-19, American and Indian television stations specifically reported on this technology in China.

Dr. Hongchi Tian has been titled for many projects. He has served as the deputy executive director of National Enterprise Technology Center and the director of Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of High-Performance Thermoplastic Elastomers. In 2003, Tian Hongchi gave up the opportunity to study abroad and came to the coastal city- Longkou with the successfully developed thermoplastic elastomer TPV technology.

TPV is actually an important measure to solve the problem of non-recyclable rubber (also called black pollution). The worldwide pollution problem of rubber were basically solved by TPV. The core technology of TPV was very difficult. For a long time, only the United States, Japan, the Netherlands, and Italy have truly industrialized this technology in the world. Until April, 2005, domestic thermoplastic elastomer technology was successfully put into production in Longkou city, making China the fifth country in the world that put the technology into production.

It completely broke the foreign monopoly in the Chinese market. In 2008, it won the second prize of the National Technical Invention Award, which was awarded by Premier Wen Jiabao in the Great Hall of the People at that time. 

Technology has no end. Tian Hongchi was not satisfied with the current situation. He led the team to keep up with the international cutting-edge technology and upgrade the TPV technology to people's lives. TPV is flexible and odorless, and it can be used in household water pipes and hoses without any pollution to the water. In addition to the daily life applications, TPV can also be used for high-speed rail & automobile sealing strips, high-speed rail track pads, toothbrush handles, and playground surface flooring.

We have paved this TPV playground for 3 years, and the colors are still very bright. It is very elastic and there is no powder. In addition to selling in China, we also export to many countries such as the United States, Australia, Israel and UAE.

In the past ten years, Tian Hongchi led the team to give birth to the world's cutting-edge TPV technology in China which ranked among the forefront of the world. At present, Dawn Polymer Materials Co., Ltd. has developed into the third largest TPV manufacturer in the world. Major scientific research projects hosted by Tian Hongchi: "Manufacturing technology of new generation thermoplastic elastomer TPV", " Manufacturing technology of high-fluidity thermoplastic elastomer TPV", "New flame-retardant thermoplastic elastomer material technology", " Manufacturing Technology and Development of thermoplastic elastomer for railway high-elastic backing plate", had successively won 1 Third prize and 2 Second prizes of Shandong Science and Technology Progress Award. In 2013, he once again presided over the "Key Technology Research on the Manufacturing and Application of Long Carbon Chain Polyamide Resin and Its Flexible Alloy" under the Science and Technology Support Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology, which once again filled the domestic gap.

The air tightness of this material is 7-10 times that of traditional tires, which means that it can make the tire thinner. The weight of a tire can reduce by 1 kg, which means the car can run 10% more mileage. This is a great technological advancement. Firstly, we are the second company in the world that master this technology. The first one is Exxon Mobil, and there is no other company in the world. Secondly, if this project is successful, China's annual fuel reduction cost will save billions of RMB.

Whether it is aerospace, high-speed rail, automobiles, medical and health, people’s daily furniture, "Dawn Manufacturing" is changing people’s lives, making people’s lives safer, and working smarter in an amazing way.

In the past, our manufacturing was automated. In fact, automated manufacturing is also called intelligent manufacturing. From the capturing of production data to the center of data inspection to the control of any link in production, intelligent manufacturing can realize the Internet of Things system in the workshop. Dawn is a demonstration point of the national intelligent chemical factory.

Over the past 18 years, Tian Hongchi has always been rooted in first-line scientific research, undertaken more than 20 national 973, national "11th and 12th Five-Year" science and technology support plans, national new material R&D and industrialization special projects, and successfully achieved industrialization. The accumulated output value exceeds CNY 4 billion. He won 1 second prize of National Technological Invention Award, 6 provincial and ministerial science and technology progress awards, and 6 technological invention awards. He is the first batch of Taishan Industry Leaders, Shandong Province Outstanding Contribution Young and Middle-aged Experts, and the National Young and Middle-aged Science and Technology Innovation Leaders, making great contributions to China's polymer materials industry.

There is still a gap between China's polymer materials industry and the international ones. My dream is to close the gap. For example, the current TPV technology of Dawn ranks second in the world and its production capacity ranks third in the world. In my dream, I will work hard to make it be the first in the world.