This article is reproduced from: People's Daily Online-Hebei Channel
Yang Wenjuan Wei Xiao
The idiom cultural manhole cover of Jize County Shijing Cultural Park. Photo by Qi Pengfei
Self-recommendation, one-word promises, riding and shooting in Hufu… Walking on the road in Jize County, Handan City, Hebei Province, you may be attracted by the painted idiom cultural manhole cover under your feet. These manhole covers, which are like works of art, not only beautify the city, but also add to the cultural atmosphere of the city.
In Jize, the casting industry originated in the early 1970s. Currently, there are more than 100 manufacturing companies in the county. The products cover ten series and thousands of varieties, including municipal castings, auto parts, enamel cookware, etc., with an annual output of more than 600,000 tons of castings. , products are sold to more than 20 provinces and cities in China, and exported to more than 10 countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Belgium. 15 companies have self-operated export rights. It is a Chinese municipal casting industry base recognized by the China Foundry Association and a famous casting industry town in Hebei Province. .
In recent years, Jize has continued to promote the transformation and upgrading of the foundry industry around the goals of high-end, intelligent, and green development, guided enterprises to innovate production concepts, continuously improved product technology content, and enhanced the core competitiveness of enterprises.
In the product exhibition hall of Jize County Hongguang Casting Co., Ltd., rows of painted manhole covers with Handan idiom stories are as beautiful as works of art and eye-opening.
Handan is the capital of Chinese idioms and allusions, and Jize is a thousand-year-old county and the birthplace of the Book of Songs, with profound cultural and historical heritage. “We have deeply explored the cultural connotation of idioms in the Book of Songs, and on the basis of strengthening the foundry industry, we have developed municipal casting products rich in Chinese cultural elements, which have been favored by the market and loved by the masses.” Chairman of Handan Hongguang Casting Co., Ltd. Zhao Dongshan said.
Painted art manhole covers in the product exhibition hall of Hongguang Casting Co., Ltd. Photo by Qi Pengfei
In Longhu Park in winter, there is an endless stream of citizens. “Recently, I noticed that the small manhole covers that used to be inconspicuous in the park have changed their faces. 'Corporal Li Xian', 'Yi Xian Jiuding', 'Bearing a thorn and asking for forgiveness' these colorful manhole covers contain idioms and cultural characteristics, which are really pleasing to the eye!” Handan citizens Li Qi said that while enjoying the beautiful scenery, everyone can also experience the rich idiom culture of Handan, killing two birds with one stone.
It is understood that Hongguang Casting has updated 120 sets of “Idiom Culture Manhole Covers” (painted) to Handan Longhu Park; supplied 150 sets of “Idiom Culture Manhole Covers” (black) to Guangming North Street, Fuyang Park, Zhaoyuan Park and other places. 160 sets of “Idiom Culture Manhole Covers” (painted). At the same time, in order to meet customer needs, Hongguang Casting also accepts personalized customization of manhole covers, and its products have been exported to Shaanxi, Yunnan and other places.
Innovation leads development. The small manhole cover is not only beautiful, but also very “smart”.
When the manhole cover is moved manually, the system will automatically sound an alarm. On the electronic screen of the management platform, the manhole cover number, tilt angle, real-time position and other information are clear at a glance… In the product exhibition hall of Hongguang Casting Co., Ltd., the smart manhole cover is very eye-catching.
In recent years, Jize County has taken casting and equipment manufacturing as its leading industries, municipal castings as its characteristic industry, high-end castings as its development direction, intelligent manufacturing as its core driving force, and green development as its background requirements to accelerate the promotion of high-quality foundry industry develop. Smart manhole covers are a manifestation of the characteristic development of municipal castings.
“From the appearance, smart manhole covers are not much different from traditional manhole covers. The secret is that there is a smart 'brain' installed underneath, which is actually a sensor.” Hao Fei, head of the Jize County Municipal Construction and Maintenance Center, said that smart manhole covers The manhole cover uses sensor technology to detect abnormal movements and inclination of the manhole cover. Water level, well gas, manhole cover position, etc. are monitored. At the same time, the data can be uploaded to the smart city management cloud platform to realize remote online monitoring of data, which can be viewed at any time on a mobile phone, enabling early diagnosis of faults and assisting in rapid fault isolation, which greatly improves the city's Management level and service efficiency. Currently, 15 sets of smart manhole covers have been installed and used in the county.
Workers are debugging smart manhole covers. Photo by Qi Pengfei
High-end intelligent municipal casting products not only empower the construction of smart cities, but more importantly, help industrial development.
“Ordinary manhole covers of the same specifications sell for five to six hundred yuan each, while the price of the smart manhole covers we produce is at least double, and they are very popular among customers.” Zhao Dongshan said that with the advancement of smart city construction, the market prospects of smart manhole covers are becoming more and more important. Well, companies will also keep up with market demand and continue to enrich smart manhole cover application scenarios.
Not only Hongguang Casting, Handan Dingyue Gas Appliance Technology Co., Ltd. located in Jize made a bold attempt to cross over from the field of municipal manhole covers to the field of enamel cookware, showing great development potential; Handan CityHengyi Metal Products Co., Ltd. introduced an automated vertical molding production line and a 6S on-site safety management system to actively promote the company's innovative environmental management construction and open up a new path for the green development and efficient management of the foundry industry;Jize County Jufeng Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd., Jize County Huiwang Casting Co., Ltd. and the central enterprise CNNC Su Valve Company have joined hands to vigorously promote the order production model of precision valve castings to assist industrial upgrading.…
According to statistics, the Jize casting and equipment manufacturing industry currently cultivates 41 regulated enterprises and 23 provincial-level specialized and new small and medium-sized enterprises. In the first three quarters of 2024, the operating income of the Jize Municipal Casting Industry Cluster will reach 4.206 billion yuan, which is 4.206 billion yuan compared with last year. During the same period, it increased by 15.1%, and municipal casting products accounted for 28% of the national municipal casting market share.
“Next, we will continue to work towards the 'new', promote the development of the foundry industry to high-end, intelligent and green, and build a brand of 'the largest craft municipal casting base in the country'.” Li Dongjian, secretary of the Jize County Party Committee, said.