Shagang has always adhered with the philosophy of "Technology is the navigator that will lead us to endless progress". We established the Enterprise Technology Centre in 1998 and it has been assessed as the national enterprise technical center in 2007. Shagang Technology Center has an research and development division—Research Institute of Iron & Steel and Physical & Chemical Testing Center. The Research Institute of Iron & Steel has general administration office, 9 research workshops in the Iron and Steel Research Institute, There are another 2 auxiliary supporting departments within the institute, which are: workshop for analysis and tests, and experiment/test plant; Physical & Chemical Testing Center consist of five (5) dedicated testing and analyzing laboratories i.e. mechanical testing, metallographic examination, chemical analysis, coke/coal testing, environmental testing, etc. The Technology Center equips with the world top-class analysis testing equipments, incuding Field Emission TEM (Transmission Electron Microscope), Transmission Electron Microscope, Dual Beam SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope), Electron Microprobe, X-ray Diffraction Analyzer, Fatigue Testing Machine, Thermal Analogue Computer and other different chemical and physical testing facilities, help to create the good conditions for developing the advanced steel material and process technologies.
Talent strategy is the key of forming enterprises’ core competitiveness. Until the end of 2020, the technology center have 445 R&D personnel, including 31 doctors and 108 masters, 51 technicians with senior grade, 92 technicians with intermediate grade, and 18 external experts. Some of the team members have been on the list of High level innovative talent and team in Jiangsu Province, 333Talent scheme of Jiangsu and Leading talent scheme of Zhangjiagang. Shagang jointly establishes Master of Engineering Program with Jiangsu University, Nanjing University of Technology, builds the joint training project for on-job doctorates through cooperating with University of Science﹠Technology Beijing and Southeast University. Technological center has formed a group of core technicians in product research, management innovation, technical transformation, energy saving and emission reduction, so that it plays positive role in Shagang’s rapid development. Through internal training, joint training, sending out for further study and other forms, Shagang has cultivated high-level innovative talents in science and technology to provide strong talent guarantee for the realization of new development strategy.
Shagang puts great effort to establish the “Industry-Education-Research” collaboration base and makes good cooperative relationship with Beijing Iron﹠Steel General Research Institute, Southeast University, University of Science and Technology Beijing, Northeastern University, Chongqing University, Dalian University of Technology, Suzhou University and other science and technology institutions, colleges in order to make full use of technological and talent advantages to improve technical self-innovation ability. Shagang and Suzhou University jointly built Shagang colleges of Suzhou University which centres on training talent in production, research, management. It provides platform for further “Industry-Education-Research” collaboration. And cooperates with Northeastern University and NUT to build training plan of master of engineering. Up to now, 90 Master of Engineering graduated successfully, who serviced for Shagang.
In 2020, 526 patents were applied for, of which 276 were for inventions and 250 for utility models, and 277 patents were granted, of which 45 were for invention and 232 were for new utility models. In 2020, it led the revision of 3 national standards, 1 industry standard and four group standards, and participated in the revision of 5 national standards, 5 industry standards and 7 group standards. In recent years Shagang has been responsible for conducting 4 projects under the state technical supporting scheme; 1 project under the state key research scheme; 1 project under “973” fortress breaking scheme; 1 project under special scheme of national innovative approach; 1 project under National Intelligent Manufacturing Demonstration, 3 projects under the provincial technical supporting scheme of Jiangsu; 1 project under the “333 project” provincial technical research scheme of Jiangsu; 2 projects about joint forces of manufacturer, academic and research organizations in Jiangsu; and 1 provincial technical achievement transformation project in Jiangsu. 1 Mass Entrepreneurship and Innovation (postdoctoral) Program of Jiangsu Province, two postdoctoral research funding programs of Jiangsu Province. 1 project about intellectual property strategy promotion plan in Jiangsu; 1 project of international scientific and technological cooperation in Jiangsu; 1 project under deeply integrated between advanced manufacturing industry and modern service industry of Jiangsu.
Effective innovation management system is the important guarantee of improving and developing innovation ability. Combining with actual situation of enterprise, and centering on promoting working efficiency so as to rapidly list out the general requirements of research achievements, the enterprise technological center adopts flat matrix management model to ensure that all kinds of product research and quality improvement can be implemented fast and efficiently. Close relationships among relative departments and technological center are the guarantee of accurate delivery of product research and quality improvement requirements, as a result, research achievements can be applied to industrial production rapidly. For creating good innovative atmosphere in the whole company and encouraging all company members’ passion for innovation, Shagang introduced “Management System of scientific research program rewards”, “Temporary Provisions about Implementing Stock Share on the Job”, “Management System of Science and Technology” and other systems and regulations. Shagang holds the committee for awards ceremony every year and gives great prizes to innovation and inventions, in addition, shagang will name these inventions and summarized advanced operation methods after the names of the personnel, like “Hua Deming Management Method for Smelting Time”, “Mei Chengyue Operation Method for Controlling coil shape”, and so on. By those activities, Shagang members’ sense of honor has been strengthened and innovation has been further inspired.