Dialogue with Elik Zhou Houhong: Focusing on energy-saving and temperature control of aluminum heating equipment, achieving the ultimate goal of "zero emissions"

For a long time, the innovation and improvement of domestic aluminum processing equipment have been relatively lagging behind, and thermal energy equipment has always been one of the shortcomings in energy conservation and consumption reduction in the aluminum processing industry. In recent years, with the continuous deepening of the "dual carbon" target, the market has put forward higher requirements for thermal equipment manufacturers. Faced with these new requirements, Guangdong Elik Machinery industry (Zhongshan) Co, Ltd. . (hereinafter referred to as "Elik") actively innovates and has continuously grown against the trend in the past three years of the epidemic, sounding a new "charge" for innovative development. From leading the industry to achieve "low-carbon" to developing "zero emissions", Elik continues to leverage its new advantages as a specialized and innovative enterprise, firmly leading the domestic aluminum processing thermal energy equipment field, receiving widespread praise from the industry, and writing the glory of the enterprise. In this issue's "Dialogue | Aluminum Processing Specialization, Refinement, and Innovation" column, "Aluminum Profile Special Issue" is honored to invite Elik Chairman Zhou Houhong to share with us how the company has become a hot and powerful brand in the field of aluminum rod furnaces through the development model of "specialization, refinement, and innovation".

Zhou Houhong, Chairman of Guangdong Elik Energy saving Technology Co., Ltd

Aluminum Profile Special Issue: What are the significant advantages and excellent achievements of Elik in "specialization, precision, uniqueness, and novelty"?

Zhou Houhong: Elik entered the field of aluminum processing thermal energy equipment in 2009. For 14 years, we have been focusing on the research and development, design, manufacturing, and sales of aluminum rod heating equipment. From the initial intelligent control high energy-saving short rod furnace to the current long rod multi rod hot shear furnace, precise temperature control aging furnace, intelligent control high energy-saving single rod furnace and other heating equipment products, our core is to innovate and break through in the two aspects of product "energy saving" and "temperature control".

Elik long rod multi rod hot cutting furnace

Elik Intelligent Control High Energy saving Short Rod Furnace

In 2012, we launched the Intelligent Control High Energy saving Short Rod Furnace, which was the first to reduce the energy consumption of aluminum rod furnaces to 20m ⊃3; of natural gas per ton of rod. The overall energy-saving effect increased by nearly 80%, successfully bringing the energy-saving and consumption reduction level of aluminum profile enterprises to a new height; In 2017, we broke through the technical bottleneck of traditional heating equipment and controlled the temperature difference of the aging furnace within ± 1 ℃, ensuring that the aluminum alloy was uniformly heated during the aging process, thereby greatly improving the quality of the product. In this process, we have received recognition from many large companies such as Jianmei Aluminum, Fenglv Aluminum, Weiye Aluminum, Gaodeng Aluminum, Jinqiao Aluminum, Guangya Aluminum, and Hesheng Aluminum. We have been awarded the titles of "Top Ten Manufacturers" and "Excellent Brands" for many consecutive years, and have also been recognized by various sectors of society as "High tech Enterprises", "Guangdong Province Specialized and Innovative Enterprises", and "Guangdong Province Innovative Enterprises", creating a "new business card" for our independent brand of aluminum rod furnaces.

Aluminum Profile Special Issue: What do you think are the main advantages of the enterprise that have achieved such good results?

Zhou Houhong: In fact, the most important reason for Elik's development today is that we have been adhering to the development path of "specialization, refinement, novelty". In this process, we have developed four unique product advantages to meet customers' new demands for high efficiency, high quality, and low emissions.

One is' precise temperature control '. We have successfully broken through the technical bottleneck of "temperature control" in heating furnaces by changing traditional heating methods. We have controlled the temperature difference of aluminum rod furnaces within ± 5 ℃ and aging furnaces within ± 1 ℃, which is currently one of the leading technologies in the industry.

The second is' uniform heating '. We have effectively solved the long-standing problem of large temperature differences between the front and rear ends, surface, and core of the rod furnace by improving the technology of the furnace air duct. Especially for the problem of large specification aluminum rods not penetrating the center, we can provide customers with mature and complete solutions, greatly improving the qualification rate of industrial material products.

The third is' energy conservation and consumption reduction '. We have taken the lead in reducing the energy consumption level of aluminum rod furnaces to 20m ⊃3; of natural gas per ton of rod through our independently developed furnace insulation, efficient heat utilization, and new heating technologies. It is now estimated that we can help enterprises save nearly 10 million yuan in energy costs annually.

The fourth is' green and low-carbon '. Our products are precise, efficient, and energy-efficient, which means that their carbon emissions are definitely much lower than traditional equipment. In terms of carbon emissions and nitrogen oxide emissions, our standards are much higher than industry and national standards. For emerging industrial profile production enterprises that attach great importance to "green development", this advantage is very important.

Aluminum Profile Special Issue: With high-quality development becoming the mainstream of the industry, green has also become the "background" of industry development. Faced with increasingly strict environmental requirements, how will Elik respond?

Zhou Houhong: As a cross-border innovative equipment manufacturer, Elik has been widely recognized by society from the beginning for its energy-saving innovations. Over the years, we have never stopped innovating and saving energy, always leading the industry towards "low-carbon".

In recent years, various sectors of society have been comprehensively promoting green and low-carbon transformation, and our focus has also shifted to higher standards of "zero carbon emissions". On the one hand, in the absence of clear national and industry standards for nitrogen oxide emissions, we took the lead in developing our own enterprise standards for our products.; On the other hand, we actively promote the integration of industry, academia, and research, and have formed a zero carbon combustion technology innovation consortium with Xianhu Laboratory and Jianmei Aluminum to apply "low nitrogen, low-carbon, and zero carbon combustion" technology to aluminum heating furnaces, in order to achieve the ultimate goal of "zero emissions".

Aluminum Profile Special Issue: What do you think of the significance of "specialization, refinement, novelty" for the sustainable development of aluminum processing enterprises? How do you think aluminum processing enterprises can truly achieve "specialization, refinement, novelty"?

Zhou Houhong: I think "specialization, refinement, novelty" is very important for the aluminum processing industry today. On the one hand, compared with the international advanced level, there is still a lot of room for improvement in domestic aluminum processing thermal energy equipment. Enterprises taking a specialized, refined, and innovative route can help improve industry productivity and promote industry transformation and upgrading; On the other hand, the severe "internal competition" in the industry nowadays forces enterprises to innovate and produce high-performance, highly competitive, and high value-added products through innovation, thereby creating new demand and guiding new markets, thus achieving a virtuous cycle.

If aluminum processing enterprises want to achieve "specialization, refinement, novelty", they first need to make changes in their thinking. The era of imitation is over, and now it is an era of overcapacity and insufficient demand. Blindly imitating has no place to survive; Secondly, one must maintain passion and love for the industry. Only by loving this industry can one have the patience to create good products, gain a sense of achievement, and persevere; Finally, we need to have confidence. Without confidence, we cannot achieve anything. I always believe that there is no industry that cannot do well, only enterprises that cannot. The increase in industrial profiles is still significant, but not many have done well. Therefore, enterprises should seize the opportunity to develop themselves. I believe that the future of the aluminum processing industry is still bright.