China's high-speed rail has built the world's largest high-speed rail system and technology platform, leading the world's high-speed rail trend. However, the nuts used on the high-speed rail have to be imported, and we can only buy never-loosening nuts from Hard Lock Industry Co., Ltd., a small Japanese company with only 45 employees.
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Countries all over the world, including Britain, Australia, the United States and other countries with far-leading technological levels, order small nuts from Hadlock Corporation of Japan. This is the only company in the world. One can imagine how big the market share of Hadlock nuts is. , making a nut to the extreme.
When the high-speed rail is in operation, the high-speed trains are in constant contact with the rails, causing very large vibrations, and ordinary screws will be loosened and blown away by such vibrations. If you don't want to be blown away, then the screws and nuts need to be in place so that they never loosen.
1. Nuts change lives
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In fact, as early as 1961, Wakabayashi Katsuhiko invented the non-rotating nut-the U nut.
It was 5 years after he started working, as a company employee, he visited an international industrial product exhibition held in Osaka, and he took back a bag of materials and samples from the exhibition. Among these materials and samples, there is an anti-rotation nut that attracted Wakabayashi's attention.
That is a nut that uses stainless steel wire as a clip to prevent loosening. It has a complicated structure and is expensive. "Can't it be made simple and cheap?" Ruo Lin began to study painstakingly.
Soon he came up with a method of clamping the screw thread with a leaf spring, and the trial product achieved satisfactory results. The 28-year-old Wakabayashi named the anti-rotation nut the U nut, and founded a company to produce and sell the nut. This is Wakabayashi's first company, Fuji Precision Manufacturing Co., Ltd. It took Wakabayashi just over one hour to develop this anti-rotation nut, but it took more than two years to promote it to the market. With the increase in sales, Wakabayashi's confidence has also greatly increased, and he advertised "Never Loosen the Nut".
Unexpectedly, this advertisement brought trouble to Ruolin. The U nuts assembled on excavators and pile drivers became loose due to too much vibration.
Some customers came to sue. At that time, the monthly sales of Fuji Precision Manufacturing Co., Ltd. had reached 100 million yen, and the phenomenon of looseness was not common. Many people in the company only regarded the phrase "never loose nut" as an advertising slogan, so they did not take it seriously. These prosecutions are serious. But Ruolin doesn't think so.
He said that since it is publicly stated that this kind of nut is a nut that will never loosen, it should be made so that it will not loosen under any conditions. But can this be done? Partners are skeptical. In order to stick to his beliefs, Wakabayashi left the company he founded.
At the end of 1973, when Wakabayashi was passing by the Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine (Sumiyoshi District, Osaka City) near his home, he looked up at the tall torii at the entrance, and suddenly the thought "Push in that kind of wedge and it won't loosen" came to mind. He immediately started to drive a pin in the gap between the nut and the screw, and the result can be described as "hit the target". Receiving inspiration from a familiar shrine, Wakabayashi said, "This may be the apocalypse."
Inspired by tenons in ancient wooden structures, Wakabayashi invented the never-loosening nut with tenons added to the nut. In 1974, Wakabayashi founded a second company, Hard Lock Industry Co., Ltd., from scratch in order to produce this new nut that would never loosen. But waiting for him turned out to be the same long and painful promotion road as when he first started his business. Because the structure of this kind of Hard Lock nut is more complicated than that of ordinary nuts, and the cost is also high, the sales price is about 30% higher than that of ordinary nuts. This has become the biggest obstacle to the promotion of this nut.
When there was no sales of Hard Lock nuts, the new company had to do some other work to maintain the operation of the company in addition to relying on the patent fees of U nuts. Finally, a railway company adopted Wakabayashi's products, proving the strength of this never-loosening nut.
Railway companies are in great need of anti-seismic and anti-loosening nuts, and there are many Japanese railway companies, which brings development opportunities to Wakabayashi's new company. Japan's largest railway company JR finally adopted Hard Lock nuts and fully used them in Japan. Shinkansen.
The Hard Lock nut has become the only nut that never loosens in the world, and it is not only widely used in Japan, but also can be seen in major bridges and buildings around the world.
2. A nut with a wedge and a hammer in one
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The idea of "Hard Lock Nut" is very simple, that is to insert a wedge between the nut and the screw to prevent loosening. (Fig. 1) However, it is neither efficient nor practical to drive the wedges one by one into the nuts to be used at the construction site. How can the nut possess the function of a wedge? Ruolin pondered for a while.
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The method he came up with was to use two kinds of nuts in the shape of "concave" and "convex" on one screw. The convex nut at the bottom has a slightly shifted center during processing (eccentric processing), which acts as a wedge. The concave nut on the top is not processed off-center (circular processing), thus forming the function of the hammer to hit the wedge. (Picture 2) Such two nuts are combined into one, and the problem of loosening is easily solved.
3. Although there are many imitators, there are almost no successful ones
Of course, the success of the hardlock nut will also attract many imitators to imitate.
In fact, the principle and structure of hardlock nuts are relatively simple, which has been introduced in detail on Hardlock's website. Although there are many imitators, there are almost no successful ones. This is the key to technology. Although you know the principle and structure of this kind of tenon nut, you just can't produce a nut that will never loosen. This is their specialty.
Judging from the above introduction, it seems that the invention of this nut is not difficult, but its promotion is very difficult. Actually this is an illusion. It is not difficult to invent a nut with such a structure, but to really turn this invention into a nut that never loosens, it still needs continuous improvement in use.
It took Wakabayashi nearly 20 years from the establishment of this company to the full use of Japan's largest railway company. This 20-year continuous technical improvement has made the Hard Lock nut the only nut that never loosens in the world.
Hardlock company has specially noted on the webpage: the company has accumulated unique technology and knowhow (knowhow) over the years, and has different corresponding eccentricity for different sizes and materials, which cannot be imitated by Hard Lock nuts. The key.
Well, even if people tell you clearly the principle and structure of this nut, the actual production still needs special experience, this is the technology, this is the know-how (knowhow).
Without this technology, even if you understand the principle of this nut, you cannot produce it. The awesomeness of many companies lies in the unique technology that you can't learn no matter what.
4. Deals from aircraft manufacturers
So far, "Hard Lock Nuts" have been adopted by railways in Australia, Great Britain, Poland, China, Korea, and Taiwan's Shinkansen (Taiwan High Speed Rail).
In addition to railways, many countries and regions at home and abroad, such as the world's longest suspension bridge "Akashi Kaikyo Bridge", the world's tallest self-supporting radio tower "Tokyo Sky Tree", the US space shuttle launch pad, and ocean drilling rigs, have adopted "Hard Lock Nut".
Inventor Wakabayashi is still immersed in technological innovation even when the "Hard Lock Nut" is famous all over the world, and has successively developed new products such as the "Single Nut" that improves operating efficiency, and the "Bearing Special Nut" that prevents the bearing from loosening. In addition, they are currently negotiating with the world's largest aircraft manufacturer Boeing of the United States and Rolls-Royce of Europe to develop lightweight products for aircraft.
Ruobin is one of the few collectors of model railways. He said that when he is playing with model railways, inspiration will flash in his mind. He opened a collection display area on the second floor of the factory. The visitors were all excited after visiting. Ruobin said that no matter in work or hobbies, "it can make everyone happy, more than anything else."
