At the start of the new year, good news came from Jihua 3517 Rubber Products CO., LTD: The Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer rubber sealing element used for ductile cast pipes that has been researched and developed for years by this Company was confirmed to have a service life of up to 139.5 years after several hundred days’ experiments and tests by the National Rubber Sealing Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Center. The technological level of this R&D project has reached the top level in the world and filled in the blank at home. Currently, this project has been supplied accordingly to multiple major pipeline engineering projects home and abroad of Xinxing Ductile Iron Pipes Co., Ltd.

As the first “Shoe Material & Craft Technology Center” in the rubber industry, this Company keeps increasing its investment. In 2016, the newly added investment reached nearly RMB 70 Million Yuan. Among the products, the Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer rubber sealing rings with a diameter of up to 2,600 mm have been in batch production and have been successfully applied to multiple major municipal projects like the potable water conveyance project of Xin’an River Resevoir, Thousand Island Lake, Hangzhou City. In 2016, this Company conducted strategic cooperation on rubber product technologies with such scientific research institutes as Qingdao EVE Rubber Research Institute and Qingdao University of Science and Technology, making smooth progress in the R&D of projects like special rubber, low-protein rubber and special sealing elements. In 2016, this Company has been granted 26 authorized patents, among which are three practical new-type patents as well as 23 appearance design patents.

This Company will “start a business for the second time” during the “13th Five-Year Plan” period and conduct transformation and upgrading with technological upgrading at the core. With the investment of RMB 1.5 Billion Yuan, some buildings in the new plant area in Chenglingji have been completed. The installation and debugging of facilities are conducted in an orderly way. The technology center with an area of 10,000 m2 was successfully built in 2016. In addition, the rubber compound project on which this Company cooperates with WOCO Group of Germany is expected to settle in the comprehensive tariff-free zone of Chenglingji, which will create conditions for the Company to achieve extensive development toward the upper stream of the rubber industry chain.