In the past two years, Zhang Ci, general manager of Peak Cable Company, has often seen such photos in his circle of friends: either photos of 17.5 meters long trucks loaded with coils of cables; Either it is a close-up of the finished cable reel, with the labels of "special for line x" and "station x to station x road" on it. The accompanying text is also very imposing-"subway special communication cable, we are professional!"

subway special cable is one of the most important main directions for the peak cable company to tackle key technical problems and market development in recent years.

To be exact, the term "subway cable" is just a customary term, and it may be more accurate to use "rail transit cable. Because it is mainly used in modern cities or in the short distance between the city light rail system, such as subway, light rail and so on. In recent years, with the increasing phenomenon of cross-district and even cross-city work and life, in order to alleviate the pressure of traditional transportation channels, many large and medium-sized cities have begun to build short-and medium-distance rail transit projects, and also make subway and light rail networks become urban transportation. An important part of the system. Jinhua, where Jianfeng Group's headquarters is located, has also started construction of Jinyidong rail transit special line from 2017 . At present, some sections have been "tested". In the future, Jinhua, Yiwu, Dongyang and even Hangzhou will be more closely linked by rail transit. Under this general trend, communication cables with certain technical and performance requirements for rail transit undoubtedly contain huge business opportunities.

In fact, as early as 2012 , the peak cable has already begun its connection with rail transit.

In 2012 , the sales staff of the cable company received the customer's network consultation information and asked if they could make a low-smoke halogen-free special sheathed cable. The so-called "low smoke halogen-free" means that the sheath material of the cable does not contain halogen elements, and the toxic and harmful gases produced during fire are less than those of ordinary cables. Before that, the cable company had never come into contact with this kind of product. The sales department turned to the manufacturing department. The technicians looked around for information and confirmed that the existing equipment and technology could be produced according to the customer's requirements before taking the order. Even so, there are still many situations in production-ordinary cables produce tens of hundreds of meters per minute, and this special cable can only produce a few meters, and the production efficiency is very low. It is conceivable that the order cable company completed quite "difficult".

Only afterwards did we know that when producing this kind of cable, the equipment cannot be operated according to the production of ordinary cables, and the screw should be adjusted accordingly. It was only later that I learned that the products were for the Hong Kong subway project.

Another time later, an old customer placed a new order, but it was not the model that he usually wanted to make, and the final process was steel belt wrapping. At that time, the cable company did not have this production technology, and the technicians and sales combined. I felt that the customer might have placed the wrong order and was about to refuse, but was stopped by Zhang Ci who passed. Zhang Ci said that we can do all the previous steps and the last step can be done with the help of cooperative units. In this way, the cable company produced semi-finished products, and then sent them to the cooperative unit for the final process, and finally completed the customer's entrustment within the agreed time. (Next to 2 Edition)

(Next to 1 Edition) Of course, this kind of steel strip winding cable with special requirements in anti-rodent bite, anti-termite, anti-corrosion, anti-compression and other properties is also used in subway engineering.

Earlier, subways in mainland China were only concentrated in a few large cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, Hangzhou, and Wuhan. Around 2010 , with the development of the railway industry, new "above-ground" rail transit forms such as light rail have also entered the vision of Chinese people, and plans to build subways and light rails in many second-and third-tier cities have been put on the agenda, the rail transit system has entered the stage of large-scale and high-speed development. According to preliminary statistics, from 2012 to 2020 , the total length of urban rail transit operation lines in China has been increasing continuously, with a year-on-year growth rate exceeding 14% , and 2020 has urban rail transit operation lines reaching 247 . The vigorous development and broad prospects of

rail transit have brought new development opportunities to related industries. Rail transit travels long distances through urban traffic lanes and densely populated areas. Vehicles present a closed space during driving. The use environment is special, and there are special requirements for various auxiliary materials such as building materials. Take the cable, not only requires good waterproof ability, shielding external interference, outer sheath flame retardant, low smoke, low toxicity, anti-corrosion, compression, the ground section also needs anti-ultraviolet function, technical standards are much higher than ordinary cables. From the perspective of a 80 km single-track rail transit project, the communication cables required for uplink and downlink lines can provide orders of more than two million yuan, which undoubtedly has a huge attraction to cable manufacturers. Peak Cable Company has noticed this huge market potential. Starting from 2018 , it has started to turn subway special communication cables into the main products with certain market advantages.

To make new products, the hardware must first keep up. In the case of insufficient funds, the cable company combined with the previous production of low smoke halogen-free, oil-filled, waterproof, environmental protection cable accumulated experience, low-cost purchase of second-hand parts, borrowing existing equipment for small batch trial production of steel belt winding, technology mature to buy a second steel belt winding machine. With the delivery of the first order with a total amount of more than one million, the cable company finally has the full process production capacity of subway special cables.

The maturity of economic development, scientific and technological process design and other aspects has made urban rail transit projects more and more demanding in terms of fire prevention and flame retardancy of construction materials, and the requirements of customers have also risen. Not only do we check whether the product samples are qualified, but we also need to check the factory area and investigate the management and control capability of the whole factory to ensure that the quality of the products is stable for a long time. The price of cable sheath raw materials is different, and the characteristics are also different. Some have high viscosity, slow drawing speed, and heavy load on the machine; some have good flame retardant effect and high price. How to allocate the best proportion with the lowest cost, take into account the performance of the production equipment and the delivery period of the order, and meet the needs of customers, through the performance test of customers or third-party organizations, has become a new problem for cable companies. During the period of

, the WeChat group of the cable company often saw the video of "arson"-several cables were tied to the iron box and ignited from the lower end to burn up. This is the technical personnel in the beam combustion performance test, observe the combustion and combustion results to judge the performance of the cable.

Similar experiments are destructive and require professional equipment. Due to the lack of testing equipment on hand, cable companies often "borrow" from suppliers or peer companies, borrow their laboratories to conduct thorough tests, and send them to appraisal agencies for rating after passing the tests. Only "flame retardant" this item, they have done 14 experiments, and finally successfully passed the technical appraisal. After that, the cable company also developed products suitable for various special occasions according to the different needs of customers, gradually determined certain technical advantages in flame retardant, waterproof and high insulation performance, and applied for patents to further establish the advantages of the enterprise in the subdivision field.

The wisdom and sweat paid will eventually be rewarded. Analyzing the operating data of cable companies in recent years, the "main" status of subway special cables has become increasingly prominent. 2019 , the cable company produced subway special cables 7195 pairs of kilometers, accounting for 6.53% of the total output value of that year ; 2020 , output 18256 pairs of kilometers, output value accounted for 15.02% ; 2021 to 11 , output 26016 to km, the proportion of output value has risen to 20.21% . At present, among more than ten domestic enterprises with rail transit communication cable production capacity, peak cable has been ranked among the best in technology and scale by virtue of independent research and development and its own patents.

The rapid accumulation and growth of urban population is a key factor in promoting the construction of urban rail transit, and short-and medium-range urban rail transit is a useful supplement to railway transportation. Today, many small and medium-sized cities are laying out or building new urban rail transit systems, and cities that have been initially built are also extending or adding lines. In 2020 alone, there are 36 new operating lines in . With the accelerated pace of urbanization, China's major urban rail transit is still in a period of rapid growth in the future. Faced with such a market, what will Peak Cable do in the future?

# Zhang Ci, general manager of 104 Cable Company, described the plan for the next few years as follows: to define its own position according to market changes, and to create and clarify the first-mover advantage when there are not many domestic subway manufacturers and competition is not fierce. Specifically, focus on improving the performance and influence of Jianfeng Metro dedicated communication cable series products to make them in a dominant position in the industry; continue to work hard to explore better material ratios and production processes, delve into and improve production technology, and pursue higher cables. Performance level, better processability, higher production efficiency and lower cost, become a leading manufacturer in the industry segment.

Jianfeng Communication Cable Company, which has a history of 25 years, is striding forward with its head held high in the tide of rail transit development through its unremitting efforts...

Chen Shengmu)