Recently, TISCO produced hot rolled stainless steel has been successfully applied to the liquid Nitrogen thermostat storage tank in the expansion project of China’s first deep underground research facility, the China Jinping Underground Laboratory (CJPL). It is another contribution made by TISCO to China’s major scientific research projects, besides the application of its products in ITER, dubbed “artificial sun”.
The CJPL is an underground research facility with the deepest rock overburden (2400m) in the world. It is located in the Jinping tunnel in Sichuan Province. CJPL has been listed as one of the National Major Science and Technology Infrastructure Construction Projects. The laboratory reflects that China already has a world-class clean and low radiation research platform, and can independently carry out the most advanced international basic research topics such as particle physics, astrophysics, cosmology and dark matter detection.
The CJPL was inaugurated in the year of 2010. Laboratory space expended from 4,000 cubic meters to 300,000 cubic meters after CJPL II expansion project launched in 2014. The liquid Nitrogen thermostat storage tank, as one of the most important parts of the lab, provides low temperature working condition and shielding function for detectors in the laboratory.
In 2018, the China International Marine Containers Co., Ltd, or CIMC for short, well-known for its excellent products in low temperature equipment industry, was selected as a supplier to CJPL project. As a strategic cooperation partner to CIMC, TISCO delivered stainless steel material for manufacturing liquid Nitrogen thermostat storage tank to CIMC. The biggest difficulty of the project lies in the solution to the impact of moisture underground to storage tank quality. It requires extreme material excellence in terms of purity, corrosion resistance and mechanical properties in low temperature condition, as well as weldability in wet and cold environment. By visiting project site and thorough communication, technical engineers from both companies worked out measures like composition adjustment, material purity improvement, precise process control, and so on, to secure stainless steel quality. After repeating trials and adjustments done by TISCO production staff, they finally produced material that met project requirement and successfully delivered the products.
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that to build a country that is powerful in science and technology, we should aim at the forefront of science and technology in the world. Since 2007, TISCO has successively provided for the national major scientific and technological project ITER a series of highly sophisticated products, including fully austenitic stainless steel cold-rolled plates, medium and heavy plates, composite plates, profiles, forgings, steel pipes, etc., most of which are applied to extremely low temperature and ultra-strong magnetic field and bear complex mechanical and electromagnetic forces. Today, TISCO's hot-rolled stainless steel products are once again used in the construction of China's first deep underground laboratory, where they adapts to extremely working conditions in the wet and cold environment from 2400 meters underground. It is the fruit of TISCO's continuous promotion of high-quality transformation and development. In the future, TISCO will focus on creating a first-class innovation ecology, continue to lead development with innovation, drive market expansion with sophisticated products, aim at high-end markets, key fields and emerging industries, and vigorously develop blue ocean products to assist the national science and technology projects.