In late autumn, in a clean production workshop in Xi'an High-tech Zone, Wei Hao, a professor at the School of Chemistry and Materials Science of Northwest University, squatted next to the test bench, his eyes fixed on a thumb-sized power fuse. Despite its small size, once a circuit failure occurs, it will cut off the high-voltage current within microseconds to protect the overall safety of new energy vehicles and energy storage power stations. After this round of field testing of the production line, Wei Hao has to rush back to school to continue laboratory analysis. On the one hand, there are teaching and scientific research tasks in universities, and on the other hand, front-line technical research in enterprises. This rhythm of running between both ends is the epitome of the daily life of Shaanxi's "vice president of science and technology".
In July 2025, the "Shaanxi Province Supports Enterprises in Recruiting "Vice Presidents of Science and Technology" from Universities and Research Institutes" was officially issued. After the policy was implemented, more and more scientific researchers joined the company in a part-time capacity. Through the in-depth integration of industry, academia and research, they solved the industrial blockades and difficulties, promoted scientific and technological achievements in the laboratory, and completed the "critical leap" of the production line.
A tough battle for materials in a fuse
Zhongrong Electric is a company born and raised in Xi'an and a national-level "little giant" specializing in new technologies. It is an industry leader in the field of domestic power fuses.
In 2023, Wei Hao was hired as the vice president of technology of this company. He has long been researching the synthesis of energetic materials and functional molecules, focusing on the instantaneous release and precise control of energy. As soon as he joined the company, Wei Hao discovered new challenges facing the industry: With the large-scale promotion of new energy vehicle 800-volt high-voltage platforms and 1,500-volt energy storage systems, traditional fuse materials can no longer keep up with the pace of industry iteration. The new product must not only cut off the circuit quickly at the microsecond level and have stronger breaking capabilities, but also work stably under complex working conditions such as high temperature, high humidity, and strong vibration.
"The essence of this technology is the instantaneous release and regulation of energy, which coincides with my long-term research on thermochemistry and rapid reaction kinetics." Wei Hao said when talking about the encounter between disciplinary research and industrial needs.
As the vice president of science and technology, Wei Hao does not have a "name". He led the team to apply energetic material design ideas to product development, independently developed three new energetic composite formulas, and accurately controlled the heat distribution and arc extinguishing mechanism of the melt at the moment of short circuit. The response time of the modified fuse is shortened by half, overcoming the problem of delayed response of instantaneous protection of high-voltage circuits. From laboratory drawings to mass-produced finished products, the team took root in the workshop and repeatedly debugged parameters, reducing the material cost of a single fuse by 12%. Based on an annual output of 5 million pieces, it can save the company about 6 million yuan in production costs every year.
The implementation of technology brings real growth. In 2024, the company's related product line revenue will increase by 34.11% year-on-year; in 2025, the Energy Protection Metamaterials Engineering Research Center jointly built by the school and enterprises will be inaugurated and put into operation.
"Write papers on products and do research on projects." Wei Hao often mentioned this sentence. The confidence that supports him to take root in the enterprise to tackle key problems with peace of mind is the "three reforms" of Shaanxi's transformation of scientific and technological achievements. Relying on reform measures, scientific researchers solve practical industrial problems on the front line of enterprises, which is also counted as an effective academic contribution; surplus funds from horizontal scientific research projects can also be converted into capital investment results.
Domestic alternative long-distance running along the Han River
Walking westward along the Han River and walking into the machine shop of Hanzhong Wanli Aviation Equipment Manufacturing Co., Ltd., the landing gear nose wheel turning actuators are being rolled off the production line one after another. This key aviation component has relied on imports for a long time in the past, and supply chain risks have always been on the minds of companies.
Ren Zhigui, a professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering at Shaanxi University of Technology, became involved with this company as early as 2019. At that time, the airborne products produced by the company had a high failure rate and limited service life, and core components were subject to foreign supply. After six years of continuous collaboration, the provincial-level "four subjects and one alliance" joint school-enterprise research center for advanced manufacturing of aircraft ultra-high-strength material parts jointly built by the two parties was approved for construction in 2021 and successfully passed acceptance in 2025. In November of the same year, Ren Zhigui was officially appointed as vice president of corporate technology.
The research starts with material screening and surface process optimization. Relying on the support of key R&D projects in Shaanxi Province, the team continues to polish the technology. The product has a service life of 30,000 flight hours, a 30-year service cycle, and a 20% improvement in processing efficiency.
The radiation effect of technological breakthroughs is not limited to one company. This precision grinding process has been promoted and applied to Shaanxi Huayan aviation instruments, upgrading traditional manual grinding to automated mass production. The precision of part flatness and parallelism is controlled within 8 microns, creating economic benefits exceeding 10 million yuan.
Driven by Ren Zhigui, the Hanzhong Aviation Manufacturing Industry Enterprise Federation absorbed 41 supporting enterprises and formed a municipal-level high-end aviation equipment advanced manufacturing industry innovation consortium composed of 8 key units to collaboratively tackle key problems in the directions of digital twins, intelligent production lines, precision testing, and low-altitude aircraft.
"In the past, school-enterprise cooperation required repeated communication and consultation and separate project contracts, which was time-consuming and inconvenient to adjust." Ren Zhigui lamented. Now, relying on a long-term school-enterprise cooperation agreement, he can stay in the factory at any time to conduct on-site research and judgment on emergencies such as process defects, equipment debugging, and detection deviations. Two young doctors in the team are also stationed in the company to follow up the project, forming a collaborative model of "the vice president of science and technology takes the lead, the young doctors are resident, and the graduate students implement the practical implementation".
The green turns on the blue waves of Yinghu Lake
In the Qinba Mountains, Yinghu Lake is vast. In the spring of 2017, Chen Jingwen, a professor at Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, had a discussion with the person in charge of Ankang Hongda Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. and learned that the company’s shipbuilding production capacity was mature and its orders were stable, but it lacked clean energy ship research and development capabilities and could not find a breakthrough for its green transformation.
"The first-generation electric sightseeing boat developed by the company used lead-acid batteries. The boat was heavy, had short endurance, and had obvious power attenuation in low-temperature environments. It could only be tried on a small scale." Faced with the dilemma, Chen Jingwen decisively adjusted the technical route, abandoned the lead-acid battery solution, and concentrated on the development of a large-capacity and high-safety lithium battery power system: optimizing the electronic control program, strengthening the waterproof and shock-proof hull structure, and repeatedly debugging the power output ratio. After the second-generation pure electric ship is launched, it will have zero emissions, low noise, and no oil pollution. It will gradually replace the original old fuel-fired ships in Yinghu Lake and reduce water pollution in the reservoir area from the source. At present, the team is also planning the research and development of hydrogen fuel and methanol fuel cell zero-carbon ships in advance.
Chen Jingwen regards the production site as the front line of scientific research. He has followed the ship to Yinghu Lake for field tests all year round, and established a joint research team between university scientific researchers and enterprise technicians. After hundreds of dismantling and debugging, and field trials in multiple waters, the entire core hydraulic control system of the HD500 dredger has been domestically produced, and the main dredging ships are no longer "stuck" by foreign core components.
At the same time, the Shaanxi Association for Science and Technology Expert Workstation and the Ankang Intelligent New Energy Ship Research Center were launched successively, and a training base for ship electrical, intelligent control, and clean energy ship talents was simultaneously established.
From single-ship technological breakthroughs to collaborative cultivation of the industrial chain, the spark of the green ship industry is gradually becoming a prairie fire in the Qinba hinterland.
“Her power” in the rare metal workshop
Xi'an Ruixinke Metal Materials Co., Ltd. focuses on the research, development and production of rare metal materials. Thermal barrier coating alloy targets are highly brittle, making subsequent ion plating processing difficult, and the coating is easy to peel off, which is a common problem that has long plagued the industry.
In November 2025, Zhao Hui, a professor at Xi'an Petroleum University, was hired as the vice president of corporate science and technology. She plunged into the production workshop, starting from the relationship between the material's microstructure and mechanical properties, and innovatively used electric heating technology to control the material's microscopic morphology. After multiple rounds of test optimization, the hardness of the product dropped by 12% and the plasticity increased by 8%, solving the problem of weak bonding between the thermal barrier coating and the substrate and easy falling off in one fell swoop.
Compared with technological breakthroughs, talent cultivation brings more long-term changes. Zhao Hui guided the company's technical staff to prepare professional title application materials and polish their defense PPT, helping the company's technical staff to successfully obtain intermediate professional titles. She also provides special training to explain metal heat treatment and material forming process knowledge. Many front-line workers only know how to operate equipment, gradually understand the principles behind it, and actively plan to improve their professional capabilities. During his tenure, the company obtained a total of 8 new patents.
Zhao Hui’s experience vividly illustrates the essence of the reform of technology transfer talent evaluation and professional title evaluation in the “Three Reforms”: The value evaluation criteria for college teachers is no longer limited to papers and scientific research projects; the growth channels for enterprise technical talents are also constantly broadened through school-enterprise collaborative innovation.
"Write your thesis on the land of Sanqin, on products, production lines, and industrial chains" - this is the most simple practice of serving the country through science and education. It is also the most solid foundation for the western science and education province to pursue high-quality development and cultivate new productive forces. Up to now, Shaanxi has included 118,000 job-related scientific and technological achievements under separate asset management, 55,600 scientific and technological achievements have been transferred and transformed, 1,500 scientific researchers have been awarded corresponding professional titles based on their achievements in transformation of achievements, and 3,390 new enterprises have been established based on the transformation of achievements.
