Success Cases

On November 28, 2017, the "university scholar" column of China science daily published a report on the advanced deeds of academician zhao chunsheng, who has been pioneering and innovative in the field of ultrasonic motors, which focuses on his love for the motherland, frontier orientation, transformation and innovation, indomitable spirit and moving deeds.

Zhao chunsheng: ultrasonic motor "dreamer"

Zhao chunsheng, a professor at nanjing university of aeronautics and astronautics and an academician of the Chinese academy of sciences, was recently established as a member of the national key laboratory of mechanical structural mechanics and control and education development foundation of nanjing university of aeronautics and astronautics.

Speaking of zhao chunsheng, the most widely known is his research on ultrasonic motors. The so-called ultrasonic motor utilizes the inverse piezoelectric effect and ultrasonic vibration of piezoelectric ceramics to obtain motion and torque, and converts the tiny deformation of the material into rotation (or linear) motion of the rotor (or rotor) through mechanical resonance amplification and friction coupling. In this new type of motor, piezoelectric ceramic disc replaces many copper coil inside the traditional motor.

"We are the second country in the world to use an ultrasonic motor on an alien planet. America USES the Mars probe, we use the moon. That's one of our strengths, and we've gotten ahead of the rest of the country." As a pioneer in the field of ultrasonic motors in China, zhao is quite proud of it. But actually, his research of ultrasonic motor is not smooth.

Midlife transitions challenge new frontiers

In fact, the "old practice" of zhao chunsheng is not ultrasonic motor, but vibration engineering and its application.

As early as the 1960s, when zhao saw that all the "electric shock absorbers" used in China were imported from abroad, he plunged into the development of "shock absorbers", and finally made up the blank in China with his own efforts.

To say the results of this old Ben, enough for zhao chunsheng to live comfortably for a lifetime, but he did not think so, but constantly looking for higher goals.

When zhao, 54, was a visiting scholar at the Massachusetts institute of technology in 1992, an occasional report turned him on his head.

"The report will talk about the development and application of the ultrasonic motor. This technology is a challenge to the traditional motor. The motor can be made small enough to be only 'rice grains' large. Zhao was keenly aware that the ultrasonic motor, due to its characteristics of being light, miniature, fast response and high control accuracy, can be widely used in many fields such as robotics, aerospace and precision positioning, and will be of great use to China in the future. Then, he then resolutely turned to the ultrasonic motor of the new subject.

With a background in vibration, he became a member of the ultrasonic motor research group in the department of aeronautics and astronautics, MIT. The research group discussed, designed and tested, and he participated in the whole process; Search and copy ultrasonic motor information, he is an activist; All the money saved by the us is used to purchase relevant materials and components.

A year later, zhao chunsheng, who had been thinking about "making Chinese ultrasonic motors", returned to China alone with five packages of materials and arrived at China southern airlines, despite his family's resistance.

In 1994, after returning to China, zhao borrowed 15,000 yuan from the department and bought a computer and a simple printer. With a postdoctoral student, a doctoral student and a master's student, he began to charge toward the ultrasonic motor.

Although they experienced many failures, they finally achieved a breakthrough in less than 10 months. A prototype machine called "travelling wave ultrasonic motor" was successfully spun, thus filling the blank in this field in China.

Two cancer patients still laugh at life

But then came the tragic news: in 2000, during a routine medical examination organized by the school, doctors found an abnormality in his lungs and diagnosed him with lung cancer 10 days later.

But in the age of "cancer talk", zhao was surprisingly calm. Apart from his only niece, he did not tell others about his illness, or even his wife and daughter abroad. But the news spread quickly to his wife and daughter on the other side of the ocean. They immediately flew back to China from the United States to zhao chunsheng's hospital bed.

During the operation, one lobe of zhao's lung was removed, and the subsequent painful chemotherapy was even more unbearable for ordinary people. Three months later, doctors found a duck-egg-shaped tumor outside his stomach and had to be removed immediately. The second operation removed two-thirds of his stomach.

At that time, zhao, who was over 60 years old, had two operations in such a short period of time and lost 26 jin in weight. Even so, he was lying on his deathbed thinking about an ultrasound machine.

Shortly after the first operation, he revised the research proposal of national key foundation of natural science on the sickbed, and completed the application report of national natural science foundation project research on precision small linear ultrasonic motor and its control technology. After the second operation, his wife helped him to the laboratory to guide students every day, and later he simply moved the equipment home. To this, his daughter very heartache, one time without polite geology ask: "you want to die or ultrasonic motor?" As a result, zhao answered decisively, "I want both!"

Tiandao rewarded diligence with years of efforts. He presided over the completion of "new ultrasonic motor technology" in 2003 won the first prize of the national defense science and technology award, and in 2004 won the second prize of the national technology invention award. He was also met by party and state leaders when he attended the national technology awards conference in Beijing in 2005. In late 2005, the 67-year-old was elected a member of the Chinese academy of sciences.

Pushing industrialization overcomes numerous difficulties

After nearly 20 years of hard work, zhao and his team obtained 84 national invention patents and developed more than 50 ultrasonic motors in four series. He is deeply aware that the fundamental purpose of studying the ultrasonic motor is application. As long as there is application and market, the research will be meaningful and vital. What he did not know, however, was that it was one thing to master a technology, another to apply it, and that the difficulties encountered in the process of promoting the industrialization of ultrasonic motors were unexpected.

From 2002, zhao began to transfer patents and prototype, and transferred ultrasonic motor technology to some enterprises in guangzhou, Shanghai and other places. In 2008, his team and investors jointly set up jiangsu lianyungang chunsheng ultrasonic motor co., LTD., which ended in failure. In 2011, when the nanjing scientific research after the policy of "nine", he immediately responded to an appeal by the city government, self-raised funds more than 100 ten thousand yuan, registered in nanjing jianye district "nanjing Wan Ma ultrasonic motor co., LTD.", or in failure; In 2012, with the support of the liuhe district government of nanjing, he registered "jiangsu fengke ultrasonic motor technology co., LTD." on the basis of wanma company, which still ended in failure.

From chunsheng to wanma, from wanma to fengke, the company's failure in promoting the industrialization of ultrasonic motors for three times did not stop zhao chunsheng.

In January 2017, nanhang registered "nanjing hangda super control technology co., LTD." in jiangning district, nanjing, relying on its existing manpower. The company adopts a new mode of operation on the road of industrialization. With the help of social forces in production; The company is responsible for key links such as assembly and testing, as well as the development of a small number of new prototypes.

This is a new exploration of absorbing past experience and lessons, and also marks a new step in the industrialization of zhao chunsheng, ushering in the long-awaited "spring of China's ultrasonic motor industrialization".

"Entrepreneurship is harder than innovation, but I will stick to it because our country needs people who can innovate and start businesses. I am a scientist and an old party member. Now, the octogenarian zhao chunsheng is still in the road of entrepreneurship to overcome difficulties, the relentless pursuit of the ultrasonic motor of the "Chinese dream."