【History of Haichuan Chemical Industry】Welding pioneer Pan Jiluan and the establishment of welding programs in Chinese universities

In the early 1950s, in order to accelerate the pace of industrial development in our country, speed up the training of engineering and technical personnel, and overcome the situation of industrial backwardness, the authorities issued instructions to learn from the Soviet Union’s experience in cultivating high-level industrial science and technology professionals. In August 1950, the Ministry of Education decided to send a group of outstanding young teachers to Harbin Institute of Technology to study Russian, in preparation for learning from the Soviet Union on a comprehensive basis and reforming education. Pan Jiluan, a young teacher who was working as an assistant in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Tsinghua University at that time, was recommended by the university to go to Harbin Institute of Technology for further study. At that time, the Central People’s Government adopted learning from the Soviet Union as its basic strategic principle, and Harbin Institute of Technology was designated as a key university for learning from Soviet educational practices. In 1951, over fifty Soviet scientific and technical experts began to teach at the institution. Soon after, the Ministry of Education decided to reclassify all these Russian language students from Harbin Institute of Technology as postgraduate students, so that they could pursue further studies and research under the guidance of Soviet experts. Pan Jiluan became a graduate student in welding at the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology, and from then on his life was closely linked to the field of welding. Pan Jiluan’s mentor was Dr. N. N. Prokhorov, a professor at the Bauman Technical University in Moscow, former Soviet Union, and an expert in welding. He was the only full-professor among these Soviet experts to hold a doctoral degree, and he possessed great expertise in both the theory and practice of welding. Pan Jiluan volunteered to learn welding, mainly because he was aware of the importance of welding technology and there was an urgent need for highly skilled professionals in this field. He believed that welding, as an advanced technology in development, would surely play an important role in the economic development of New China. Professor Prokhorov is a scholar with a broad perspective and high academic achievements. Upon arriving at Harbin Institute of Technology, he developed a comprehensive plan for the development of welding technology and the training of professionals in this field. Therefore, the establishment of welding science and graduate education in China is largely attributed to Professor Prokhorov. Prokhorov had a keen eye for research; he not only paid attention to the developments and progress in his own field of study but also kept track of the latest achievements and trends in related disciplines, striving to base his research work at the forefront of scientific and technological advancement. The research direction he chose for Pan Jiluan was hot cracking in welding, which was a cutting-edge issue in welding technology at that time. The specific topic is “Mechanical properties of metals near the solidification front”.

In July 1953, based on the analysis and summary of these experimental results, Pan Jiluan completed his graduate thesis titled \"The Problem of Intergranular Layer Fracture in Welding.\" The thesis was written in Russian; however, since publishing papers was not encouraged at that time and he lacked experience, it was not submitted for publication. However, the main achievements of the paper were still absorbed and reflected in Prokhorov’s works published in the late 1950s. The book \"Thermal Cracks in Welding\" written by Pan Jiluan in 1958 (based primarily on Prokhorov’s work) also incorporated the findings from his graduation thesis. After studying under Prokhorov, Master Pan Jiluan acquired a great deal of new knowledge and methods, and was greatly inspired. He also became Prokhorov’s capable assistant. He helped Prokhorov with translation, taught welding classes to students, and visited factories and enterprises with Prokhorov. Prokhorov not only has a high theoretical level but is also very practical; he is familiar with welding equipment and processes, and skilled at applying theory to solve practical problems. He also encouraged Pan Jiluan to take action himself to solve practical problems. In March 1953, Prokhorov assigned Pan Jiluan an urgent task: to weld and repair a long crack that had appeared in the shell of one of Ansteel’s flat furnaces. Upon arriving at the site, he found that the factory’s repair workers did not understand the basic technical requirements for welding; they simply inserted steel bars into the cracks and welded on the surface without carrying out any treatment of the joint areas. He persuaded the workers to remove the steel bars stuck in the cracks, carefully dealt with the crack joints, welded them again strictly in accordance with the technical requirements, and completed the repair work to a high standard, earning praise from the factory. This was the first time he resolved welding problems in production practice on his own, successfully completing the task.

II. Participation in establishing China’s first welding program in a university: In September 1952, the Welding Teaching and Research Section at Harbin Institute of Technology was officially established – it was the first such section in China. Pan Jiluan was appointed as the acting head of the section. Professor Prokhorov was supervising 6 graduate students at that time; aside from Pan Jiluan, they were Tian Xitang, Chen Dinghua, Zhou Zhenfeng, Luo Dingchang, and Xu Zicai. The five of them became the first batch of students in Harbin Institute of Technology’s welding teaching staff training program. Under the guidance of Professor Prokhorov, Pan Jiluan and five students from the welding graduate class began to establish a welding laboratory and took charge of developing the welding program. The first welding instructor training class graduated in July 1953. After graduation, Luo Dingchang went to a military-industrial unit, while the other five remained at the Welding Teaching and Research Section of Harbin Institute of Technology. Prokhorov also left China in July 1953 and returned to the Soviet Union. The training of undergraduate and junior college students in welding at Harbin Institute of Technology began in 1952. That year, 3 undergraduate students majoring in mechanical engineering over a 6-year program switched to the welding field to receive 2 years of training in welding fundamentals and specialized knowledge; they graduated in 1954 and were the first batch of undergraduate graduates in welding. Among them was Academician Xu Binshi, who later became a renowned expert in remanufacturing. In September 1952, Harbin Institute of Technology selected a small group of freshmen enrolled that year to attend a two-year junior college program in welding. The 19 students in this group graduated in July 1954 and were assigned to industrial and mining enterprises to work in welding techniques. In 1955, Harbin Institute of Technology selected two more students from its fourth-year class in 1953 to study welding. In 1952, Pan Jiluan began teaching courses such as \"Contact Welding Processes and Equipment\" to undergraduate students at Harbin Institute of Technology. Academician Xu Binshi recalled, “I attended lectures given by Professor Pan Jiluan on topics such as ‘contact welding’ and ‘automatic welding’. Since half of the students in the class were Russian, Professor Pan taught us in Russian. His lectures were logical and easy to understand, and we all loved listening to them.” ” The summer from 1952 to 1953 was the most stressful year for Pan Jiluan at Harbin Institute of Technology. At the critical stage of completing his graduate thesis, he was also responsible for teaching undergraduate students in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology. He had to work with members of the teaching and research team to prepare specialized courses for welding training programs, and he was also involved in the establishment of the laboratory. But for Pan Jiluan, this was a rare opportunity. He went through rigorous training and gained valuable experience; not only in research and teaching but also in organization and management, he felt that he was gradually growing more mature.