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The history of China’s pump industry The history of China’s pump industry: The pump manufacturing sector in China, also known as the pump industry, has been in existence since 1868, undergoing growth and development over the past 145 years. After 1953, under the leadership of the former First Ministry of Mechanical Industry and the provincial mechanical departments and bureaus, efforts made throughout the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s laid the foundation for China’s pump industry. After the reform and opening up, China’s pump industry and its related technologies entered a period of rapid development. The truly swift growth occurred over the past 15 years – a period during which Chinese pump technology made historic progress, during which the pump industry in China developed at a high pace on all fronts; it was 15 remarkable years. The historical trajectory of China’s pump industry: Since the invention of the vane pump by Lamelli in Italy, modern pumps have evolved to include over 5,000 different types, spanning a history of 433 years. The manufacturing of pumps, that is, the pump industry, also has a history of 243 years since 1790. For China, the manufacturing of pumps and related machinery was introduced from abroad. It’s the character for “pump”; it didn’t exist in ancient times, and it can be found nowhere in dictionaries. It was created in the early Qing dynasty, when someone, inspired by the pronunciation of “Pump” as “beng pu”, came up with the idea of using a stone thrown into water to produce a “beng” sound, thus creating this ideographic character that depicts a stone above water. It can be found today in the “Supplementary Notes” section of the Kangxi Dictionary. We generally refer to the period from 1868 until the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949 as the budding stage of China’s pump industry. During that long period, there were already 4 specialized pump manufacturers in China. One is the Changchun Kuilijin Pump Factory, established in 1928 ； The other is the Beijing Tongyi Water Pump Factory, established in 1940 ； There is also the Reda Pump Company, founded in 1930 and based in Hong Kong, which specializes in the production of submersible pumps ； The last one is the Shanghai Qiaxing Pump Repair and Manufacturing Society, founded in 1946; that same year it designed and manufactured China’s first 20-cm deep well pump. After the founding of the People’s Republic of China, a three-year period of national economic recovery ensued. Factories that produced water pumps were rushed to resume operations, such as Dalong, Sanfan, Yonggu, Huachang, Qiaxing in Shanghai, as well as the Shanghai Machinery Factory; Chunpu in Harbin, Kuilijin in Changchun, Longyou in Benxi, Shenchang in Boshan, Tongyi in Beijing, Kaiming and Zhou Hengshun in Wuhan, Hongan in Chengdu, and the Sixth Machinery Factory in Shenyang. In 1951, the Shanghai Machinery Factory produced 3 units of 170cm axial flow pumps and 2 units of 146cm mixed-flow pumps, supplying equipment to the Changdong Lianbing Port irrigation station in Fujian, which transformed barren lands where crops could not grow into fertile areas that yielded good harvests regardless of drought or flooding. In 1953, China began large-scale economic construction, implemented the First Five-Year Plan, and established the first Ministry of Machinery Industry as well as various provincial departments and bureaus; thus, a management system for China’s pump industry was gradually put in place. Consequently, 14 specialized water pump factories were established, including Shenyang Water Pump Factory, Changsha Water Pump Factory, Harbin Water Pump Factory, Wuxi Water Pump Factory, Foshan Water Pump Factory, Chongqing Water Pump Factory, and Shanghai No.1 Water Pump Factory. The K-series single-stage centrifugal pumps, SM-series multi-stage pumps, and Д-series double-suction pumps have been developed. After 1957, the First Machinery Ministry organized engineers such as Zhang Chuanbu to conduct surveys of enterprises producing pumps across the country, and site selection and planning began in 1959. Thus, from 1958 to 1984, the Ministry of Machinery and the provincial machinery departments invested a total of 120 million yuan in industrial pump manufacturers. In 1959, a total investment of 41.353 million yuan was allocated to 15 pump manufacturing plants. The Shenyang Pump Factory, Shanghai Pump Factory, Harbin Pump Factory, Yangquan Pump Factory, and Foshan Pump Factory were all established in new locations; while the pumps produced by the Benxi, Dalian, Beijing, Shijiazhuang, Boshan, Lanzhou, Chongqing, and Wuhan pump factories underwent technical upgrades. This enabled the establishment of a certain production scale for general-purpose pumps, allowing for their mass production. Also at the end of 1959, a national organization for the pump industry was established in Shenyang; its leader was Shen Kuiyou, the manager of Shenyang Pump Factory, while the deputy leader was Su Guyi, the manager of Changsha Pump Factory. After the establishment of the pump industry, efforts were made to carry out joint design within the industry, to conduct quality inspections and evaluations of industry products, and to establish product standards for pumps. These efforts helped accelerate the development of the pump industry across the country. By the end of the 1960s, there were 50 specialized pump factories in the country, along with more than 200 other pump manufacturers. The annual production volume of pumps was 582,400 units, covering nearly 1,000 different types of pumps. To accelerate the development and production of pumps for the oil, chemical, and mining industries, in 1972 the First Ministry of Machinery Industry and the machinery departments of various provinces made another large-scale investment in major industrial pump manufacturers, totaling 33.962 million yuan. Of this amount, Wuhan Pump Factory received 10.865 million yuan, Boshan Pump Factory received 6.44 million yuan, Shenyang Pump Factory received 4.51 million yuan, Benxi Pump Factory received 2.237 million yuan, and Yangquan Pump Factory received 1.6 million yuan. Each of the industrial pump factories in Shanghai, Shijiazhuang, Tianjin, and Baoji received 1 million yuan in investment. Through this large-scale investment and technological upgrading, the R&D and production capabilities for pumps used in the oil, chemical, and mining industries have been enhanced. The Y-series centrifugal oil pumps, F-series corrosion-resistant pumps, DKS-series pipeline transfer pumps, FN-series molten urine pumps, high-speed partial-flow pumps, and multi-stage pumps for mining applications have been successively produced for use by customers. In that era, the rocket fuel pumps developed under the leadership of Lu Jun, a first-class engineer at the 1st Academy’s 11th Institute, and the water-jet propulsion pumps developed by Jin Pingzhong, the deputy chief engineer at the 7th Academy’s 8th Institute, both reached international advanced levels. The wear-resistant multi-stage pumps for mining use developed by the Tangshan Coal Science Research Institute, the high-pressure injection pumps developed by the Taiyuan Coal Research Institute, the high-speed tangential pumps developed by the Hefei General Research Institute, the bulb-type tubular pumps developed by the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower, and the marine pumps developed by the 7th Academy’s 4th Institute all reached domestic leading levels. It has greatly promoted the advancement of China’s professional skills in pump technology. Meanwhile, the agricultural pump manufacturing industry grew rapidly throughout the 1970s. As a result, the number of pump manufacturing enterprises in our country increased from 50 at the end of the 1960s to 190 by the end of the 1970s; all of them were state-owned enterprises at the provincial, regional, and county levels, as well as large collective-owned enterprises under the Second Light Industry sector. In the 1980s, China entered a period of reform and opening up, and its pump industry entered a phase of rapid growth. During that period, the industrial pump industry undertook a new round of collaborative design efforts to upgrade its product lines. The introduction of advanced foreign products and technologies became common in this sector. With the support of relevant government departments, major industrial pump manufacturers successively adopted 18 different types of pumps and their manufacturing technologies, including submersible electric pumps from German company Ritz, impurity pumps from Wohmann, forced circulation pumps for boilers from KSB, vertical inclined-flow pumps from Japanese company Ebara, screw pumps from German company Alville, process pumps for the petrochemical industry from American company Byron Jackson, multi-stage pumps for mining use from British company Mather-Pratt, hot water circulation pumps from KSB, water ring vacuum pumps from German company Siemens, oil pipeline transfer pumps from American company Bingham-Williams, MS multi-stage pumps from Ebara, corrosion-resistant pumps from Sulzer, drilling mud pumps from American company LTV, marine reciprocating pumps from KSB, centrifugal pumps for offshore oil platforms from American company Mather-Pratt, clog-free spiral vortex pumps from Ebara, and corrosion-resistant pumps from French company Jemont Schneider. Additionally, the implementation of licensing requirements for industrial pumps after 1984 contributed significantly to improving the manufacturing standards of these companies. By May 19, 1987, the **Mechanical Committee officially announced, through Regulation No. 84, that the key enterprises in the industrial pump sector were Shijiazhuang, Shenyang, Changsha, Shanghai Pump Factory, Dalian Acid-Resistant Pump Factory, Dalong Machinery Factory, and Shenyang Foundry. The key enterprises include 20 companies based in Beijing, Yangquan, Benxi, Harbin, Boshan, Wuhan, Foshan, Chongqing, Baoji, Lanzhou Pump Factory, Tianjin Industrial Pump Factory, Shanghai No.1 Pump Factory, and Zhejiang Vacuum Equipment Factory. In addition, there are 7 key enterprises specializing in agricultural pumps, bringing the total number of pump manufacturers to 27. In the 1980s, China’s production, supply, and distribution system was undergoing reform; financial investment shifted from grants to loans, and commodity prices were divided into planned prices and market prices. A policy of opening up to the outside world while stimulating economic activity domestically was adopted to facilitate the transition from a planned economy to a market economy. After 1985, the 209 water pump factories that were all state-owned or part of large collective enterprises saw the emergence of water pump factories at the township level. By 1990, the number of pump manufacturers in China had risen rapidly to 949, producing 3.664 million pumps and generating sales revenue of 3.429 billion yuan. China ranked 7th in the world in terms of pump production value, behind the major industrial countries such as the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy. In the early 1990s, as a market economy gradually took shape, the private pump industry emerged and developed rapidly. Especially after ***’s speech during his southern tour in 1992, a large number of private pump enterprises appeared, with the fastest growth occurring in areas around Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Shandong, Liaoning, and Hunan. Among these, the private and individual pump manufacturing industries in Wenzhou and Taizhou, Zhejiang, are the most representative. In Wenzhou, such industries were mainly concentrated in Oubei Town, Yongjia County, which was later designated by the China Machinery Industry Association as the “Hometown of Pumps and Valves in China”. Taizhou is mainly located along both sides of National Highway 114, from Zeguo to Daxi in Wenling County. By 1998, there were over 100 pump and valve manufacturing enterprises in Wenzhou, with a production value of 1.5 billion yuan. In Wenling, there were nearly 400 pump manufacturers of various sizes, including individual businesses, and their sales volume was around 1 billion yuan as well. They primarily relied on private capital and started out as itinerant traders. In the last decade of the 20th century, the number of pump manufacturers in China increased rapidly; by 1996, there were 1,459 such companies, producing 7.3958 million pumps per year, with sales reaching 12.034 billion yuan. 15 Brilliant Years in the Development of China’s Pump Industry: From 1998 to 2012 was the period of fastest growth in the history of China’s pump industry, as well as a brilliant 15 years. During these 15 years, **although economic growth was slow from 1998 to 2001, private pump companies experienced strong development. Not only did the number of such companies increase at a geometric rate, reaching 3,240 by 2000, but sales of their products also grew rapidly, gradually leaving state-owned pump companies behind. After 2002, **the economy entered a period of rapid growth; real estate investment, industrial investment, and foreign trade all saw rapid expansion. Some state-owned pump companies underwent reforms in their systems and mechanisms, and by taking advantage of differences in land rents, they expanded their operations by acquiring new land, which transformed them into key players in China’s pump industry. Among private pump companies, those that managed to accumulate capital at a rapid pace saw significant improvements in their product development and manufacturing capabilities, thus also becoming important forces in China’s pump industry. Even more encouraging is the fact that a large number of companies, including those among the top 10 global pump manufacturers, entered China within 15 years, invested in setting up factories there, and became part of China’s pump manufacturing industry. They not only brought high-end, scarce pump products to China’s pump industry, but also introduced new technologies and management concepts, thereby promoting the progress of China’s pump industry and its technology. 1. Private pump manufacturing companies emerged as part of China’s market economy, and they have seen steady growth. China’s private pump industry originated in the early 1990s, starting with the production of micro electric pumps and small water pumps. For example, Shanghai Kaiquan Pump Industry (Group) Co., Ltd. originated as Oubei Pump Factory, which was established in 1990 in Oubei Town, Yongjia County, Wenzhou City. It was later renamed Zhejiang Kaiquan Pump Industry Manufacturing Co., Ltd. In 1999, Kaiquan formed a group company, and Shanghai Kaiquan Pump Industry (Group) Co., Ltd. was officially established in Jiading, Shanghai. Shanghai Dongfang, Shanghai Liancheng, Fengqiu Group, Southern Pump Industry, Shanghai Panda, Zhejiang Leo, Zhejiang Xinjie, and others also rose rapidly within just 10 years – all of them are miracles in the history of China’s pump industry. In short, private pump manufacturers have grown rapidly in the market competition, bringing a fresh breeze and vitality to China’s pump industry. 2. Over these 15 years, some of the state-owned pump companies went bankrupt or were pushed to the fringes, while most regained their vitality and achieved new successes. Since 1995, facing the market economy and fierce competition, the vast majority of state-owned water pump factories and companies in China have fallen into operational crises. The first to go bankrupt was the Jinan Water Pump Factory, around 1999, and it was reorganized by the Jinan Testing Machine Factory. The second was the renowned Beijing Water Pump Factory (originating from the Beijing Tongyi Water Pump Factory founded in 1940, and later becoming a key enterprise for industrial pumps under the Ministry of Machinery); it officially declared bankruptcy on March 30, 2001, with all its employees being sent to re-employment centers. Soon after, another major pump manufacturer: Wuhan Pump Factory, announced that it would cease production. In 2004, Shenyang Pump Factory, the leading player in China’s pump industry at that time, was insolvent and operating at a loss; it was therefore subject to strategic restructuring by Shenyang Blower Group. As a result, the name of Shenyang Pump Factory disappeared, and its pump brand was not preserved. In 2008, Aerospace High-Tech Co., Ltd. acquired and integrated the assets of Baoji Water Pump Factory, a key enterprise in the pump industry that had gone bankrupt. In short, among the 20 key enterprises in the pump industry identified by the Ministry of Machinery in 1987 – including 7 core companies and 13 key firms – 40% disappeared from the market competition. The remaining 60%, namely 12 companies such as Changsha Water Pump Factory Co., Ltd., Shijiazhuang Qiangda Pump Industry Group Co., Ltd., Danai Pump Industry Co., Ltd., Shandong Bobo Pump Technology Co., Ltd., and Chongqing Water Pump Factory Co., Ltd., learned how to operate in a market economy environment. They improved their capabilities in collecting, organizing, and analyzing various marketing information, made full use of CRM systems for information transmission, processing, and project tracking, which effectively supported product orders. At the same time, services for users before, during, and after sales were also enhanced, enabling rapid and sustainable development. Over the past few years, these older state-owned pump factories have taken advantage of differences in land rent to acquire new land for expansion, increasing their investment in capital; they have purchased advanced processing and testing equipment, and built or expanded open-test circuits, thereby raising the level of their pumping equipment manufacturing capabilities and laying a stronger material foundation for the further development of these state-owned pump production bases. The first company to carry out expansion was Dainai Pump Industry Co., Ltd. With the support of the Dalian municipal government, it invested 200 million yuan to build a pump manufacturing park covering an area of 150,000 m2 in Dalian’s \"Shuangkou Port\". This pump industry park was established in 2005; five joint venture companies, including Dainai Pump Industry Co., Ltd., Dalian Bogman, Dalian Hammett, Dalian Riva, and Dalian Eno, moved into the park. Equipped with brand-new factories, advanced CNC machining equipment, pump testing stations, and casting workshops, this park combines modern facilities with sophisticated building designs, making it an important manufacturing hub for pump equipment in China. Starting in 2007, Changsha Water Pump Factory Co., Ltd. invested in building the Ningxiang Foundry Base in the Ningxiang Economic Development Zone in Hunan. It was completed and put into operation in November 2008, equipped with complete foundry capabilities including mold manufacturing, molding, melting, post-casting treatment, and physical and chemical testing, as well as the necessary supporting facilities. An annual production capacity of 20,000 tons for various types of castings can be achieved. In 2009, a machinery installation and testing area covering over 0.13 km2 was built at the Changsha Pump Factory in the Lugu Industrial Park of Changsha High-Tech Zone; Changsha Pump Factory Co., Ltd. achieved its goal of relocation and reconstruction. Once a key enterprise in the field of industrial pumps, it became stronger and more competitive. State-owned water pump manufacturing companies such as Chongqing Water Pump Factory have also undergone reconstruction and relocation, improving their technical equipment levels and creating the necessary conditions for future technological innovation and large-scale production. In addition, those state-owned enterprises that originally manufactured pumps outside the machinery sector have grown larger and stronger over these 15 years thanks to the unique characteristics of their products; they have also made substantial investments in expansion over recent years, becoming key players in China’s pump industry. For example, China Nonferrous (Shenyang) Pump Industry Co., Ltd. invested 400 million yuan in the Shenyang Economic Development Zone to build a new factory building of 80,000 m2, with an annual production capacity of 100 large-scale diaphragm pumps. The company holds independent intellectual property rights for this pump, which is used for the long-distance pipeline transportation of products in the petrochemical, clean coal, coal chemical engineering, coal-to-oil processes, alumina production, and various metal mining concentrates. Another example is Xiangyang 525 Pump Industry Co., Ltd. (a subsidiary of China North Industries Group Corporation), which is one of the main manufacturers of special industrial pumps in China. In 2009, Wuyi 25 Investment invested 345.7 million yuan, acquired 0.036 km2 of land, and built a pump assembly and testing facility as well as a research building. 101 new process equipment units were added, enabling an annual production capacity of 12,000 pumps for machining, assembly, and testing. In 2011, Wuyi 255 Pump Industry acquired another 0.38 km2 of land and invested 600 million yuan; the total construction area is 135,258 m2, and construction began in April 2012. Similarly, the Shanghai Electric Power Repair and Manufacturing Plant also built a larger, more modern manufacturing facility in Pudong due to the needs of the Shanghai World Expo. In 2006, Shijiazhuang Water Pump Factory Co., Ltd. acquired 0.23 km2 of land and invested 460 million yuan to build new facilities including a slurry pump factory, a clean water pump factory, a steel casting plant, a model factory, and a machine repair and tool workshop. The company moved to these new locations and began operations in 2007, producing 18,540 pumps per year; it was later renamed Shijiazhuang Qiangda Pump Industry (Group) Co., Ltd. In short, through the trials of the market economy, state-owned pump companies in China’s pump industry have become stronger, with their R&D capabilities and manufacturing standards having improved significantly. A large number of state-owned pump manufacturing companies, such as Shijiazhuang Qiangda Pump Industry, Changsha Water Pump Factory Co., Ltd., Danai Pump Industry Co., Ltd., Bopum Technology Co., Ltd., Shijiazhuang Industrial Pump Factory Co., Ltd., Chongqing Water Pump Factory Co., Ltd., Xiangyang 525 Pump Industry Co., Ltd., and Shanghai Electric Repair and Manufacturing General Factory Co., Ltd., have achieved new successes as the economy develops. It remains the core driving force behind the further development and growth of China’s pump industry, and it remains the hope of China’s pump industry. 3. Well-known companies such as the top 10 global pump manufacturers have invested in setting up factories in China, becoming part of China’s pump manufacturing industry. After the mid-1980s in our country, with the emergence of a market economy, and especially after the 1990s as the planned economy gradually transitioned to a market-based system, foreign pump companies began to invest in China, introduce technology there, or exchange technology for market access. The first joint venture was Nanjing Goertz Pump Co., Ltd., established through a partnership between the American company Goertz Pump Co. and Nanjing Deep Well Pump Factory, in 1986. The first wholly-owned enterprise was Grundfos Pumps (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., established in 1995 in the Suzhou Singapore Industrial Park as a wholly-owned company. As China’s reform and opening up progressed and its market economy system gradually took shape, especially during the period of rapid economic growth in the new century, a large number of renowned pump manufacturing companies from around the world decided to invest in China and set up factories there. Companies such as ITT, Fox, KSB, Sulzer, Ebara, Grundfos, Wilo, Kolff, BENTLEY, IDEAS, and SPX established their own pump manufacturing companies in Dalian, Shenyang, Foshan, Changsha, Boshan, Wuhan, Hangzhou, Qingdao, and Wuxi in China, with particularly many companies setting up facilities in Shanghai and Suzhou. According to incomplete statistics, there are already over 60 pump manufacturing companies established in China by foreigners either solely or through joint ventures. German company KSB entered the Chinese market at the end of 1994, and jointly established Shanghai KSB Pump Co., Ltd. with Shanghai Pump Factory (its core unit). By 2011, the company’s sales revenue had reached 890 million yuan. In 2008, German company KSB and Shanghai Electric each held a 50% stake to form a joint venture, establishing Shanghai Electric KSB Nuclear Pump and Valve Co., Ltd. A new factory was built in Lingang New City, Shanghai, with 300 million yuan invested in the development of a hot-test loop for nuclear main pumps; this facility is currently under construction. KSB’s investments are not only in Shanghai but also in Changzhou and Dalian. Currently, there are six companies in China, and the total sales revenue for pumps and valves in that country in 2011 was 2.4 billion. ITT, the world’s leading pump manufacturer, invested wholly in 1996 to establish ITT Pumps (Shenyang) Co., Ltd. in Shenyang, which produces submersible pumps (WeChat official account: Pump Manager) ； In 1998, Shanghai High-Quality Pump Co., Ltd. was established in the Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone in Pudong, Shanghai, to produce petrochemical pumps ； In 2007, ITT (Nanjing) Co., Ltd. and ITT Precision Manufacturing (Wuxi) Company were established. In 1999, the Swiss company Sulzer established Dalian Sulzer Pumps & Compressors Co., Ltd. in Dalian in a joint venture with Dainai; on November 20, 2006, this company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sulzer. In 2009, Sulzer invested in building a factory in Suzhou; the factory covers an area of 23,000 m2 and features three production lines as well as eight pump testing stations. It mainly produces pumps for use in the oil and gas industry and power plants. WILO of Germany entered the Chinese market in 2000, establishing WILO (China) Pump Systems Co., Ltd. in Beijing, as well as a R&D center there. The Japanese company Ebara conducted extensive research in China for a long time, and it was not until 2003 that it formed a joint venture with Jialiite Industrial Co., Ltd., a small private pump manufacturer based in Zhejiang that was renowned for its high-quality products. Together, they established Ebara Jialiite Pump Industry Co., Ltd. to produce pumps for the petrochemical industry. In 2005, Ebara Hakubo Pump Co., Ltd. was established in Shandong as well. In 2006, Ebara Machinery (China) Co., Ltd. was established solely in Kunshan to mainly produce general-purpose pumps. Danish company Grundfos has long shown interest in China’s high-end real estate market; it entered the Chinese market in 1995 by establishing a production factory in Suzhou. In 2005, a R&D center in China was established in Suzhou. In 2011, Wuxi Gaofu Pump Co., Ltd. was also established in the Wuxi High-Tech Development Industrial Zone. Today, the sales volume of Grundfoss (Shanghai) Company has exceeded 1.6 billion yuan. Flowsever, an American pump manufacturing company founded in 1997 by Byron Jackson of the United States and Dukko International, two companies that rank among the top ten globally, acquired IDP Pumping, the fifth-largest pump manufacturer in the world, by 2000. By 2001, it had become the world’s second-largest pump manufacturer in terms of sales revenue. It entered the Chinese market relatively late, doing so in 2007 when China’s economic growth was at its fastest pace; it chose Changsha Water Pump Factory to establish Hunan Flowsever Xiangdian Changpump Co., Ltd., with the aim of becoming the strongest pump manufacturer in the world and making breakthroughs in the field of nuclear power equipment production in China. On May 18, 2012, it built a new factory solely in the Suzhou Industrial Park, aiming to enter the Chinese market on a large scale. Not only have large global pump manufacturers entered China, but also some well-known pump manufacturers with specialized pump technologies have come to China as well. Austrian company Andritz, renowned worldwide for its pump testing technologies, entered China in 1997 and established Ancritz—Kenflo Foshan Pump Co., Ltd. in partnership with Foshan Pump Factory to manufacture pumps for the pulp and paper industry. In 2002, it became a wholly-owned enterprise of Andritz and was renamed Foshan Andritz Technology Co., Ltd. By 2010, the company’s sales had exceeded 3 billion yuan. In 2012, it was renamed Andritz (China) Co., Ltd. Similarly, Watson-Marlow Corporation produces Bredel hose pumps, peristaltic pumps, and sine pumps in China. The single-screw pumps from Netchi entered China in 1993; the installed shielding pumps arrived in Shanghai in 1994; the ultra-high pressure pumps from the German company WOMA entered Shanghai in 1995; the submersible sewage pumps from the Swedish company Flygt reached Shenyang in 1996; the spiral centrifugal pumps from Haist in Qingdao were introduced in 1999; the high-speed pumps and metering pumps from Hamilton Company in Shanghai appeared in 2001, along with the multi-safety double-hose diaphragm pumps from the German company Perrot. In short, the rapid development of China’s pump industry over these 15 years shows that private pump companies emerged as China’s market economy took shape, and they continued to grow as the market economy system improved, achieving unstoppable progress. Amid the waves of the market economy, some state-owned pump factories and companies were eliminated, while others learned to adapt and improve themselves; most of them became even stronger and remain the backbone of China’s pump industry. A large number of renowned pump companies, including the top 10 global pump manufacturers, have entered China to invest in and establish factories there. This has contributed to the development of China’s pump industry, boosted the market, and these companies have become an integral part of China’s pump manufacturing sector. In today’s Chinese pump industry, according to statistics from the **Bureau of Statistics in 2011, there were 1,116 Chinese pump manufacturing companies with annual sales revenues exceeding 20 million yuan; these companies generated a total revenue of 153 billion yuan and produced 97.01 million pumps, which is more than 12 times the figure from 1996. Over the past 15 years, China’s pump industry has experienced rapid development, and it is now the world’s largest producer of pumps, surpassing the U.S. pump manufacturing sector. These 15 years have been a period of rapid development and glory in the history of China’s pump industry. Great progress has been made in the technology of China’s pump industry. In terms of drawing and design techniques, computer usage is now widespread among Chinese pump companies, whether they are large or small enterprises, regardless of whether it is at the middle or senior management level, or in pump manufacturing factories or workshops. In pump technology or design departments, CAD drawing techniques have also become widespread and are mastered by many engineers; these days it is hard to find a drawing board or a set square. Today, mapping efficiency has improved significantly; the maps are neat and clean, and the step of tracing is no longer necessary. In the design of vane pumps, the similarity method, the one-dimensional streamline method, and the lift method, which have remained unchanged for decades, have also seen changes in the new century; they can now only be used as a preliminary design step. New design methods have since emerged, such as inverse design, controllable torque design, and optimization design, and these are adopted by many engineers. In recent years, vane pumps used in various application fields have rapidly evolved toward more efficient and advanced hydraulic/structural designs. Some pumps are designed with stringent spatial or installation size constraints ； Some pumps only need to meet the performance requirements at their optimal operating point ； Some require meeting multiple operating conditions as well as a specific overall head curve ； Some pumps require that the range of their high-efficiency operating area be as wide as possible, which has prompted some companies to adopt commercially available design and development software as well as simulation software, such as CN and CFX software. These software programs incorporate years of experience in design, application, and testing to optimize the design and calculate the geometric dimensions of the pump’s fluid-handling components. These 3D hydraulic models can automatically generate grids, select the appropriate turbulence model from various state-of-the-art and mature turbulence models, perform CFD and FEA analyses and calculations, as well as carry out data processing and analysis. The entire process is fast, concise, and relatively reliable. Immediately following this is the impeller CNC machining programming module, which enables rapid simulation of the impeller’s machining process, allows for the detection of potential design flaws, and helps to improve the design. Additionally, impeller models can also be manufactured using a laser rapid prototyping machine, after which precision casting can be carried out followed by minimal machining. In short, the entire design, processing, and R&D cycle has been significantly shortened. The digitization, informatization, and modernization of such design have brought about significant advancements in the design and manufacturing of vane pumps. In terms of pump testing technology, over these 15 years, the implementation of automatic control in tests has enabled simultaneous data collection and control of parameters such as flow rate, head, power, and speed. Computer-based automatic monitoring and control techniques are used for processing the data, generating graphs, and conducting accuracy analyses, which has greatly improved work efficiency as well as test accuracy. China’s pump industry has also made great progress in this area and achieved modernization. This represents progress in macroscopic testing techniques for pumps. At the microscopic level, that is, in terms of testing the flow field inside pumps, some pump manufacturers also use LDV or PIV for such tests. In the fields of new material smelting, casting, and heat treatment, China’s pump industry has also made breakthroughs in the new century. For example, the \"water-jet propulsion pump and its SS2377 ultra-low carbon duplex stainless steel precision castings\" developed by Tianmen Pump Industry Co., Ltd. passed the evaluation for national defense scientific and technological achievements at the ** level in Wuhan. Waterjet propulsion systems are widely used in high-speed ships, and their material is ultra-low carbon duplex stainless steel. The techniques for smelting, casting, and solution heat treatment of this material are recognized worldwide as challenging tasks, and only a few countries such as Sweden, Japan, and the United States have mastered its processing methods. Starting with the development of the D970 type water jet propulsion pump and all the precision castings made from ultra-low carbon duplex stainless steel used in its components, the company carried out trial production of a series of precision castings such as guide vanes, impellers, and casings. It mastered the overall molding technique for manufacturing spatially twisted, complex thin-walled airfoil-shaped guide vanes using precision resin sand casting, allowing the resulting vanes to be manufactured without any machining. Casting simulation software was used to optimize the casting process, and techniques such as stepped pouring and high-temperature box opening for sand removal were developed, which effectively prevented the occurrence of casting defects. Precision castings made of SS2377 ultra-low carbon duplex stainless steel for the D970 water jet propulsion pump and its components were successfully manufactured. Optimal control over the r/α phase ratio of the castings as well as the temperature for solution heat treatment was achieved. The microstructure, intergranular corrosion resistance, mechanical properties, radiographic inspection, and hydrostatic testing of these castings were all verified by third-party testing institutions, and they have been approved by the China Classification Society. The newly developed high-power water jet propulsion pump with a single-pump power of 5000 KW and its associated system have been successfully applied on the Navy’s high-speed trimaran search and rescue vessels used for emergency rescue operations by CNPC at sea. In terms of manufacturing technology, companies in the pump industry, particularly some key leading enterprises, have seen a comprehensive improvement in their overall capabilities over the past five years; they have introduced CNC machine tools on a large scale while phasing out older ones. To meet the high-precision processing requirements for pumps used in nuclear power and thermal power plants, boring and milling machining centers were imported; for example, Shanghai Kaiquan has successively imported German nine-axis five-linkage floor-standing boring and milling machining centers from abroad ； Italian 6-axis 5-linkage machining center ； German 6-axis 5-linkage gantry boring and milling machine ； Italian 4m heavy-duty high-precision vertical turning and milling center ； Italian 2.5m heavy-duty high-precision vertical turning and milling centers, etc. These advanced manufacturing machines will comprehensively enhance processing capabilities and manufacturing standards. With the rapid advancement of manufacturing technology, China’s pump industry has long remained focused on the design and production of mid- to low-end products; however, this situation in which a large number of high-end products had to be imported has been changed. In recent years, major projects such as the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, the West-to-East Gas Transmission Project, large-scale thermal power plants, petrochemical facilities, nuclear power plants, and defense projects have been launched. In particular, the localization of the first domestic pumps for use in nuclear power plants, as well as the design and manufacturing of pumps for naval vessels, have contributed to significant progress in China’s field of high-end pump design and manufacturing. Both the technical standards and product quality have improved greatly, with a large number of new products featuring independent intellectual property rights being developed. Nuclear grade II and III pumps for nuclear power plants have been largely localized, thereby breaking foreign technological blockades and market monopolies. At present, the domestic production rate of nuclear power pumps has exceeded 75%. The upper filling pump developed by Chongqing Water Pump Factory Co., Ltd. has operating vibration levels that are less than half of the values specified in the technical specifications; its operational stability and reliability are superior to those of foreign products. Its technical performance meets the requirements for use in nuclear power plants with capacity of millions of kilowatts, reaching an advanced level comparable to that of international counterparts. Products developed by Shanghai Electric Power Repair and Manufacturing General Factory Co., Ltd., such as the million-kilowatt-class pre-turbine island pumps, main feedwater pumps for the turbine island, and circulation water pumps, have also been made domestically. The domestic production rate of nuclear-grade pumps has increased from 5% six years ago to over 75% at present. To meet the requirements related to nuclear power, Shanghai Kaiquan Pump Industry Group has built cold and hot test rigs for nuclear pumps, which enable hydraulic performance tests, durability tests, thermal shock tests, and impurity tests to be conducted on nuclear Class 2 containment spray pumps, high-pressure safety injection pumps, low-pressure safety injection pumps, waste heat removal pumps, and make-up pumps. In the field of high-end pump products, domestic production has also been achieved for super-supercritical boiler feed pumps with a capacity of millions of kilowatts, oil transfer pumps for long-distance pipelines (with a capacity of over 2000 KW), chemical process pumps, and high-speed pumps. The tremendous technological progress in China’s pump industry has led to the continuous emergence of new pump products over these 15 years, a phenomenon without precedent in the history of China’s pump industry. These new products were all independently designed and developed. Such as the water jet propulsion pump with a single-pump driving power of 5000 kW and its associated system, designed and manufactured by the China Shipbuilding and Ocean Engineering Design and Research Institute. Another example is the feedwater pump casings for 600MW supercritical units produced after 2008, as well as the boiler feedwater pumps for 1000MW ultra-supercritical thermal power units developed and manufactured by Shanghai Electric Repair and Manufacturing General Factory Co., Ltd. in 2012. Additionally, China Nonferrous (Shenyang) Pump Industry Co., Ltd. has relied on its own innovation to develop the third-generation dual-cylinder, double-acting diaphragm pump with high flow rates and high pressure. Dalian Deep Blue Pump Co., Ltd. has successfully developed multi-stage low-temperature liquid oxygen pumps and high-pressure ammonium methoxide pumps. Xiangyang 525 Pump Industry Co., Ltd. has developed the LC900/1150 circulation pump for flue gas desulfurization in 1000MW thermal power units. The semi-poor methanol pump developed by Shandong Shuanglun Co., Ltd. Dalian Pump Industry Co., Ltd.’s horizontal multi-stage sack pumps, new SAF2205 duplex stainless steel submersible pumps for seawater, and long-shaft submersible pumps for seawater desalination. Today, pumps for over 80% of petrochemical plants can be manufactured and supplied domestically. There are four further indications of the significant technological progress in China’s pump industry. First, the replacement cycle for traditional pump models that are widely used in China, such as single-stage centrifugal pumps and double-suction centrifugal pumps, has been greatly shortened. The efficiency of these pump models as a whole has improved significantly, bringing them to almost the same level as those of pumps in other countries ； Second, mechanical seals for vane pumps have become widespread. Today, the vast majority of new pumps use mechanical seals, which are often pre-assembled modular mechanical seals in the factory ； Third is the material for sea water pumps – aluminum bronze has been replaced by highly alloyed ultra-low carbon austenitic stainless steels and ultra-low carbon duplex stainless steels ； Fourth, in pre-sales service, a pump selection software was used to speed up the process of selecting pumps.