I received some good news and some bad news this morning.
The good news is that the 8566 can be processed more than 70,000 times; I think that’s quite a lot, so it counts as good news.
However, Mr. Huang isn’t satisfied with 70,000 cycles, so this can only be considered bad news.
Mr. Huang bends SPCC and RECC tubing using Cr12MoV and DC53 forming dies. The dies develop scratches after only a few cycles, mainly because the fixed die tends to stick to the material, resulting in scratches on the finished products.
When Mr. Huang contacted me on March 6, 2026, the product scratches in his bending dies were primarily caused by adhesive wear failure due to material sticking. This is because the Cr12MoV and DC53 die steels currently in use suffer from severe segregation, resulting in a large number of microscopic cracks invisible to the naked eye, which leads to material sticking. This issue requires improving the smelting quality of the die steel. Based on previous feedback from customers who had used 8566 die steel for pipe forming dies—which reported excellent results—I recommended that he switch to 8566 die steel.
Three months later, Mr. Huang provided the following feedback: “Now that we’re using your Yuhui 8566, we’ve been able to produce over 70,000 units before the die shows even slight wear. At that point, the products start to develop scratches, and we have to polish the mold to continue using it. Since 8566 die steel is so expensive, having to polish it after such a small number of cycles isn’t cost-effective.”
Seeing “over 70,000 cycles,” I was quite satisfied; I thought that was a very high production volume. In my experience, “not many products” usually refers to 3,000 to 5,000, or 7,000 to 8,000—certainly never exceeding 10,000. With over 70,000 products now, that should be considered a substantial volume.
But I didn’t expect him to be completely dissatisfied. Does “not many products” mean at least 100,000 in his understanding?
Sales is tough. Some people think 70,000 is a lot, while others think it’s very few. There’s no standard—either perspective is valid.
It seems that in future consultations, I’ll need to clarify exactly what “not many products” means—whether it refers to a few hundred, a few thousand, or tens of thousands—so I can make comparisons later.
*************
Wu Dejian’s tool steel, the chief of staff of the user, bought everything he had used.