A remark from a long-time customer made me realize that only by conducting business with integrity and a positive mindset can we earn our customers’ trust and secure their orders.
Today, a long-time customer came to purchase my 8566 anti-cracking steel. He told me that the 8566 his friend bought elsewhere was subpar—the price was cheap, but the quality was poor. Now he’s having his friend try Yuhui’s 8566 die steel. After using it for so many years, I’ve found it to be quite effective, and he no longer trusts his current supplier.
In business today, trust is the most important—and the most difficult—thing to achieve.
What enables a company to earn trust? It comes down to product quality and performance. If a customer has a bad experience and learns the hard way—even if your price is low—they will still walk away from you. We are now in the internet age, where information asymmetry no longer exists. If your product doesn’t measure up, customers will find suppliers offering better performance.
It takes a lot of effort to earn a customer’s trust, but if you push them away because your product’s quality and performance fall short, it’s simply not worth it.
8566 is a proprietary anti-chipping mold steel developed by Yuhui Mold Steel. It’s specifically designed to address mold chipping issues. It’s our company’s proprietary grade—not a national standard—and is our intellectual property; it is not in the public domain. However, due to its high market visibility, strong sales, and specific customer demand, 8566 has attracted widespread imitation across the industry. Not only are there direct copies of 8566, but also “shadow” versions of 8566, and it has even become a reference standard for certain major steel mills—a truly unprecedented phenomenon in the industry.
The prices of these 8566 knockoffs are set to match ours, making them seem very cheap. Many people mistakenly believe that 8566 is a standardized steel grade—assuming that any product labeled 8566 has the same performance. They ask, “If it’s the same product, why pay more?” and end up falling into the trap.
For me, this is actually a good thing. Only after being deceived and paying the price will they become fully committed. The market needs comparison; it is through comparison that value is created. As the saying goes, “A red flower needs green leaves to stand out.” High-performance mold steel also needs inferior mold steel to serve as a contrast—it is only through this contrast that its true quality becomes apparent.
8566 has accumulated over a thousand case studies across 5 stamping conditions, 6 major material types, and 7 key industries. Its resistance to chipping is four times that of high-speed steel SKH-9 and twice that of D2, with a hardness of 58–60HRC. It primarily addresses chipping issues that high-hardness mold steels like D2, DC53, and SKH-9 cannot resolve.
This is particularly true in demanding conditions such as stainless steel stamping, sharp-corner stamping, thick-sheet stamping, and even narrow-edge stamping where the punch width is less than the sheet thickness, the hole diameter is smaller than the sheet thickness, or the stamping ratio is less than 1:1. Cracking issues that standard die steels cannot resolve are effectively addressed by 8566.
Using 8566 die steel for punch chipping makes a world of difference. Of course, counterfeit 8566 does not possess these properties. When purchasing 8566, be sure to compare options carefully—don’t just look at the price.
*************
Wu Dejian’s tool steel, the chief of staff of the user, bought everything he had used.