The hottest Toshiba machine tool incident reminds

"Toshiba machine tool incident" reminds Chinese people never to underestimate that Japan's

machine tool is a symbol of a country's manufacturing level. Advanced numerical control processing equipment is an important strategic material for any country! Screw compressors have long been sold at cabbage prices in China, but so far, good machine tools for manufacturing compressors have to be purchased from a limited number of foreign manufacturers

after the end of World War II, the western industrial developed countries led by the United States have always imposed a blockade on CNC machine tools against China, the former Soviet Union and other socialist camps

Toshiba incident

during the cold war 30 years ago, there was an incident of "civet cat for Prince" in the manufacturing industry. Japan's Toshiba machinery company sold high-precision CNC machine tools for processing marine propellers to the former Soviet Union behind the "Paris Coordinating Committee", which wasted decades of effort in the United States. The "Toshiba incident" shocked the world

01

two executives of Toshiba Corporation in Japan were arrested

on May 27, 1987, the warning lights flashed in front of the Toshiba Corporation building in Tokyo, Japan. On the surface, Toshiba machinery exported several two axis CNC machine tools to the Soviet Union, but the police of the Japanese police department came to the door

this time, according to the requirements of the United States, the Japanese government directly arranged a surprise inspection, in order to find all the secret information about the export of the machine tool from Toshiba company. In addition, there are test piece production equipment, such as air pressure test piece cutting machine, hard test piece cutting machine, hot press molding machine, etc., which can make standard test pieces to make the test more accurate. Take Lin longer, director of Casting Department of Toshiba machinery company, Tanimura Hongming, head of the machine tool business department, and others were arrested together

the charge is that they were involved in an illegal high-tech equipment export case, and the police department believes that these two people are directly responsible for the case. The companies involved include Japan's Heguang import and export trading company, Japan's Itochu trading company, Japan's Toshiba machinery company, Norway's kongsburg trading company, etc

the investigators then obtained the export license involved from Japan's Ministry of trade and industry. The content is that Toshiba exported four tdp-70 and tdp-110 boring and milling machines to the Soviet Union's all Soviet technical machinery import and Export Co., Ltd., which are two axis CNC machine tools, mainly used to produce hydropower equipment. The equipment has not been included in the export control list compiled by "Batumi", which seems to be a legal procedure

what is "Batumi"

the official name of the so-called Batumi is "Export Control Coordination Committee". It was secretly established under the proposal of the United States in 1949. The member countries were developed countries in the Western camp at that time. The purpose of establishing this organization was to restrict member countries from exporting strategic materials and high technology to socialist countries. Because it is headquartered in Paris, it is usually referred to as the "Paris Coordinating Committee", hereinafter referred to as "Batumi"

Asahi, who first disclosed the incident in Japan

however, according to the information held by intelligence personnel, in fact, the Soviet Union did not obtain these two kinds of equipment, but four nine axis five linkage large-scale CNC propeller milling machines

it can complete the mathematical modeling and high-precision processing of complex surfaces through a set of complex and complete algorithms and accurate control system, which is very suitable for the processing of high-performance propellers required by nuclear submarines

at that time, when the control theory and technology were not so mature, not to mention in the Soviet Union, it was also a sophisticated technology in the western world

02

the noise of nuclear submarines is the heart disease of the Soviet Navy

as early as 1957, the Soviet Union launched their first nuclear powered submarine, "Lenin Communist Youth League". Subsequently, with the gradual acceleration of the construction process of the Soviet Navy, the nuclear submarine force was also developing rapidly and soon became a considerable combat force

nuclear submarines with backward technology and excessive noise have always been the heart disease of the Soviet Navy.

however, the threat of this nuclear submarine force to the navies of the United States and Western countries has been limited for a long time. The reason is very simple. Their technical performance lags behind that of the products produced in western countries at the same time. In the final analysis, the processing and manufacturing level is too poor. In particular, the noise index of Soviet submarines is always much higher than that of Western submarines

a famous example is the "alpha" class attack nuclear submarine built by the Soviet Union at that time. When it operates in Norwegian waters, the underwater acoustic oscillation caused by it can sometimes even be detected by the US Navy underwater acoustic monitoring station in Bermuda, which is located on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. At present, the relevant patents of ternary materials are mainly in the hands of Japan and South Korea

the former Soviet Union's Red Navy alpha class attack nuclear submarine

the Soviet Union realized that if it did not try to eliminate the submarine noise as soon as possible, no matter how many submarines were built, they could not escape the fate of "losing their halberds and sinking the sand" in the war

however, it is not easy to eliminate submarine noise

high precision propellers manufactured by CNC machine tools

in order to produce advanced propellers with small vortices, low noise and difficult to detect by sonar, computer-controlled high-precision processing machine tools are needed. What the Soviet Union lacked was the technical ability to process propellers

therefore, the Soviet military industry department was determined to eradicate this problem completely, and they should obtain advanced numerical control processing equipment from western countries at all costs

03

civet cat for crown prince transaction: "Toshiba incident"

in 1970, Soviet import and export trade officials tried to negotiate with Italian Danieli company, hoping to buy modern CNC machine tool equipment. As a result, the Americans blocked it in every way, and this plan eventually came to naught. However, the Soviets did not give up

in 1979, Xiong Gu, director of the Moscow office of Japan's Heguang trading company, made a unique acquaintance with a Soviet friend: Osipov, deputy general manager of the all Soviet technology machinery import and Export Co., Ltd

with the help of the two, a large number of people gathered around them, such as the representatives of Norwegian kongsburg company, which specializes in providing numerical control systems, Toshiba company and Itochu trading company, which provide machining equipment

Osipov proposed that the Soviet Union now needs to import four mbp-110s nine axis five linkage CNC propeller milling machines as soon as possible, equipped with 22000 × With a 10000mm worktable and a sky high price of 3.7 billion yen, Toshiba, which was open to money, soon put the ban of "Batumi" behind its head

however, the biggest winner was the Soviets, who bought equipment that could not be measured by price

in the "Toshiba incident", a detailed list of equipment exported to the Soviet Union by Toshiba Corporation of Japan and kongsburg Corporation of Norway

first of all, Osipov's identity is not a vice president at all, but a senior agent of the KGB (the abbreviation of the Soviet National Security Council)

the supply contract signed by him and Japan clearly stated that Japan would provide four tdp-70 two axis CNC boring and milling machines to the Soviet Union, but in fact, this contract is a piece of waste paper, and its role is to deceive people

Osipov has long signed a secret supply contract with Toshiba, which is the mbp-110s CNC propeller milling machine that the Soviet Union really wants

Toshiba subsequently filed an export application with the Ministry of general industry for the export of four two axis CNC machine tools to the Soviet Union. Since the machine tool with two axis linkage is not an export controlled product, the Ministry of general industry approved it with a stroke of the pen, and Toshiba successfully obtained the export license

next, to solve the problem of numerical control devices, the Soviet Union and Norway have already signed a contract. The content is that Norway provides nc-2000 numerical control system. Nc-2000 is generally used for two axis linkage numerical control machine tools, which are also not subject to export control, just in line with the Japanese to play the trick of "civet cat for Prince". These systems were sent to Japan, and Toshiba technicians changed their wiring and rewritten the program to adapt to the nine axis five linkage machine tool

Toshiba has already sub packed the systems of the first CNC machine tool into dozens of boxes (because the weight of this machine tool is as high as more than 200 tons, and most of it is the weight of electrical equipment). In order to prevent the Japanese customs from having to open the box for inspection, kumaga opened the joint up and down alone, and showed the customs officers the export license and related documents of the so-called tdp-70 two axis boring and milling machine, which was finally exempted from opening the box

huge cranes sent large boxes onto the Soviet freighter "old Bolshevik Party member"...

a deal was thus completed

from 1982 to 1983, four mbp-110s CNC machine tools were successively transported to Leningrad, a military port in the northern Soviet Union

the CNC2000 system of Norwegian kongsburg company

was installed in the Baltic shipyard after this batch of advanced equipment arrived in the Soviet Union. In order to master the technology of numerical control machine tools as soon as possible, the Soviets and the Japanese agreed that the first two were installed by the Japanese, the Soviets were learning by the side, and the last two were installed by the Soviets themselves

at that time, the Baltic shipyard was full of lights and busy day and night. The technicians and workers of the Baltic shipyard were watching the Japanese work during the day, then recording, and then installing the other two at night. Soon all four machine tools were installed

the propeller blades processed by multi axis linkage gantry milling

this is the end of the matter. Heaven knows, you know, I know. Who would have thought that the secret soon spread

4

the first thing that feels wrong is that the U.S. Navy

has advanced numerical control processing equipment. The Soviet military industry has changed its guns, and soon produced a large number of nuclear submarines with advanced technical performance. Even the process of naval construction has been greatly accelerated because of the arrival of this batch of Japanese machine tools

in the past, it was simply too easy for the U.S. Navy to track Soviet submarines. When these low-quality submarines were sailing on the seabed, the noise was simply shouting, for fear that people would not know that it was coming, and it would be easily found 200 nautical miles away

later, Americans found that the noise of the Soviet submarines was getting lower and lower, so that sometimes their warships almost collided with each other's submarines, and the sonar did not respond (in 1986, the Soviet American nuclear submarines collided in the Strait of Gibraltar, and the reason for the accident was that the Soviet submarines were too quiet, and the American sonar was stunned, so they crashed into them), and their speed was getting faster and faster, and their navigation performance was getting higher and higher

Soviet Union