Lately the List of the Thirteenth Ningbo Top 10 Outstanding Youths was released, and Yan Qiuping, Project Manager of Ningbo Sinyuan Industrial Co., Ltd. in Jiangbei, is on the List.

When we first met Yan Qiuping, she was coming back to her office from the workshop, simple dressed and with no make-up, but quite capable and experienced.

When reminded that she had won the honor of being one of the Ningbo Top 10 Outstanding Youths, Yan Qiuping smiled and said: “This is an affirmation of my team making space seal components, striving to realize the "Chinese Dream". I am only a member of the team who have the honor of being affirmed.”

When talking about the space seal components, Yan Qiuping has a lot to say. December 15, 2013 is a day of great importance and significance to her. Very late that night, there came the good news from the mission of Chang’e III of the China's lunar exploration project: the cross beat imaging of the lander and the inspector of Chang’e III had been smoothly finished, manifesting the great success of the second phase of China's lunar exploration project. At that moment, she was extremely proud: “The space seal components, produced by our company, is on that carrier rocket!”

Sinyuan began to engage in space flight and aviation in 2008 when the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology entrusted Sinyuan to develop graphite seal rings for rocket engines. Yan Qiuping, graduated from Mechatronics Major, Biological System Engineering, Zhejiang University and then Project Director and Manager of the Quality Management Department, led the technician team of Sinyuan to set off on this arduous "way of flying to the sky".

Yan Qiuping said that quality is the life of space products, and that aerospace seals must not have a glimmer of defects, otherwise the consequences will be unthinkable. In the case of the tolerance of the a sealing ring, the acceptable tolerance zone of common civil graphite seals is 0.3 millimeters, while the aerospace sector requires only 0.1 millimeters of tolerance, and its various properties should bear "zero defects".

Meanwhile, flexible graphite is supposed to be used not only at the low temperature 196℃ below zero but at the high temperature above 600℃. When the temperature exceeds 600℃, there will be a series of problems with ordinary graphite. Therefore, ensuring and prolonging the service life of the product and strengthening their performance have become another difficulty we had to overcome.

Due to the fact that there were no previous successful cases to follow and that Sinyuan was not allowed to make any mistake for the smooth development of the space industrial technology, Yan Qiuping even had no time and mood for eating and sleep for a successive of many weeks. In the daytime, she and her team made experiments and at night she would refer to as many relevant books and materials as possible both online and in libraries. For many months, she and her team dedicated all their time and energy to overcoming difficulties and exploration of innovations. They had carried out hundreds of experiments on every material and competitive research and development and experiment on the formula, technique of and mold for every material. The team modified the technical data over and over again to ensure the safety and reliability of the product. Finally, the graphite product developed by Sinyuan met the requirements of the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology and successfully applied for the launch and lift of the T1 carrier rocket of "Long March II F”.

In 5 years’ time, Yan Qiuping and her team has made Sinyuan a leading company in many regions, such as aerospace, ground and space and the only enterprise that provides flexible graphite sealing components for aerospace application in China due to its products innovation and world-leading quality.

In recent years, Yan Qiuping and her team have won the first China Manned Rendezvous and Docking "Tiangong I", "Shenzhou IX" and "Long March II F" Development Supporting Contribution Award and Yan Qiuping herself has won many honors of municipal, provincial and national “5.1 Women’s Pacesetter” and “5.1 Labor Medal”.