Scottish Steam prints China's Cash

Category: General
Published: 19/03/2015

Cochran were recently visited by a delegation from Bank of China’s RMB Printworks to inspect their boilers, prior to shipment to Chengdu in the heart of China. Renminbi (RMB) is the Chinese currency.

The contract, worth nearly £1m, consisted of two Twin Furnace Thermax package boilers each rated at 25t/h complete with superheater and economiser; each boiler was fitted with Cochran gas fired low NOx Equinox burners. Due to the sheer physical size of the boilers (c. 4.5m diameter) they had to be broken down for transport and will be re-assembled once they arrive in Chengdu.

The Chinese were the first country to develop paper money (the word “cash” is derived from Chinese) and it has been printed in Chengdu since 1101 in the Song dynasty. The current Chengdu facility is massive and claims to print one in every two bank notes produced worldwide. It is the Chinese equivalent of the Royal Mint and also produces coins and gold bullion for the Chinese government.

Shi Wei (Vice General Manager) told us, “When we were selecting our boiler supplier one criteria was a long history of innovation and quality; we liked the fact that we were the first producers of paper money and Cochran were the inventor of the horizontal firetube boiler and have a long history and good reputation of supplying quality British built products into China. We see this as the start of a long partnership”

“When reviewing potential suppliers we had a preference for technical features of British design and manufacturing standards, Cochran were the only ones who could meet the specifications we required and also offer the necessary third party accreditation of their quality procedures”

David Branch, Territory Manager for China, said “It was good to welcome Mr Shi and his colleagues our factory and we were delighted that they were so happy with the quality of workmanship that they saw. I am looking forward to visiting Chengdu and toasting the handover of the commissioned boilers later this year. We already have our boilers in their People’s Great Hall and take great pride in the fact that, despite there being over 1500 boilermakers in China, the Chinese government continues to select Scottish product for such prestigious projects”