Who molded the 80,000 seats in Bird's Nest? (PN China Blog

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Who molded the 80,000 seats in Bird's Nest?

The answer is Nanjing Jinling Plastic & Petrochemical Co. Ltd., located in Nanjing, the capital city of Eastern China's Jiangsu province.

Nanjing Jinling was founded in 1955, became a subsidiary of Sinopec, China's largest petrochemical company, in 1982 and was merged into Jiangsu GPRO Group Co. Ltd. in 2004. It appears that Nanjing Jinling still has close ties with Sinopec -- the official sponsor of the seats.

The seats were blow molded out of polypropylene and feature two colors -- "China Red" and "Great Wall Grey," Sinopec said in a release. Engineers at Nanjing Jinling said the color names were coined by "national leaders in Beijing" with no detailed description, and it took the company months to develop the specific shades, hues and tints.

The PP material is highly flame-retardant with an SDR below 50 and is UV-resistant -- the color will not fade for at least three years. What will happen when the color starts to fade? The manufacturer noted that the seats can be easily recycled.

Nanjing Jinling recently revealed the timeline of the project to a regional newspaper, Jiangsu Fazhi:

December 2005: Nanjing Jinling received product requirements from the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad (BOCGO) and started the product development process, with an emphasis on ergonomic design.

August 2007: The BOCGO approved the design and prototype.

October 1, 2007: The company completed the molding of 80,000 seats in less than two months and started installing.

January 26, 2008: All 80,000 seats were installed, and the project was completed.

Photo courtesy of Nanjing Jinling

Posted by Nina Ying Sun on August 19, 2008 11:12 AM | Permalink

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COMMENTS (4)

Arvind Ghode:

Excellent project management and execution as well. Real China style.

Any idea what were the pigments used especially for the "China Red". We as pigment manufacturers would be interested in knowing that.

Thank you

Arvind Ghode

Posted by Arvind Ghode | August 20, 2008 12:15 AM

Nina:

That's a very good question, Arvind. And I happen to have the answer. The pigments, light-stablizers and flame-retardant additives were all supplied by Ciba Specialty Chemicals AG. I was told that tons of material was air-expressed from Germany to Ciba's technical center in Shanghai, and the testing was done at their Swiss headquarters. Ciba is likely to be involved in projects for the Shanghai World Expo in 2010.

I have to say: just like how China's economy wouldn't be where it is today without international trade and foreign direct investment, the Beijing Olympics wouldn't have been as fabulous without resources from around the globe. That's why they say: globalization is like gravity. You can't escape it.

Posted by Nina | August 20, 2008 5:19 PM

Ben Pickering:

Hello,

My client is in composites wind energy and
needs a G.M. that speaks Mandarin to run their
plant in China. Very attractive base,bonus
housing,driver and car plus equity.
Please send your resume to contact info below.

Ben Pickering, Recruiter
MANAGEMENT RECRUITERS
OF TALLAHASSEE, FL INC.
743 E Tennessee Street
Tallahassee, FL 32308
(850) 219-3050 voice
(850) 942-2793 fax
ben@mrrecruiter.com
www.mrrecruiter.com

MRINetwork
EXPERTS IN GLOBAL SEARCH

Serving the Plastics Industry for over 20 years

http://www.linkedin.com/pub/6/255/957

Posted by Ben Pickering | August 25, 2008 7:43 AM

Nina:

Good luck with your talent search, Ben. It'd help to recruit from on the ground as well, as overseas Chinese managers are not always willing to relocate back to China. Just fyi, the most popular and useful job hunting Web sites in China include www.chinahr.com, www.zhaopin.com and www.51job.com.

Posted by Nina | August 28, 2008 12:10 PM