On March 15, namely, the International Day for Protecting Consumers' Rights and Interests, the government paid a high-profile attention and intervened in a network report from a netizen, which elicited a great deal of public feeling. Eight days later, those “qualified” cables in Xi’an Subway Line 3 were identified as “unqualified”. It is a matter of rejoicing to Xi’an people over potential quality hazard of Electric cables in Xi’an Subway Line 3 efficiently eliminated. In addition, we should express our gratitude to Xi'an Municipal People's Government.
Inspection Results on Electric Cables in Xi'an Subway Witness a Great Change
On July 27, 2016, “Testing and Inspection Station for Cable & Wire (TICW)” issued an authoritative inspection report, saying that cables used in Xi’an Subway Line 3 are all qualified. These cables were supplied by Shaanxi Aokai Cables Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Aokai Cables”). According to the public information, this test was entrusted by Xi'an Metro Limited Liability Company (hereinafter referred to as “Xi’an Metro”), with personnel in charge of sampling as Shang Jianliang (Post ID: C14366), personnel in charge of sample sending as Xin Yanping and eyewitness for sampling and sample sending as Liu Yuejin (Post ID: 20113973). There were four inspection reports in total, with report number as CT16-4468-1 (WDZBN-YJE23-0.6/1 4*25+1*16), CT16-4468-2 (WDZB-YJE23-0.6/1 3*50+2*25), CT16-4469 (WDZBN-KYJEP23-450/750 16*1.5) and CT16-4470 (WDZBN-RYJYSP-450/750 2*1.5). Besides, Yang Lizhi, Zhu Yonghua and Mao Axing respectively acted as chief tester, auditor and approver in this test.
On November 8, 2016, Xi’an Subway Line 3 was officially put into operation.
On March 13, 2017, a netizen reported that Aokai Cables supplied substandard cables to the Xi’an Subway Line 3, and all production indexes were not in conformity with subway construction standards. Besides, he exposed that Xi’an Quality and Technical Supervision Bureau had carried on sampling inspection on cables used in Subway Line 3 for several times during the installation of cables, and all these cables were unqualified according to inspection results. However, Wang Zhiwei, principal of Aokai Cables Manufacturing Plant, offered a bribe to relevant personnel of Xi’an Quality and Technical Supervision Bureau more than once through personal connection, on condition that unqualified inspection results should be modified. In addition, Aokai Cables was allowed to continuously supply cables for the whole line.
On March 15, 2017, Aokai Cables published four inspection reports issued by TICW on its official website to qualify its cables, and reported a case to the authority for tracing the legal liability of informer.
On March 16, 2017, Xi'an Municipal People's Government established a joint investigation team responsible for examination, inspection, retesting and verification of involved cables supplied by Aokai Cables. The team randomly sampled five kinds of cables from Shijiajie, Xianghuwan and Bonded Zone stations along Subway Line 3 and sent to the national authorized body for retesting.
On March 20, 2017, Xi'an Municipal People's Government held a press conference to notify that five cable samples were all unqualified based on retesting results, and all cables supplied by Aokai Cables were required to be replaced.
On March 21, 2017, Wang Zhiwei, the legal representative of Aokai Cables confessed their supplied cables were shoddy and below grade and made an apology to Xi’an citizens. According to Wang Zhiwei, Aokai Cables obtained the order at a low price during the bid inviting of Subway Line 3, and reduced the manufacturing cost for certain profit regardless of qualified standard. This batch of cables constituted more than 20 types and more than 40 specifications, with total cost of over RMB 40 million, among which substandard cables accounted over RMB 30 million.
Whether the Concerned National Authorized Inspection Bodies are Involved in the “Qualified Problem Cables” Case or Not Attracts Widespread Attention
Surely, Xi’an Metro indeed attaches importance to the quality of cable products. In this case, it entrusted the national authorized body to test and inspect those cables sampled from construction site, and put all details related to sampling and sample sending on record for future reference.
The author has verified the authenticity of the four inspection reports Aokai Cables published on its official website through inspection report inquiry system of TICW (http://www.ticw.com.cn/Default.aspx). Perhaps, this was the reason that Xi’an Subway Line 3 project was approved and Aokai Cables had the nerve to report a case to the authority.
As the saying goes: black is black, white is white. There are probably three reasons behind this “qualified” problem cables, namely, all samples were qualified, samples were stealthily substituted by qualified ones and the national authorized body took bribe for cheating.
Now, parties involved publically admitted that above last two reasons could explain the problem cables which were identified qualified before. The author noticed that, Quality Supervision and Test Center for Electrical Material and Special Wire and Cable, subordinate to Shanghai Electric Cable Research Institute together with TICW, was criticized and punished by General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of the People’s Republic of China because of business violation in 2016. Besides, a netizen has reported that “Aokai Cables offeres a bribe to relevant personnel of Xi’an Quality and Technical Supervision Bureau more than once through personal connection to modify the inspection results”. The author believed that relevant details would emerge soon as investigations later proved.
Whether the concerned TICW is involved in the “qualified problem cables” case or not drew widespread attention of the cable industry.
Why Problem Wires and Cables are Identified as Qualified Ones during Inspection? Let’s Hear What Experts Say!
Metro safety is of great importance about human life, allowing no room for any errors. While, as a key element to the power and signal transmission of metro system, wires and cables have a direct bearing on metro’s operational safety. As ordinary wires and cables will generate harmful gas when catching on fire, low-smoke and halogen-free cables are commonly chosen for metro with dense population.
Seeing that quality of wires and cables are of such significance, how to strictly ensure quality control in avoidance of potential problem cables? Let us hear wires and cables quality regulatory expert’s opinions.
“Such three procedures are crucial to quality control, namely, inspection item, sampling and sample sending.” Zhang Yanmin, Director of Production Standardization Department of Dianlan.cn, told the author. As a third professional party in the cable industry, servicer providing technical and price consulting and expert in inspection of incoming merchandise and quality regulation, Dianlan.cn has been entrusted and assisted many cable procurement users of key projects in manufacturing supervision and inspection of wires and cables in recent years. Adhering to the idea of “be faithful to users”, Dianlan.cn has accumulated plenty of experiences and lessons over dealing with suppliers and inspection bodies.
Firstly, inspection item shall be properly determined according to features of project. There are a number of inspection items for a kind of wire or cable, but it is unnecessary to take a full performance test due to time consumption, manpower cost and relatively high cost. In general, some major items are chosen for testing and inspection to verify the product performance according to features of project or device. Of course, professionalism plays an important role in proper choice of inspection items. However, existing report and relevant data indicate that low-smoke and halogen-free characteristics of cables used in Xi’an Subway Line 3 have not been included in the inspection scope, which shows the choice of inspection items is unprofessional. Besides, aging performance of wires or cables shall be inspected, as Aokai Cables had produced cables with unqualified aging performance which directly influenced the normal operating life of cables and wires. According to product quality supervision results for years, unqualified projects due to aging wires and cables account the majority.
Secondly, field sampling and random sampling are necessary. Sampling plan shall be prepared in advance based on chosen items and redundant length of wires or cables. Then, wires or cables with suitable length shall be cut out on site and also be randomly sampled. Meanwhile, sealed sample and evidence obtaining shall also be implemented. Random sampling is designed to effectively prevent samples being changed and avoid the collusion between supplier and inspection body.
Thirdly, sample sending and selection of inspection body are of equal importance. It is suggested to select those national authorized credit-worthy inspection bodies. As required, it is suggest taking three samples form a product and sending two of them to different inspection bodies for testing with another one remained after being randomly sampled. In case of completely different inspection results for two samples, the remained one can be retested.
At present, massive overcapacity of domestic wires and cables and fierce competition in the industry lead to common dishonest and illegal phenomena, such as low overall quality level, jerry-build problem and counterfeiting and sales of counterfeit goods. Therefore, the effective measure of prevention problem wires and cables applied in major projects is to perfect the product quality control system in key fields and at key links. “To establish and perfect the product quality control system of owners and construction units in key fields, especially key projects and large-scale purchasing departments. Lay emphasis on quality credit and safety assurance ability of enterprises, and encourage owners to implement the model of third party inspection and manufacturing supervision of key products.” In 2011, six departments, including General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and China Electricity Council, jointly issued the Guidance on Promoting Electric Wire and Cable Products Quality Improvement (GZJJL No.585 [2011]), indicating the direction of quality control.
“Inspection bodies shall give full play to their professional capacities to assist owners in quality control of wire and cable products and users in improvement of quality and efficiency, thereby forging the excellent projects and ensuring safety in production as well as completely eradicating “qualified” problem wires and cables. This not only attains the result with half effort but also is in line with national guiding ideas.” Zhang Yanmin finally said.
