WeiBeam Hosts Molybdenum Electrode Skills Competition to Sharpen the Frontline Craft Team

In late May 2026, the annual employee skills competition, jointly organized by the company's labor union and production department, came to a successful close. This year's events were built around the core processes of molybdenum electrode production, spanning four categories: powder metallurgy forming, high-temperature sintering, precision machining and finished-product inspection. They drew entries from staff in production, quality inspection and equipment roles, making it one of the company's largest on-the-job training exercises in recent years.

Events closely tied to real production

Unlike a purely theoretical assessment, every task in this competition was taken from real work scenarios. The forming group tested operators' ability to adjust press parameters and judge green compact density uniformity; the sintering group focused on the discipline of setting furnace temperature curves and controlling protective atmosphere; the machining group scored electrode dimensional accuracy and surface quality; and the inspection group required participants to complete density, hardness and microstructure analysis and judgment within a set time. The whole format mirrors daily operations closely, so it genuinely reflects hands-on capability.

Training through competition, with learning before and after

In the run-up to the competition, each process team organized two months of on-the-job training and preliminary rounds, with senior technicians acting as coaches, systematically passing on years of accumulated operating know-how and ways to handle common quality problems to younger employees. During the finals, senior inspectors from the quality department judged on site and commented on each deviation, and many participants said this targeted review was more direct and effective than conventional training.

• Forming group: press compacts under standard process conditions, scored mainly on green compact density uniformity and appearance quality;
• Sintering group: independently set the heating curve and shut down the furnace, with sintered density and metallographic structure as core assessment items;
• Machining group: machine a batch of molybdenum electrode parts to drawing, with dimensional tolerance and surface roughness scored together;
• Inspection group: identify defects in sample electrodes and issue a preliminary analysis opinion, testing overall judgment.

Accumulated craftsmanship supports product consistency

Stable electrode performance depends heavily on operating discipline in every process step and every role. The competition selected champions in several trades and skilled operators, and the company will fold the winners' techniques into role-specific work instructions and gradually roll them out across all production processes. Using the skills competition as a spur, the company will keep improving routine training and assessment so that talent development keeps pace with business growth, ensuring that every electrode delivered to glass, ceramic fiber, glass fiber and rare earth smelting customers maintains consistent quality. The organizing committee also arranged for each process team to hold on-site reviews against the competition standards, checking operating techniques item by item. Many process leaders remarked that electrode production does not depend on earth-shattering daily innovation but on the steady repetition of standard actions. Only when craftsmanship habits are built do electrode life and melting performance have a reliable source. The company will make the skills competition an annual fixture and gradually extend it to equipment maintenance and warehouse roles, making lifelong learning the team norm.