Bo Cai

Cai Bo (蔡博), born May 25, 1924, in Changsha, Hunan, came from a revolutionary family. His father was Cai Hesen, one of the early leaders of the Chinese Communist Party; his mother was Xiang Jingyu, a leader in the Chinese women’s movement. After his mother was killed when he was four and his father died when he was seven, he lived with his grandmother in Shuangfeng.

Education and early career

- 1937–1938: Studied in the second year of junior middle school at a county-run school in Xiangxiang, Hunan.

- 1939–1943: Studied at the Soviet Union’s International Children’s Home and secondary school.

- 1943–1948: Studied metallurgy, specializing in ironmaking, at the Metallurgical Department of Moscow Institute of Steel and Alloys; earned a degree as an ironmaking metallurgical engineer. During his studies he won the Stalin Scholarship and became a representative among Chinese students in the USSR.

- 1948: Graduated and returned to China in 1949 with Liu Shaoqi.

Return to China and career at Anshan

- He held several positions at Anshan Iron and Steel Company, including deputy head of the Production Department, deputy head of the Technical Department, deputy director of the Ironworks, and plant director.

- From 1953, he moved into management and production reform, supporting technical modernization and management system innovations at Anshan.

- 1959–1984: He served at the Ironmaking Research Office of the Institute of Iron and Steel Research (钢铁研究总院炼铁研究室) as deputy director and director.

- 1984–1991: He was a technical advisor at the Institute of Iron and Steel Research.

Contributions to ironmaking and steel production

- While at Anshan, he participated in or led research and testing on smelting technology for composite iron ores such as Baotou Baiyun Block Ore and the Pan Zhihua (Panzhihua) iron ore, promoted blast furnace reinforcement technology and reform of blast furnace processes, and participated in reforms of steel production management systems.

- 1953: Anshan introduced a full set of blast furnace monitoring methods and widely promoted them nationwide.

- 1955: At the National Iron and Steel Production Conference, he proposed continuously reducing the coke rate while maintaining moderate smelting strength.

- 1962: He proposed blast furnace coal injection; 1964: At Shougang, blast furnace injection tests achieved initial success.

- 1979: He helped establish a cold-state blast furnace coal-injection test facility, and conducted research on pulverized coal injection, including tandem-can feeding, distribution, and conveying, forming a parameter system for coal-injection technology in large and medium-sized blast furnaces.

Later years and legacy

- 1982: He systematically summarized the development history of China’s blast-furnace reinforcement technology and authored Thirty Years of Ironmaking Research at the Ironmaking Research Institute, which received affirmation from Marshal Nie Rongzhen.

- 1984 onward: He continued as a technical advisor, participating in technical demonstrations and experiments for projects such as Baosteel, and proposed the idea of a large coastal steel base built on a “port–plant integration” model.

- Cai Bo died in Beijing on September 18, 1991, of heart disease, at the age of 67.

Family

- Cai Bo was one of four children born to Cai Hesen and Xiang Jingyu. His siblings were Cai Ni, Cai Zhuan, and Cai Lin.

The above information is compiled from publicly available historical sources.