CHAPTER 01 — 1985

It Started With a Scholarship.

In 1985, Mr. Zhu, a young man from Li’bao, Hai’an, became one of the first students from this small town to receive a government-funded university education. He studied engineering at Xi’an University of Technology — one of China’s oldest polytechnic institutions.

To understand what that meant in 1985 China: the country had over one billion people. Across the entire nation — from Beijing to the smallest provincial college — there were only 1.7 million university students.

After graduation, he joined a state-owned machinery factory in his hometown as a technical manager. The “iron rice bowl” — a job for life, guaranteed by the state. But when China’s reform and opening-up swept through manufacturing, he saw something his state-owned employer couldn’t offer: the freedom to build machines his own way, to his own standards. So he left. Founded Nantong Dawei Machine Tool Co., Ltd. in 2001.

Li’bao was already a center of sheet metal equipment manufacturing — a town that knew metal forming. Mr. Zhu believed it deserved machines built by engineers who grew up there, understood the craft, and refused to cut corners. He was right.

Zhu Lei — Founder & Chief Engineer

CHAPTER 02 — LIVERPOOL

Then Came the Son. From Liverpool, With a Different Kind of Know-How.

The founder’s son grew up in this factory. He graduated from Hai’an Senior High School, then left for the United Kingdom to study Electrical Engineering and Automation at the University of Liverpool, a member of the prestigious Russell Group.

He came back with something his father’s generation didn’t have: a global engineering perspective on how manufacturing should work. He understood that a traditional press brake factory — built on experience, intuition, and the craft of skilled machinists — had to transform. So he built it from scratch.

He established the SolidWorks 3D full-model design system — every machine is now digitally engineered before a single steel plate is cut. He built a digital parts archive — recording every screw grade, every torque value, every wiring layout, so a customer anywhere in the world can order a replacement part by drawing number alone.

CHAPTER 03 — DIGITAL FIRST

Every Machine Is Designed Twice. Once in Steel. First in 3D.

Before a single steel plate enters our factory, the entire machine exists as a complete 3D model in SolidWorks. But the model is only the beginning.

Every serial number we ship leaves with a full engineering package: complete design files, torque values, screw grades, wiring layouts — your machine’s digital twin, for life.