Ho Hoan Cau Company: 'King of inventions' of Nghe An

Gorise from hardship

One day in early April, we were present at the manufacturing workshop of Ho Hoan Cau Company Limited. Looking at the rows of certificates of merit and certificates of innovation hanging all over the room, it further proves the assertion that this is the “king” of useful innovations in the field of people’s livelihood, helping farmers escape poverty.

Mr. Ho Van Hoan - Director of Ho Hoan Cau Company Limited said that exactly 30 years ago, in 1991, after a period of struggling to learn and work at mechanical facilities, he decided to return to his hometown Quynh Van to open the Hoan Cau mechanical workshop. Initially, his mechanical workshop specialized in producing stoves, charcoal stoves and traditional agricultural tools. During this process, Mr. Hoan both researched and created useful products to serve farmers.

In 2014, Mr. Ho Van Hoan was honored to receive a gift from President Truong Tan Sang for his inventions that brought practical benefits to farmers. Photo: NVCC

The first famous product of Hoan Cau mechanical workshop was a set of cast iron stove trivets, which saved 40% of fuel when cooking, produced in 1993. This product later won the second prize at the Nghe An Scientific Innovation Conference in 2000, from which Mr. Hoan became the "King of the Kitchen", with tens of thousands of stove trivets sold nationwide and to neighboring countries. At the same time, Hoan Cau mechanical workshop also invented many types of machines such as: clay tile pressing machine, roof splitting machine, tobacco cutting machine, banana cutting machine, vegetable chopping machine... products that helped farmers save time, reduce labor and contribute to expanding production and improving life at that time.

In 2006, Mr. Hoan decided to upgrade his mechanical workshop to Ho Hoan Cau Company Limited, expand production, recruit more qualified human resources and actively innovate and create new useful products.

From the unburnt brick molding machine produced in 2005, through many improvements, the production line has developed from manual to fully automatic, with a capacity of 20,000 bricks/shift. The brick machine line won the first prize in the 2017 Nghe An Province Science and Technology Competition and was granted an exclusive patent by the Vietnam Intellectual Property Office.

Some of the Company's patents. Photo: Tien Dong

With the motto "Devoted to customers, constantly improving product and service quality", Ho Hoan Cau Company Limited has expanded its product portfolio and completed the construction machinery ecosystem into 6 product lines with 15 main products, becoming a typical manufacturer of non-burnt materials nationwide as voted by the Ministry of Construction and the Ministry of Science and Technology in 2019.

Up to now, Ho Hoan Cau Company Limited has owned 6 pioneering core technologies recognized exclusively by the Intellectual Property Office such as: Non-fired brick molding machine technology; Terrazzo brick machine technology with rotating tray; Hydraulic brick pressing technology and petrified soil technology in Leho brick machine; Automatic steel belt bending machine technology; Invention of self-locking brick production line - the first invention in Vietnam.

A machine parts manufacturing line is installed at Ho Hoan Cau Company Limited. Photo: Tien Loc

MakeCreate a machine to separate fibers from pandan leaves and banana stemsVietnam's first

After 30 years of establishment, 15 years of development into Ho Hoan Cau Company Limited, up to now, the products invented by the company have brought practical benefits to people's lives, closely linked to the labor production practices of people across the country, with the advantages of bringing high economic efficiency, easy operation, and good costs for businesses. The unburnt brick production line alone has been trusted by more than 15,000 customers in 63 provinces and cities and exported to 8 countries around the world.

In 2017, Ho Hoan Cau Company Limited was selected by the World Bank to implement an innovative project to respond to climate change in Vietnam. The completed project created 2,600 new jobs, reduced millions of tons of emissions, and saved more than 1,000 hectares of agricultural clay nationwide.

Recently, the company's young engineers have successfully manufactured a machine to separate fibers from pandan leaves and banana stems, and were granted an exclusive patent by the Intellectual Property Office and registered for industrial design protection.

The first pineapple and banana fiber separator in Vietnam has just been successfully invented by young engineer Ho Xuan Vinh. Photo: Tien Loc

In reality, Quynh Luu has a large pineapple growing area, but people can only harvest cotton but cannot utilize the leaves and roots. Therefore, I have been wondering how to help farmers utilize waste from pineapple and other fibrous plants. After a period of research, Mr. Vinh has successfully created a machine to separate fibers from pineapple peels and banana stems. Thanks to this machine, people can crush pineapple leaves or banana stems into fibers to sell to facilities that produce handbags, jute bags, etc.

Engineer Ho Xuan Vinh - Deputy Director of the company, the second son of Mr. Ho Van Hoan, graduated from Hanoi University of Science and Technology, who plays a very important role in inventing the company's exclusive products, shared

With its great contributions to the field of people's livelihood, for many years in a row, Ho Hoan Cau Company Limited has been awarded many certificates of merit by authorities at all levels. Currently, the company has nearly 70 employees who are guaranteed regular jobs, fully participating in social insurance with an average income of 8-12 million VND.

Banana stems after being processed into fibers. Photo: T.D

With tireless efforts, Mr. Ho Van Hoan and Ho Hoan Cau Company Limited were honored to receive a Certificate of Merit from the Prime Minister twice, and in 2014, President Truong Tan Sang presented a gift for his inventions that helped farmers escape poverty and become rich. In particular, on the occasion of the company's 15th anniversary in 2021, Mr. Ho Van Hoan was awarded the Third Class Labor Medal by President Nguyen Phu Trong for his outstanding achievements in highly effective inventions and innovations, contributing to the construction of socialism and national defense.