China Vitae

Biography

Tao Hengxian, male, Han nationality, is a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province. He was born in Tianjin and graduated from the Institute of Technology of Tongji University in 1939.

Tao is a mechanical engineering expert who served as a senior engineer for the National Bureau of Machinery Industry. During the first five-year plan in China, he assisted with the research and development planning of machinery required by 156 engineering constructions. He is credited with proposing the need to emphasize independently designed electromechanical products and pushing for the greater use of the scientific method in product design, trial production, and appraisal.

Tao is also noted for advocating the three phases program of product design: technical task book, technical design, and work diagram design. He later popularized the application of finite element methods and value projects and contributed to the development of non-destructive testing technology and friction technology.

He was elected as an academician to the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1955.