hello, entrepreneurs | liu jun: if you want to run a good business, you must always work hard
2024-09-04
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in just over 20 years, rilian technology has grown from scratch into an internationally advanced company. it has also solved the "bottleneck" problem of precision testing in the domestic integrated circuit and electronic manufacturing fields, and achieved independent control of china's core technology for industrial x-ray imaging detection.
"oriental outlook weekly" reporter luo xiaoyun and editor dai wenming
the core process production site of the radiation source of rilian technology
in 1895, german physicist roentgen discovered "x-rays" with extremely strong penetrating power, for which he was awarded the 1901 nobel prize in physics.
the discovery of x-rays has had a huge and far-reaching impact on the development of science and technology. in addition to assisting medical diagnosis, x-rays can also serve as "industrial doctors" to detect quality problems of materials and products, such as welding defects, whether parts have sand holes and cracks, and other problems that are difficult for the human eye to detect.
among the many detection methods in the industrial field, x-ray image detection is the most intuitive and accurate technical means, and it also reflects the advanced level and strength of the high-end equipment manufacturing industry.
more than 20 years ago, industrial x-ray imaging detection technology was monopolized by countries such as germany, the united states and japan. at that time, from the aerospace and military fields to small manufacturing companies such as smt (surface mount technology), semiconductors, and solar energy, all had to import x-ray machines at high costs.
liu jun, who works in the electronics field, decided to establish rilian technology in shenzhen in 2002 because he personally experienced the pain of being "stuck in the neck". he was determined to "manufacture china's own x-ray machine."
through continuous and unremitting efforts, rilian technology's industrial x-ray intelligent detection equipment has now reached the internationally advanced and domestically leading level, with customers in more than 70 countries and regions around the world. it has established stable cooperative relationships with global leading companies such as byd, catl, xinwangda, eve energy, amphenol, luxshare precision, and tesla.
in november 2022, rilian technology, as the "first chinese industrial x-ray stock", was unconditionally approved by the listing committee on the science and technology innovation board of the shanghai stock exchange without hearing. it was successfully listed in march 2023.
in just over 20 years, rilian technology has grown from scratch into an internationally advanced company. it has also solved the "bottleneck" problem of precision testing in the fields of integrated circuits and electronic manufacturing, and achieved independent control of china's core technology for industrial x-ray imaging detection.
looking back on this extraordinary entrepreneurial history, liu jun lamented that to run a business, one must "be able to both keep one's feet on the ground and look up to the stars."
"our goal is to become the world's leading national brand of industrial x-rays and to build a world-class x-ray core technology industry chain for china," liu jun told oriental outlook weekly.
liu jun
solve the "bottleneck"
after graduating from university in 1991, liu jun first worked as a physics teacher in a high school. in 1993, he resolutely resigned from his teaching position and went south to shenzhen to work for a foreign-funded enterprise in the field of high-end electronic manufacturing and semiconductors.
after joining the company, he studied professional technology and computer languages, and improved his english skills. he soon stood out from the team and was sent to the company's overseas headquarters to study and work. since then, he has worked in many well-known foreign companies, starting as a grassroots technician, and gradually grew into an engineer, technical manager, and then technical director, becoming a technical "big shot" in the industry.
in 2001, liu jun, who had already become the technical director, encountered an event that changed the trajectory of his life: due to the "bullying" of the american supplier, he failed to complete the task of purchasing, installing and testing the x-ray machine as scheduled.
"at that time, german, american and japanese companies had pricing 'hegemony' in this market segment. imported x-ray machines were not only ridiculously expensive, but also not available for purchase whenever one wanted. the import cycle for a set of equipment was very long," said liu jun.
in addition, if the other party's after-sales personnel are needed to debug and repair the machine, charges will begin from the time they leave the company, and the cost can be as high as us$150 per hour. "we agreed to all these harsh conditions, but after a month and a half, the overseas debugging personnel still have not arrived at the domestic site of use."
this "bottleneck" incident made liu jun determined to manufacture china's own x-ray machine and change china's backward position in the industrial x-ray imaging detection industry.
in 2002, liu jun founded rilian technology in shenzhen. at the beginning of his business, he visited more than 10 leading x-ray companies around the world for in-depth investigations and saw the huge development potential of this track.
"x-rays are like a folding fan. when you open it, they can be used for everything from aerospace to daily life, from archaeology to daily life. x-rays are both a huge industry and a sunrise industry," liu jun told outlook weekly.
more importantly, he realized the importance of mastering core technologies. therefore, despite the tight funding in the early stages of the business, liu jun and his team still insisted on investing heavily in technological research, "even if they were so poor that they had difficulty even eating."
with the support of firm belief, the first x-ray inspection equipment of rilian technology was launched in 2007. two years later, the x-ray inspection equipment of rilian technology was put into mass production.
achieving mass production is a major breakthrough. liu jun said that previously, the price of an imported x-ray machine was 2 million to 3 million yuan. after rilian technology achieved mass production, the price of an x-ray machine with the same function dropped to less than 1 million yuan per unit, saving a lot of foreign exchange for the country and enterprises.
in 2009, unilink technology wuxi company was established and built a manufacturing plant and r&d center of more than 40,000 square meters. in 2011, unilink technology chongqing company was established, further expanding unilink technology's related business in the industrial field.
at this point, liu jun has completed the company's layout in shenzhen, wuxi and chongqing: with wuxi as the headquarters, the three locations work together to fully cover the domestic market and radiate the global market.
stick to "hard technology"
in an x-ray detection instrument, the most critical core component is the "micrometer-level x-ray emission source".
this technology is extremely scarce in the world. in the past few decades, only two companies from the united states and japan have mastered this technology. overcoming this technical difficulty has become a "hard nut to crack" on the road to the complete localization of x-ray machines.
"without independently manufactured 'micron-level x-ray emission sources', it would be like an automaker not having its own engine. the entire industry chain will be 'stuck' at this key point," said liu jun.
in order to break through the "micrometer-level x-ray emission source" technology, rilian technology has specially established a basic research and development center to conduct in-depth research on the basic theories, mathematical models, materials and processes of radiation physics, and to focus on this "hard technology" with the strength of a single enterprise.
after the r&d center was established, a "three-step" plan was established: the first step was to spend one and a half years on mathematical calculations and model simulations to build a theoretical foundation; the second step was to research and select basic materials; the third step was to determine the product process - through a large number of product experiments, collect process data, and determine the know-how.
the original plan of unilink was to invest 50 million yuan in five years to achieve a breakthrough, but it took a full 10 years and nearly 200 million yuan to achieve the goal. "in china, private enterprises that invest heavily in basic physics research are rare. in this respect, unilink is an 'outlier' among chinese private enterprises," said liu jun.
among them, just the step of selecting basic materials is extremely time-consuming and labor-intensive. "if materials still rely on imports, the right to speak will still be in the hands of foreign suppliers. in order to achieve 100% domestic material substitution, we have traveled to research institutes, institutions, and suppliers across the country, carefully collected hundreds of metal materials, welding materials, ceramic materials and rare materials, and integrated them." liu jun said.
with continuous and unremitting investment and hard work, rilian technology has made a series of major breakthroughs in the core technologies of x-ray sources, such as high-purity molybdenum grid-controlled micro-hole electron guns, multi-pole electron optical focusing, micro-tip high-density electron-coated emitters, and integrated small-volume solid-state packaged high-frequency and high-voltage generators. it has finally successfully overcome the difficulty of "micro-focus x-ray source" and achieved 100% localization and 100% independent control from design, materials, processes to production equipment.
the finished product testing site of the micro-focus x-ray source of unilink technology
this achievement also fills the gap in the domestic x-ray detection industry, making rilian technology the third company in the world after american and japanese companies to possess this core technology, and has achieved independent control of the core technology of x-ray image detection in china's integrated circuit, electronic manufacturing, new energy batteries and other fields. according to the evaluation of scientific and technological achievements by the ministry of industry and information technology, it has reached the level of "internationally advanced and domestically leading".
the breakthrough in "hard technology" allowed rilian technology to be listed on the "top 100 chinese hard technology enterprise stars" list in 2021.
on march 31, 2023, rilian technology was successfully listed on the science and technology innovation board, becoming one of the few companies among more than 5,000 a-share listed companies to date that was exempted from hearings and defense.
in liu jun's view, the science and technology innovation board focuses on examining the scientific and technological innovation attributes of enterprises, especially whether the enterprises have solved the industry's pain points and "bottleneck" problems.
the core technology of precision light source mastered by unilink is often called "industrial doctor": just as doctors are familiar with the health data of patients, "industrial doctors" are familiar with the industrial health data of the country. in the context of the increasingly complex and turbulent world situation, if there is no "industrial doctor" of its own, the national industrial security is bound to be in jeopardy.
"as the guardians of national industrial security, we must do our best and never slack off," liu jun told outlook weekly.
“always have to work hard”
in the face of the booming development of china's new energy vehicle industry, rilian technology has developed the world's first large-scale integrated die-casting x-ray ai inspection equipment for new energy vehicle customers.
the so-called "integrated die-casting technology" is to highly integrate nearly a hundred automotive parts into one, and die-cast them in one go under high temperature and high pressure. its advantages are that it can reduce the number of parts, greatly reduce the number of processes, and improve production efficiency. it is regarded as a disruptive technology in the automotive field.
in the new energy vehicle factory, the integrated die-cast body is sent into a large metal box tailor-made for it by rilian technology. as the box door closes, the robotic arm equipped with an x-ray detection system keeps swinging up and down, left and right, to conduct a "comprehensive physical examination" of the integrated body.
the entire process only takes one or two minutes and no human intervention is required. through the dozens of x-rays taken, the ai algorithm can automatically determine whether the product has defects, with an accuracy rate of up to 99.9%, which is more than 20 times higher than manual efficiency.
at the tesla super factory in shanghai, the world's first integrated die-cast frame x-ray inspection system tailored for it by rilian technology is operating efficiently and stably.
in addition, shenzhen byd semiconductor factory uses rilian technology's online intelligent x-ray inspection equipment to conduct full batch inspections on automotive-grade chips. on the advanced lithium battery production line of battery giant catl, rilian technology's intelligent inspection equipment can "see through" extremely fine internal quality indicators such as the alignment of positive and negative electrodes of power lithium battery cells and the bending angle of pole pieces.
zhou li, technical director of unigroup technology, told outlook weekly that unigroup technology now has many well-known domestic and foreign corporate customers, its products are exported to more than 70 countries and regions overseas, and the company's annual sales are growing rapidly year by year.
unilink technology enterprise exhibition hall
"rilian technology will focus on 'artificial intelligence +' and 'high product added value', further extend the industrial chain from design to efficient molding applications, improve the level of intelligent integrated manufacturing, and transform to 'service-oriented intelligent manufacturing'," said zhou li.
liu jun focused on the entire testing industry and the upstream and downstream industrial chains of x-ray testing. during his research, he found that chinese companies still have many "stuck points" in the high-end equipment testing industry.
"in the future, rilian technology will develop in two dimensions: first, continue to deepen its vertical development in the field of x-ray detection, and second, expand horizontally in other detection technology fields that have synergistic effects with x-ray detection technology." liu jun said.
the significance of "vertical deepening" lies in continuing to solve the deep-seated problems and "stuck points" in the field of x-ray applications and breaking through the application restrictions in subdivided fields, such as aerospace, navigation, agriculture, archaeology, medical treatment and biomedicine. x-ray is only one of a large number of detection technologies, and "horizontal expansion" is to achieve the integrated development of multiple technologies such as ultrasonic testing, magnetic particle testing, and eddy current testing.
liu jun, who was a teacher, summarized the spirit of rilian technology into four sentences: "optimistic spirit, strong will, inextinguishable faith, and grateful attitude." among them, he particularly emphasized the attitude of "always working hard."
"the so-called specialization, precision and innovation requires companies to be patient - if you want to run a good business, you will always have to work hard," said liu jun.
