Private enterprises are an important force in promoting economic and social development and a key link in improving the stability and competitiveness of the industrial and supply chains. In the first quarter, 2.039 million new private enterprises were established across the country, a year-on-year increase of 10.7%; as of the end of March, registered private enterprises accounted for 92.3% of the total number of enterprises. To stimulate the vitality of the private economy, we must encourage and attract more private enterprises to participate in the construction of key industrial and supply chains, and make greater contributions to building a new development pattern and promoting high-quality development.
In the construction of a modern industrial system supported by the real economy, how big is the role of private enterprises, how many achievements have they made, and are they strong? The reporter approached a new display industry chain to find out the answer.
Demand guides the development of production equipment
In recent years, my country's new display industry has accelerated and reached a new level. The annual production capacity of display panels has reached 200 million square meters, and the industry scale has ranked first in the world. In the field of flexible AMOLED (active matrix organic light-emitting diodes), Visionox Technology Co., Ltd.’s product innovation iterations continue to accelerate. In 2022, the industry's first "flexible AMOLED pocket roll projection screen" will be launched. A "highlighter pen" unfolds into a 12.3-inch peripheral display.
Cleaning, developing, etching, stripping... In the sixth-generation AMOLED production line array section of Visionox's Hefei factory, a 1.85-meter-long, 1.5-meter-wide, 0.5-mm-thick glass carrier is slowly passing through domestic display wet process equipment to complete complex processing procedures.
"The wet process is a manufacturing process that uses chemical liquids and is widely used in the manufacturing process of display panels. The AMOLED wet process requires a cleanliness level of sub-micron level. Simply put, the cleaning process is equivalent to using a water gun to remove foreign matter the size of a hair on a football field, and the stripping process is equivalent to using organic solvents in Beijing. "Remove pea-sized residues from objects the size of Daxing International Airport," Jiang Xin, founder and general manager of Suzhou Jingzhou Equipment Technology Co., Ltd., said that the number of equipment required for the wet process accounts for more than half of the AMOLED production line. Before the successful application of the equipment independently developed by Jingzhou, the vast majority of wet process equipment was produced by Japanese and Korean companies.
“Thanks to the planned and step-by-step strong support from leading companies to domestic equipment suppliers, we have achieved a breakthrough in domestic display wet process equipment.” Jiang Xin said that with Visionox’s demand guidance and technical support, Jingzhou, which once focused on wet process equipment in the photovoltaic industry, realized the localization of OLED (organic light-emitting diode) 2.5 generation line etching and stripping equipment for the first time in 2012. Since then, AMOLED 6th generation line wet process equipment has been delivered and successfully applied in Visionox in 2020.
After more than 10 years of independent research and development, Jingzhou has grown into a major domestic provider of display wet process equipment, including cleaning, developing, etching, stripping and other equipment. It has delivered multiple new display production lines in batches, and has the capacity to deliver 10.5-generation lines in mass production. Its customers include mainstream domestic display panel manufacturers such as Visionox, BOE, and CSOT.
"In the latest expansion project of Visionox's Hefei factory, the 12 pieces of equipment for the etching, stripping, and cleaning processes all use Jingzhou products for the first time." Jiang Xin said that the company is concentrating its research and development efforts on glue (coating) process equipment, "striving to achieve a breakthrough within 2-3 years, and then realize the localization of the entire series of equipment for the display wet process."
Process innovation makes up for the shortcomings of the industry
The realization of independent controllability of production equipment is the result of leading enterprises cooperating with upstream manufacturers to promote the localization of equipment. The realization of domestic substitution of sealing glue is a new breakthrough for large, medium and small private enterprises to integrate innovation and make up for the shortcomings in the new display field.
"OLED packaging is to isolate the organic light-emitting layer from the environment to prevent damage from water, oxygen, dust and external forces to help stabilize device parameters and increase device life." Wu Chaoxin, founder and chairman of Xi'an Simowei New Materials Co., Ltd., introduced that mainstream thin film packaging technology requires depositing sealing glue on the OLED device through an inkjet printer. Domestic monthly consumption of small and medium-sized OLED sealing glue is 16,000 liters, with annual market sales of nearly 5 billion yuan. Previously, the global sealing glue market was dominated by a foreign company.
In order to achieve domestic substitution, Visionox found Wu Chaoxin, a professor at Xi'an Jiaotong University who has been involved in the fields of new optoelectronic materials and devices, and flexible electronics for many years. In 2017, relying on the R&D team of Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an Simowei New Materials Co., Ltd. was established.
After the project was established, the R&D personnel of both parties launched a comprehensive cooperation to conduct in-depth research on the principles of film packaging, the aging mechanism of OLED devices, and the printing process requirements of packaging equipment. They opened up the entire chain process from scientific principles and technical research to product development and industrial application. In early 2019, they developed a film sealing glue that meets the characteristics of high light transmission, low shrinkage, and high barrier.
A breakthrough in research and development is just a small step towards domestic substitution. The next online test is the most difficult threshold to cross.
"After all, it is a brand-new product. It takes courage for leading companies to give up the usual sealing glue. For Simowei, the cost of one test is also very high." Wu Chaoxin said that Visionox not only agreed to put the new product on line for testing, reducing the cost of each test, but also helped apply for financial support for local new display projects. After a full year of testing and adjustments, in September 2020, Simowei sealing glue achieved phased results, and the company also successfully completed financing and built a production line. Today, domestic sealing glue that meets the requirements for flexible OLED packaging and testing has been introduced in batches.
Enterprise collaboration improves industry ecology
Currently, my country has formed leading competitiveness in the field of LCD (liquid crystal display), with a global market share of more than 70%. In the field of OLED, domestic enterprises have mastered core technologies and are expanding into technological innovation areas such as high refresh rates and pixel arrangements. New generation display technologies such as microdisplay, printed display, and laser display are also catching up.
As a private enterprise, Visionox also actively plays the main role of corporate scientific and technological innovation, insisting on independent innovation from basic research to pilot testing to large-scale mass production; through the integration and innovation of the industrial chain, it collaborates with upstream enterprises to continue to promote the localization of materials and equipment, and realize domestic substitution in key links. Although there are many achievements, the company's chief operating officer Xu Fengying still said: "The situation of upstream equipment and materials being controlled by others still exists. It is urgent for the upper, middle and lower reaches of the industrial chain, as well as large and medium-sized enterprises to integrate innovation, make up for the shortcomings of equipment and materials, and forge the long boards of the industry."
The security and stability of the industrial chain supply chain is the basis for building a new development pattern. The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stated that it is necessary to strengthen collaborative innovation in the industrial chain, strengthen application traction and complete machine driving, encourage leading enterprises in the industrial chain to form innovation consortiums, and strive to overcome "stuck neck" technologies and products. In the ten years since the new era, the number of private enterprises has more than quadrupled, accounting for more than 80% of national-level specialized and new "little giant" enterprises. The entry threshold for the top 500 private enterprises has been continuously raised... Large, medium and small private enterprises have become not only the "new force" to make up for shortcomings in the industrial chain, but also the "main force" to forge long plates.
Take this new display industry chain as an example. Leading private companies such as Visionox not only continue to promote their own technological innovation with high R&D investment, but also form an innovation consortium based on the industrial chain, actively open up technology, markets, talents and other resources to mid- and downstream small and medium-sized enterprises, and strengthen technological research and production verification. Cooperation; while private small and medium-sized enterprises represented by Jingzhou and Simowei focus on their main business, work intensively, and break the foreign technology monopoly on related products through technological innovation. They use small accessories to contain high technology and support large-scale supporting equipment on a small scale. The new display industry has formed an industry ecosystem in which large and medium-sized enterprises work closely together and develop integratedly.
With the construction of multiple large-scale AMOLED production lines, Visionox has raised the modernization level of the industrial chain and supply chain to the company's highest goal. "Upstream and downstream enterprises work together to create more space. We need to open up resources, create space, accelerate the introduction of localization, and build an industrial chain with innovation traction capabilities, supply security capabilities, and cost competitiveness." Xu Fengying said.
ANNA