On December 26, 2023, an ordinary Tuesday, Sichuan Zipu Technology Co., Ltd. officially announced its establishment. The new company, invested and established by Sichuan Honghua, Chengdu Science and Technology Venture Capital and Zhengjing Zhiyuan, will be committed to the innovative research and development of domestic mass spectrometers.
The Zipu science and technology innovation team, composed of the main personnel of the R&D team of Sichuan Honghua mass spectrometer, has always adhered to the road of independent research and development of core technologies, filled the gap in the domestic market with one technology after another, and broken the monopoly of foreign industry giants with one instrument after another. From the blockade of foreign countries to the search up and down to the current breakthrough, they have not forgotten their original intentions, adhered to ingenuity, and are committed to polishing the new business card of high-end magnetic mass spectrometry China's intelligent manufacturing, and have embarked on a road of independent innovation and development with CNNC characteristics.
At the moment when the starting column turned from dark to bright, the members of the Zipu scientific and technological innovation team were filled with tears. For others it was just an ordinary Tuesday morning, but for this moment, they had been waiting for thirty years.
Explore the "No Man's Land".
Back in the 90s of the last century. Until then, the mass spectrometers used in China have been imitations and mass spectrometers introduced in the mid-seventies. As the "eye" of the process, the importance and safety of the mass spectrometer are self-evident. It has been dependent on imports, repeatedly embargoed, and looking at the country, but there is no "instrument", which makes the scientific and technological workers of the R&D team deeply aware that only by bravely entering the "no man's land" and developing our own instruments can we not be controlled by others and get out of the broad road.
As the first batch of pioneers, the road of exploration is beyond imagination, mass spectrometer research and development involves electronic circuits, precision machinery, vacuum, software engineering, automation control, ion optics and other technologies and disciplines, and only the old machine in front of us, we can only move forward in the dark, while using and exploring, keeping an eye on the latest cutting-edge technology at that time, digesting and absorbing. First of all, the computer interface was improved and the automatic data was reported, which seemed to be an understatement, but it opened the road of exploration of independent research and development of mass spectrometers. On the basis of the technology accumulated by the previous generation of scientific researchers, the R&D personnel gave full play to the advantages of operation and maintenance experience and accelerated the breakthrough - finally in the autumn of 1998, the mass spectrometer prototype developed with great difficulty was successfully built, and a prototype of the gas isotope mass spectrometer named BFQT-5 was born in the state-owned plant deep in the mountains. The scientific researchers have completely mastered the R&D and manufacturing technology of the whole machine, and have boosted the development of the professional field of mass spectrometer in China with the courage to be the first.
How to continuously improve the prototype and turn it into real productivity, everyone has started to explore unremittingly. In 2002, a business contract was formally signed with the research institute, indicating that the mass spectrometer realized its due market value through the development of the whole machine. After more than a year of hard work, the first commercial mass analyzer was successfully delivered to users, laying a solid foundation for vigorously developing the instrument market in the future. In the following ten years, scientific researchers have continuously innovated design, optimized performance, and improved the process to finalize and achieve the ability of mass production, and have developed and sold more than 40 mass spectrometers, with a sales output value of 200 million yuan, making this industry blank in the blockade and siege to "kill" a "blood road".
Break through the "patent wall".
In July 2020, in order to promote the establishment of Sichuan Zipu Technology Co., Ltd. and improve its core competitiveness, Sichuan Honghua established a mass spectrometer development department, and in April 2021, an analytical instrument R&D center integrating technology, belief and spiritual inheritance of several generations was established in Chengdu. With this initiative, three years later, on the day of its establishment, Sichuan Zipu Technology Co., Ltd. became a R&D company with a full chain of positive development, design, manufacturing, sales and maintenance capabilities of nuclear-grade commercial high-end magnetic mass spectrometers. Whether it is scientific and technological achievements, manufacturing conditions or talent team, several important conditions for it as a high-tech enterprise are now readily available.
In the Zipu Science and Technology Hall, there is a special "patent wall", and all kinds of patent certificates are densely hung on the white wall--"High Sensitivity Isotope Analysis Mass Spectrometer Ion Source", "A High-precision Mass Spectrometer Magnetic Analysis System", "Manufacturing Method of Thin Wall Cold Trap of Mass Spectrometer" ......Breakthrough and breakthrough, innovation and innovation, each certificate witnesses a "stuck neck" technology has been overcome, witnessing the incubation and landing of BFQT-5, BFQT-6, BFQT-7, G300, G900, T900, G300-C and other mass spectrometers, the analysis accuracy of the instrument is getting higher and higher, the interference is getting smaller and smaller, the system is more stable and reliable, and the operation is more convenient. In addition, the R&D personnel have also completed the nuclear energy development project and the development of high-resolution mass spectrometer, and participated in the ......completion of the special project of the Ministry of Science and Technology for the development of major national scientific instruments and equipmentThe countless design schemes and experimental data have accumulated into a monument to the ideals of mass spectrometry people, and it is their 30 years of trekking on this lonely and glorious road that has brought one miracle after another.
Polishing the "national brand".
Our R&D direction is to do what the country needs," said Lin Yuewu, general manager of Zipu Technology, who is the oldest and most experienced expert in the team at the age of 56. This time, regardless of the special physical condition of his heart and a stent, he resolutely took command and led this "scientific research iron army" composed of three generations of old, middle-aged and young people to hit the "new heights" again.
It is reported that Zipu Technology has developed special gas isotope mass spectrometer, hot surface ionization mass spectrometer, double focus high-resolution mass spectrometer, and is currently accelerating the research and development of new gas isotopes, MC-ICP mass spectrometer, these five new ultra-high sensitivity equipment, to achieve the expansion of the injection method, they can be applied to the analysis of all special materials in the nuclear industry. After the establishment of the company, while continuing to improve technology, it will continue to expand more technical application scenarios, and finally make mass spectrometry technology cut into every field of life in the future.
From 2021 to 2050, in this 30-year schedule, Zipu Technology has made scientific and detailed development plans for technological breakthroughs, instrument research and development, talent training, market expansion, etc., from meeting industry needs to expanding application scenarios, from entering overseas to global layout ......Without too much rhetoric, and unlike the overwhelming propaganda of the information age, these simple words do not speak of the analysis of the R&D people's scientific and technological self-reliance and self-improvement to serve the country, and rely on these high-tech industries. In the future, they will continue to move towards the goal of breaking through the "ceiling" of global high-precision analytical instrument R&D and manufacturing, and as they talked about when chatting with the author, "building a globally competitive 'national brand' mass spectrometer is the lifelong career and ultimate ideal of each of us." ”
The honor wall of the corridor carries the breath of history, imprinted with the traces of time, inspiring memories, and inspiring stories. Thirty years of accumulation have finally borne the fruit of the establishment of Zipu Technology Company. Standing at a new starting point and stepping into a new journey, they will continue to be the same as countless nuclear scientific research workers, not afraid of thousands of heavy mountains, fighting more and more bravely, in the huge torrent of history, cleaving the waves, moving forward bravely, becoming the main force of "China's intelligent manufacturing", empowering with science and technology, racing against time, and making this national business card more brilliant.