Recently, Shanghai Chaoqun Testing Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Chaoqun Detection") has completed nearly 200 million yuan of financing, including Zhongxin Capital, Tianxing Capital, Jiusong Fanxing, Guangyun**, etc.
It is reported that the financing funds will be mainly used for the research and development and production of new CT tube products, and continue to promote the independent innovation of new X-ray technologies and processes in industrial, medical and special application fields.
Supergroup Testing was established in 2001 in Songjiang, ShanghaiIt is a professional X-ray equipment manufacturer focusing on core components and key technologies, focusing on industrial and medical X-ray tubes, radiation sources, complete machine system manufacturing and special application fields, and its products cover electronic glass shells, X-ray tubes, X-ray sources and X-ray systems.
For example, in the industrial field, 85% of our products in the field of X-ray for security have been exported to Europe, the United States, Japan, Brazil and other countries and regions; In the medical field, the purchase volume of our products is rising, and we are one of the world's top six CT tube manufacturers, and our products are available in many airports, hospitals and other places around the world. Tang Zhihong, chairman of Chaoqun Detection, said.
More than 20 years of sharpening a sword
Strive to be a game-breaker of domestic CT tubes
The CT tube is the core component of the X-ray generator, which is equivalent to the "engine" of the CT equipment, which largely determines the performance of the equipment, and is also the most expensive "high-value consumable" in the CT. Due to the extremely high technical threshold, there are only a few manufacturers of CT tubes in the world, especially high-end CT tubes with large heat capacity. GE Healthcare, Philips, Siemens Healthineers, Canon and other established manufacturers in the imaging industry have self-developed tubes that match their own complete machines. In the field of alternative tubes, for many years, it has been the two major manufacturers of Philips and Varion, which are independent of Varian.
The domestic market has been in a situation of import monopoly for a long time, and the market share of domestic brand CT tubes is less than 5%, facing the risk of rising chain safety and costs.
Nowadays, CT tubes are noticeably rated at 53MHU is the inflection point and is divided into two grades: medium and low-end tubes, such as 2mhu, 35mhu、4mhu、5.3mhu；Mid-to-high-end tubes, such as 63mhu、7mhu、7.5mhu、8mhu。
Although the life of tubes of different brands and technologies varies greatly, the domestic CT tubes in the low-end field basically solve the problem of "whether there is or not". However, there are still technical and technological bottlenecks in the mid-to-high-end field, which cannot solve the problem of "mass production". In particular, the high-end 8MHU tube, in the past, only the MCS-8064 and the REEVO240G of the international manufacturer Varex were available.
Until 2022, the new domestic high-end CT tube force Chronos Medical Devices (Shanghai)**hereinafter referred to as "Chronos") took the lead in mass production of 8MHU tube products - AU200 C40 and obtained the approval of the State Food and Drug Administration, becoming a game-breaker in domestic CT tubes.
Pictured: Chronos 8mhu tube.
Cronos is a wholly owned subsidiary of SuperTest, one of the world's leading independent CT tube manufacturers. The predecessor of its Shanghai factory is actually the No. 9 Shanghai Medical Device Factory, which was founded in the 1970s, and is the first professional enterprise in China to produce medical X-ray insulated target tubes. The so-called "although Zhou is an old state, its life is renewed", Koronos inherits the long history and excellent craftsmanship of the original factory, and at the same time makes Shanghai Chaoqun's blueprint in the field of medical CT tubes to be further developed.
Pictured: Superior Testing Laboratory.
Up to now, Chaoqun Testing has obtained a total of 105 national patents, including 9 invention patents, 33 invention patents, 65 utility model patents and 31 design patents. At the same time, it also has a number of non-patented core technologies, covering the entire product design, structure and process flow. In 2023, the development and application project of high-performance and high-reliability X-ray light tube responsible for Chaoqun Company will be listed as one of the 19 landmark achievements of the "13th Five-Year Plan" of the Ministry of Science and Technology's major scientific instrument and equipment development project, and will be sold in batches internationally.
5 products were approved for marketing in 8 years
Where does the confidence come from?
With the approval of the AU200 C40, Koronos covers 20mhu、3.5mhu、6.3mhu、8.The CT tube production line with 0 mhu heat capacity has been further expanded, and 5 CT tube products have been successfully approved for marketing within 8 years.
Figure: 5 CT tube products.
In a short period of time, five CT tube products have been approved for marketing, where does the confidence of Chronos come from?
From the perspective of the most important domestic development, in response to the call of domestic manufacturing, Koronos set up a factory in Shanghai in 2019 and put it into operation, introducing CT tube R&D and manufacturing technology into China, forming two major production bases in Shanghai, China and Aurora, USA, realizing the localization of CT tubes in the essence of the word, and is a Chinese enterprise that truly carries out the localization, mass production and talent localization of CT tubes in China.
Pictured: Chronos Laboratories.
From the perspective of technical strength, as one of the world's earliest X-ray tube design and manufacturers, in 2018, Shanghai Chaoqun acquired the pioneer of CT replacement tube business and the world's earliest X-ray tube manufacturer.
1. The world's top imaging solution provider should set up assets, equipment and team in Aurora, Chicago, USA, and then continue to provide CT machine manufacturers with customized development, professional design and mass manufacturing overall solutions around the world. In addition to OEM customization, Crown also offers high-quality replacement tubes, such as 20mhu of daDA. of 5mhu3mhu au200, as well as 8AU240 at 0mhu. Taking DA165 as an example, although it has a warranty of 200,000 seconds, its actual service life is often more than 300,000 seconds, which is an excellent performance.
From the perspective of market development, since the sales of CT tubes in China in 2022, Koronos has occupied more than 10% of the domestic alternative tube market share within one year, and its market share has become a peak trend with the internationally renowned Dangli and Vanruishi, far ahead of other domestic counterparts, which shows its technical background in the field of CT tubes.
From the perspective of industry positioning, similar to Huawei's focus on communications and upstream and downstream fields, and becoming specialized, bigger, and stronger, Superior Detection has also taken the same route: first, it is an industry-leading manufacturer of industrial X-ray equipment, and then it has expanded its medical business segment, and with the support of Superior Detection's strong scientific research and mass production capabilities, Chronos has become one of the world's three independent manufacturers of CT tubes.
Figure: Superior detection business area.
The quality is rising
The market has entered an explosive period
At present, China's CT equipment industry is in a rapid development trend. It is reported that the total sales volume of China's CT market will reach 6,889 units in 2021, and it is expected that by 2025, the overall sales volume of CT equipment in China will reach 10,445 units, with a compound annual growth rate of 110%。
In terms of ownership, the per capita ownership of CT equipment in China still lags behind that of developed countries, and there is huge room for development. In 2021, the per capita ownership of CT equipment in China was 27 per million people, and it is expected that by 2025, the per capita ownership of CT equipment in China will increase to 46 per million people, with a compound annual growth rate of 142%。
Figure: 2015-2030 China's CT equipment market size and **.
It is expected that with the increase in China's aging population and the number of chronic diseases, the implementation of hierarchical diagnosis and treatment policies, and the acceleration of primary medical construction, it will also promote the continuous growth of China's CT equipment market, which also determines the continuous expansion of the demand for CT replacement tubes in the future, and the inevitable acceleration of the pace of domestic substitution.
At the same time, under the trend of increasingly fierce competition in the industry, the focus of competition between all parties is increasingly moving upstream. As the most expensive core component of CT equipment, CT tubes need to meet the requirements of high definition, high speed, high power, high reliability and low dosage on the one hand, and longer life and lower cost on the other hand. The improvement of the quality of CT tubes will directly promote the improvement of CT performance, and ultimately achieve the goal of reducing the cost of CT examination in medical institutions and benefiting patients.
In the context of the rising quality of the domestic CT market, Koronos has broken through a number of technical barriers, and has continuously launched cost-effective and differentiated innovative products with mature technology, which has established a good reputation in China in a short period of time. According to the company, there are still a number of products under development, which will be gradually put into the market in the future. At the same time, Koronos will also actively promote its OEM customized services to provide strong support for the high-end and industrialization of domestic medical imaging enterprises.
Pictured: Superior Testing Laboratory.
It is believed that in the future, Chaoqun Testing will continue to give full play to its own technology accumulation, continue to solve the problem of "stuck neck" of CT tubes, help domestic manufacturing, and provide strong support for the high-end and industrialization of domestic medical imaging enterprises, so that every patient can benefit.