Promoting the digital transformation of the mold industry
It was learned that “Leading Technology” today announced the completion of a tens of millions of A round of financing. This round of financing is led by Lanchi Ventures, and the funds raised will be mainly used for the development of 3D printing powder materials, printing equipment core components, and the production capacity expansion of the printing service center.
Founded in 2019, “Leading Technology” is a mold 3D printing application solution provider dedicated to the deep industrial application of 3D printing technology in the mold industry. At present, the company has established a metal material and process research and development team, and has established professional-level laboratories for metallographic analysis, composition analysis, and mechanical properties, and has successfully developed a variety of 3D printing processes and materials.
Mold insert products with internal conformal cooling water channels (provided by “Leader Technology”)
The mold industry is a basic upstream industry in contemporary manufacturing. It is known as the “mother of industry”. About 80% of the world’s parts and components are produced through molds. According to statistics from the China Die & Mould Industry Association, the total output value of China’s mold industry in 2019 exceeded 270 billion yuan, and there were about 30,000 mold manufacturing companies nationwide with more than 1 million employees. This led to the total output value of downstream parts and components exceeding 3 trillion yuan. Although China’s mold industry is huge, it faces problems such as backward manufacturing level, small and scattered scale, and high dependence on labor. The operation efficiency of the entire mold industry chain is not high. As the upstream area of the industrial chain, the insufficient delivery capacity of “from mold to product” has dragged down the efficiency of China’s overall industrial production.
Faced with the above-mentioned problems, the team of “Leading Technology” believes that 3D printing technology can bring quality and efficiency improvements to the mold industry, and promote the digital transformation of the entire mold industry.
Different from the traditional subtractive manufacturing (turning, milling, milling) and equivalent manufacturing (forging and casting) technology, 3D printing is a more advanced additive manufacturing technology. Its core advantage lies in the ability to manufacture complex internal structures and External styling; it can manufacture products of different structures and different quantities in batches at the same time, that is, mass customization; it can realize the shortest path from design to manufacture, which is a true digital manufacturing technology. Taking the service case of “Leading Technology” as an example, in the new face cream bottle packaging injection mold of an internationally renowned cosmetics company, after replacing the traditional mold with a 3D printing mold, the injection molding production efficiency has increased by about 42%, and the yield rate has increased by about 11%, the input-output ratio of 3D printing molds is about 1:5, which brings considerable economic benefits to users.
In terms of areas of focus, Zhang Guoliang, founder and CEO of “Leader Technology”, said that the company currently focuses on injection molds, which account for 45% of the mold market, and will expand its business in the field of die casting molds in the future. In terms of sub-industries, the company currently focuses on five areas: auto parts, 3C consumer electronics, medical consumables, daily necessities and cosmetics packaging, and home appliances.
In terms of cost of use, through process innovation and material innovation, “Laura Technology” has reduced the cost of using 3D printing molds to 50% of the industry average three years ago, and will maintain 10-20% annually in the next few years The decline. According to Zhang Guoliang, this reduction in the use cost depends on the reduction of the company’s manufacturing costs, and the reduction in manufacturing costs is mainly due to the fact that “Leader Technology” has achieved full autonomy and localization of 3D printing materials through 8 years of hard work. Innovations in printing technology have improved printing efficiency. In the future, the company will steadily reduce the cost of using the client while reducing manufacturing costs, thereby increasing user usage while maintaining a stable overall gross profit margin.
Due to the excellent performance and cost-effectiveness of the product, the 3D printing molds of “Leading Technology” have been widely used in well-known companies in many industries. In the 3C industry, the 3D printing molds of “Laser Technology” have entered the molding industry chain of Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi and OV; in the daily chemical industry, it has entered the product packaging molding industry chain of L’Oreal, Lancome, Estee Lauder, and P&G; The industry has entered the medical consumables molding industry chain of Philips and Mindray Medical; in the automotive and home appliance industries, it has also provided 3D printing injection mold applications for some products of users such as BMW and Aux.
According to the introduction, “Leading Technology” achieved a revenue growth of about ten times in 2020 compared to 2019; currently there are nearly 50 customers served, of which 15 are the top customers in the sub-industry.
Talking about the development plan for 2021, Zhang Guoliang said that the company will package the company’s equipment, materials and processes to form an integrated solution “printing center” on the basis of existing printing manufacturing services, and begin to help customers build their own 3D printing manufacturing center, and obtain a new source of income by providing consumables and technical services. At the same time, the company will continue to increase market penetration in print manufacturing services, expand top customers, and increase investment in new materials, customized equipment and software development. It is expected that in 2021, “Leader Technology” will achieve a 4-5 times performance growth.
In terms of judging the industry development trend and competition pattern, Zhang Guoliang said that he began to explore the application of 3D printing technology in the mold industry in 2012. The main competition in the market in the past eight years has not come from peers, but with Competition between traditional manufacturing technologies in the mold industry. After eight years of verification of the application of 3D printing technology in the mold industry, the market’s risk acceptance, value recognition and cost reduction have been initially completed. It is expected that the next five years will enter a golden period of rapid increase in 3D printing technology penetration. And at this stage,Competition in the industry will come more from peers. The core advantage of “Leader Technology” lies in its in-depth understanding of the needs and product characteristics of the subdivisions it focuses on, as well as more targeted R&D innovation based on understanding. Generally speaking, it is to use market understanding in exchange for better technology, and use better technology to win more market shares.
In addition, in the future, “Leading Technology” plans to cover the 3D printing software business at the upstream mold design side after solving the three major manufacturing problems of equipment, materials, and processes, and to carry out key research on the 3D printing smart factory operation system to solve The design problems, operation problems and delivery problems of mold companies improve the efficiency of the entire industrial production supply chain.
In terms of the founding team, Zhang Guoliang, the founder and CEO of “Leading Technology”, graduated from Renmin University of China and Fudan University, and has many years of experience in manufacturing business operations and management; co-founder and CTO Yu Pengchao graduated from leading domestic majors Majored in Metal Materials from Central South University. He once held core technology R&D and management positions in internationally renowned steel companies and Swedish well-known 3D printing material technology companies. He has rich practical experience in metal powder bed fusion (PBF) 3D printing process.