Recently, Shanghai Chaoqun Testing Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Chaoqun Testing") completed nearly 200 million yuan of financing, including Zhongxin Capital, Tianxing Capital, Jiusong Fanxing, Guangyun Fund, 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.
Founded in 2001 in Songjiang, Shanghai, Chaoqun Testing 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, 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, and in the medical field, the purchase volume of our products is rising, and we are one of the world's six largest CT tube manufacturers, and we have our products in many airports, hospitals and other places around the world. Tang Zhihong, chairman of Chaoqun Detection, said.
01
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 generating device, 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 CT. Due to the extremely high technical threshold, only a few manufacturers supply CT tubes, especially high-end CT tubes with large heat capacity, all over the world. GE Healthcare, Philips, Siemens Healthineers, Canon and other established manufacturers in the imaging industry have their own self-developed tubes that match their own complete machines, and in the field of alternative tubes, for many years, Philips' Dangli and Varion's independent Varion two major manufacturers have been "competing for supremacy".
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 supply chain security and rising costs.
如今,CT球管明显以5.3MHU为拐点分为两个档次:中𱣼个档次:中𱣼𱤂档次:中𱣼𱣼两个档次:中𱣼个档次:丢端球管,如2MHU、3.5MHU、4MHU、5.3MHU;中高端球管,如6.3MHU、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 "have-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 used to be only MCS-8064 and Dangli's REEVO240G from the international manufacturer Varex.
Until 2022, the new domestic high-end CT tube force Cronos Medical Devices (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Cronos") took the lead in mass production of the 8MHU tube product AU200 C40 and was approved by the State Food and Drug Administration, becoming a game-breaker in domestic CT tubes.
Pictured: Chronos 8MHU tube
Chrono is a wholly owned subsidiary of SuperTest, one of the world's leading independent manufacturers of CT tubes. The predecessor of its Shanghai factory is 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 the blueprint of Shanghai Chaoqun in the field of medical CT tubes be further expanded.
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 bulk internationally.
02
5 products were approved for marketing in 8 years
Where does the confidence come from?
With the approval of AU200 C40, the CT tube production line covering 2.0 MHU, 3.5 MHU, 6.3 MHU and 8.0 MHU heat capacity has been further expanded, and 5 CT tube products have been approved for marketing within 8 years.
Figure: 5 CT tube products
Five CT tube products have been approved for marketing in a short period of time, where does Chronos have the confidence?
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 assets, equipment and team of Dangli, the pioneer of CT replacement tube business, one of the world's earliest X-ray tube manufacturers, and the world's top imaging solution provider, located in Aurora, Chicago, USA, and then continued to provide CT machine manufacturers with customized development, professional design and mass manufacturing overall solutions around the world. In addition to OEM customization, Koronos also offers high-quality replacement tubes such as the 2.0 MHU DA135, 3.5 MYU DA165, 6.3 MHU AU200, and 8.0 MHU AU240. 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 strong 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 Testing 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 its strong scientific research and mass production capabilities, Crown has become one of the world's three independent manufacturers of CT tubes.
Figure: Superior detection business area
03
The quality is rising
The market has entered an explosive period
At present, the mainland CT equipment industry is in a rapid development trend. It is reported that the total sales volume of China's CT market reached 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 11.0%.
In terms of ownership, the per capita ownership of CT equipment in mainland 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 14.2%.
Figure: China's CT equipment market size and forecast from 2015 to 2030
It is expected that with the increase in the aging population and the number of chronic diseases in the mainland, the implementation of the hierarchical diagnosis and treatment policy, and the acceleration of the construction of primary medical care, the continuous growth of the mainland CT equipment market will also be promoted, 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 also 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 dose on the one hand, and on the other hand, they need to achieve longer life and lower cost. 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, Kornos 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.