The midfield battle of China's printer industry: the first fully autonomous A3 copier was launched

36 Krypton

2024-05-18 18:00Posted on the official account of Beijing 36Kr

There is no suspense that China's total automobile exports have topped the world.

In the UK, the BYD ATTO3 model was named the best electric vehicle of the year in 2023, and in Spain, Brazil, Rwanda and other countries and regions, Chinese new energy vehicles such as Great Wall and Geely are also sought after.

At this time, it has been more than 100 years since Mercedes-Benz, which was born in the early 1900s, which is known as the world's first car brand. Fortunately, after stepping through a technical threshold, China has walked out of a perfect curve overtaking road in the new energy vehicle industry, and the completeness of the industrial chain can be said to be the world's leading, including the production and supply network of traditional automobile parts, as well as the supply and supporting service system of batteries, electronic control, electric drive systems, software, and battery recycling.

In the printer industry, the latest news is that the leading domestic printer brand, PANTUM, has successfully developed a new A3 copier, marking the complete realization of China's printer industry. Pantum is to China's printer industry, just as BYD is to China's automobile industry, filling the last gap in the high-end development of China's printers, and also injecting new vitality into the independent development of China's printing industry.

From 40 to 14 years, what is the A3 copier?

As a technology-intensive printer industry, the technical barriers may be deeper and harder, and its particularity and technology intensity are no less than those of automobile manufacturing, integrating key technologies such as laser imaging, microelectronics, fine chemicals, precision automatic control and precision machinery. Although the development of China's manufacturing industry is the foundation, it has taken more than 40 years to break down this barrier.

In the 1970s, the American company Xerox developed the first laser printer, and more than ten years later, Japanese companies tore open this hole, and the printer represented by Canon rose. In order to monopolize the market, the United States and Japanese printer manufacturers have jointly built a high wall of more than 200,000 technology patents, and through the blockade of technology, patents, talents and supply chains, the road to breakthrough in the printer industry has been completely locked. If Chinese enterprises want to develop, they have already been "stuck" before they take a step.

In fact, as early as 1965, the relevant state departments set up a photocopier technology research institute in Tianjin, and began the research and development and manufacturing of photocopiers and consumables, but the road to breaking the situation is very difficult. For a long time, the domestic adoption of the "market for technology" method, only printer manufacturers from the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain such as consumables began to enter the game, constantly expand the boundary, and strengthen the technical capabilities of independent research and development.

The first to break through was Pantum in Zhuhai. In 2010, after more than 3 years of research and development, Pantum successfully released the first A4 laser printer with complete core technology and intellectual property rights in China in the Great Hall of the People. This is not only Pantum, but also the lonely breakthrough of China's printing industry, looking back at the future, this field has been monopolized by foreign countries for more than 40 years.

Compared with black and white printing, the color imaging engine is more difficult, it is composed of CMYK four colors of toner superimposed synthesis, the accuracy error of the superposition position is required to be controlled within 0.08 mm, the processing accuracy of parts, assembly accuracy and the control accuracy of paper movement in the printing process are all accurate. In order to ensure that the color of the image printed by the user in various environments is consistent throughout the life cycle of the printer, more than 600 parameters need to be adjusted in this process alone.

If we compare it to the marathon world record, every breakthrough is a challenge to the limits of human beings. The birth of the A3 copier is under such an industrial and technological background, which is an innovation in China's printer industry and a breakthrough in world-class printer technology.

The more advanced the technology category, the more difficult it is to break through. Although the processing area of the A3 is only twice that of the A4, there are more than 2,000 more parts than the A4 alone. A3 photocopier is mainly for large and medium-sized enterprises and institutions, to meet the user's high load, high quality, high reliability, easy maintenance, low cost requirements, in the huge difference and change superposition, the required parts, imaging engines, etc., and even toner and other consumables, also need to make adjustments and adaptation, the technical logic and implementation difficulty is exponentially growing, this is a new "technical no man's land"!

It is precisely with this technological breakthrough that is difficult to describe in words, that the A3 copier is completely independent and controllable, and the breakthrough of industrial innovation has also added a "security lock" to further broaden the line of defense of information security.

It is even more difficult to break through at the top, but the pace of innovation has not slowed down. From 0 to 1 breakthrough, China's printer industry has taken more than 40 years, and from the first self-developed printer to today's A3 copier, only 14 years have passed.

40 years, 14 years, the stark contrast between the two figures, behind is the entire Chinese printer industry chain to work together to break the monopoly of technology, the road to breakthrough.

So far, China's printer industry chain can be called "complete", covering the industrialization technology from the core components and complete machine development of A4 and A3, black and white and color printers. "China's new energy vehicle industry ranks first in global sales" - such a highlight moment, for China's printer industry, if it was once just a dream to look up, then today finally has the possibility and realistic foundation, and has enough technical reserves and product strength.

When the moat is widened, the new round of reshuffle and change in the market pattern of the global printer market is only a matter of time and market.

The second half of the printer industry: scale and beyond

When it comes to the breakthrough of the new energy automobile industry, BYD must not be bypassed, China's communication and mobile phone industry must not be able to bypass Huawei, and China's printer industry cannot be bypassed by Pantum on the Pearl River - the common characteristics of these enterprises are that they have the most simple original intention, taking advantage of China's super-large-scale market and the comparative advantages of the whole industry chain, and decades of perseverance and technology research and development investment regardless of returns, carrying the banner of independent innovation in the industry, and stimulating the vitality and competitiveness of the entire industrial chain.

Before the launch of the first fully self-developed printer, Pantum's parent company, Ninestar, was established in 2000 and successively broke through the technical barriers in the fields of consumable chips and laser printing toner cartridges, and only then did it have the determination and confidence to move towards printer R&D and manufacturing.

R&D investment can speak for itself: in the first quarter of 2024, BYD's R&D investment accounted for about 8% of total revenue, and the total expenses were also higher than Tesla's in the same period. In the whole year of 2023, Pantum's R&D investment accounted for nearly 12% of its total revenue, which shows its determination to invest in R&D.

BYD has always been known for its large-scale investment in research and development, and in comparison, Pantum's determination is even more cost-effective. Compared with the automotive industry, the printer industry has a higher investment and a longer return cycle, and Pantum has been saddled with continuous losses for more than 10 years, and it was not until 2018 that it turned a profit for the first time. There is no way back, you can only move forward with a load, if you can't even do it, then it is more difficult for China's printer industry to break through and succeed.

Like the automotive industry, the printer is not a model of "one product to win the world", a more complete product matrix, in addition to making the industry more competitive, users also have a richer choice. At the same time, thanks to the development of China's mobile Internet, the concept of "user first, experience first" has also been integrated into industrial development and product design, injecting more advantages into the industry's corner overtaking.

The changes brought about by this user concept and potential energy are also the differentiated advantages between domestic self-developed printers and international brands. After the acquisition of Lexmark in 2016 to accelerate the development of the industry, Pantum began to establish functional cooperation with many Internet companies such as WeChat, DingTalk, Job Bang, and Quanpin to help users continuously improve their printing experience. For example, in WeChat, Pantum supports one-click printing of files in the chat box, without jumping back and forth between multiple APPs, and remote printing can also be done, and the printer at home can be controlled by mobile phones in the office. In addition, Bluetooth distribution and hotspot direct connection technology have also been developed to achieve 10-second fast network configuration, as well as more differentiated functions such as printing without network. With the comprehensive mastery of technology and the continuous improvement of product competitiveness, in 2022, PANTUM's shipments have ranked among the top three in the world and the second in the Chinese market.

Nowadays, with the release of A3, Pantum's status and leading role as the "chain master" have become more prominent, and in addition to the product matrix, it has also covered the entire printer industry chain, completing the whole industrial chain layout from parts, to printer machines, to printer management services. With the large-scale effect brought by the manufacturing, production and global sales of the whole machine, Pantum allows more potential upstream and downstream manufacturers in the industrial chain to have more opportunities to go to the market.

Just like China's auto industry, which has been practicing its internal skills for decades, once attacked, it is a lightning expansion to the global market. When the technological breakthrough and product capacity improvement is completed, the war of China's printer industry has come to this point, has come to the "halfway", the main line of the second half will be the industrial chain ecological coordination, group development and large-scale expansion. In the second half of challenging and surpassing international manufacturers, the clarion call has been officially sounded, and it is moving towards the acceleration of becoming the next "Chinese auto industry".

This change in the printer industry and the automobile industry chain is a microcosm of the current development of China's industry: enterprises are no longer alone, and not only rely on the production of OEM, low-cost goods to seize the market. On the contrary, after decades of cultivation and accumulation, and the test of the global market, the industrial chain ecology has become more vigorous, giving birth to a number of world-class brands, and international giants on the same stage PK until surpassing, and winning only takes time and patience.

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