More than 300 invention patents are filed annually, driving the positive development of SMEs through technological innovation

Publication Time:

2021-07-23 00:00

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Innovation is the primary driving force for development and a strategic support for building a modernized economic system. In recent years, to further strengthen the status of SMEs as the main body of technological innovation and continuously improve their technological innovation capabilities and core competitiveness, Hunan has launched the "Zero-to-Exponential Growth" action for SME technological innovation and implemented the "100 Major Product Innovation Projects," guiding SMEs in technological innovation, intellectual property construction, and industry-academia-research cooperation to overcome key core technologies, making contributions to national industrial chain and supply chain security, and becoming an important force in building a science and technology innovation highland with core competitiveness.
Clinical routine specimen microscopy replaces 90% of manual workload
Twenty years ago, the examination of tangible pathological components in urine, feces, blood, and other body fluids in Chinese hospitals relied on manual microscopic examination. This often required manual pretreatment of specimens, manual smear preparation, slide mounting, microscope adjustment, and manual identification and counting—a cumbersome process. There were many drawbacks, including low efficiency, easy contamination, potential for missed or misdiagnosis, and a lack of standardization.

Ding Jianwen, founder of Aiwei Technology, who worked in the hospital's inspection department at the time, resolutely decided to initiate research and development of automated microscopic examination technology for clinical medicine, aiming to use original technology to launch an efficiency revolution.
Zhou Fengliang, vice general manager of Aiwei Technology Co., Ltd., introduced that, for example, in urine testing, with traditional methods, an experienced technician could only test about six samples per hour. "Not only is the efficiency low, but the accuracy completely depends on the doctor, and there are also risks such as biological contamination."
In March 2000, Aiwei Technology was born, solving the pain points of manual microscopy by using intelligent control to replace manual operation, machine vision to replace human eyes, and intelligent identification to replace the human brain, achieving full automation of specimen processing from sample submission to the output of test reports. This filled a technological gap in the field of automated morphological testing of medical microscopes, representing original innovation in terms of technical routes, methods, and levels.
In 2002, Aiwei Technology successfully developed the first generation of intelligent and automated urine sediment microscopy product—the "AVE-761 Urine Sediment Intelligent Analyzer." It has now been iterated to the fourth generation.
More accurate and efficient, Aiwei Technology has used modern technology to change the history of clinical medical microscopic examination, which mainly relied on manual microscopy, effectively improving the testing efficiency of relevant clinical specimens. Zhou Fengliang introduced, "Now, AVE automated microscopy instruments can complete 90% of the workload of routine clinical specimen microscopy. Manual work only needs to review the results provided by the instrument before issuing a confirmed report, and can provide morphological data analysis that is difficult to achieve manually. For urine formed element analyzers, a single machine (three-way) can test 60-120 samples/hour, with a comprehensive identification and counting accuracy deviation ≤5%."
By the end of 2020, the company's AVE-76 series urine formed element analyzers had accumulated more than 6,400 units installed domestically and internationally, covering users nationwide; and the AVE-75 series fully automatic urine dry chemistry analyzers had accumulated more than 3,200 units installed domestically and internationally.
R&D investment accounts for more than 10% of sales revenue
After a long period of clinical specimen accumulation, image acquisition, and recognition software modeling, Aiwei Technology's automated product line has become increasingly full.

Currently, Aiwei Technology has developed a series of medical testing instruments for fully automated urine, feces, reproductive tract secretions, body fluids, and blood based on original medical microscopic automated microscopy technology, filling many international and domestic technological gaps. The company also independently develops and produces reagents and medical consumables that are compatible with testing instruments. Products are widely used in various medical and health institution testing departments. Among them, the company's testing instruments have accumulated more than 10,000 units installed domestically and internationally, with terminal installations in more than 4,000 hospitals nationwide.
“The company's annual R&D investment accounts for no less than 10% of sales revenue.” Zhou Fengliang introduced that the company attaches great importance to R&D, with R&D personnel growing from more than 10 people at the company's inception to more than 100 people. Incentive policies such as one-time rewards for patent inventors, writers, and managers are provided.
To date, the company has applied for a total of 281 patents, including 127 invention patents and 14 PCT applications, with a total of 193 authorized and valid patents, including 64 authorized domestic invention patents and 8 authorized foreign patents (3 US patents, 2 Russian patents, 2 Turkish patents, and 1 Japanese patent). It has received nearly 300 honors and qualifications.
"Continuously innovate to meet diverse medical service needs." Zhou Fengliang stated that continuous R&D innovation and product development will extend the application areas of innovative achievements from large and medium-sized hospitals to primary medical and health institutions and the home medical market, achieving "allowing the people to enjoy modern medical services."
664 enterprises achieve invention patent "breakthrough"
Technological innovation is the key to the high-quality development of SMEs specializing in "specialization, refinement, and novelty." To further strengthen the status of SMEs as the main body of technological innovation and continuously improve their technological innovation capabilities and core competitiveness, Hunan launched the three-year action plan for SME technological innovation "breakthrough and exponential growth" in 2020, achieving a breakthrough in invention patents for more than 300 SMEs each year, promoting a batch of "small giant" enterprises to make up for shortcomings in key core technologies in key areas, and enabling products to gain a foothold in international and domestic markets.
Hunan Jinwei New Materials Technology Co., Ltd., after 10 years of continuous trial and error, finally broke the monopoly of core technology that lasted for half a century, becoming the third company in the world to master the precise and complex forming of steel.
"Steel has poor fluidity and a high melting point. After many experiments, we made steel flow at room temperature, and through precise calculations of nearly 500G of data, we achieved steel flow forming." Xie Binquan, chairman of Hunan Jinwei New Materials Technology Co., Ltd., said that our independently developed production equipment has an accuracy of 2mm and a price of 25,000 yuan/ton, which is far lower than the price of European export steel profiles.
It is understood that the company is a high-tech enterprise engaged in the research, development, and manufacturing of fine and complex steel profiles and steel profile doors and windows, with more than 700 national patents.
Currently, a total of 2,356 enterprises in the province have achieved invention patent "breakthrough and exponential growth," of which 664 enterprises have achieved invention patent "breakthrough." "Breakthrough" enterprises have added 1,356 invention patent applications, 894 newly authorized invention patents, achieving invention patent product sales of 10.63 billion yuan, invention patent product profits of 1.076 billion yuan, and an increase of 887 million yuan in R&D investment. 4,352 patent agency operation service institutions in the province provided professional services for 4,352 enterprises, helping 362 enterprises successfully achieve invention patent "breakthroughs."
Xiaoxiang Morning Post reporter Chen Zhangshu, intern Deng Shengxi, Changsha report