High-end equipment manufacturing industries have high technological barriers and strong driving power, are prone to forming industrial clusters, and can significantly enhance the core competitiveness of a country or region. Therefore, high-end equipment industries have become a must-contend area for all countries and regions.** Countries around the world have elevated the development of core technologies in high-end equipment industries to the core level of national development strategies, successively introduced various related supportive policies and measures, and encouraged the upgrading of their own manufacturing industries in order to gain an advantageous position in the new round of industrial revolutions and ensure their place in the global value chain division.
Among the country's series of policies, photonics manufacturing technology is listed as a key direction for development.** As a pioneer in domestic high-end photonic manufacturing equipment, the Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has focused on the major strategic needs of the country, taken the lead in conducting research on photonics manufacturing technology, and achieved important progress and outstanding results in core components and equipment integration. Under the guidance of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' reform of the system and mechanism for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, it has integrated scientific research with industry and embarked on an innovative industrial path of integrated development of "talent + technology + finance + market," achieving a breakthrough from 0 to 1 in photonics manufacturing technology and equipment.
In 2014, targeting the industry challenges of precision processing of aero-engine blades and combustion chamber film cooling holes, the institute first developed in the country a five-axis femtosecond laser micro-hole processing engineering prototype suitable for small parts such as engine blades and a six-axis picosecond laser cluster hole processing engineering prototype suitable for large parts such as engine combustion chambers, and successfully applied and verified them at a host plant of Aero-Engine Corporation of China.** "Based on the previous achievements, in March 2015, we established an industrialization company, Xi'an Zhongke Weijing Photonics Manufacturing Technology Co., Ltd., which is committed to the industrialization of high-end laser manufacturing equipment," said Xie Xiaoping, deputy director of the Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
In 2016, the Chinese Academy of Sciences established the Hongguang Special Project, which mainly focuses on the major needs of the country and the main battlefield of the national economy, and targets major strategic technologies and products that have achieved breakthroughs and have a strong leading and driving role.** The Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Zhongke Weijing have jointly undertaken the Hongguang Special Project and the Science and Technology Service Network Plan (STS Plan). The "Extreme Fine Manufacturing Equipment for Aero-Engines and Spacecraft" project, which they led, was successfully selected as a Hongguang Special Project in 2017.
The project targets the efficient and ultra-fine manufacturing requirements of the new generation of blades in the aerospace field and the manufacturing bottlenecks that need to be solved.** On the basis of modular, standardized, reliable, and stable design improvements, it has improved the performance of ultrafast lasers and ultrafast laser micro-processing equipment. It has developed a series of femtosecond laser high-end precision manufacturing equipment ranging from three to seven axes. It has built five pilot production lines for core components and series of equipment and successfully promoted their application in more than 70 representative units in the industry, including Aero-Engine Corporation of China and China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation. It has solved the "neck-bottleneck" problem of precision manufacturing of complex microstructures of three-dimensional components in engine development and has propelled the independent research and development process of China's engines.
"We have relied on the Songshan Lake Materials Laboratory to build the first domestic demonstration line for the photonic automated processing of turbine blade cooling holes, realizing adaptive (intelligent) femtosecond laser extreme manufacturing. We are accelerating the expansion of this technology and equipment to the civilian field and providing comprehensive solutions for the ultra-fine cold processing of complex components in the fields of aviation, aerospace, and electronics," said Yang Xiaojun, chairman and general manager of Zhongke Weijing. "We are dedicated to the development and production of femtosecond laser high-end equipment. We have achieved nearly 100% revenue growth for five consecutive years and have launched plans for listing on the Science and Technology Innovation Board. So far, the Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has incubated six high-tech companies in the field of photonics manufacturing with a strong development momentum. The achievements of the photonics manufacturing industry first benefit from the advanced concept of 'demolishing walls and opening the institute' for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and the innovative ecosystem of 'research institutions + angel investment + entrepreneurial platforms + incubation services' in the Xiguang Model. It encourages researchers to step out of the walls, combine with the market and society, and start businesses. The talent dual-cross mechanism is implemented to maximize the release of researchers' innovation and entrepreneurship vitality. It also provides comprehensive support in training, venue, and funding investment to eliminate the worries of researchers and fully engage them in the transformation of scientific and technological achievements, promoting the rapid transformation of scientific and technological achievements into productive forces."
Taking the establishment and development of Zhongke Weijing as an example, as the proprietary technology of the Photonics Manufacturing Center of the Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the first step in transforming achievements is to solve the problems of "people" and "money." The institute adheres to the innovative concept of "open institute" and allows nearly 10 people from the Photonics Manufacturing Center team to "double cross" and start a business. On one hand, they retain their positions and labor relations in the institute, and on the other hand, they serve as the core backbone of the company, truly realizing personnel mobility, which has played a decisive role in the subsequent development of Zhongke Weijing. Zhongke Innovation Star, as a professional hard-tech investment and incubation platform, invested 5 million yuan in seed funding at the time when the team expressed the intention to start a business. This not only boosted the entrepreneurial morale of Yang Xiaojun's team and strengthened their determination to start a business, but also avoided Zhongke Weijing falling into the "valley of death" for researchers' entrepreneurship. In the subsequent several rounds of financing for Zhongke Weijing, Zhongke Innovation Star has also helped the company find high-quality investors to solve the problem of difficult corporate financing.
"Just as Xie Xiaoping said, 'The entrepreneurial ecosystem of the Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has provided fertile soil for the cultivation and growth of technology companies.'"
In the future, the photonics manufacturing industry of the Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences will continue to focus on the "neck-bottleneck" problems of precision manufacturing in major national strategic projects and the main battlefield of the national economy under the overall planning of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It will adopt a development strategy of "making up for shortcomings and expanding the frontier," jointly build the CAS Photonics Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory with local governments, fully bridge the gap between scientific research and industry, build an accelerator for the photonics hard-tech industry, and become the engine for the incubation of the photonics manufacturing industry. (Photos provided by the Xi'an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences)
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