【Haichuan Teahouse】Over three years, 11 key technologies were overcome – do you know which ones they are?

1. Core algorithms for robots: In this field, China has already made breakthroughs. Alibaba’s Ocean Base is based on open-source software and represents a financially-grade distributed relational database that was developed entirely through independent research. This database features strong data consistency, high availability, high performance, online scalability, and high compatibility, and it has become one of the key databases in China. 2. Database Management Systems: By the end of 2020, China made significant progress in the field of database management systems; it was not only removed from the list of areas facing constraints but also rose to among the world’s best in this area. On November 24, 2020, the internationally renowned research firm Gartner released the results of its 2020 Global Database Magic Quadrant assessment. As a representative of Chinese cloud service providers, Alibaba Cloud made its debut in the top tier of global databases – the LEADERS quadrant.

3. High-end bearing steel: High-end bearing steel is the type of steel used in balls, rollers, and bearing rings. Small bearings are used in **small mechanical devices and play a very important role. In the past, China was the largest production and sales base for mid-to-low-end bearings, but it had no presence in the manufacturing of high-end bearings. This also means that our country has to import high-end equipment such as high-speed trains and large aircraft from Sweden and the United States, and the main reason for this is that it is difficult for us to produce bearing materials domestically. Today, the Henan Luoyang Bearing Group is capable of manufacturing high-end bearings, which are widely used across the country and are even exported to places such as Japan and Europe. 4. High-end resistors and capacitors: At present, the development level of this sector in China is similar to that of high-end bearings; China is the main manufacturing base for mid-to-low-end capacitors and resistors worldwide. However, in the high-end sector, Japan currently holds an absolute advantage; Japanese companies such as TDK and Murata account for over half of the global market share. China is now able to manufacture these products on its own. Although the quality of products in this industry within the country varies, it has managed to get rid of the situation where it was dependent on imports; even if Japan stops supplying them, domestic products can fully serve as substitutes.

5. Microspheres: Microspheres are natural biological particles; they represent a particle dispersion system in which drugs are dispersed or adsorbed on polymer or polymeric substrates. They are generally prepared as suspensions for injection or oral use, and this technology falls within the field of pharmaceuticals – a field that has long been dominated by Japan. However, in 2019, when Suzhou Nawei in China was able to produce microspheres, it broke Japan’s technological monopoly; merely this alone allows for the saving of hundreds of billions in foreign exchange costs each year. 6. Special milling cutters: Special milling cutters are used in industrial milling processes; they are rotating tools with one or more cutting edges. Since China is a major manufacturing country, there are particularly many processing industries. However, in the field of high-end special milling tools, China has also been without such capabilities for a long time; the production of all high-precision tools had to be imported from abroad. This situation came to an end in 2019, as Foxconn’s Shenzhen-based subsidiary ST Tools developed intelligent milling tools for the repair of high-speed rail tracks, thereby breaking the foreign technological monopoly.

7. RF chips: RF chips fall under a category within the field of chips. Their function is to convert radio signal communications into specific radio signal waveforms, which are then transmitted through antennas. These chips have a wide range of applications; typical uses include animal identification chips, car anti-theft systems, access control systems, parking lot management systems, highway toll gates, automation in production lines and material management, as well as barcode scanners used in various retail industries. In the field of RF chips, several companies in China have made breakthroughs and overcome this challenge, with their products gradually entering the market. These companies are Unisoc, Unisplendour, Zhongpu Micro, and Huawei HiSilicon.

8. Main bearing of the tunneling machine: The main bearing of a shield machine is regarded as the heart of a full-face tunneling machine (shield machine). Since the tunneling machine encounters various complex strata during tunneling, its main bearings have to withstand high-speed rotation, heavy loads, and significant temperature increases. Due to its high level of technical complexity, the main bearing is the most valuable component among all the parts of a tunneling machine. For a long time, due to reasons such as complex manufacturing processes, high requirements for the properties of raw materials, and immature design theories, China has relied on imports for the main bearings used in shield machines. However, on May 10, 2020, China Railway Engineering Equipment Group Co., Ltd. announced the results of industrial tests on domestically produced main bearing reducers for shield/TBM machines, marking a significant achievement in the localization of key components for shield machines. The first domestically produced 3-meter main bearings and reducers for 6-meter-class conventional shield machines have passed the testing. New and significant progress has been made in the localization of core components for shield/TBM machines in our country, which can effectively reduce reliance on imported components. On that day, the world’s first small-radius full-face hard rock TBM for mining use (China Railway TBM No. 819) was also officially launched. Since 2014, China has received a total of over 1,000 orders for shield machines, which have been exported to 21 countries and regions including Singapore, the UAE, Italy, and France. The country has held the world’s highest market share in this field for 8 consecutive years.

9. Lithium battery diaphragms: As one of the four key materials in lithium batteries, the performance of the diaphragm determines factors such as the battery’s interfacial structure and internal resistance, thereby having a direct impact on characteristics like the battery’s capacity, cycle life, and safety performance. It has two main functions: one is to separate the positive and negative poles of the battery, preventing short circuits that can occur when the poles come into contact ； The second is to allow electrolyte ions to pass through. Between 2013 and 2020, the proportion of domestically produced lithium-ion battery separators in China rose rapidly from 40% to 93%, and it is expected that the level of domestic production for various types of separators will continue to increase in the future. Our country has made significant breakthroughs in dry-process lithium-ion battery separators, but in the field of wet-process separators, companies specializing in such separators still face limitations due to various factors such as manufacturing processes and technology, resulting in relatively low product quality; moreover, they still rely on imported production equipment. However, recently, the key technical parameters of the \"4th-generation double-sided ceramic-coated wet separator\" products manufactured by a subsidiary of China’s listed company Shuangjie Electric have reached world-class standards. This has filled the gap in domestic high-end separator products, broken the long-term monopoly of foreign technologies and products related to separators, and marked the availability of high-quality \"Chinese components\" for domestic lithium batteries, thereby enabling the substitution of imported high-end separators.

10. Underwater connectors: At present, underwater connectors have been developed by China’s company LanSuo Technology through its hermetically sealed plastic gigabit transmission components, marking a breakthrough in the creation of domestic hermetically sealed transmission components capable of operating at depths of 10,000 meters.

11. Epoxy resin: Epoxy resin is a basic material widely used in fields such as castables, solvent-free adhesives and coatings, and composite materials. China’s epoxy resin manufacturers started developing relatively late, with few companies possessing absolute advantages; as a result, the industry concentration is lower compared to that in Europe and the United States. The combined production capacity of China’s top 10 epoxy resin manufacturers accounts for 60% of China’s total production capacity, while the combined capacity of the world’s top 6 epoxy resin manufacturers already constitutes 61.8% of the global total production capacity. At present, the production technology for high-end epoxy resins has been mastered by China’s company Guangwei Composite Materials, enabling the use of military-grade carbon fiber epoxy resins.

The top 10 epoxy resin manufacturers in the world in 2020 – all American companies! https://bbs.hcbbs.com/thread-3259467-1-1.html (Source: Haichuan Chemical Industry Forum)