Fortive Instruments Seizes the Innovation High Ground to Achieve Leapfrog Development

by testchamber4 on 2012-02-09 10:18:21

Furnai Instruments Seizes the Innovation High Ground to Achieve Leapfrog Development

Introduction: Recently, during an interview with Shandong Yantai Furnai Instrument Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Furnai), I learned that although the company is a young enterprise that has only recently entered the instrument equipment industry, it has quickly established its brand image in three fields: food safety and environmental testing instruments, biotechnology, and environmental governance due to its commitment to developing and producing high-tech analytical instruments with independent intellectual property rights.

The solvent-free high-efficiency extraction instrument has obtained two national invention patents and is at the world's leading level. It is mainly used for sample pretreatment in the analysis of trace organic pollutants, pesticide residues, and drug residues in food, environment, and traditional Chinese medicine samples. The mobile laboratory for food safety monitoring is the result of a major special project of the Ministry of Science and Technology, which can detect toxic and harmful substances such as veterinary drug residues, food additives, illegal additives, pathogenic microorganisms, heavy metals, and trace elements...

Recently, during an interview with Shandong Yantai Furnai Instrument Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Furnai), I learned that although the company is a young enterprise that has only recently entered the instrument equipment industry, it has quickly established its brand image in three fields: food safety and environmental testing instruments, biotechnology, and environmental governance due to its commitment to developing and producing high-tech analytical instruments with independent intellectual property rights.

The self-innovation capability of scientific instrument equipment and the improvement of self-equipment levels are strong supports for scientific and technological innovation and important foundations for serving economic and social development. According to relevant statistical data, in 2010, imported brands accounted for 60% of China's total sales of scientific instruments. Due to insufficient domestic investment and relatively backward technology research and development levels, domestic products mainly linger at the low end, and large-scale cutting-edge scientific instruments are mainly monopolized by foreign large enterprises. The industrial model of promoting product application through principle research to drive market sales has yet to be formed.

For China's instrument industry to compete with foreign large enterprises, it must emphasize technical investment. In this context, Furnai invested 20 million yuan in 2009 to establish a joint R&D center with the Yantai Coastal Zone Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The center set up photonic laboratories, chromatographic analysis and sample processing laboratories, electrochemical laboratories, and instrument application and evaluation laboratories. The director of the center is Dr. Chen Lingxin, a member of the "Hundred Talents Program" of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. This center boasts a powerful R&D team including scientists from the "Hundred Talents Program" of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, researchers, doctors, and masters. It owns experimental instruments and equipment worth over 100 million yuan, including nuclear magnetic resonance, electron microscopy, laser Raman spectrometers, etc., and has the ability to conduct product R&D in areas such as photonics, chromatography, and electrochemistry. Dr. Chen Lingxin introduced that the joint R&D center is responsible for research from principle studies to prototype assembly, providing foundational support for final instrument development. Furnai is responsible for production from prototypes to mass production.

This cooperative model between enterprises and scientific research institutes not only provides convenience for scientific research work and accelerates the transformation of results but also lays the foundation for applying for national-level major projects. After just a few years of development, Furnai's analytical instrument industry has obtained five national invention patents, applied for five patents, achieved two national new products, won one third prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, and received the national, provincial, and municipal science and technology innovation funds six times. These achievements have laid a solid foundation for the company's long-term development in the analytical instrument industry.

Currently, Furnai already possesses more than ten varieties of products for various types of food safety detection and environmental analysis. Among them, the solvent-free high-efficiency extraction instrument has mastered independent intellectual property rights, complies with EU standards, and has advantages of lower manufacturing and usage costs. The instrument integrates miniature solid-state adsorption extraction technology and new thermal desorption technology. The high-temperature resistance index of the extraction stationary phase exceeds that of the SBSE extraction stationary phase produced by Germany's Gerstel Company (the company owns a world patent and is the sole producer of SBSE products internationally). The thermal desorber is also on par with Germany's Gerstel Company products. The thermal desorption technology developed by Furnai uses a "three-combined technique" of "one-step heating desorption components passing through quartz capillary tubes for direct transmission retention interval column band focusing," which focuses a spectrum band spanning 5 minutes when entering the chromatographic analysis column. This eliminates the need for secondary cold traps and directly connects the desorption chamber with the chromatographic inlet liner, bypassing foreign patent technologies. Compared with Germany's Gerstel Company products, performance is equivalent, but the structure is significantly simplified, and costs are drastically reduced. Therefore, Furnai becomes China's first and the world's second company to own mature solid-phase microextraction and thermal desorption technology.

The mobile laboratory for food safety monitoring has already obtained seven authorized invention patents and utility model patents. During the Songhua River water pollution incident in 2005, the mobile laboratory conducted real-time detection as the pollution moved, providing the local government with the fastest and most accurate monitoring data to offer timely technical support for government decision-making. In 2008, after the Wenchuan earthquake, the mobile laboratory arrived at the disaster area within 28 hours to conduct on-site food detection, ensuring the drinking water and food safety of the disaster victims. In 2011, at the China Agricultural Product Safety Conference held in Weifang, Shandong, the mobile laboratory demonstrated multiple detection capabilities and results to foreign ambassadors stationed in China.

The national "12th Five-Year Plan" for science and technology development released in July this year proposed vigorously fostering and developing strategic emerging industries to promote industrial structure upgrading and accelerate the transformation of economic development methods. With strong national policy support, the scientific instrument equipment industry will also welcome a spring of development. Academician Shi Erwei of the Chinese Academy of Sciences once stated that Furnai built a bridge between science and the market, transforming scientific and technological achievements into social outcomes, achieving mutual promotion and advancement, and pushing products to the market to better serve society and humanity. Chairman Zhao Juncai of Furnai expressed that the company will closely follow the national "12th Five-Year Plan" development plan, strive to achieve breakthroughs, seize the high ground of scientific and technological innovation, make scientific and technological achievements quickly serve society, benefit humanity, and aim to achieve greater leapfrog development during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period.

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