Rebirth of the Industrial Tycoon - Vol 2 Chapter 655
Chapter 655 Sensors
Step into 2003.
In the workshop of Puppy Medical Company, the oxygen concentrator is working overtime.
Lu Guangming pointed to the production line and said, “Chairman, recently, orders for home oxygen concentrators have increased significantly. At present, the orders for home oxygen concentrators have been scheduled for next year. We are producing at full capacity.”
“How many units are there in stock?” Li Weidong asked.
“There are still more than a thousand units!” Lu Guangming said.
“Okay, I’ll take these more than 1,000 units first.” Li Weidong continued; “The 3,000 oxygen generators we donated before are definitely not enough. I heard that there have also been cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome in the north. , so these more than 1,000 oxygen generators should be donated to the capital for emergency!”
Lu Guangming hesitated for a moment, then said, “Chairman, you have to leave us 500 units. I have already promised the Jinzhou Municipal Government to leave 500 units for the local hospital.”
“That’s right, we should also take care of the local villagers and elders. Well, you keep 500 units, and I will take all the rest.” Li Weidong said and sighed again: “Unfortunately we can’t make ventilators , if you can make a ventilator, it will definitely help a lot.”
“The ventilator thing is still somewhat technically difficult. If we want to do it, without three or five years of research and development, I’m afraid we won’t be able to do it.” Lu Guangming said.
The research and development of ventilator technology in China started relatively late. Although domestic companies were able to produce ventilators at that time, the technology was relatively backward, limited to old-fashioned bell-type positive and negative pressure ventilators and time-switching constant volume ventilators.
At that time, the United States had already begun to produce automatic pressure-regulating ventilators, turbine-operated ventilators, bi-level ventilators and other products.
So at that time, the ventilators used in domestic hospitals had to be imported.
Related technologies of ventilators are relatively mature abroad, but intellectual property rights related to ventilators, especially core intellectual property rights, are in the hands of foreigners, which limits the development of domestic ventilators.
It was not until more than ten years later that China’s ventilator research and development level and technology improved, and many patents expired, that China’s ventilator began to rise rapidly. By 2020, the United States imported China’s ventilator.
In comparison, the technical difficulty of oxygen generators is much lower, and there are not so many patent barriers, and Chinese enterprises are fully capable of producing them.
In the treatment of diseases of the respiratory system, oxygen inhalation is definitely effective. Therefore, when respiratory diseases appear on a large scale, the sales of oxygen concentrators will inevitably increase significantly, so that the supply is in short supply.
Not only many medical institutions, but those with chronic respiratory diseases also need oxygen concentrators to relieve their conditions.
So the production factory of Puppy Medical has instantly become a fragrant bun, and the order has been lined up for next year, and many people even go to the relationship to find a way to get the oxygen generator as soon as possible.
This is like going back to the 1980s, when the supply and demand of resources were unbalanced. If you want to buy something, you have to go through the back door to approve the note.
However, Li Weidong waved his hand, commercial orders were placed in the back, and he donated thousands of oxygen generators to hospitals in the south.
This wave of donations has instead made the puppy oxygen concentrator famous, and many ordinary people have begun to frantically buy puppy oxygen concentrators.
Those who haven’t experienced that time probably don’t understand that there were many people who were robbing Banlangen, white vinegar, and even liquor, because the common people believed that liquor could be disinfected. That kind of panic buying trend is even worse than the rush for masks in previous years.
Oxygen concentrator is a regular medical device, and it is indeed effective for diseases of the respiratory system, so it has naturally become the target of people’s rush to buy.
It’s just that the price of home oxygen concentrators was relatively expensive at that time, so those who went to buy oxygen concentrators were also relatively rich people.
After left the production workshop, Li Weidong came to the scientific research department again.
Lu Guangming handed an electronic blood pressure monitor to Li Weidong.
“After the unremitting efforts of our scientific research department, the electronic blood pressure monitor has finally been successfully developed. But now our production line is fully producing oxygen generators, and there is no excess capacity to produce electronic blood pressure monitors.”
Lu Guangming paused, then said: “Because the order for the oxygen generator has already been placed in next year, we cannot allocate excess production capacity in a short period of time. So my plan is to build another production line exclusively for production. Electronic blood pressure monitor.”
“Yes, not only the production line of blood pressure monitors, I suggest that in the planning stage, we should plan more factories to prepare for our future expansion of production capacity.”
Li Weidong said, picked up the electronic blood pressure monitor, put it on his arm, and wanted to try it out.
“Chairman, I’ll help you.” Lu Guangming hurried forward, tied the cuff of the blood pressure monitor to Li Weidong’s arm, and then picked up the rubber inflatable balloon and began to inflate.
The traditional mercury blood pressure meter has a cuff and an inflatable balloon. When measuring blood pressure, the cuff should be tied to the arm, and a stethoscope should be plugged into it, and then the inflatable balloon should be used to inflate it to observe the changes in the mercury column.
The first generation of electronic blood pressure monitors also did not have an automatic inflation pump, requiring manual inflation and manual exhaust.
Later, systems such as mechanical fixed-speed exhaust and electronic quick exhaust valve were gradually developed, which simplified some operations.
The second-generation electronic blood pressure monitor began to use a pressurized air pump and an electronically controlled exhaust valve. At this time, the intelligent pressurization system was used, and there was no need to manually pinch the rubber balloon to inflate.
The previous two generations of blood pressure monitors used the technology of decompression synchronous measurement.
The third-generation electronic blood pressure monitor uses a servo pressurizing pump to control the speed of pressurization and measure blood pressure during pressurization. Therefore, the original simultaneous measurement of decompression has also become a technology of simultaneous measurement of pressurization.
The fourth-generation sphygmomanometer uses integrated air circuit technology. This integrated air circuit can be made into a very small part, so small that it can be installed in a watch. Today’s wearable watch-style blood pressure monitors use all this technique.
At present, the first-generation blood pressure monitor developed by Puppy Health is still equipped with an inflatable balloon, which needs to be manually inflated.
Li Weidong tried this blood pressure monitor, and then said; “Yes, but it still needs improvement. It is best to automatically inflate and deflate, which can greatly reduce the operation and make it more convenient to use.
The next step of the scientific research department is to add an air pump to the blood pressure monitor, and the second is to design a control system for the exhaust valve. With these two things, the automatic inflation function is also made. ”
From the breakthrough of the first generation blood pressure monitor to the second generation blood pressure monitor, the technical difficulty is not too big, and the principle is the same. Only two things need to be added, one is the inflatable pressurized air pump, and the second is the servo of the electronically controlled exhaust valve. Technology.
It is somewhat difficult to upgrade the second-generation sphygmomanometer to the third-generation sphygmomanometer, because it requires a change in measurement technology, from decompression synchronous measurement to pressure synchronous measurement, which is equivalent to fundamentally changing the sphygmomanometer working principle.
Lu Guangming replied: “There should be no problem with the air pump, that thing can be bought. As for the exhaust valve control system, it has not been done in China. As far as I know, Panasonic and Omron should have an electronic control valve technology. We can use it.”
“It’s all Japanese companies!” Li Weidong shook his head and continued: “We should have some core technologies in hand when we make products, and we can’t buy everything from abroad. So I think this technology is still independent. Well developed.”
Before the popularization of the integrated air circuit, the blood pressure monitor always used the control technology of the electronic exhaust valve, which means that this technology can still be used for more than ten years, and independent research and development is definitely more cost-effective.
However, when it comes to independent research and development, Lu Guangming showed a hesitant expression.
Li Weidong noticed this, and he opened the tree hole: “Why, is there any difficulty in independent research and development? Let’s talk about it, let’s discuss it.”
“It’s like this, the core component of the electronic valve control system is the sensor, but we can’t do this kind of sensor, which limits our research and development.”
Lu Guangming paused, then continued; “Not only the electronic valve control system needs sensors, but our blood pressure monitors also need sensors.
So far, our sensors all need to rely on imports, and the price of imported sensors is really high, accounting for a large part of our cost. ”
“That is to say, if the sensor can be localized, we can greatly reduce the cost of the product, and it will also help the development progress?” Li Weidong asked immediately.
“Yes.” Lu Guangming said, pointed to the side and continued: “The second project team of the R&D department has been developing the blood glucose meter, but the current development is not smooth, mainly because it is stuck on the sensor.
The sensors used in the blood glucose meter, let alone made by themselves, cannot be bought even if they are bought. In order to create technical barriers, foreign companies will not sell such sensors to us at all! ”
“It’s a sensor again!” Li Weidong frowned slightly.
Blood pressure meter and blood glucose meter, the two core products Li Weidong planned for puppy health, are now all stuck by the sensor.
In the past, China was not rich in material conditions. Most people aimed to fill their stomachs, and they could only have rough meals on weekdays.
With the rapid development of China’s economy, the living standards of the common people have also been continuously improved, and the improvement of living standards is most directly reflected in the dining table. Foods with high fat, high calorie and high sugar content gradually occupy the dining table of common people.
Coupled with some other bad habits, such as alcoholism, smoking, etc., the number of people with high blood pressure and diabetes has risen rapidly.
High blood pressure, high blood sugar, plus a high blood lipid, the so-called “three high people” have been seen everywhere.
Moreover, the three-high population is gradually becoming younger. Originally, it was only some elderly people who suffered from these diseases because of the deterioration of their body functions. Later, many middle-aged people in their 30s and 40s also developed symptoms of high blood pressure and diabetes.
For this chronic disease, in addition to long-term medication, daily monitoring is also indispensable.
A blood pressure meter is a must for the family of patients with hypertension, and a blood glucose meter is also required at home for diabetic patients, so that they can be tested at any time.
In China in the future, whether it is hypertensive patients or diabetic patients, all of them will exceed 100 million, and the market demand for blood pressure meters and blood glucose meters is also very huge.
Li Weidong knew this, so he decided to enter these two markets as soon as possible.
Electronic blood pressure meters and blood glucose meters were monopolized by foreign medical device companies in the early days.
The situation of the blood pressure monitor is better. After all, there is an old-fashioned mercury blood pressure monitor, which is very simple to operate. Even without professional medical knowledge, it can be used after simple training.
A mercury sphygmomanometer and a stethoscope are not expensive, so there is not much domestic market for expensive imported electronic sphygmomanometers.
When cheap domestic electronic blood pressure monitors appeared, imported blood pressure monitors lost their competitiveness and gradually disappeared.
But the home blood glucose meter is different. This thing has a high technical content, especially the sensor dedicated to the blood glucose meter. The Chinese cannot manufacture it, and foreigners are unwilling to sell it. Therefore, for a long time, the blood glucose meter has been monopolized by foreign companies.
At that time, the price of a Bayer home blood glucose meter was as high as tens of thousands of RMB, and ordinary families were willing to buy it.
And a blood sugar test strip from Bayer also sells for ten yuan, which is equivalent to testing blood sugar once, and the cost is at least ten yuan.
Compared to going to the hospital to measure blood sugar, even if it is a tertiary hospital, it is five yuan.
But there are three advantages of a home blood glucose meter. First, you can measure your blood sugar anytime, anywhere, and you don’t need to go to the hospital.
The second is that the result can be measured in two minutes, and it takes at least half an hour to go to the hospital for a blood test.
The third is that using a blood glucose meter has a small amount of blood loss. You only need a drop of blood to detect blood sugar. If you go to the hospital to measure blood sugar, you need to draw half a tube of blood.
For diabetic patients, blood sugar should be checked for several time periods, such as fasting blood sugar in the morning, blood sugar two hours after meals, blood sugar before lunch and before rice bowl, blood sugar before going to bed, and sometimes at two or three in the morning. Take a blood sugar test.
If half a tube of blood is drawn every time, the condition of diabetes has not been relieved, and the person will become anemia first.
Compared with frying your finger, it doesn’t matter if you bleed a drop of blood. Just a little nosebleed when you watch a beautiful woman is enough to measure blood sugar for half a month.
So at that time, it was common to see medical device representatives traveling to the cadre wards of various hospitals, the nursing homes of veteran cadres, or the activity center of retired cadres, to sell this kind of blood glucose meter that costs tens of thousands of dollars.
Because only these retired bosses and cadres can afford such expensive things.
Later, with the development of technology, the price of blood glucose meters and test strips gradually dropped, and ordinary people could afford blood glucose meters, and even hospitals switched to this portable blood glucose meter to measure blood sugar.
In fact, the working principle of the blood glucose meter is not complicated, and the core is the current analysis method.
The sensors used in blood glucose meters generally use platinum electrodes or silver electrodes. After electricity is used, the effect of amperometric titration can be formed.
During this process, the oxidized film of glucose in the blood will undergo an oxidation reaction to generate hydrogen peroxide. The sensor measures the concentration of hydrogen peroxide through an electric current to determine the concentration of blood sugar.
Therefore, electrode amperometric sensors and electrochemical sensors are bound to be used in blood glucose meters. Without these two things, a blood glucose meter cannot be made.
Medical instruments are only a small part of sensor applications. After the world enters the information age, the first thing to solve is to obtain accurate scientific information, and sensors have become an indispensable way and means in the field of life and production. In almost all electronic products in later generations, there are sensors.
“The sensor thing is worth doing!” Li Weidong took a deep breath and muttered to himself: “The Internet era has just begun, and now it’s too late to start a sensor company and make sensors!”
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(end of this chapter)