New Heights | Taking root in Lanzhou and casting a new medical monument with memory alloy, Lanzhou Ximai’s innovation and development lead the technological revolution

New Heights | Taking root in Lanzhou and casting a new medical monument with memory alloy, Lanzhou Ximai’s innovation and development lead the technological revolution

  

Heart valve series products have achieved a good brand reputation of “Lanzhou Valve”, memory alloy medical devices have been praised by the industry, and high-end sports equipment and rehabilitation medical equipment have continuously made breakthroughs in research and development. Based on Lanzhou High-tech Zone and looking at the whole of China, Lanzhou Ximai International Medical Co., Ltd. started from a 2,600-square-meter factory in Yantan Park, Lanzhou High-tech Zone, and has traveled thousands of miles, gradually growing into a national leader in high-end medical equipment. Along the way, this company, which is deeply involved in high-end medical devices, has blazed its own path based on the development of innovative medical devices.

  Create a “Lanzhou Heart” and set up a leading beacon

In 2019, the 65-year-old Guan Shengmao took the train to Lanzhou in Panjin, Liaoning, just to fulfill his long-cherished wish and thank the “Lanzhou Heart”. In 1986, 32-year-old Guan Shengmao had a heart attack and needed heart valve replacement surgery. However, the General Hospital of the Shenyang Military Region he visited at that time did not have the artificial heart valve needed for the operation, so he had to be transferred to Shanghai Changhai Hospital (the first hospital in China to carry out replacement at that time) heart valve surgery) to perform the surgery. After the operation, a heart valve produced in Lanzhou – “Lanzhou Heart” was implanted in his body, starting his new life.

In 2012, Lanzhou Ximai International Medical Co., Ltd. and Lanzhou Lanfei Medical Devices Co., Ltd. were reorganized, and the latter became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lanzhou Ximai International Medical Co., Ltd. The heart valve that was reborn to Guan Shengmao was Lanzhou Ximai International. A product of Medical LLC. Today, as another leading product of the company, CL double-leaf artificial mechanical heart valve products have also formed a good brand reputation of “Lanzhou Valve” in China, making Lanzhou Ximai International Medical Co., Ltd. the only two mechanical artificial heart valves in China. One of the manufacturers of heart valves, it has become the leading beacon of artificial mechanical valves in China.

It is understood that currently there are only 6 companies in 3 countries that can produce artificial mechanical heart valves in the world. In addition to 3 companies in the United States and 1 company in Italy, there are 2 companies in China: Beijing Star and Lanzhou Ximai International Medical Co., Ltd. Lanzhou Lanfei Medical, a subsidiary of the company. The valves used clinically in various countries are mainly American valves, accounting for 85% of the market. Under such circumstances, Lanzhou Ximai International Medical Co., Ltd. has established a reputation among patients with its excellent products and has become the “leader” of artificial mechanical valves in China.

Successfully overcame the technical barriers of artificial heart valves, so that Lanzhou Ximai International Medical Co., Ltd. was recognized by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology as a specialized, special and new “little giant” enterprise in 2019. In the same year, the company’s artificial mechanical heart valve won the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, and the company’s two projects of “Technology Innovation of Annual Production of 10,000 Double-leaf Artificial Heart Valves” and “Application and Industrialization of Emergency Chest Closure Devices for Cardiac Surgery” It was included in the “Top Ten Science and Technology Projects” of Lanzhou City in 2018, and received a single funding support of 1 million yuan.

  Magical “Memory Alloy”

In the past, doctors used steel wires or steel plates to fix human bones through surgery. Not to mention the damage to the human body caused by the surgery, those steel materials themselves would cause considerable secondary damage to the patient. Another blockbuster product of Lanzhou Ximai International Medical Co., Ltd., the memory alloy, greatly reduces the harm of internal fixation implants to the human body.

“Memory alloys remember different shapes at different temperatures.” Su Jinxia, ​​deputy general manager of Lanzhou Ximai International Medical Co., Ltd., said that under certain temperature conditions, memory alloys can be deformed by external forces. At the right temperature, it will immediately return to its original shape. The company’s internal fixation implants made of memory alloys can be implanted into the human body under low-temperature deformation, and then automatically return to the shape before deformation under human body temperature. It has the dual advantages of simple operation and good biocompatibility.

The reporter learned that the company’s main product is TiNi shape memory alloy internal fixation implantation devices. Currently, it has ten categories with a total of more than 400 models and specifications. , In the field of hand and foot surgery, its scope of application represents the highest level of application of memory alloy medical devices in China, and it is in the leading position in the industry in China.

In 2021, the memory alloy endoscopic rib products of Lanzhou Ximai International Medical Co., Ltd. will be listed in the American “Annals of Thoracic Surgery”, one of the world’s three major thoracic and cardiovascular surgery magazines, for three consecutive times, which marks that Lanzhou Ximai International Medical Co., Ltd. The related products are at the forefront of the industry in the field of international cardiothoracic surgery.

At present, Lanzhou Ximai International Medical Co., Ltd. has expanded the application of memory alloys to various fields such as aerospace, electric power, temperature control machinery, energy conservation and environmental protection, military products, and civilian products. The memory alloy smart gasket innovatively developed by using memory alloy materials solves the safety problems and power loss problems caused by the temperature rise of electrical appliances. enterprise.

  Innovation injects new momentum into the enterprise

As an innovative enterprise, Lanzhou Ximai International Medical Co., Ltd. is supported by strong research and development technology capabilities, and mainly has a memory alloy material engineering laboratory, an enterprise technology center, and a biomaterial engineering research center. All research laboratories, research and production bases are presided over by top memory alloy experts in China.

The company actively deploys the localization of high-end devices, takes the development of innovative medical devices as a foothold, and invests a lot of resources in the application and research and development of high-end medical devices and memory alloy materials, and invests about 5%-10% of its turnover in innovation activities every year . In 2017, the company deployed in the field of neurosurgery medical devices, and carried out research and development of new products for diseases such as trigeminal neuralgia and cerebral hemorrhage. The new product was officially launched in 2019, filling the gap in the research and development of high-end consumables in the field of brain nerves in Gansu Province.

High-end sports equipment and rehabilitation medical equipment products involve biomedicine, machinery, electronics, computers, new materials and other technical fields, and are typical cross-technology products. In order to do a good job in this field of products, Lanzhou Ximai International Medical Co., Ltd. introduced German medical sports rehabilitation (MTT) technology to China, and carried out in-depth cooperation with the State Sports General Administration, the Fire Department of the Ministry of Public Security and a number of hospitals to develop suitable rehabilitation and sports products. Features of devices and products. At present, the company has successfully developed a pelvic floor function assessment and rehabilitation instrument for the treatment of pelvic floor muscle dysfunction, and has reached the international advanced level in terms of sensor accuracy range and software training program.

Innovation is the life of technology enterprises. For a long time, Lanzhou Ximai International Medical Co., Ltd. has carried out technological innovation with “production, learning, research, and medicine” and realized the innovative mechanism of medical-industrial interaction. The company currently has 82 registration certificates, including 15 three-type registration certificates; a total of 246 patents have been applied for, including 4 inventions (1 foreign PCT patent) and 18 utility model patents among the 22 newly applied patents in 2021.

  Realize the localization of high-end medical equipment

The word “Ximai” is the abbreviation of the eight characters “Pick up from the west and collect from the east, and form a pulse from nature”. These eight characters vividly describe the company’s process of insisting on innovation and development.

The production of memory alloys requires non-ferrous metals, and Gansu is rich in nickel resources and is an important non-ferrous metal production base in my country. Since the mid-to-late 1990s, Lanzhou Ximai International Medical Co., Ltd. has taken root in its hometown, started with memory alloys, and developed to 6 wholly-owned subsidiaries, including Lanzhou Ximai Memory Alloy Co., Ltd., Lanzhou Lanzhou The three subsidiaries of Fei Medical Devices Co., Ltd. and Lanzhou Ximai Keli New Materials Co., Ltd. are all state-level high-tech enterprises. The three subsidiaries of Lanzhou Honghui Medical Devices Co., Ltd., Lanzhou Yijian Additive Manufacturing Co., Ltd., and Lanzhou Cili Medical Devices Co., Ltd. are all scientific and technological innovation enterprises.

Today, the company has a factory building of 20,000 square meters in Dinglian Park, Lanzhou High-tech Zone. The new site, new machines, and new production lines mark that the company is standing at a new starting point. At present, Lanzhou is becoming the forefront of research and development of shape memory alloys at home and abroad. Under the background that Lanzhou High-tech Zone regards the biomedical industry as the first leading industry, accelerates to become bigger and stronger, and cultivates the “leader” in the development of regional modern characteristic and advantageous industries, the “memory alloy” product of Lanzhou Ximai International Medical Co., Ltd. and The multi-phase flowmeter products of Haimo Technology and the high-purity metals of Jinchuan Science and Technology Park, etc., have jointly become the representatives of outstanding high-tech enterprises and leading technological achievements and innovative products in Lanzhou High-tech Zone.

In the future, Lanzhou Ximai International Medical Co., Ltd. will continue to actively promote the localization of high-end medical devices, make up for the shortcomings of domestic high-end medical devices through its own advantages, and strive to contribute to the development of the medical industry in the country and Gansu Province.

Source: All media reporter Shen Liang/Wen Majun/Picture from Lanzhou Daily

Editor in charge: Liang Yadong, Zhong Yuqi