Reborn Industrial Tycoon

Chapter 655 Sensor

Entering 2003.

In the workshop of Puppy Medical Company, oxygen concentrators are being produced overtime.

Lu Guangming pointed to the production line and said, "Chairman, orders for household oxygen concentrators have increased significantly in recent times. The current orders for household oxygen concentrators have been scheduled for next year. We are operating at full capacity for production."

"How many units are there in stock?" Li Weidong asked.

"There are probably more than a thousand more!" Lu Guangming said.

"Okay, I'll take these more than a thousand units away first." Li Weidong continued; "The three thousand oxygen concentrators we donated before are definitely not enough. I heard that cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome have also appeared in the north.

, so these more than a thousand oxygen concentrators will be donated to the capital for emergency response first!"

Lu Guangming hesitated for a moment, then said: "Chairman, you have to leave 500 units for us. I have promised the Jinzhou City Government to leave 500 units for local hospitals."

"That's right. We should also take care of the local folks. Well, you keep 500 units and I'll take the rest with me." Li Weidong said and sighed again: "It's a pity that we can't make ventilators.

, if ventilators can be manufactured, it will definitely be of great help."

"The ventilator is still somewhat technically difficult. If we want to do it, we may not be able to make it without three to five years of research and development," Lu Guangming said.

China's ventilator technology research and development started relatively late. Although domestic companies were able to produce ventilators at that time, the technology was relatively backward and was limited to old-fashioned bell-type positive and negative pressure ventilators and time-switching fixed-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, ventilators used in domestic hospitals had to be imported.

The related technologies of ventilators are relatively mature abroad, but the intellectual property rights related to ventilators, especially the 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 ventilators began to rise rapidly. By 2020, the United States was already importing ventilators from China.

In comparison, the technical difficulty of oxygen generators is much lower, and there are not so many patent barriers. Chinese companies are fully capable of producing them.

In the treatment of respiratory diseases, oxygen inhalation is definitely effective, so when respiratory diseases occur on a large scale, the sales of oxygen concentrators will inevitably increase significantly, so that supply exceeds demand.

Not only many medical institutions, but also those suffering from chronic respiratory diseases also need oxygen concentrators to relieve their conditions.

As a result, the production factory of Puppy Medical instantly became a hot spot, with orders already scheduled for next year. There are even many people who are looking for connections in order to get the oxygen concentrator as soon as possible.

This is like going back to the 1980s, an era when the supply and demand of resources were unbalanced. If you wanted to buy something, you had to go through the back door to get a note.

However, Li Weidong waved his hand, pushed the commercial orders to the back of the queue, and donated thousands of oxygen concentrators to hospitals in the south.

This wave of donations made the puppy oxygen concentrator more famous, and many ordinary people began to rush to buy the puppy oxygen concentrator.

People who have not experienced that time may not understand that at that time, there were many people grabbing isatis root, white vinegar, and even liquor, because people believed that liquor can be disinfected. The panic buying trend was even worse.

As a formal medical device, oxygen concentrators are indeed effective in treating respiratory diseases, so they have naturally become the target of people rushing to buy them.

However, at that time, the price of household oxygen concentrators was still relatively expensive, so those who rushed to buy oxygen concentrators were relatively wealthy people.

After leaving the production workshop, Li Weidong came to the scientific research department.

Lu Guangming handed an electronic blood pressure monitor to Li Weidong.

"Through the unremitting efforts of our scientific research department, the electronic blood pressure monitor has finally been successfully developed. However, now our production line is fully engaged in the production of oxygen concentrators, and there is no excess capacity to produce electronic blood pressure monitors."

Lu Guangming paused and then said: "Since the order for oxygen concentrators has been scheduled until next year, we cannot allocate excess production capacity in a short period of time. So my plan is to build a new production line specifically for production.

Electronic blood pressure monitor.”

"Yes, not only the blood pressure monitor production line, I suggest that in the planning stage, we 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, let me help you." Lu Guangming quickly stepped forward, tied the blood pressure monitor cuff on Li Weidong's arm, then picked up the rubber inflatable balloon and began to inflate it.

A traditional mercury sphygmomanometer has a cuff and an inflatable balloon. When measuring blood pressure, you need to tie the cuff to your arm, put a stethoscope inside, and then use the inflatable balloon to inflate it inside to observe the changes in the mercury column.

The first generation of electronic blood pressure monitors also did not have an automatic inflation pump and required manual inflation and manual exhaust.

Later, systems such as mechanical fixed-speed exhaust and electronic rapid exhaust valves were gradually developed, which simplified some operations.

The second generation of electronic blood pressure monitors began to use pressurized air pumps and electronically controlled exhaust valves. At this time, they began to use intelligent pressurizing systems, and there was no need to manually pinch the rubber balloon to inflate.

The first two generations of blood pressure monitors used decompression and simultaneous measurement technology to measure blood pressure.

The third-generation electronic blood pressure monitor uses a servo pressure pump, which can control the speed of pressure increase and measure blood pressure during pressure increase. Therefore, the original synchronous measurement of decompression has also become the technology of synchronous measurement of pressure.

The fourth generation of blood pressure monitors uses integrated gas circuit technology. This integrated gas circuit can be made into a very small part, so small that it can be installed in a watch. Today's wearable watch-type blood pressure monitors use

This technology.

The current blood pressure monitor developed by Puppy Health is still the first generation blood pressure monitor, so it still has an inflatable balloon and needs to be inflated manually.

Li Weidong tried this blood pressure monitor and then said, "It's good, but it still needs improvement. It's best to be able to automatically inflate and deflate, which can greatly reduce operations and make it more convenient to use.

The next focus of the scientific research department is to add an air pump to the blood pressure monitor and design a control system for the exhaust valve. With these two things, the automatic inflation function can be realized."

From the first-generation blood pressure monitor to the second-generation blood pressure monitor, the technical difficulty is not great, and the principle is the same. You only need to add two things, one is the inflatable pressurized air pump, and the second is the servo that electronically controls the exhaust valve.

technology.

It is somewhat difficult to upgrade the second-generation blood pressure meter to the third-generation blood pressure meter, because it requires a change in measurement technology, from simultaneous measurement of decompression to simultaneous measurement of pressure, which is equivalent to fundamentally changing the blood pressure meter.

working principle.

Lu Guangming answered: "There should be no problem with the air pump, that thing can be purchased. As for the exhaust valve control system, it has not been done in China. As far as I know, Panasonic and Omron should have a technology to electronically control valves.

We can use it."

"They are all Japanese companies!" Li Weidong shook his head and continued, "When we make products, we should still have some core technologies at hand, and we cannot buy everything from abroad. So I think this technology should be developed independently.

Well developed.”

Before the popularization of integrated gas circuits, blood pressure monitors always used electronic exhaust valve control technology, 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 his mouth: "What, are there any difficulties in independent research and development? You might as well speak up and 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 things like sensors, which limits our research and development."

Lu Guangming paused for a moment before continuing, "Not only does the electronic valve control system need sensors, but our blood pressure monitor also needs sensors.

So far, we have relied on imports for our sensors, and the prices of imported sensors are really high, accounting for a large part of our costs."

"In other words, if the sensor can be made locally, we can significantly reduce the product cost, and it will also help the research and 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 a blood glucose measuring instrument, but the current development is not going well, mainly because it is stuck on the sensor.

The sensors used in blood glucose measuring meters are not available even if you make them yourself, and foreign companies will never sell those sensors to us in order to create technical barriers!"

"It's the sensor again!" Li Weidong frowned slightly.

Blood pressure monitors and blood glucose meters are the two core products planned by Li Weidong for puppy health, but now they are all stuck at the sensor level.

In the past, China's material conditions were not rich, and most people aimed to fill their stomachs. They could only eat simple meals on weekdays, and they had to eat something good during the holidays.

With the rapid development of China's economy, people's living standards are constantly improving, and the improvement of living standards is most directly reflected on the dining table. High-fat, high-calorie, and high-sugar foods gradually occupy the common people's dining tables.

Coupled with other bad living habits, such as alcoholism, smoking, etc., the number of patients with hypertension and diabetes is rising rapidly.

High blood pressure, high blood sugar, plus high blood lipids, the so-called "three high people" can be seen everywhere.

Moreover, the three high-income people are gradually getting younger. Originally, it was only some elderly people who would develop these diseases due to the degradation of their body functions. Later, many people in their thirties and forties also developed symptoms of high blood pressure and diabetes.

For this chronic disease, in addition to long-term medication, daily monitoring is also indispensable.

Hypertensive patients must have a blood pressure monitor at home, and diabetic patients also need to have a blood glucose monitor at home so that they can be tested at any time.

In the future, the number of patients with both hypertension and diabetes in China will exceed 100 million, and the market demand for blood pressure meters and blood glucose meters will also be huge.

Li Weidong knew this very well, so he decided to enter these two markets as soon as possible.

Electronic blood pressure monitors and blood glucose meters were monopolized by foreign medical device companies in the early days.

The situation with blood pressure monitors is a little better. After all, there are old-fashioned mercury column blood pressure monitors that are very simple to operate. Even without professional medical knowledge, you can use them after simple training.

A mercury column blood pressure monitor plus a stethoscope is not expensive, so expensive imported electronic blood pressure monitors do not have much market in China.

When cheap domestic electronic blood pressure monitors appeared, imported blood pressure monitors lost their competitiveness and gradually disappeared.

But home blood glucose meters are different. This thing has a high technical content, especially the sensor dedicated to the blood glucose meter. China cannot make 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, a Bayer home-use blood glucose meter cost tens of thousands of yuan, and ordinary families could not afford to buy it.

Moreover, a blood sugar test strip from Bayer costs ten yuan, which is equivalent to testing blood sugar once and costs at least ten yuan.

In comparison, if you go to a hospital to test your blood sugar, even a top-level hospital charges only five yuan.

However, there are three advantages to using a home blood glucose meter. First, you can measure blood sugar anytime and anywhere, without having to go to the hospital specifically.

Second, the results can be obtained in two minutes. It takes at least half an hour to go to the hospital to draw blood for testing.

The third is that when using a blood glucose meter, the blood loss is small and only one drop of blood is needed to detect blood sugar. However, if you go to the hospital to test blood sugar, you have to draw half a tube of blood.

For diabetics, it is necessary to test blood sugar at several time periods, such as fasting blood sugar in the morning, blood sugar two hours after a meal, blood sugar before lunch and before the meal, blood sugar before going to bed, and sometimes at two or three in the morning.

Check your blood sugar once.

If half a tube of blood is drained every time, the diabetes condition will not be relieved and the person will become anemic first.

In contrast, if you blow your finger and bleed a drop, it doesn't matter. If you watch a beautiful woman bleed, just a little nosebleed is enough to measure your blood sugar for half a month.

Therefore, at that time, it was common to see medical device representatives traveling to the cadre wards of various hospitals, nursing homes for veteran cadres, or retired cadre activity centers to sell this kind of blood glucose meter that cost tens of thousands of yuan each.

Because only these retired bosses and cadres can afford such expensive things.

Later, with the development of technology, the prices of blood glucose meters and test strips gradually dropped, and ordinary people could afford blood glucose meters. Even hospitals switched to using this portable blood glucose meter to measure blood sugar.

In fact, the working principle of the blood glucose meter is not complicated. 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 oxidation film of glucose in the blood will produce an oxidation reaction to generate hydrogen peroxide. The sensor measures the concentration of hydrogen peroxide through 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 built.

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 research information, and sensors have become an indispensable way and means in the fields of life and production.

Sensors are present in almost all electronic products in later generations.

"Sensors are worth doing!" Li Weidong took a deep breath and murmured to himself: "The Internet era has just begun. It's probably not too late to start a sensor company and make sensors!"

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