MM Racing Chapter 149 Triple Benefits
Chapter 149 Triple Benefits
After the applause ended, a reporter sitting in the media area raised his hand.
"Mr. Su, could you tell me about the current production capacity of the light armor? If calculated based on the sheet metal used for drone fuselages, how many units can be supplied each month?"
That's a very good question.
No matter how good a product is, if the production capacity can't keep up, it's just a exhibit in the laboratory.
Su Chen did a quick mental calculation and answered frankly:
"Currently, we only have two 'web weaving machines,' both of which are prototype equipment developed independently. Based on the existing production capacity, we can produce approximately 5000 cubic meters of lightweight armor plates per month."
He paused for a moment, then added:
"5000 square meters sounds like a lot, but if you convert it to the airframe of a drone, taking the G1 as an example, each G1 requires about 0.3 square meters of lightweight armor plate. So 5000 square meters is equivalent to supplying the airframes for about 16000 G1 drones per month."
A low murmur arose from the audience.
16000 units sounds like a lot, but considering that the current pre-orders for the G1 have exceeded 800 units and are still growing rapidly, plus the demand for the S1 and other models, as well as future supply to other industry customers, a monthly production capacity of 5000 square meters is indeed insufficient.
"Of course, we are already working on resolving the production capacity issue."
Su Chen continued, "The third and fourth mesh weaving machines are under construction and are expected to be put into production within two months. At the same time, we are designing a second-generation mesh weaving machine, with a production capacity four times that of the first generation. According to the plan, by the first half of next year, our monthly production capacity will increase to 2 cubic meters; by the end of next year, the target is 5 square meters."
He looked at the audience below the stage and smiled slightly:
"What does a monthly production capacity of 5 cubic meters mean? If all of it were used for drone fuselages, it could supply more than 16 drones. If it were used in the mobile phone case market, the automotive lightweighting market, or even the aerospace field—that would be a business with an annual output value of over 10 billion."
"10 billion!"
The eyes of several investors in the audience lit up at the same time.
A partner from Plum Ventures turned to his colleague and whispered, "Annual output value of 10 billion yuan, and based on the data just released—cost of 120 yuan per square meter, selling price of 800 yuan—gross profit margin exceeds 85%. This profit margin is even more terrifying than Moutai."
"It's not just about profit margins," his colleague replied in a low voice. "Have you noticed? This product has an extremely deep moat. Biomimetic spider silk + interlayer prestressing + layer-by-layer vapor deposition—all three core processes are self-developed, and the weaving machine is also self-developed. If someone wants to copy it? They'll have to build the weaving machine first. Build the weaving machine? First, you need precise graphene deposition technology. Have the deposition technology? Then you need carbon nanotube directional growth technology. It's a chain reaction, with extremely high barriers to entry."
A partner at Plum Ventures took a deep breath: "We must invest. At all costs."
Su Chen, on stage, was unaware of the conversation among the investors below. He was wrapping up the press conference.
"Finally, let's summarize."
Su Chen walked to the center of the stage, and the giant screen behind him switched to a simple summary page.
"At today's Flying Bird Technology Summit, we launched two products and showcased Flying Bird's five key strengths—"
He held up his five fingers, one by one:
"Our first product, the S1 agricultural plant protection drone—our flagship product, has received over 5000 orders and forms the foundation of the Flying Bird Industry Alliance."
"The second card is the G1 industrial-grade drone—equipped with a self-developed Siyuan 220 flight control chip, with an end-to-end latency of 11 milliseconds. 800 units have been pre-ordered, manufactured by Jingheng Electronics, with a profit of 6200 yuan per unit."
"The third key asset is the H-Link relay base station—transforming individual operations into coordinated teamwork, with orders exceeding 2000 units, serving as the lifeblood of the alliance's ecosystem."
"The fourth card, Light Armor—Graphene-reinforced carbon fiber nanocomposite plate, 0.25 mm thick, is three times stronger than aerospace-grade carbon fiber, and is also a key component material for DRIE equipment."
"The fifth card—"
Su Chen paused for a second, his gaze sweeping across the entire room.
"MEMS sensors. A pioneering project. DRIE's self-developed technology. This is our ultimate goal, and the direction of all our efforts."
He withdrew his five fingers and made a fist.
"Five cards, one closed loop. S1 and G1 generate cash flow, H-Link builds ecosystem barriers, and Light Armor provides profit ammunition and technical support, all ultimately converging on MEMS and DRIE."
"This is Hongyuan Flying Bird's strategy. Thank you everyone."
"Clap clap clap clap clap clap clap clap..."
The entire audience stood up and applauded.
The applause was thunderous and lasted for almost a minute.
Amid applause, Su Chen bowed slightly, then turned and walked off the stage.
The Flying Bird Technology Summit has concluded successfully.
……
Three days after the summit ended.
October 31, 2020, Shenzhen, Nanshan District, Hongyuan Feiniao Headquarters.
Su Chen sat in his office with three documents spread out in front of him.
Three good things have happened in the past few days.
The first good thing is that the light armor mass production line has officially started production.
During the summit, the lightweight armor samples were all handmade using two prototype mesh weaving machines, with a yield rate of only about 60%. However, the day after the summit ended, the process team spent 48 consecutive hours optimizing the parameters and finally increased the yield rate to 82%.
An 82% yield rate means that Light Armor has officially transformed from a "laboratory product" into a "mass-produced product".
Based on current production capacity, 5000 square meters of lightweight armor plates are produced per month. After deducting the portion used for internal purposes (G1 fuselage + DRIE lining R&D), approximately 3500 square meters can be sold externally.
3500 square meters, priced at 800 yuan per square meter, with monthly sales of 280 million yuan.
Not much yet, but this is just the beginning. Once the third and fourth weaving machines are put into operation, the production capacity will double.
Su Chen picked up the second document, a slight smile playing on his lips.
The second good thing was the successful acquisition of Pengcheng New Materials.
Pengcheng New Materials is a small carbon fiber prepreg processing plant in Bao'an District, Shenzhen. It was established in 2015, has 38 employees, and annual revenue of approximately 600 million yuan.
This company itself is unremarkable, but there are two things about it that Su Chen has his eye on:
First, there's its carbon fiber prepreg hot pressing equipment. Although it's second-hand equipment imported from Japan, its performance is stable, and with slight modifications, it can be adapted to the primary hot pressing process of light armor. This saved Su Chen at least three months of time and more than 200 million yuan compared to purchasing new equipment himself.
Secondly, there's its factory. Pengcheng New Materials has a standard 1200-square-meter factory in Bao'an, with four years remaining on the lease. This factory is only half an hour's drive from Hongyuan Feiniao's Jingheng Electronics OEM factory, resulting in extremely low logistics costs.
The acquisition price was 850 million in cash.
For Hongyuan Feiniao at present, 850 million is not a small amount. Although the company's cash flow is continuously increasing due to the order payments for S1, G1 and base stations, various expenses such as DRIE R&D, weaving machine manufacturing, and employee salaries are also rising at the same time.
But Su Chen gritted his teeth and took it.
He knew very well that production capacity was the biggest bottleneck for light armor to achieve rapid production growth. Rather than waiting three months for new equipment, it was better to spend 850 million to buy an existing production base.
Time is the lifeline.
After the acquisition, Su Chen immediately dispatched two process engineers to Pengcheng New Materials' factory to upgrade the equipment. According to the plan, after the upgrade, the factory will become Qingjia's second production base, specifically responsible for the primary hot pressing process, and then the semi-finished products will be sent back to the weaving machines at the Nanshan headquarters for final vapor deposition and pulse hot pressing.
As a result, overall production capacity is expected to increase by 30% within a month.
Thinking of Pengcheng New Materials' acquisition, Su Chen couldn't help but recall another "acquisition"—no, to be precise, a recovery.
Bowei Sensing's algorithm framework patent.
Fang Zhiyuan, that guy, spent 80 yuan to forge evidence and steal Su Chen's patent. In the end, the patent was recovered without compensation, and the 80 yuan in compensation has already been received. As for Fang Zhiyuan himself...
I bet he's behind bars right now, clutching the iron bars and singing "Tears Behind Bars".
Su Chen shook his head slightly, pulling his thoughts away from Fang Zhiyuan, and picked up the third document.
The third good thing is that the DRIE pre-experiment has achieved a breakthrough.
This was the most exciting of the three good things for Su Chen.
Just last night at 11 p.m., Shen Zhiming from the Suzhou laboratory sent me a voice message, his voice filled with barely suppressed excitement:
"President Su! The plasma density has met the target! The SF6 etching rate is stable at 4.2 micrometers per minute, and the sidewall angle is 89.3 degrees, close to the theoretical limit! Although this has only been verified on small-sized samples so far, it shows that our cavity design and process parameters are on the right track!"
The plasma density met the standard—this means that the core parameters of the DRIE prototype have been initially verified.
Although there is still a long way to go before the actual prototype is completed—issues such as cavity scaling, multi-step etching cycle stability, wafer clamping system, and vacuum sealing have not yet been resolved—it at least proves one thing:
The direction is right. The path is not wrong.
Su Chen looked at the experimental data table sent by Shen Zhiming, and the smile on his lips grew wider and wider.
Chen Guodong's Suzhou verification platform was responsible for the overall architecture design, while Shen Zhiming's four former AMEC engineers were responsible for plasma source and process parameter debugging. The two teams had their own division of labor but also collaborated closely, achieving efficiency far exceeding Su Chen's expectations.
Based on the current progress, the goal of completing the overall verification of the DRIE prototype by the end of December looks increasingly promising.
Putting down the documents, Su Chen leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes, and thought for a while.
Besides the three good things, there is one more thing that requires long-term attention.
Hangxindatong.
He Zhiqiang. LDCL protocol.
Following the summit, Hangxindatong's reaction was more intense than Su Chen had anticipated.
According to internal alliance sources, Hangxindatong convened an emergency board meeting the day after the summit. At the meeting, He Zhiqiang slammed his fist on the table and angrily berated the company for half an hour before announcing three countermeasures:
First, the LDCL agreement has seen a comprehensive price reduction—from the original 30% discount to a further 20% discount, with new customers getting the first year free and the second year at half price.
Second, we contacted DJI's business department and proposed to integrate the LDCL protocol into DJI's FlightCore 2.0 platform free of charge, as an "open ecosystem partner".
Third, accelerate the launch of the self-developed flight control chip, codenamed "Tian Shu", with the goal of completing tape-out within six months.
Three sharp moves, each one drawing blood.
But Su Chen remained calm.
Because he knew very well that Hangxindatong's three-pronged approach, though seemingly fierce, actually had fatal weaknesses:
A price reduction to 20%? The LDCL protocol itself has inherent technical architecture problems—the latency bottleneck of centralized cloud processing is a fatal flaw, and even reducing the price to free won't change the fact that the user experience is poor. Moreover, price reductions mean a sharp drop in profits, and Hangxindatong's cash flow is already under pressure due to the decline in stock price; further price reductions will only accelerate the bleeding.
Contact DJI? What kind of personality does DJI have? Would a giant that even crushes its partners to the bone help Hangxindatong promote LDCL for free? Even if the cooperation is successful, the dominant position will definitely be in DJI's hands, and Hangxindatong will just be a stepping stone for DJI.
Self-developed flight control chip? Tape-out in six months? Su Chen almost laughed out loud. The difficulty of flight control chip development lies not in tape-out, but in algorithm optimization and real-flight verification. How many flight control algorithm engineers does Hangxindatong have? How much real-flight data do they have? Without data accumulation, the chip will be nothing more than a piece of waste silicon.
Therefore, Su Chen's strategy was simple—not to take the initiative, but to continue to apply pressure.
Through the rapid expansion of the Flying Bird Industry Alliance, the "alliance as ecosystem" model is constantly eroding Hangxindatong's customer base. Currently, the alliance has 217 members, 23 of which are former members of Hangxindatong's "100 Enterprises Plan".
At this rate, in another six months, Hangxindatong's LDCL customers will be reduced to less than 50. By then, even if He Zhiqiang gave away LDCLs for free, no one would want them.
Su Chen wasn't in a hurry to acquire Hangxindatong—just like how he suppressed Bodao Mobile in the original novel, he would wait until his opponent was at their lowest point before making a move.
Hangxindatong's current market value is still over 8 million yuan, which is too expensive.
Once its value drops to two or three hundred million, Su Chen only needs to acquire its high-quality customer resources and technical team. As for the rest—office buildings, brand assets, and other peripheral assets—he can let them fend for themselves.
This is a protracted battle; there's no rush.
Thinking of this, Su Chen opened his eyes and his gaze fell on an industry report on his desk.
That was a 2020 global civilian drone market analysis report.
According to the report, the global civilian drone market was worth approximately $225 billion in 2020 and is projected to grow to $428 billion by 2025.
DJI, with over 70% of the consumer market share and approximately 40% of the industrial market share, undoubtedly holds the top spot globally.
Parrot of France ranks second, but its size is only a fraction of DJI's.
Third is the American 3DR, which has transitioned from hardware to software platforms.
Fourth is Yuneec, which is barely holding on.
The fifth position is vacant—because the companies ranked after it are too small to qualify as "fifth".
Su Chen looked at the report and a smile curved his lips.
鸿远飞鸟目前的体量还远远不够格排进全球前五。但按照目前的增长速度——S1订单5000台以上、G1预订800台且持续增长、轻甲开始量产、联盟规模217家——明年的年营收保守估计能突破3亿。
With 3 million RMB, or approximately 4500 million USD, it's still a small player in the global drone market.
But Su Chen was not discouraged.
Because the five cards he holds each have exponential growth potential.
Especially the lightweight armor – if monthly production capacity reaches 5 square meters as scheduled, the annual revenue from this single product alone could exceed 4.8 million yuan. Add to that the increased production volume of G1, the economies of scale within the alliance ecosystem, and the future potential for self-sufficiency in MEMS sensors…
Su Chen wrote a number in the blank space of the report:
2022 Goal: Top five globally.
After finishing writing, he closed the report and gently placed it on the corner of the table.
Outside the window, the skyline of Nanshan District in Shenzhen shimmered with golden light in the setting sun. The outlines of the Tencent Building and DJI Sky City were clearly visible in the distance.
Su Chen looked in that direction, the smile on his lips growing wider and wider.
Five cards, one closed loop.
He quietly repeated the summit's concluding remarks, then turned and walked toward the conference room—Shen Zhiming's video conference was about to begin in ten minutes, to discuss the next steps for cavity amplification after the plasma density had reached the target.
The road ahead is still long, but the direction is already clear.
Su Chen's steps had never been so firm.