Led by industrial capital, Shijia Technology has completed a 100-million-yuan Series A financing and will build an annual production capacity of 500,000 sets of air suspension systems | Exclusive from 36Kr

36Kr has learned that Shijia Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Shijia Technology"), a supplier of intelligent suspension systems, recently announced the completion of a strategic Series A financing worth hundreds of millions of yuan. This round of financing was jointly led by Xingyuan and several industrial capital investors, with the Science and Technology Innovation Fund of Tongji University participating in the investment. The state-owned capital of Pinghu Economic Development Zone provided support for the company's intelligent manufacturing base to be established.

According to Wu Weimin, the founder of Shijia Technology, the funds from this round of financing will be mainly used for the research and development of key technologies for the third - generation fully active suspension and the construction of an advanced intelligent manufacturing center with an annual production capacity of 500,000 sets.

Compared with traditional coil - spring suspensions, the air suspension system developed by Shijia Technology can dynamically adjust the vehicle body height and suspension stiffness by regulating air pressure, thereby enhancing the ride comfort and handling stability of the vehicle under different operating conditions.

However, for a long time, due to the low localization rate and high system cost, air suspension systems were only applied to high - end vehicle models priced above 800,000 yuan.

The NIO ES8, which was launched in 2015, was the earliest domestic vehicle model equipped with an air suspension system. In 2019, NIO initiated the self - research of air suspension systems to control costs. Wu Weimin, who was then the person in charge of NIO's chassis domain control system and is now the founder of Shijia Technology, was the core member leading the project at that time. This experience laid a technical foundation for his subsequent entrepreneurship.

In 2021, Wu Weimin founded Shijia Technology, focusing on the independent research and development of intelligent suspension control systems and air supply units. Currently, the company has successfully launched two major achievements: the "Eight - in - One Integrated Closed - loop Air Supply Module" and the "Fully Active Air Suspension System".

Among them, the Eight - in - One Integrated Closed - loop Air Supply Module integrates multiple functional units such as air compressors, solenoid valves, controllers, dryers, and filters. At the same time, due to the adoption of the internal air - circuit circulation technology, compared with the external air - circuit circulation technology, the entire system has a smaller volume, lower noise, but higher efficiency.

The improvement in integration and efficiency reduces the system cost. According to Shijia's calculations, compared with current mainstream products, this solution can reduce the cost of the vehicle system by several thousand yuan, which will accelerate the penetration of air suspension systems into mainstream vehicle models priced around 200,000 yuan.

In addition, this module adopts a decoupled design of software and hardware and has an open - interface protocol, which can be flexibly adapted to the new - generation central computing platform and EE architecture, thereby improving the compatibility and integration efficiency of the vehicle system.

Another product of Shijia Technology, the Fully Active Air Suspension System, is an upgraded version of the traditional semi - active suspension system.

The semi - active suspension can only adjust the damping, while Shijia Technology's fully active system introduces hydraulic active force on the basis of the semi - active system, enabling active control of the spring stiffness and vehicle body attitude. As a result, the system can make real - time adjustments to the vertical, pitching, and rolling dynamics of the vehicle.

Shijia Technology said that the performance of this fully active system has been improved by approximately 30% compared with the traditional semi - active solution.

When talking about the R & D experience of these products, Wu Weimin told 36Kr: "Many people think that an air suspension is just a different type of'spring', but the real challenge lies in 'controlling it'. You see, Mercedes - Benz emphasizes comfort, and BMW emphasizes handling, but actually, these two experiences are hidden in the software code. Previously, such control algorithms were in the hands of foreign suppliers, but now we have developed them ourselves."

One of the core technologies of Shijia Technology is its first - developed "Thousand - stage Adjustable Adaptive Sky/Ground Damping Algorithm", which can adjust the vehicle body attitude and suspension stiffness according to different road conditions and driving states, making the driving experience smoother.

In addition to the algorithm, the closed - loop system also has three major technical challenges to overcome. For example, to enable the entire system to operate in a closed state for a long time, extremely high standards must be met in terms of airtightness, pressure retention, and durability. Through the refinement of materials, structures, and processes, Shijia Technology's products can operate for more than 500 hours under a maximum pressure of 15 bar.

Another example is the solenoid valve system, which determines the response speed and action accuracy of the module. The Shijia team has achieved multi - channel precise and rapid switching based on its self - developed solenoid valve design and control logic. "In the future, we will continue to optimize the speed and accuracy of the solenoid valve system," Shijia Technology said.

The last major challenge is structural integration. The traditional air supply system is arranged in a decentralized manner, with long wiring harnesses, high noise, and difficult vehicle installation. Shijia Technology has adopted a closed - loop integrated approach, which not only improves the consistency and performance of the system but also reduces the cost.

Behind Shijia Technology's efforts to overcome these challenges is the founder Wu Weimin's beautiful vision: "We just hope to replace the 'rubber shoes' worn by Chinese cars with a pair of truly useful 'air - cushioned shoes'."

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