Jiyun New Materials Resolves Powder Pain Points via Precision Classification
Suzhou Jiyun New Material Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Jiyun New Material) focuses on the industrialization of fine classification technology for ultrafine powders. Relying on its self-developed nanosecond airflow classification technology, it provides high-precision overall powder classification solutions for new energy, integrated circuits, advanced ceramics, biomedicine and other fields.
Unbalanced supply and demand of high-end powder, classification accuracy becomes industry bottleneck
Driven by downstream industries such as new energy vehicles, AI chips and advanced packaging, the demand for high-end ultrafine powder continues to rise, but the insufficient accuracy of powder particle size control is becoming a key bottleneck restricting the performance improvement of downstream products. Taking spherical silica powder as an example, as the core filler for semiconductor packaging and high-frequency high-speed copper clad laminates, its purity, particle size distribution and alpha ray control directly affect the chip packaging yield and signal transmission stability. According to the project party's estimation, the domestic demand for high-end spherical silica powder will reach about 25,000 tons by 2027, while the upper limit of supply is only about 15,000 tons, and the supply-demand gap is close to 40%. Japanese enterprises occupy the main share of the global high-end market and are clearly unwilling to expand production. There are only a handful of domestic enterprises with low alpha spherical silica mass production capacity, and the import substitution space is significant.
The classification process is the core procedure that determines the final quality of powder. The D50 control accuracy of traditional domestic mechanical mills and jet mills is only ±2 to 3 microns, which cannot meet the accuracy requirement of ±1 micron for lithium battery materials. The qualified rate of 5 to 20 micron powder such as glass fiber after traditional rotary vibration screening is only about 75%. Some pharmaceutical enterprises also fail in random inspection due to the substandard sanitation of screening equipment. At the same time, the ultrafine powder classification equipment market maintains rapid growth. The domestic market size in 2024 is about 7.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19.2%. The growth rate of the fine classification segment exceeds 12%, which is significantly higher than the overall growth rate of powder equipment. The contradiction between rigid downstream demand and the failure of traditional solutions provides entry opportunities for enterprises that master high-precision classification technology.
Self-developed nanosecond airflow classification technology, double breakthroughs in accuracy and energy efficiency
The core technology base of Jiyun New Material is the self-developed nanosecond airflow classification technology. By optimizing the gas flow field distribution, improving the gas-material mixing efficiency and classification response speed, this technology overcomes the inherent defects of traditional classification equipment such as uneven flow field, response lag and poor consistency. Under the same energy consumption condition, the production capacity efficiency of this system can reach more than 10 times that of traditional classification equipment, and the finest classification accuracy D97 can be controlled to about 100 nanometers, which can accurately separate micron-level, submicron-level and even nanometer-level products from powders with wide particle size distribution.
The complete fine classification system includes six core processes: feeding, drying and dispersing, depolymerization, simultaneous modification, fine classification, discharging dust collection and automatic packaging. After being sucked in by negative pressure, the materials are mixed with hot air for dispersion and atomization, and depolymerized in high-speed spiral motion, then enter the mixing chamber to complete the coating of modifier, and finally achieve accurate classification according to the particle size standard. The system adopts full negative pressure operation design, with almost no dust overflow. For active metal powders such as titanium powder and aluminum powder, an optional inert gas protection system can be equipped to control the oxygen content within 10ppm, filling part of the gaps in the field of domestic safety classification. The production line is equipped with PLC/DCS automatic control system, which can realize real-time monitoring of operating status, fault alarm and remote diagnosis, and support access to the IoT cloud platform.
At present, Jiyun New Material has completed the verification of the small test and pilot test stages. The production capacity of the pilot line reaches 100 kg per hour, and the formal production line can be scaled up to about 5 times on this basis. The company also masters the preparation technology of high-purity ultrafine spherical silica, aluminum oxide and various microspheres, forming a full-chain capability from material preparation to fine classification. The products can be applied in many scenarios such as silicon-carbon anode for lithium batteries, electronic packaging fillers, semiconductor polishing powders, and advanced ceramic granulation powders.
Three-layer business model to enter high-barrier track
In terms of commercialization path, Jiyun New Material abandons the single equipment sales model and builds a three-layer profit model with core of fine classification of customer-supplied materials, full-process technical services and EPC general contracting. The basic layer provides customer-supplied material processing services for customers, sets up special production lines according to material types, and implements a 15% to 30% technical premium for high-value fields such as new energy and medicine. The middle layer provides full-process technical services from raw material testing, process package output to new product co-development, to enhance customer stickiness. The top layer undertakes EPC general contracting of powder processing systems for super-large customers, and obtains long-term benefits through technology, management and operation and maintenance sharing. In addition, the company has designed a settlement structure of advance payment plus progress payment plus final payment, as well as a profit-sharing cooperation mechanism for strategic customers, and the accounts receivable period is controlled within 60 days.
In terms of target customers, Jiyun New Material focuses on three groups: first, high-end performance-oriented customers such as aerospace, semiconductors and medical implants that require D97 cutoff accuracy of 0.1 micron level; second, cost-efficiency-oriented customers such as lithium battery positive and negative electrode materials and ceramic separators, where demand is expanding rapidly and preparation is highly difficult; third, establish strategic ecological cooperation with industry leading enterprises to achieve deep penetration through technology binding. In the first year of market expansion, the East China region will be taken as the core base, with key investment in the three tracks of new energy, advanced ceramics and biomedicine.
In terms of team background, Jiyun New Material is the first private enterprise in China that integrates R&D, preparation and fine classification of new nanometer, submicron and microsphere series materials, and has been deeply engaged in the field of ultrafine powder for more than ten years. The company has won honors such as the third prize of innovative product in 2021 China Nanometer Functional Materials Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition, and the second prize of the first Suzhou Veterans Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. The core technical team has accumulated rich engineering experience in powder preparation and classification processes, and relevant core technical solutions have formed differentiated accumulation in links such as nanosecond technology design, gradient thermal field control, and powder secondary particle depolymerization, and patent layout is underway.