Completed three rounds of financing within 6 months, Zhenye New Materials has secured tens of millions of yuan in Series A++ investment from Guoyuan Capital | 36Kr Exclusive
36Kr learned that Zhenye New Materials, an ADI (Austempered Ductile Iron) metal material enterprise, has recently completed an A++ round of financing of tens of millions of yuan, exclusively invested by Guoyuan Equity Investment. This round of financing will be mainly used for the expansion of ADI material production lines, iterative R&D of core processes, and the commercialization implementation in downstream scenarios such as passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, and construction machinery.
This is the third round of financing completed by Zhenye New Materials within 6 months. Previously, the company successively completed a Series A financing of over 100 million yuan and a strategic financing of tens of millions of yuan.
ADI is a kind of ductile iron material processed by austempering process, which has both high strength and high toughness, and is widely used in core safety components such as gears, chassis and heavy-duty transmission. At the moment when the automotive industry is accelerating the transformation to lightweight and low cost, ADI is regarded as an important material direction to replace traditional alloy steel.
However, for a long time, China's ADI industry has faced a core technical bottleneck: it is difficult to achieve both high strength and high elongation. In the ADI industry, 1200MPa tensile strength and 4% elongation are the general performance standards. Only when the elongation reaches more than 5%~6% can it be regarded as a high-toughness structural material in the true sense — which is a recognized key technical watershed in the industry. High strength and toughness means that the material can meet the strict requirements of core safety parts for impact resistance, fatigue resistance and non-fracture.
However, the technical level of mainstream domestic manufacturers generally stays in the range of "high strength and low elongation": QTD 900-8 (900MPa tensile strength, 8% elongation), QTD 1200-4 (1200MPa tensile strength, 4% elongation), QTD 1400-2 (1400MPa tensile strength, 2% elongation). The higher the strength, the lower the elongation, which cannot adapt to the core working conditions such as high-end heavy load and precision gears.
Chen Songlin, partner and technical director of Zhenye New Materials, told 36Kr that in 2024, Zhenye New Materials achieved key technological breakthroughs, thus gaining the ability to mass-produce a number of high-performance ADI materials, including QTD 1200-10 (1200MPa tensile strength, 10% elongation) and QTD 1400-7 (1400MPa tensile strength, 7% elongation).
Chen Songlin explained to 36Kr: "ADI austempering is significantly different from conventional quenching, and its production requires the coordination and integration of both casting and heat treatment. In the past, many engineers were only proficient in a single link of casting or heat treatment, and could not achieve precise control from the perspective of the whole process. The casting composition formula of ADI must match the heat treatment process, the control ratio of each alloy element in the spheroidization and inoculation stages is different, and it is also affected by the wall thickness and structural shape of the product. The austempering cycle usually lasts for several hours, and parameters such as heating rate and heat preservation nodes will directly affect the final performance. It requires fine coordinated regulation, with an extremely narrow process window and very high requirements for substrate quality." The reason why Zhenye New Materials can achieve technological breakthroughs lies precisely in its full-process control of production.
The technological breakthrough has accelerated the value release of ADI materials in automotive applications. In terms of weight reduction, the density of ADI is about 7.1~7.2g/cm³, which is lower than 7.8~7.9g/cm³ of steel, and parts of the same size are about 10% lighter than alloy steel; since ADI can be integrally formed and reduce machining processes, the weight reduction range is more considerable in practical applications. Gao Heng, head of investment and financing of Zhenye New Materials, said: "The strength of ADI can rival many alloy steels, but it has lower density, with natural lightweight advantages and price advantages. Coupled with the integral forming process, it is more suitable for producing products with complex structures and reducing machining time." At present, Zhenye New Materials has carried out R&D cooperation with a number of leading enterprises, covering passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, agricultural machinery, construction machinery and other fields, and carried out joint R&D around core components such as gears, transmission parts and chassis structural parts. From the perspective of industry pattern, ADI materials are still in the early stage of industrialization in China.
Due to mature technology, the penetration rate of ADI in North America in the ductile iron field has exceeded 15%, while the current penetration rate in China is less than 2%. China is the world's largest producer and consumer of ductile iron, with the annual market size of ductile iron reaching the level of tens of millions of tons. With the maturity of domestic high-end ADI technology, the continuous release of cost advantages, and the superimposed high-end upgrading demands in automobiles, construction machinery, wind power equipment, ships and other fields, the penetration rate of domestic ADI is expected to replicate the development path of North America — moving from less than 2% to 15%, corresponding to a market with great growth potential. Zhenye New Materials, which is deeply engaged in this track, may be one of the enterprises that gain early harvest in this market.