Rebirth of the Industrial Tycoon

Lu Guangming looked at Li Weidong with a confused face, waiting for him to reveal the answer.

Li Weidong explained: "According to the method of oxygen production, there are many types of oxygen concentrators. For example, there are four main methods of industrial oxygen production, liquid air separation method, membrane separation technology, molecular sieve oxygen production, and electrolysis oxygen production. oxygen method.

Among them, only the molecular sieve type oxygen generator is most suitable for use in household oxygen generators, which means that the pressure swing adsorption technology you mentioned is used to separate gases and extract oxygen from the air. "

"Yes, as far as the current technical level is concerned, this is a household oxygen concentrator or a small medical oxygen concentrator. This technology can only be used." Lu Guangming nodded.

There is a huge demand for oxygen in industry, such as metallurgy, chemical industry, petroleum, national defense and other industrial production fields, which all need oxygen. Therefore, as early as the beginning of the twentieth century, humans will start industrial oxygen production, and Various means were studied.

Among them, the electrolytic oxygen production method is the easiest to understand, which is to electrolyze water into oxygen and hydrogen. This method consumes a lot of electricity and the amount of oxygen produced is not high.

Moreover, mixing hydrogen and oxygen is prone to explosion and is very unsafe. Therefore, in actual production, companies will not use this method to produce oxygen.

The method of separating liquid air is to pressurize the air under low temperature conditions, so that the air changes from gaseous to liquid, and then evaporates.

The main components in the air are nitrogen and oxygen. The boiling point of liquid nitrogen is minus 196 degrees, while the boiling point of liquid oxygen is minus 183 degrees. The boiling point of liquid oxygen is higher, so nitrogen will evaporate from the liquid air first, leaving the remaining is liquid oxygen.

Of course, the air must be purified before this to remove dust, moisture, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons and other impurities.

Membrane separation technology allows air to pass through a membrane with oxygen-rich function, that is, an oxygen-rich membrane, so that air with a higher content can be obtained.

However, this method cannot obtain high-purity oxygen. In industry, it mainly improves combustion efficiency by a small margin.

Molecular sieve oxygen generators use physical methods, using pressure swing adsorption technology and the characteristic that nitrogen molecules are larger than oxygen molecules to absorb oxygen from the air.

Of these four main technologies, the first two can definitely only be used for industrial oxygen production. One requires electrolysis of water and the other requires air liquefaction, which is destined to be unsuitable for use in homes or small medical oxygen concentrators.

Therefore, household oxygen concentrators or small medical oxygen concentrators can only use the latter two methods.

Membrane separation technology is very suitable for small oxygen generators. The key to this technology is the material. As long as the material of the oxygen-rich membrane passes the test, the rest is nothing more than a pumping system.

Therefore, at the beginning of the 21st century, household oxygen-rich membrane oxygen generators have been manufactured. The first ones were produced in Japan, and Japan also used oxygen-rich membranes in the home appliance industry to produce oxygen-rich membrane air conditioners. product.

A few years later, domestic companies also produced oxygen-rich membrane oxygen generators, but the most critical oxygen-rich membrane needed to be imported. This meant that nuclear components were completely in foreign hands.

Moreover, imported oxygen-enriched membranes also greatly increased the cost of oxygen concentrators. Therefore, the oxygen-enriched membrane oxygen concentrators at that time were not affordable and were extremely expensive to sell.

Another point is that the oxygen production effect of the oxygen-rich membrane oxygen generator is not very good. The oxygen content in the air is about 21, and the oxygen-rich membrane oxygen generator can only increase this ratio to 30, which is much worse than other sample preparation methods.

The oxygen content of 30 is not very effective. This kind of oxygen concentrator can only play a general health care effect and has little medical effect.

Few people would spend a lot of money to buy an oxygen concentrator with a less than ideal oxygen production effect. Therefore, when this oxygen-rich membrane oxygen concentrator was first launched, there was almost no sales.

It was not until later that China made progress in oxygen-rich membrane technology and the price of oxygen-rich membrane oxygen generators dropped significantly that it was gradually accepted by the market.

The industrial production method of molecular sieve oxygen generator is also very complicated, which requires air purification, then vacuuming, and the use of an adsorption tower.

But if it is not industrial production, the quality requirements for oxygen are not so high. Using a vacuum pump can solve the process problems.

If Li Weidong develops an oxygen-rich membrane oxygen generator, then he needs to develop an oxygen-rich membrane. This is actually a technical field of molecular materials and has nothing to do with medical devices.

The molecular sieve oxygen concentrator is different. This is a serious medical device research and development, and by developing a molecular sieve oxygen concentrator, the puppy's health can at least obtain a pressure swing adsorption technology.

Molecular sieve oxygen generators are indeed in line with the development trend of oxygen generators. The most widely used oxygen concentrator in later generations, which is similar to luggage and has a bottle for adding water, is the molecular sieve oxygen concentrator.

Just listen to Li Weidong continue to say; "What I just talked about are all methods of industrial production of oxygen, which are mainly used for large-scale oxygen production. But for home use, large-scale oxygen production is not required.

If it is not a large-scale oxygen production, then in addition to what I just said, there is a simpler way to obtain oxygen, and that is chemical reaction! "

Using chemical reactions to obtain oxygen is part of the junior high school chemistry class, and it is also a required question in the high school entrance examination. No one will find this method unfamiliar.

When he heard about chemical reactions producing oxygen, Lu Guangming frowned and asked, "Chairman, do you mean to use chemical agents to produce oxygen?"

Li Weidong nodded: "Yes, we can first make an oxygen concentrator that uses chemical agents to produce oxygen. This thing has a very simple structure and basically does not require research and development. We can use this simple oxygen concentrator to make some money first, and then Use this money to invest in the research and development of molecular sieve oxygen generators.”

Upon hearing this idea, Lu Guangming showed a disdainful expression, as if he looked down on such a non-technical thing.

Then Lu Guangming said: "Chairman, with all due respect, the product you mentioned is already on the market, and the sales are quite good, with many people buying it.

I have seen this kind of product. It is two water tanks connected together. One side adds oxygen generator and the other side adds catalyst. Then cover the lid and connect the straw. Wait for the oxygen generator inside to react chemically with the water, and then produce out oxygen. "

"Are you talking about Oxylide?" Li Weidong asked with a smile.

"So you know!" Lu Guangming said in surprise.

Li Weidong nodded: "Of course I know. Oxylide was established earlier than our company. When we started selling massage seats, others had been selling oxygen concentrators for several years."

Oxylide was founded in 1990, when they launched a portable oxygen concentrator that used the principle of chemical reaction.

The so-called oxygen concentrator is actually a plastic water tank. The water tank is divided into two parts, and the bottom part is connected together.

During use, oxygen generator is added to one side and catalyst is added to the other side. The two come into contact at the bottom of the water tank, causing the oxygen generator to react with water to produce oxygen.

The so-called oxygen generator is actually sodium percarbonate. When this kind of thing encounters water, it will undergo a chemical reaction to generate sodium carbonate and hydrogen peroxide. Since the hydrogen peroxide is unstable, it will decompose into water and oxygen.

The catalyst is manganese dioxide, which can accelerate the reaction process and quickly obtain a large amount of oxygen.

Sodium percarbonate is simple and convenient to produce oxygen, and can supply a large amount of oxygen in a short time. It is very suitable for use in areas with low industrial level.

When China's industry was still relatively backward, hospitals in Beijing alone used 400 tons of sodium percarbonate a year for oxygen production.

In the years when the international situation was relatively tense, many underground civil air defense projects were built in China. At that time, these projects had to store carbon peroxide for oxygen production in emergencies. Therefore, carbon peroxide once became a very important strategic material.

Since the method of industrial oxygen production gradually became popular, sodium peroxide oxygen production has been gradually eliminated, mainly because the cost of this method is relatively high, and large-scale industrial oxygen production is not cost-effective.

Since sodium peroxide reacts with water to generate hydrogen peroxide, this compound is also used as a bleaching agent and oxidant in industries such as chemical industry, papermaking, textile, printing and dyeing, food, washing and other industries.

In contrast, using it directly to make oxygen is a waste. The hydrogen peroxide produced from one kilogram of sodium peroxide is more valuable than oxygen plus water.

So when Oxylide launched its oxygen concentrator in the early 1990s, it was tepid in the first few years. The reason was that the price of the oxygen concentrator was too high.

A portion of oxygen concentrator, including a bag of sodium percarbonate and a bag of manganese dioxide, can only be used for about fifteen minutes. However, the price of this oxygen concentrator costs fifty or six yuan. In the 1990s, In the early days, given the income level of the Chinese people, how could they afford it?

And those who can afford oxygen concentrators are the kind of people who don't have to spend money to be hospitalized. If they need oxygen, the hospital can send oxygen tanks to their homes with just a phone call. They don't need this kind of thing.

It was not until the mid-1990s that, with the gradual increase in national income, the sales volume of Oxide began to increase.

In addition, it was the hottest era of health care products at that time, and all kinds of exaggerated health care product advertisements emerged one after another. Therefore, as long as the products were promoted properly, it would be easy to sell the products.

Oxylide entered its glorious period after the rise of TV shopping.

In the late 1990s, domestic TV shopping developed rapidly. Even fourth- and fifth-tier cities and some counties already had TV shopping channels. Through this channel, Oxylide entered thousands of households.

Just listen to Lu Guangming say: "Chairman, as far as I know, there are a lot of advertisements about Oxylide on TV, and they are all TV shopping programs. They have already made this product, if we make the same product now , isn’t it a little too late?”

"It's not too late." Li Weidong smiled and shook his head, and then said; "You have to know that although their products are earlier, we have three major advantages.

First of all, we have the hospital channel. Starting from selling massage chairs, we have been operating the hospital channel for so many years. Our representatives are very familiar with the hospitals, and we also have cooperative relationships with many hospitals. This is something that other companies do not have. of.

Secondly, our brand awareness is relatively high. There are so many health care products that have emerged in the past few years. There are all kinds of products, and most of them are brands that you have never heard of.

As for the Puppy brand, it is also a well-known brand in China. If the same product has a brand bonus, it will be easier to gain the trust of consumers.

Third, we are a professional medical device manufacturer. We produce regular medical devices, not health care devices. This is very important.

Because we produce medical devices, when we promote them, we can promote them as medical devices, but other companies cannot do this.

If they do not have the qualifications to produce medical devices, or their products have not obtained medical device certification qualifications, but they publish medical device advertisements without authorization, it is a violation. At that time, we can report it to the food and drug supervision department, and we will definitely report it! "

Lu Guangming is also a veteran of shopping malls. When he heard Li Weidong's last words, he instantly grasped the key point.

"Chairman, are you saying that Oxylide does not have the qualifications to produce medical devices?" Lu Guangming asked immediately.

Li Weidong did not answer clearly, but said: "How many of these domestic companies that produce health care devices have medical device production qualifications? Medical device production qualifications are not so easy to obtain.

Even if they have the production qualification of medical devices, are their products medical devices? Do you have certification qualifications from relevant national departments?

If they do not have these, but promote the product as a medical device, they are publishing medical device advertisements without approval, which is deceiving and misleading consumers.

At this time, the media will start to spread the word and properly publicize the dangers of counterfeit medical devices. By then, it will not be certain who is Li Kui and who is Li Gui! "

False propaganda was a common occurrence in the personal health care product industry at that time. How could any health care product not be falsely advertised? You can’t sell it without false propaganda!

Many oral health products promote their efficacy in curing diseases, telling consumers overtly and covertly that they are medicines.

The same is true for health care equipment. There are various explicit and implicit methods to stick the labels of medical equipment on oneself.

This is mainly caused by the non-standardization of the domestic health care product market. It can be regarded as an unspoken rule in the industry. Everyone does this. Although it is against the rules, it is basically a state where the people do not investigate and officials do not investigate.

But if someone really reports it, then the law enforcement agencies will naturally take action.

Oxide is a member of the industry, and of course it has been doing this kind of thing, and has been doing so for many years. Until 2006, the State Food and Drug Administration began to publish the "Summary of Illegal Medical Device Advertising," and Oxide was listed on the report.

It is not easy to obtain the production qualification of medical devices. The state has relatively strict management in this area. Not just any cat or dog can obtain a medical device production license.

The production of medical devices also requires qualification approval from relevant departments. Only when the competent department determines that what you produce is a medical device, can it be considered a real medical device.

None of this is a problem for Li Weidong.

Puppy Health originally chose to acquire Jinzhou Medical Device Factory instead of building a new factory. The main reason is that Jinzhou Medical Device Factory has complete medical device production qualifications and can easily pass the medical device production qualification approval.

Those companies that produce health care equipment may not have such good resources.

Even if everyone sells the same product, mine is a medical device and yours is a health device, which one will consumers trust more?

And I can promote my products as medical devices without any scruples, but you can't do this. If you promote a health care device as a medical device, go to the Food and Drug Administration to get it right!

So when Li Weidong mentioned "Li Kui and Li Gui", Lu Guangming instantly understood Li Weidong's intention.

Lu Guangming thought in his mind: "If you want to say something sinister, you still have to look at our chairman! The product is still just words, and he is starting to plot against his competitors!"

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