"Asking" in the market, "implementing" on site, seizing the market highland with technological innovation and striving to become the leading supplier in sub-sectors. In the first half of 2023, the sales revenue and profits of the Beijing Beiye Functional Materials Corporation exceeded its budget schedule, with more than half of the tasks completed in just over half of the time, among which the domestic production and sales of high-temperature master alloy set new records, and some products were exported.

From "Shenzhou" series spacecraft to the Chang'e Project, from major instrument projects to "aero-engine and gas turbine" projects, from the "Beidou" space-borne atomic clock magnetic shielding device to superalloy GH141 wire... the Beijing Beiye Functional Materials Corporation has always been guided by major national and market demands, conducting in-depth research in sub-sectors and solving key "bottleneck" material problems multiple times. It has found ways to make the enterprise strong. In the field of high-temperature superalloy, slag desulfurization in a ton-level vacuum induction smelting furnace was achieved for the first time in China, and stable batch production was realized, realizing the localization of large vacuum induction furnace equipment. In the field of magnetic alloys, a series of high-performance soft magnetic alloy products with independent intellectual property rights has been formed, which are applied to many types of aerospace products, and the global market share has been increasing year by year for the last five years. In the field of expansion alloy, the only 1,000-ton high-precision large-coil heavy production line of integrated circuit lead frame materials in China has been built, achieving import substitution. The products are ranked second in global production and have an expanding market share, with exports to Japan and Britain.

In the first half of this year, the Beijing Beiye Functional Materials Corporation was successfully selected for SASAC’s special action to deepen reform and enhance the independent innovation capability of science and technology enterprises, which added an important force to independent innovation. In recent years, focusing on the promotion of technological innovation as the first competitiveness of enterprises, the Beijing Beiye Functional Materials Corporation has always insisted on taking technological innovation as the forerunner and deeply cultivated an innovation environment, injecting strong momentum into its high-quality development through measures such as building a new system, providing a hard guarantee and cultivating a new team.

Building a new system. To adapt to the industry characteristics of multi-variety, multi-specification and small batches of special metal materials, the Beijing Beiye Functional Materials Corporation formed the characteristics of collinear scientific research, trial manufacture and production, and constructed an all-round scientific and technological innovation system which is based on the implementation of scientific research projects, guaranteed by the internal resource coordination mechanism and guided by the innovation of the whole industrial chain, thereby realizing seamless connection among the R&D, trial manufacture and production of scientific and technological achievements, crossing the "valley of death" from laboratory to industrialization, building an engineering bridge and truly implementing the concept of scientific research engineering. In recent years, the Beijing Beiye Functional Materials Corporation has formulated six project management systems and three incentive systems, established the Beijing Enterprise Technology Center, set up the Science and Technology Committee, formed innovation studios in various fields and established the "China Reignition - Beijing Beiye Joint Laboratory".

Providing a hard guarantee. Focusing on the large-scale scientific research mode that features the coordinated development of material R&D, operation process, equipment and testing, the Beijing Beiye Functional Materials Corporation takes the Beijing Municipal Enterprise Technology Center as the core and innovation studios in various material professional fields as the lead, and builds a scientific and technological innovation team that covers researchers in material R&D, process technology, equipment and tooling, physical and chemical testing, etc., thereby launching the whole process and all-round research of high-end metal materials. The annual R&D expenditure is over RMB 100 million, accounting for 6–8% of the sales revenue, which provides a solid guarantee for promoting the scientific and technological innovation and development of enterprises.

Cultivating a new team. By undertaking major projects at the national, provincial and ministerial levels, as well as tackling key technical problems such as material mechanisms, processes, equipment and testing in the research and production of special metal materials, the Beijing Beiye Functional Materials Corporation cultivates the comprehensive innovation ability and engineering practice ability of cutting-edge technical talents in the whole chain of new material R&D and application technology. Improving the fault tolerance and evaluation mechanism for R&D personnel, and implementing the training mode for engineering talents, the Beijing Beiye Functional Materials Corporation has assembled a core team of highly educated high-quality innovative talents with master’s and doctoral degrees which was named an Advanced Collective by the National Iron and Steel Association. It has successively trained high-end talents such as young national-level talents of the China Association for Science and Technology, outstanding young talents of Beijing, new stars of science and technology in Beijing, “Model of State-owned Enterprises” and “Model of Beijing” selected by the Beijing SASAC, and second-class scientists of Shougang, forming the backbone of leading scientific and technological innovation and development in enterprises.

At present, the Beijing Beiye Functional Materials Corporation has carried out 81 scientific research projects, including two national key R&D projects and two National Natural Science Foundation projects, four special and one-stop projects for superiors, and five special projects for large aircraft and "aero-engine and gas turbine" projects. It has carried out 47 horizontal entrusted projects with China Reignition, Aerospace Ninth Academy and the Metallurgical Standards Research Institute. It has also carried out 21 major internal projects in materials, processes, testing, equipment and other aspects. Its number of patent applications and authorizations is increasing year by year, with 85 authorized patents and one Chinese patent gold medal so far. One of its scientific and technological innovation achievements won the second prize at the Beijing Scientific and Technological Progress Awards.

In the second half of the year, the Beijing Beiye Functional Materials Corporation will continue to take scientific and technological innovation as the planning and source point, take the construction of a transformation base for scientific research achievements as the starting point, adhere to the "two-wheel drive" of major national strategic and market requirements, aim at sub-sectors, overcome difficulties, explore constantly and strive to become the leading supplier in the field of high-end metal materials.