Company's lead-free goal wins support

Academicians give valuable input to hit target, report Zheng Yiran in Beijing and Ma Zhenhuan in Hangzhou.

Tongxiang Tsingfeng Technology Co Ltd, a high-tech company that specializes in lead-free piezoelectric materials and components, is benefiting from the spillover effect of the World Internet Conference.

"Me and two of my fellow students in the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Tsinghua University started our lead-free project in 2019," said Gong Wen, founder of Tongxiang Tsingfeng Technology. "We got support from the Yangtze Delta Region Institute of Tsinghua University, located in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province.

"Gathering diversified technical resources," he added, "our project was initially incubated there. Later on in 2021, the School of Materials Science and Engineering and the local government jointly established Wuzhen Laboratory — a new material research and development institution in Tongxiang city, Jiaxing. The lab offered us an ecology with a rich industrial foundation, where we could really dig into the R&D and follow-up procedures of our project. Later on, we established the company."

According to Gong, developing lead-free materials and components is of great importance because lead is an ingredient that is harmful to human health and the environment.

Apart from the Wuzhen Lab, Gong and his fellow students also received support from the Zhejiang Academicians Community, another result of the spillover effect of the WIC.

As the only academic community in Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, the ZAC in Wuzhen was co-founded by the China Federation of Industrial Economics and the local government in 2020. It is a platform that integrates high-end talent and innovation elements.

"A German academician from the community, who is an expert in materials, offered us great support during the past years," Gong said.

So far, the community has attracted 53 academicians from home and abroad. It is offering talent support and intellectual security for promoting the development of high-end industries and the transformation and upgrading of local economy.

Chen Jia, an independent researcher in international strategy, said: "Statistics in recent years showed that the influence of the WIC has been beyond the purview of the conference. The ZAC, as an important platform to carry on the spillover effect of the conference, integrates a lot of new models of digital economy, including knowledge innovation, talent recruitment, industrial agglomeration and cross-field integration."

Gong added that "the WIC offers us an opportunity to let others know what we are doing, and what we are going to do, broadcasting our design philosophy, the commercial and social value of our products, propelling us to go further".

According to Gong, the R&D of their team's lead-free project has been completed, and currently, they have moved to the commercialization stage. The lead-free materials and elements developed by Tongxiang Tsingfeng Technology are now mainly applied in home appliances and healthcare sectors, covering humidifiers, aromatherapy machines, and children's atomization therapeutic instruments. The company's annual production output is between 30 million yuan ($4.2 million) and 40 million yuan.