What kind of innovation wave will "academic pioneers" trigger in the industrial automation sector when they step into the market?
Huang Xuzhen, a professor at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA), driven by the industrial vision of "translating laboratory research achievements into tangible value on production lines", resolutely embarked on an entrepreneurial journey. She led her team to tackle the R&D of magnetic-driven flexible transmission systems, a field rarely explored domestically. Today, the team has not only advanced the localization of this technology but also provided a "high-performance solution" that is independently controllable and internationally competitive for China's high-end manufacturing industry.
Technological Breakthrough
In December 2020, Nanjing Xunzhuan Intelligent Industrial Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Xunzhuan Intelligence") was established. However, it was not until November 2022 that the company formed a full-time team and officially entered the phase of substantial operation.
"Early on, I identified the direction for my entrepreneurship – magnetic-driven flexible transmission systems. Over nearly two years, I focused on refining the technical route, laying a solid foundation step by step, from underlying algorithms and motor design to the development of drive control systems," Huang Xuzhen admitted.
As the technical core of the team, Huang Xuzhen obtained her Doctor of Engineering degree from Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) in 2012, studying under Professor Li Liyi – a Changjiang Scholar of the Ministry of Education and an expert in special motors and electromagnetic devices. After graduation, she joined NUAA, where she has long been engaged in teaching and research on linear motors and drive control systems.
During her interactions with enterprises, Huang Xuzhen noticed the limitations of traditional belt and chain conveyor lines: low precision, limited speed, high noise, and a lack of flexible adjustment capabilities. In 2019, at an international industrial exhibition, she saw that foreign enterprises had begun to apply linear motor transmission technology. She was convinced that "this is the future trend of industrial production" – a field she had been deeply engaged in for years.
According to Huang Xuzhen's vision, the core principle of the magnetic-driven flexible transmission system is similar to that of rail transit: both use electromagnetic force to precisely drive carriers to move controllably on tracks. However, it offers distinct advantages:
High Flexibility: The track is no longer a fixed "rail" but an intelligent path with adjustable routes. Each trolley for transporting materials can operate independently without interfering with one another.
Exceptional Efficiency: Its operating speed far exceeds that of traditional friction-based transmission methods, significantly improving material flow efficiency.
Flexible Production: Without the need to reconfigure hardware, the entire production line can quickly switch between manufacturing different product models by adjusting operational logic through software commands. This fully meets the needs of modern manufacturing for "small-batch, multi-variety" production models.
As the technical route became increasingly clear, the team was gradually formed, and R&D progress advanced rapidly: in 2023, the team successfully developed the first engineering prototype; in early 2024, the first-generation product was officially launched.
At this moment, the light of technology finally transcended the windows of the laboratory and illuminated real-world application scenarios.
Tempering Through Practical Application
Entering Xunzhuan Intelligence's debugging and assembly workshop, one can see multiple movers shuttling at high speed on circular tracks – accelerating, pausing, and changing directions from time to time, as if guided by an invisible baton.
Huang Xuzhen explained: "A mover can be understood as a 'courier trolley', responsible for transporting 'packages' such as raw materials, parts, or finished products. Critical components called 'stators' are embedded under the track – they serve as both charging coils and communication base stations. The 'brain' of the entire system is the central control MES (Manufacturing Execution System) platform. When this 'production commander' issues a transportation command, the 'courier trolleys' immediately 'accept the order' and rush along the track to transport goods. During movement, each time a trolley passes a communication base station, it automatically completes an information exchange, reporting its real-time position and operating status."
In this way, the material flow in the physical world and real-time data in the digital world achieve precise synchronization and in-depth interaction, forming an accurate, intelligent, and visible production line logistics system. Behind this lies countless days and nights of technical 攻坚克难，continuous verification, and iterative optimization by the team.
In May 2024, Xunzhuan Intelligence faced a major "test": a well-known enterprise in Jiangsu proposed to operate the magnetic-driven flexible transmission system on its component production line, and the products from this line would be directly delivered to end customers.
The enterprise made this decision to move beyond the "laboratory loop" – only through verification in actual production can the product truly meet delivery standards. Although the two parties had completed multiple rounds of testing in a laboratory environment, real production sites are often unpredictable, putting immense pressure on Xunzhuan Intelligence.
At that time, 5 core employees of Xunzhuan Intelligence were stationed at the customer's production site. Huang Xuzhen clearly remembered that when the customer's core components were put into operation for the first time, the system's communication module suddenly encountered unstable signal reception.
The entire team immediately launched an emergency investigation. They tested the lines section by section and verified each module repeatedly. After four days, they finally identified the root cause: during the demolition of the original production line, an overlooked power cable was accidentally connected to the metal shell, causing current interference and resulting in communication abnormalities.
The tricky part was that this interference had damaged the communication hardware between segments. The team had to "innovate in a crisis": bypassing the physical connection limitations, they realized signal transfer through the controller layer. This meant the team had to restructure the communication architecture and almost rewrite the entire software system within an extremely short period.
That night, the workshop remained brightly lit, with the continuous sound of keyboard typing and debugging commands. After a sleepless night of hard work, the next morning, the new communication process passed the test successfully, and the system returned to stable operation. "Following the conventional development process, such a task would take at least a week. But relying on the team's collaboration and resilience, we created a miracle overnight," Huang Xuzhen recalled with emotion.
During the two-week on-site debugging, the team solved more than a dozen technical problems of varying degrees. After this high-intensity practical test, the reliability of the magnetic-driven flexible transmission system's components and the maturity of its algorithms were significantly enhanced. The delivery results were also encouraging:
The total length of the customer's production line was reduced from 18 meters to approximately 8 meters, resulting in a more compact and efficient layout.
The maximum operating speed of the system reached 5 meters per second, far exceeding the 1 meter per second of traditional transmission methods.
The production cycle was significantly accelerated, with the hourly output of components increasing by 20%.
Industrial Journey
Today, Xunzhuan Intelligence is stepping into the industrialization battlefield as a technological pioneer.
Currently, the company has launched magnetic-driven flexible transmission products such as circular lines, connection lines, and circular side-hung lines. These products have been gradually introduced into the production lines of a number of well-known domestic and foreign enterprises, covering high-precision manufacturing fields including semiconductors, biomedicine, 3C electronics, and intelligent logistics.
Looking back to 2020, magnetic-driven flexible transmission technology was still a "revolution on paper". Five years later, more than a dozen competitors have emerged in China, but only a few possess fully independent R&D capabilities. "We are one of them. The company has independent control over everything from underlying algorithms to system integration, so we are not afraid of competition," Huang Xuzhen stated firmly.
Changes in pricing reflect the industry's journey from relying on imports to achieving independent control. In the past, overseas giants held absolute pricing power, with a meter of guide rail costing over 100,000 yuan. Today, the market price has dropped to around 20,000 yuan, completely changing the market's rules of the game.
Huang Xuzhen revealed that the company's current development focus has fully shifted to market expansion and large-scale application. The development pace of China's industrial sector is very different from that of foreign countries. Taking the automotive industry as an example, it only takes a few months for a domestic vehicle model to go from design to mass production, while similar projects abroad usually take one to two years.
This fast-iterating industrial rhythm forces equipment suppliers to constantly break through their capacity boundaries. Customers often expect to complete the construction of production lines hundreds or even thousands of meters long within one or two months. This places extremely high demands on the company's supply chain responsiveness, production organization, and rapid delivery capabilities, requiring systematic breakthroughs in multiple dimensions such as talent echelon construction, supply chain system optimization, and project management upgrading.
Fortunately, during this critical period of industrialization, Xunzhuan Intelligence has received two strong boosts: in April 2023, the company obtained angel round investment from Shenzhen Megmeet Electric Group; recently, Nanjing Venture Capital Group also completed a new round of investment support for the company.
A relevant person in charge of the Future Angel Investment Department of Nanjing Venture Capital Group stated that the magnetic-driven flexible transmission system is developing rapidly in the Yangtze River Delta region, and Xunzhuan Intelligence is a benchmark enterprise in this field in Nanjing. "Industrial capital and investment institutions bring not only financial support but also help the company quickly fill resource gaps, effectively introduce high-quality customers, and enhance its industry influence," the person in charge said. He added that the total demand for transmission lines in China has entered the 100-billion-yuan scale. Considering that traditional belt lines and chain plate lines still dominate the market, magnetic-driven transmission lines have broad penetration potential. As long as Xunzhuan Intelligence continues to deepen its market presence and optimize scenario-based applications, it stands an excellent chance of taking a leading position in this "small but beautiful, refined and cutting-edge" track.
"Adhere to the path of combining academic frontiers with industrial needs, and develop products with real commercial value." This is the belief Huang Xuzhen has always upheld. On the land of Nanjing, which boasts abundant scientific and educational resources and a solid industrial foundation, the growth of Xunzhuan Intelligence is a vivid example of "industry-university-research integration": the scientific research accumulation of universities has injected an innovative gene into it; keen industrial insights have pointed out its direction; precise empowerment from capital and policies has provided it with sustained momentum. The convergence of multiple forces has broadened the path starting from the laboratory, eventually turning it into a smooth thoroughfare.
Source: Nanjing Venture Capital Group
Review: Xue Yao
Release: You Yi
