In recent years, with the drive of government procurement for security, traffic control, military exercises, etc., and the acceleration of the replacement of traditional DLP displays by small-pitch LED displays, the size of the small-pitch LED display market has shown rapid growth, and has indeed become a "dark horse" in the LED display industry, occupying a high industry position.
Statistics show that in 2018, mainland China's small-pitch LED market sales increased by 64.1% year-on-year, which was higher than the 62.5% in 2017, reaching 6.84 billion yuan. According to analysis by industry research institutions, the overall market space for LED small-pitch displays reaches 50 billion yuan, with huge room for future growth.
As fine-pitch technology continues to mature, the dot pitch continues to shrink, the cost gradually decreases, and the application fields are further expanded. It continues to penetrate into commercial displays and may even enter the home field. The future of the small-pitch LED market is unlimited.
Technology first, Zhaochi Energy Saving takes advantage of the trend to enter the packaging of small-pitch RGB devices
In the field of RGB packaging devices, Zhaochi Energy Saving is not well known by industry insiders. In the impression of industry players, Zhaochi Energy Saving is well-known in the fields of LED lighting and TV backlight, but it has no major layout in the field of RGB display. However, looking at the customer base of Zhaochi Energy Saving, we can find that seven of the top ten TV manufacturers in the world are its customers. At the same time, international and domestic first-tier lighting brands have reached long-term strategic cooperation with Zhaochi Energy Saving. In addition, after nearly 8 years of accumulation and precipitation, Zhaochi Energy Saving has laid a solid technology and quality foundation in the LED packaging industry, establishing a leading industry position in the country. Therefore, Zhaochi’s energy-saving layout RGB packager already has a certain foundation.
According to Zhou Bo, head of Zhaochi Energy Saving Optoelectronics R&D Center, the parent company Zhaochi Co., Ltd. is optimistic about the development of the LED industry. Since 2017, it has invested heavily in the LED field to develop a full industry chain layout. Its products cover LED epitaxy & chips, LED packaging, and LED applications. Due to the similarities in terminal requirements between the backlight field and indoor display, Zhaochi Energy Saving began to deploy Mini LED technology in 2016 and began to intervene in the display field. After having accumulated comprehensive and in-depth technical research and development in Mini LED technology, Zhaochi Energy Saving officially launched the Mini RGB display project in 2017 and invested a lot of resources as a strategic focus of the company. After nearly 2 years of R&D investment and testing, Zhaochi’s energy-saving Mini RGB display device project has been officially put into mass production in mid-2018. It is mainly supplied in batches to major international manufacturers, and the products have been highly recognized by customers.
After nearly 3 years of R&D and production accumulation, Zhaochi Energy Saving has rich experience in the R&D, production, quality control and customer application of high-end RGB packaging devices. It is precisely because of the huge development potential of small-pitch LEDs, combined with Zhaochi Group's entire industry chain layout and the production capacity support of Nanchang Smart Factory, that Zhaochi Energy Saving can fully meet the needs of small-pitch product quality, cost, and scale.
It is reported that at the end of 2018, Zhaochi Energy Saving included small-pitch devices in its 2019 product and market planning. Relying on the Mini RGB high-quality and high-tech mature platform, it followed the trend and began to participate in the market competition for small-pitch RGB packaging devices. It positioned small-pitch LED as the third strategic business segment after the lighting and backlight business segments.
At the beginning of 2019, Zhaochi Energy Saving established a professional small-pitch R&D team, focusing on the layout of small-pitch SMD discrete devices, following up on COB technology reserves, and focusing on the development of all-in-one products with 1010, P1.25 and below point pitches. Currently, 1010 products have entered the mass production stage. In the future, Zhaochi Energy Saving will strive to become one of the top three main suppliers of small-pitch devices within three years through its core competitiveness of leading products, leading quality and leading efficiency.
Quality leads the way, casting high-quality small-pitch packaging devices
Considering that the penetration of small-pitch LED displays in the commercial display market will continue to accelerate in the future, and will continue to shift to greater density, and the amount of lamp beads per unit area of the display will also increase significantly, the market will be more sensitive to the reliability and cost of small-pitch devices. In the future, product quality, cost, and scale will become the three major competitive factors for small-pitch LED packaging devices.
In the eight years since its establishment, Zhaochi Energy Saving has always adhered to the "craftsman spirit" known for "professionalism" and "precision", has been implementing refined management in product quality, and continues to deepen the quality control concept of "no quality, no Zhaochi". In terms of product quality requirements, the company jointly drives from R&D, production, and supply chain aspects to ensure that products meet customers' high-quality requirements.
In terms of research and development, we design products around reliability, consistency, contrast, and cost, adhere to the principle of quality first when selecting materials, and conduct a comprehensive and refined index decomposition of each performance requirement. Each performance difference is carefully analyzed and demonstrated based on theoretical basis and actual verification. At the same time, in terms of the research and development process, Zhaochi Energy Saving has a strict development process and a complete transfer process to mass production to ensure that the design standards and quality standards are accurately transferred to production. It combines rigorous design change and engineering change procedures to ensure that product quality is stable and controllable, and the product quality foundation is ensured through design.
In terms of production, Zhaochi Energy Saving has made a lot of arrangements in intelligent manufacturing in the past two years. The chain production line is equipped with highly intelligent equipment to form a fully automatic assembly line. MES and ERP systems achieve automatic analysis, processing and feedback effects of production information. Through readable and writable IC and barcode systems, products can be tracked from raw materials to after-sales, eliminating the traditional manual management of production information and meeting the needs of four key areas of production management: quality control, information integration, operation optimization and resource management. After intelligent equipment is put into the production line, the number of operating employees can be reduced by one-third, and product quality control and manufacturing costs will be reached to the extreme.
In terms of supply chain, we ensure zero defects in materials by controlling the primary and secondary supply chains; we produce high-quality products by controlling equipment, processes, and testing processes, and achieve the ultimate goal of zero-defect quality by continuously optimizing equipment, processes, testing methods, and all-employee quality control management. At the same time, Zhaochi Energy Saving requires suppliers to manage their supply chains according to the same management requirements to ensure that the overall quality of Zhaochi Energy Saving's supply chain is controllable.
With first-class quality control capabilities and the strong capital support of Zhaochi Co., Ltd., Zhaochi Energy Saving’s entry into the small-pitch market will give display manufacturers more choices. It hopes to create value for LED display companies and help the healthy development of the small-pitch industry.
ANNA