In early September, Xi'an Zhenhong Aerospace Additive Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the Sixth Academy of China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), completed a 350-million-yuan equity financing round to accelerate the industrialization of its additive manufacturing business. The company has currently deployed over 100 metal 3D printers and plans to expand this number to 300 in the future.
According to reports, Zhenhong Aerospace's new project plans to add 24 sets of process equipment. The main construction contents are as follows: supplement additive manufacturing forming conditions with 23 sets of equipment, including cubic meter-level laser selective melting forming equipment and fine flow channel additive manufacturing forming equipment. Additionally, storage conditions will be enhanced with the addition of one set of automated storage for substrates and raw materials used in additive manufacturing equipment.
It is reported that after ten years of sustained efforts, Xifa Company has developed strong capabilities in supplying additive manufacturing products for aerospace liquid propulsion and in production capacity for external market business. Xifa Company integrated its additive manufacturing resources to establish a wholly-owned subsidiary—Xi'an Zhenhong Aerospace Additive Technology Co., Ltd. In its first year of independent operation, the subsidiary achieved an operating revenue of 140 million yuan, a total profit of 20 million yuan, and delivered over ten thousand products annually.
Xifa Company has built a professional additive manufacturing team led by the chief process expert of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, integrating design, R&D, production testing, and market development. It has established the largest production capacity in related domestic fields, supported by hundreds of additive manufacturing and post-processing equipment. The company has comprehensively mastered mainstream metal additive manufacturing technologies such as laser/electron beam selective melting, laser melting deposition, and arc additive manufacturing. It has also made breakthroughs in key technologies including lightweight design for additive manufacturing, selective laser melting of microfine structures, and high-performance laser melting repair.
The company has mastered basic forming processes for multiple material grades, largely covering materials commonly used in liquid rocket engines. It has established a full-chain technology and standard system for aerospace liquid propulsion additive manufacturing, encompassing design, forming, post-processing, and testing evaluation. This has enabled the evolution of engine component manufacturing from "replacing traditional processes" to "integrated lightweight design," "structure-function integration," and "monolithic forming of functional components." The company has overcome key challenges in the batch engineering application and industrialization of additive manufacturing, driving the evolution, batch production, and independent controllability of aerospace liquid propulsion products. To date, it has won 18 provincial- or ministerial-level technical achievements, led the formulation of 15 national and industry standards, and filed over 80 patent applications.
