Liangjiang company leads Asia's automotive spraying market

Chongqing Hypro Automotive Technology Co in Liangjiang New Area. [Photo provided to English.liangjiang.gov.cn]

Chongqing Hypro Automotive Technology Co in Liangjiang New Area has expanded its business scope to include 80 percent of China's automobile manufacturing enterprises and extended its overseas reach to nearly 10 countries and regions, including Russia, Malaysia, Japan, and Thailand.

In 1999, Hypro began as an agent for foreign automotive spraying equipment. With the emergence of a strong automotive industry in China, its annual output value reached 10 million yuan ($1.40 million) in 2003.

However, for Li Yuedong, general manager of Hypro, the company needed to improve its core competencies and reduce dependency on imports.

In 2006, Hypro established a research and development (R&D) department for the first time, embarking on a path of independent innovation and technological development.

Devoted to research on fluid injection, spraying, and coating in the automotive intelligent systems sector, Hypro successfully developed the first domestic precision wax injection system for automotive cavity anti-corrosion in 2017.

"Previously, high-pressure spray equipment was used extensively, but that provided a spray coverage of just 50 percent in automotive cavities, which did not meet the optimal anti-corrosion standards", noted Li.

Li added that the precision wax injection system has a coverage rate up to and exceeding 99 percent, while reducing wax consumption by 40 percent.

With this precision wax injection system, Hypro captured the business from automotive manufacturers such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Tesla, Chang'an, and GWM.

This product has not only gained domestic acclaim but has also helped Hypro expand its international market.

Another cutting-edge innovation is its Piggable system, which makes pigments of various colors in the automotive coating system more cost-effective, time-efficient, and environmentally-friendly.

Traditionally, the coating system requires about five metric tons of solvent and resin for alternate cleaning for color change, which takes about 15 days and costs about $14,000.

In contrast, the Piggable system optimized this process, achieving the same results within 40 minutes with 50 liters of cleaning solvent, reducing the cost to $1,400.

From 2021 to 2023, Hypro continuously developed other precision spraying application systems, successively securing orders from enterprises such as BYD, EVE Energy, NIO, Li Auto, XPeng, and Beijing Mercedes-Benz, among others.

On the path of technology-led development, Hypro has persistently invested about 10 percent of its profit into R&D and has obtained five design patents, eight invention patents, and 11 software copyrights.

These independent innovation capabilities have positioned Hypro at the forefront of the precision wax injection market in Asia, where it now commands the leading market share.

According to Li, the sales value of Hypro hit 2.3 billion yuan in 2023, and it has been growing steadily by seizing the opportunities brought about by the rapid development of new energy vehicles in recent years.

"We have established the largest intelligent spaying and gluing laboratories in Southwest China and partnered with the University of Sichuan to set up the Intelligent Robot Vision Laboratory, aiming to further improve the intelligence of fluid painting, gluing, and welding systems integration", Li said.