Since "Made in China 2025" was proposed in 2015, the first phase has gone for 9 years, and a large number of excellent enterprises and products have sprung up in China, allowing us to see that China's intelligent manufacturing has been based in China and going global.
Especially in the field of 3C home appliances, China has become the world's largest home appliance manufacturing base, accounting for nearly 60%~70% of the world's production capacity, and domestic consumers have also looked up to imported products from the past to now proud of China's intelligent manufacturing. Behind the change in consumer mentality is the support of China's rapid development of scientific and technological productivity. It is particularly worth mentioning here that Laifen, which occupies half of the electric toothbrush category in the second year since its establishment, released the industry's first large-scale sweeping electric toothbrush in October 2023, which has carried out a subversive innovation on the sonic vibration toothbrush that has not changed greatly since its inception in 1992, creating a new category of "sweeping electric toothbrush".
The Laifen sweeping electric toothbrush solves the industry problem of "only vibrating, not brushing" of traditional electric toothbrushes, and reproduces the action essentials of tremor + sweeping in the pasteur brushing method, making brushing easier, more scientific and cleaner. As a result, the Laifen sweeping electric toothbrush exploded immediately on the market, and the current sales volume has exceeded 1.5 million units.
Today's Laifen has become a business card of "Made in China". You know, in the past, Chinese brands left consumers with the impression that they were more of integrators at the supply chain level. The new generation of Chinese manufacturing brands represented by Laifen has the background of pursuing science and technology, innovation and research and development at the genetic level.
"Let the foreign powers make huge profits by erecting a few brand cannons, and they will surely be gone forever"! This is the speech of Mr. Ye, the founder of Laifen, at the new product launch conference on October 16, 2023. Now it seems that the expectations and trust of the founders of Laifen for the product have also been responded to by the market. So, what's so special about the Lefen Sweeping Electric Toothbrush? Why is it crazy in the field of smart small household appliances as soon as it is launched? Let's find out.
"The brush is not clean"
How did it become a technological flaw for traditional electric toothbrushes?
As we all know, an excellent electric toothbrush must meet the following basic conditions:
● Brush cleanly;
● Comfortable brushing without hurting teeth;
● The price is right, and the brush head can be replaced freely;
And brushing clean is the most basic requirement of users. However, the scientific method of brushing teeth is still scientifically recognized as the Pap brushing method, which requires tremors, while the traditional high-frequency vibration electric toothbrush on the market can only increase the intensity to clean the tooth surface, it is difficult to clean the gap between the teeth, and if the horizontal brushing technique is not corrected, it is easier to scratch the gums and cause bleeding. Most traditional electric toothbrushes only vibrate, still not cleaned properly, and are not smart enough to operate.
▲ Pap brushing
Finally, the traditional electric toothbrush cannot escape the criticism of consumers: the brush is not clean. Many consumers even have to silently return to their manual toothbrushes after using electric toothbrushes for a while. The cold response of market data also reflects the low recognition of ordinary electric toothbrushes, although the marketing advertisements of electric toothbrushes on the market are flying all over the sky, but consumers do not buy it, compared with the 40% penetration rate of electric toothbrushes in the European and American markets, the overall industry penetration rate in China is only a dismal 8%.
Zhiyan Consulting China's electric toothbrush market size statistics
Even electric toothbrushes once became synonymous with "IQ tax". Why is it so difficult to simply "brush clean"? Is it the immaturity of the technology, or is the brand unwilling to invest more?
It turns out that in the market of electric toothbrushes, some mainstream sonic and rotary electric toothbrushes are the products of research and development decades ago, and the motors of these traditional electric toothbrushes are equipped with a piece of metal, and its elastic potential energy realizes high-frequency vibration, but also limits the amplitude of the brush head, that is, the toothbrush will only "shake", but will not "brush", let alone "move the brush". Because this "stopper" electric toothbrush has become "dancing in shackles". The toothbrush can't swing sharply, and if the brush is not clean, it becomes a hard injury.
This is precisely the pain that traditional electric toothbrushes are difficult to overcome, and once the limiter is removed, the "electric" function of the toothbrush is lost. It is this small metal limiter that has become a "thorn in the eye" that many electric toothbrush brands cannot overcome, so the "smart" and "smart" of the toothbrush itself are greatly limited.
Image source: Screenshot of Laifen's official website
All this was completely broken until Leiffen developed and innovated the servo system!
It turned out that Laifen introduced the servo motor applied to high-precision machines such as robotic arms and drones into the electric toothbrush, rewriting the performance limit of the traditional electric toothbrush in one fell swoop, realizing the integration of accurate large-swing sweeping and vibration, which can achieve a swing of nearly 60°, and at the same time, two Hall sensors were used on the electric toothbrush, which solved the two major problems of the traditional electric toothbrush that could not sweep and the power attenuation.
The working principle of the servo system can be roughly divided into 4 steps: the command is issued through the control chip, the motor accepts and executes the instruction, the sensor monitors the execution of the motor in real time and feeds back the actual situation (speed and angle) to the control chip, and the control chip receives feedback and issues new execution instructions (power compensation, power reduction, power unchanged, etc.) to form a cycle. With the servo system, there is extremely high precision and accuracy.
And this technology used to be in the field of Boston Dynamics robots, CNC machine tools, and drones. In other words, the founder of Leifen is using the technology of making robots to make toothbrushes! This sounds a bit like a cannon hitting mosquitoes at first glance, but it completely solves the long-standing dilemma of electric toothbrushes, and truly realizes the integrated function of 60° large swing sweeping and vibration of toothbrushes.
Algorithmic brushing, full performance
If the secret is only in the servo system, then do peers only need to install this system into their own products, and then they can replace Lefen? This is also the problem that the founder of Laifen thinks, so in addition to the servo system up and down the "ruthless", but also in the sweeping electric toothbrush motor performance, body mechanism, industrial design and other aspects of systematic thinking, "sweeping vibration" is not the terminal of Laifen electric toothbrush, but only one of them.
Traditional electric toothbrushes not only fail to "sweep", but also have a power decay in the brush head, which is one of the root causes of "unclean brushing". After discovering this pain point, Leifen used the servo system to monitor the brush head, and really brushed the teeth with algorithms, which can be adjusted at any time according to the output torque of the motor, so that users can maintain the same cleaning intensity stably and durably no matter what posture and intensity they use.
In addition to technological innovation, Laifen sweep electric toothbrush has also put a lot of effort into product design. It draws on the design concept of digital products, combining high quality, high precision and user-friendliness. In order to adapt to the brushing habits of different consumers, this toothbrush offers up to three dimensions and ten levels of adjustment mode. Consumers can adjust the vibration amplitude, sweeping amplitude and sweeping speed through the APP to get the most suitable experience for themselves.
It's like a multi-function remote control at home, which can be adjusted to the most comfortable brushing mode at any time according to personal preference. For example, in the morning, you can struggle in bed for a while, and after getting up, you only need to open the APP, and you can choose a gentle mode according to today's mood to start the day; In the evening, after a day of eating, you can choose a more powerful cleaning mode to completely remove food debris from your teeth and prepare you for a good night's sleep. The ability to customize brushing patterns with such fine granularity is unprecedented in the industry.
At the same time, Leifen also puts forward higher requirements for product performance. The motor power of the sonic electric toothbrush is basically maintained at around 2W, and through technological breakthroughs, the power density of the same volume has been greatly increased, and a strong heart of 6.1W has been installed in the small space of the electric toothbrush. The performance is strong, and the supporting system has to keep up. Mainstream batteries can't drive this high-power motor, so Laifen customized a set of pouch batteries and power management systems that are the same as those for mobile phones. The large swing state requires higher waterproof structure and material, so Laifen has developed a patented waterproof structure and a high stretch ratio silicone ring, so that consumers can not worry about the hygiene of the toothbrush after it is put aside.
Taking the continuous stretching integrated molding process of metal shell as an example, this process can not only make the appearance of the product more aesthetically pleasing, but also solve the problem of traditional electric toothbrushes hiding dirt and dirt after a long time, but due to the extreme difficulty of the process and the cumbersome stamping process, only Laifen is willing and dares to create and put into output in the industry.
After 11 times of stamping and stretching, it is seamless, making the toothbrush have higher strength and a more comfortable feel. This process not only improves the overall quality of the product, but also demonstrates the excellence of the manufacturing process. From the servo system, to the integrated molding process to the nano injection molding process, anodizing process, laser microporous process, and the copper-free hair planting process of the brush head, Laifen is not using the standard of a toothbrush to make a toothbrush, but is using the manufacturing standard of a flagship mobile phone, and using the ingenuity of China's manufacturing standards to empower the electric toothbrush category and redo the industry.
From comfort to looks
Disruptive innovation across the board
In the past experience of using electric toothbrushes, the brush head feels soft and the brush head is not clean, and the brush head is too hard and hurts the gums, and the cost of replacing the brush head regularly is too expensive, and some unscrupulous manufacturers will choose low-quality brush heads because of cost control.
The brush head adopts copper-free feathering technology, strictly controls the material quality and production environment, and is the first product in the world to pass the TÜV Rheinland safety certification. The compact and ultra-thin design of the brush head can deeply clean all kinds of dead corners of the mouth, bringing consumers a smooth brushing experience, and they can feel the strong cleaning power of the toothbrush while protecting the gums during the brushing process.
And considering that the electric toothbrush will turn on itself due to accidental touch during the consumer's travel and carrying, Laifen also intimately set the anti-accidental touch mode, press and hold for 2 seconds to enter the airplane mode, if you forget to turn on the airplane mode, you will automatically enter the backpack mode if you continue to move in the backpack for 3 minutes. In the case of full charge, the medium gear can reach about 30 days of battery life, and you no longer need to carry the charging cable to fly around the world when traveling.
Anyone who has ever used an electric toothbrush should know that an electric toothbrush is not a major expense, and the "replacement brush head" is really unaffordable! The price of an electric toothbrush "replacement brush head" of about 300 yuan on the market: an average of 30 yuan for a brush head, an average of 3 months to replace, 120 yuan a year! The price of the high-quality spiky soft-bristled toothbrush head of the Laifen sweeping electric toothbrush head is far lower than the price of ordinary brush heads in the market, 9.9 yuan for a single piece (the average price of 6 pieces), even if the brush head is replaced frequently, there will be no psychological burden.
*Prices fluctuate and are for reference only
Founder Ye Hongxin said at the press conference, "I just want to adhere to the technology inclusiveness to the end, and in the future, Laifen will directly link it to technology inclusiveness", "We have mastered this technology, so everyone should use it". With the support of 11 times of continuous stamping and stretching integrated molding, laser micropores, nano injection molding and other "first" process innovations in many industries, the Laifen sweeping electric toothbrush has a dimensionality reduction blow to the traditional electric toothbrush in terms of appearance, stability and hygiene.
Let China's intelligent manufacturing go global
With the success of the electric toothbrush, Ye Hongxin revealed that the next step will be to launch razors and other products. By the end of next year, about five new products are planned, and the overall SKU is expected to reach 100 in the future. It is reported that Laifen has set up a R&D team of 150 people and is committed to the research and development of 10 innovative projects. Through technological upgrading and innovation, Laifen is transforming from a "large single product" strategy to a "full category" development. In addition, in order to further realize the "technology inclusiveness" of multiple categories, Laifen has set up an independent factory of more than 100,000 square meters with a complete R&D center and supply chain to realize the independent R&D and production of more than 90% of the parts such as motors, injection molding, and main control boards.
In 2024, Laifen will "ride the wind and go to sea". In January, the first overseas stop of the sweeping electric toothbrush was unveiled at CES in Las Vegas, USA, to open up the North American market; In February, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, sweeping electric toothbrushes landed in Southeast Asia; In March, Laifen products appeared in Chicago, USA, at the world's largest home furnishings exhibition. Up to now, Laifen's products have covered more than 30 regions and countries around the world, and have been launched on major e-commerce platforms and offline channels.
The rise of Laifen Technology has undoubtedly injected new vitality and hope into China's intelligent manufacturing. Their success has not only enhanced the status of China's intelligent manufacturing in the world, but also provided valuable experience for the transformation and upgrading of China's manufacturing industry. Their stories have inspired countless enterprises to devote themselves to the wave of intelligent manufacturing, and jointly depicted a more ambitious blueprint for the future development of China's manufacturing industry. We firmly believe that under the leadership of Laifen Technology, China's intelligent manufacturing will continue to move to new heights and write a more brilliant chapter.