From aerospace to the automotive industry, from wind power to civil construction, from Marine engineering to sports and leisure, are high-performance fiber and composite materials "use."
High-performance fiber and composite materials are an important part of the new material industry, and are the key materials for the development of China's chemical fiber industry, and their development level is related to the development of the national economy and national strategic security.
What is the development status of China's high performance fiber and composite material industry? What are the achievements of technological innovation? What are the key points for the next breakthrough and improvement? As a typical representative, what are the new technology research and development achievements of China's carbon fiber and composite materials industry? What are the potential applications of the product in multiple fields?
The first Zhongfu Shenying ·2024 International High Performance Fiber and Composite Materials (Lianyungang) High-end Forum was held in Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province, and the above issues were discussed in depth.
Major breakthroughs have been made in technology
After years of rapid development, China's high-performance fiber and composite material industry technology has achieved major breakthroughs, has entered the ranks of advanced countries. At present, China has become a high-performance fiber producer with the widest variety coverage and the largest scale.
Sun Yize, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that China's high-performance fiber and composite material industry has made obvious achievements in industrial scale, technological progress, system construction and other aspects by paying close attention to key technology research, especially breaking through the design and precision molding of high-performance special woven fabrics, automatic weaving, and three-dimensional weaving molding methods of large-size structural parts. A series of equipment and products have been successfully applied in the field of national strategic needs, injecting new impetus into the core competitiveness of China's manufacturing industry.
Lv Jiabin, vice president of China Chemical Fiber Industry Association, introduced that China's high-performance fiber technology has made obvious progress. Among them, carbon fiber in the T1000 level, T1100 level, M55J level, M60J level, M40X level carbon fiber key technologies to achieve breakthroughs, the establishment of independent technology system. Para-aramid and para-aramid have made new technological breakthroughs, promoting the continuous expansion of scale and the continuous expansion of application fields. Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fiber industry ranks among the world's advanced ranks. Continuous basalt fiber industry technology has steadily improved to reach the international advanced level. The development of other high-performance fibers has also achieved positive results.
The carbon fiber industry in particular has made remarkable technological progress. Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber Co., LTD. (hereinafter referred to as "Zhongfu Shenying") is one of the leading enterprises, which has mastered the large-scale production technology of carbon fiber from T700 to T1100 and M series, and the product performance has reached the international advanced level. The company has Lianyungang, Xining production base, as well as Shanghai R & D base. By the end of 2023, its total carbon fiber production capacity will reach 28,500 tons.
Zhang Guoliang, chairman of Zhongfu Shenying, said in an interview with a reporter from China Textile News: "We mainly produce high-end products such as T700 and T800, and our technology has always maintained a leading edge in China. Moreover, our technology is still improving, constantly developing new varieties, new processes, costs continue to reduce, and competitiveness continues to increase. Taking Xining project as an example, our line speed of carbonization has reached more than 700 meters/hour, and the carbonization speed will be further accelerated through technology; The single line production capacity of raw silk production reaches 4000 tons/year; In terms of steam utilization, we have improved the solvent recovery process and other initiatives to make production more energy efficient and emission reduction, which alone can save more than 50 million yuan a year."
The technical development level and industrialization of high-strength carbon fiber is an important sign to measure the strength of an enterprise.
Zhang Guoliang introduced: "The T1000 grade, T1100 grade carbon fiber of Zhongfu Shenying has achieved stable and mass production, the annual output accounts for about 10%, and the product is in short supply, which is used in high-end sports and leisure products such as fishing rods, rackets and other fields."
It is worth noting that China's carbon fiber is also exported to the Japanese market. Zhang Guoliang introduced: "Japan is the world's best country to do carbon fiber, and Zhongfu Shenying's carbon fiber has been exported to the Japanese market for five or six years, mainly for hydrogen storage cylinders." Customers in Japan have reported that our products are not only of good quality, but also cost-effective and competitive."
"China's high-performance fiber products are complete, can cover a number of series, product brands are constantly enriched, most of the products have achieved industrial production, with strong domestic and foreign market competitiveness, to meet the downstream market application needs." Lu Jiabin said.
Application demand drives industrial upgrading
"The product is not just produced, the key is to sell it and use it." In the development process of China's high-performance fiber industry, demand traction is very critical, especially in recent years.
Meng Yijie, secretary-general of China Composite Materials Industry Association, introduced that high-performance fiber and composite materials have the characteristics of light weight and high strength, high damage tolerance, fatigue resistance, chemical corrosion resistance and good weather resistance, convenient processing and forming, and have a broad application market.
From components, vertical tail and tail to fuselage and wing, from sub-bearing structure to main structure, high-performance fiber and composite materials have gradually become one of the main structural materials of aviation equipment, which is an important symbol of the advanced nature of a new generation of civil aircraft.
Liao Zilong, a researcher at AVIC Composite Materials Co., LTD., introduced that China has completed the evaluation of domestic carbon fiber for aviation, the application research and assessment of composite materials; The batch application of domestic T300 and T700 carbon fibers in the aviation field has been realized. Completed the evaluation and verification of T800 grade carbon fiber, as well as the application research of composite materials and related assessment and verification, and entered the small-batch application stage.
Guo Pengzong, executive deputy general manager of Zhongfu Shenying (Shanghai) Technology Co., LTD., introduced that the company's T800-grade carbon fiber prepreg is gradually adapting to the requirements and design concepts of Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China's T800-grade carbon fiber prepreg products.
Aramid paper has high temperature resistance, high strength and high modulus, good insulation performance, flame retardant self-extinguishing, good dimensional stability, chemical corrosion resistance and other excellent properties. Zhang Junhua, director of Technology Research and Development Department and Quality Management Department of Yantai Minshida Special Paper Co., LTD., introduced that honeycomb structural parts made of domestic arylon paper have been successfully applied to UAV, helicopter, commercial aircraft and other fields with good results.
New energy has also become an important application field. Hydrogen storage bottle, wind turbine blade, bridge cable... More and more application space is being opened up.
Carbon fiber is widely used in wind power blades, especially in offshore large fan blades. At present, the blade profile above 120 meters at sea basically uses carbon fiber pultrusion sheet as the main beam. Zhou Peirui, deputy director and R&D director of the technology Research and development center of Xinchuang Carbon Valley Group Co., LTD., said: "The company began to develop carbon fiber pultruded sheet in 2019, and began to supply batch production in 2020, and has stable supply of more than 12 million meters."
Carbon fiber composites also shine in the field of civil engineering, which not only brings maintenance-free convenience to related structures, but also greatly improves the cost efficiency of the project and extends its service life. For example, the Shuikut Bridge in Danjiang Estuary, Hubei Province, opened to traffic in January 2023. The bridge shared 28 bundles of carbon fiber anchors, which not only saved the amount of development of the bridge, but also saved more than 8,000 cubic meters of concrete.
"China's high-performance fibers have been widely used in aerospace, wind power generation, civil construction, automotive industry, rail transit, ocean engineering, optical cable communication, security protection, environmental protection, sports and leisure, and have formed stable applications in specific fields," said Lv Jiabin.
Make up for the "short board" to embrace the broad market
In the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the "Guidance on the high-quality development of chemical fiber Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions") "Textile industry quality upgrading Implementation plan (2023-2025)", "improve the level of high-performance fiber production and application" are included in the key special projects.
With the continuous progress of technology, and green and low-carbon development has become a global consensus, more and more advanced lightweight structural materials and components are used in aerospace, construction and infrastructure, satellite parts, automobiles, rail transit and other fields, which will bring new market opportunities and broad prospects for the high-performance fiber and composite materials industry.
Zhongfu Shenying technical expert Zhang deposit introduced that if the fuselage structure of the aircraft is 50% carbon fiber and composite materials, the fuselage weight will be reduced by 20%, fuel efficiency will be increased by about 7%, and after 10 years of use, the emissions of each aircraft can be reduced by 27,000 tons.
According to relevant forecasts, in 2025, the global aviation market demand for carbon fiber is expected to be 30,000 tons, of which 15,500 tons will be used for commercial aircraft (prepreg products).
The use of carbon fiber and composite materials in automobiles, especially electric vehicles, also has a significant emission reduction effect.
Zhang Yinhe introduced that compared with the body mainly made of high-strength steel and aluminum, if the use of 16% carbon fiber and composite materials in the body of a medium-sized electric sport utility vehicle (SUV) can reduce the body weight by 16%, and reduce the battery by 13%, the car's fuel consumption will be improved
According to relevant agencies, the global demand for carbon fiber will grow to 500,000 tons in 2050.
"High-performance fiber-reinforced composites will have a broad application market in advanced and efficient aviation equipment, humanoid robots, deep resource exploration and development equipment, high-end cultural and travel equipment, and 6G network equipment," Meng said.
However, we cannot ignore that the industry is still facing some challenges.
Lv Jiabin pointed out that the overall technical maturity of the industry needs to be further improved, the independent support ability of key auxiliary materials and equipment still needs to be enhanced, and the downstream application field needs to be expanded.
Zhang Guoliang said: "The key to the path of independent, controllable and high-quality development of the industry is to persist in technology iteration and collaborative innovation. Domestic carbon fiber to further improve the performance, such as the development of high-strength carbon fiber is an important development direction, to continue to reduce production costs. At the same time, we should be committed to solving common problems in the industry, constantly breaking through key technologies, exploring closer cooperation between upstream and downstream enterprises, constantly expanding application scenarios, and improving the overall competitiveness of the industrial chain."
"By 2025, the development goal of high-performance fiber R&D and manufacturing capacity meets the national strategic needs." This is the goal of the "Opinions", and it is also the driving force of the industry's struggle.
(Information source: China Textile News)