The high-tech fiber and composite engineering technology innovation forum held recently and the 2018 national high-performance fiber material industry development conference were held in Lianyungang, Jiangsu. The conference was jointly sponsored by the China Textile Industry Federation, the Department of Environment and Light Textile Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the People's Government of Lianyungang. The China Chemical Fiber Industry Association and the Lianyungang City Economic and Information Technology Commission organized the conference. Under the theme of “Innovation, Integration, and Collaborative Development”, the conference will discuss the status quo of China’s high-performance fiber development, existing problems, and how to strengthen the coordinated development of the industry chain, innovate process technology and equipment, and expand domestic high-performance fiber and composite materials in the country. The application of economic construction and the promotion of China's new material industry's international competitiveness have been discussed.

The key technology level of the industry continues to increase

High-performance fibers include carbon fibers, para-aramids, meta-aramids, ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene fibers, polyimide fibers, and basalt fibers. In recent years, China's macroeconomic policy environment has been continuously improved, and the goals and tasks for the development of key new materials industries have been further defined, and detailed materials, technical guidance, and other aspects have been laid down, laying the foundation for the healthy development of high-performance fiber materials.

“The key technology level of China's high-performance fiber industry is further improved, the scale of production continues to expand, the production, supply and sales market has increased steadily, and international trade has remained stable.” Wang Yuping, vice president of China Chemical Fiber Industry Association, talked about the development status of the industry. Said. It is understood that in 2017, China's total capacity of high-performance fibers is about 120,000 tons, and the scale of production capacity is among the highest in the world. Its output is about 50,000 tons, an increase of 20% over the same period of last year. The import of major high-performance fibers was 33,690.37 tons, an increase of 9.59% year-on-year, and the import amount was 681.6591 million dollars, a year-on-year increase of 6.02%. The domestic export of high-performance fiber was 11,517.53 tons, an increase of 50.84% year-on-year, and the export amount was 164.1795 million US dollars.

It is worth pointing out that China's high-performance fibers have made continuous breakthroughs in key technologies. Among them, in the field of carbon fiber, key technologies such as dry-jet wet spinning were conquered, breaking through the autonomy of core equipment and breaking the monopoly of foreign countries; in the professional development of military applications, foreign monopoly was broken, and autonomous, large-scale production was achieved. Provides stable and continuous supply capability for China's military and civilian sectors. In the field of aramid fiber, it broke through the preparation and storage of high-strength high-modular para-aramid raw materials, key technologies for high-uniformity, stable spinning, and harsh environment equipment, and key technologies for industrialization, breaking the situation in which high-end applications were subject to foreign regulations for a long time. In the field of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fibers, the use of new environmentally-friendly solvents has enabled the localization of new dry spinning technology and equipment, shortened the technological process, reduced the spinning temperature, and saved energy by more than 30%; the product has overcome the conventional ultra-high molecular weight. Polyethylene fiber has the disadvantages of poor heat resistance, easy creep, etc., and it also solves the problem of dyeing difficulty by combining with the liquid coloring technology, broadening the scope of application. In the field of polyimide, innovative use of polyimide copolymers and blended spinning raw materials, the use of large-scale needle array array electrospinning technology, hot-melt pores and membrane reinforcement technology, the development of nano-polyimide Amine fiber and its battery separator have achieved large-scale, uniform, and stable production.

At present, China's high-performance fiber industry has formed Weihai Guangwei Composite Material Co., Ltd., Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber Co., Ltd., Jilin Carbon Fiber Carbon Fiber Co., Ltd., Yantai Taihe New Material Co., Ltd., and Jiangsu Hengshen Co., Ltd. , Jiangsu Shenhe Technology Development Co., Ltd. and a number of leading enterprises.

Sun Jinliang, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, pointed out that with the continuous improvement of the technological level, the quality of domestic high-performance fibers has greatly improved, and the serialization and differentiation of products have continued to increase. Carbon fiber, meta-aramid fiber, polyphenylene sulfide fiber and continuous basalt fiber achieve rapid development with a production capacity of over 10,000 tons; para-aramid, polyimide fiber, and PTFE fiber achieve industrial production of 1,000 tons, which is filled The domestic market is blank, breaking the monopoly of foreign countries. Polyamide ether ketone fibers, silicon carbide fibers and other key technologies have been overcome, laying the foundation for industrialization.

“At present, the high-performance fiber and composites industry has reached the stage from low-end to high-end, and we must use collaborative innovation as the driving force and focus on scale applications to promote the high-quality development of the high-performance fiber industry.” Industrial and Information Technology Industry Cao Xuejun, deputy director of the Consumer Products Division, said.

The three major varieties of "industrial use" have a bright future

According to the reporter's understanding, at present, China's high-performance fibers have basically met the needs of the defense industry and have been widely used in civil aviation, transportation and energy, construction machinery and equipment, building structures, and offshore engineering, and have been successfully applied to high-temperature dust removal and sports facilities. Leisure, wind power, building reinforcement, machinery manufacturing, optical fiber reinforcement, security protection and other industrial fields.

At present, China's high-performance fiber and composite materials industry is facing a new period of great development, such as large-scale municipal construction in the process of urbanization, the use of new energy and large-scale development, the introduction of environmental protection policies, the development of the automotive industry, and large Large-scale railway construction, large-aircraft projects, etc. With the huge market demand, the high-performance fiber and composite materials industry will have a very broad space for development.

This point can be seen from the development prospects of the three major varieties of carbon fiber, aramid and ultra high molecular weight polyethylene. Among them, carbon fiber composite materials have been widely used in aerospace and other fields due to their high specific strength, specific modulus, good designability, integral molding, and good fatigue resistance. At present, carbon fiber composite materials have become the key structural material for commercial aircraft, and are also an important indicator of the advanced nature of the new generation civil aircraft technology. Liu Weiping, deputy chief engineer of Shanghai Commercial Aircraft Manufacturing Co., Ltd., said: “In recent years, the use of carbon fiber composite materials in commercial aircraft has continued to increase. Boeing’s recently developed B787 aircraft has reached 50% of its composite material usage, and a large number of composite materials have been used. It is also the only way for China to develop and develop large-scale passenger aircraft."

Driven by the demand for energy conservation and environmental protection, the rapid development trend of new energy vehicles with light weight has also brought new opportunities for carbon fiber and composite materials to expand their application market. According to Yang Zifa, Dean of the Engineering Research Institute of Beijing New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., from the perspective of the development of lightweight energy technologies for new energy vehicles, companies with leading international technology have evolved from a single lightweight body technology to a multi-material hybrid body technology. In production models, carbon fiber reinforced composites have gradually become part of a multi-material hybrid body system.

Aramid has high strength, high modulus and high temperature resistance, acid and alkali resistance, light weight and other excellent performance, can be widely used in ballistic products, special protective clothing, electronic equipment and other fields. In the view of Wang Dianxin, general manager of the Aramid Business Division of Yantai Taihe New Material Co., Ltd., with the advancement of social security awareness and advancement of science and technology, technology, functionality, environmental protection, humanization, and civilian use will be the future of security protection equipment. The development trend. Aramid will further broaden its application area with its excellent protection performance and environmental friendliness.

Ultra-high-molecular-weight polyethylene fiber is the youngest type of high-performance fiber that has been applied on a large scale, and is the only high-performance fiber type that has competitiveness in the international market so far. Its comparative advantages include the highest strength, lowest density, corrosion resistance, impact resistance, etc. It is mainly used in fishing line cables, high-strength ropes, sports leisure and security protection, and has a broad market prospect. In the next 7 years, the annual growth rate of UHMWPE fiber in the global market will remain around 11.6%.

However, under the better market prospects, China's high-performance fiber is also facing difficulties and challenges. For example, if carbon fiber is widely used in rail transportation, it is faced with the problems of high raw material costs and difficulty in meeting the fire safety requirements of rail vehicles. Similar problems also exist in other categories of high-performance fibers. How to effectively solve these problems has become a key factor in further expanding the field of high-performance fiber applications.

Enhancing industrial competitiveness is strategic

Recently, the ZTE chip incident has alarmed the development of China's high-tech industry. This event also attracted the attention of Duan Xiaoping, vice president of the China Textile Industry Federation and president of the China Chemical Fibre Industry Association. He mentioned that if China’s large aircraft is completely dependent on foreign carbon fiber and composite materials, carbon fiber components, etc., one day it will face the plight of ZTE.

In this regard, He Yanli, vice president of the China Chemical Fiber Industry Association, also has a deep understanding. She pointed out: “The ZTE chip incident must be vigilant. The real core technology cannot be bought, and it can only be grasped by our own efforts. The development achievements of domestic carbon fiber in the past decade have been forced out. The result of joint efforts of companies and researchers."

Then, for the current status and existing problems of high-performance fibers, how will companies, research institutes, and governments further promote their further development?

Zhang Dingjin, Chairman of China Composite Materials Group Co., Ltd., and Zhang Guoliang, Chairman of Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber Co., Ltd., used carbon fiber as an example to discuss their respective views. Zhang Dingjin likens carbon fiber to the "core" of composite materials. He pointed out that for composite materials, the "core" is gone and there is no way to talk about the development of the entire industry. In the future, China's new materials industry must do a good job of this "core". Large-scale aircraft, defense, and other undertakings can be further promoted, and the entire industry will have room for independent development. Zhang Guoliang said that making carbon fiber products is only the first step, and it needs to expand its application in the future, based on the realization of the localization of materials. "Currently, the 10,000-ton production line of China Eagle is being expanded and strives to do better from equipment to process. In this production line, domestically produced complete sets of equipment run through it. Only when the equipment is truly domesticated can the core technology be realized. Localization.” Zhang Guoliang emphasized.

According to Yu Jianyong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the following three points must be taken into consideration when mastering the core technology of high performance fibers. First, we must realize that technological risks will continue to exist, and we must have our own reserves in core technologies. The second is to strengthen technological innovation, increase research efforts, improve the control capabilities of equipment and processes, and differentiate the level of products. The third is to give full play to all parties and to promote further breakthroughs in core technologies.

Peng Huaxin, director of the Institute of Functional Composite Materials and Structures at Zhejiang University, believes that at present, the research on high-performance fibers in China is in the shape of "football". There is still a certain gap between high-end products and the upward movement from the most basic research. Because the bottom of the "football" has not been consolidated, the top level is not going. For the professional universities, the next step is to do a better job in the bottom-up work through more systematic and detailed work.

Jiang Shicheng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, also put forward three suggestions for the next step in the development of high-performance fiber: First, it is necessary to further stabilize the quality and continue to make breakthroughs in application development. At the same time, it is necessary to keep reducing costs, because cost is one of the bottlenecks that limit its further development. Second, we must determine the quality standards of high-performance fibers in accordance with the needs of China's application market. Third, to strengthen synergies in the industrial chain and promote the industrialization of high-performance fibers to achieve greater progress after 5 to 10 years of development.

Wang Yuping believes that in the next step, the development of domestic high-performance fibers can be carried out from the aspects of efficient and stable processing technology, intelligent processing system, and customized matching of raw material systems. She also put forward the following development proposals: First, focus on the needs of national development strategies, strengthen basic research, strengthen the combination of production, education, research, and use, and establish an industry innovation system with Chinese characteristics. The second is to strengthen the industry to improve quality and synergy. The third is to strengthen policy support. It is recommended that the government continue to support and encourage industry leaders in joint universities and research institutes to jointly build R&D platforms, production and application demonstration platforms, and test and evaluation platforms to speed up the transformation of technological achievements, new product development, and new market development; and implement the first batch of applied insurance subsidy mechanisms To solve the problem of "dare not use" in the downstream.