High performance fiber: support the "national treasure" and write the legend of textile "from heaven to earth"

At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, T800 grade high-strength carbon fiber composite, combined with aerospace carbon fiber composite molding process, achieved a breakthrough in China's Winter Olympics double snowmobile from 0 to 1; 3D printing customized carbon fiber helmet fits the athlete's face, ensuring the safety and comfort of athletes in the competition; The "Feiyang" torch shell is made of high temperature resistant carbon fiber materials, which solves the application bottleneck of carbon fiber composites under extreme conditions, and realizes the normal use of the torch shell in the hydrogen combustion environment above 800 ℃.

On C919 domestic large aircraft, 15% of the fuselage is made of resin based carbon fiber materials. For the first time, polysulfone fiber is used in the cabin to make chair covers and door curtains, so that the large aircraft can be "slimmed down" again, with less fuel consumption, lower cost and reduced carbon dioxide emissions.

The navigation mark, which provides safety information for various water activities, adopts new carbon fiber, which has long service life, waterproof and moisture-proof, is not easy to deform, and is not afraid of seawater erosion, making the navigation mark more "built".

In recent years, high-performance fibers have helped advanced manufacturing with the momentum of "kuiran", reflecting outstanding value in extreme application fields such as safety protection, wind turbine blades, pressure vessels, aerospace, etc., supporting the "national weight", and writing the legend of textile "from heaven to earth". In recent years, Chinese fiber trends have successively introduced ultra-high strength carbon fiber, medium modulus and high strength carbon fiber prepreg, high strength and high modulus carbon fiber, carbon fiber for pressure vessels, dyeable polyimide fiber, low-cost large tow PAN based carbon fiber, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fiber, high elongation meta aramid fiber, micro nano Para aramid fiber, etc., which have played an indispensable role in various application fields.

01

High performance fibers are fruitful

During the "13th five year plan" period, China's high-performance fiber new material technology has been steadily improved to continuously meet the development needs of aerospace, national defense and military industry, environmental protection, medical and health care and other fields. The technology of dry jet wet spinning and wet spinning of carbon fiber has been gradually improved, the production efficiency has been further improved, and the variety of high-end products has been gradually enriched. T1000 grade, M40, M40J, m55j and other carbon fibers have the ability of engineering preparation, and 25K large tow carbon fibers have been industrialized; Breakthroughs have been made in the key technologies and equipment of kiloton para aramid engineering, and high-strength and high model para aramid products have been localized; High strength and high modulus polyimide fiber, meta aramid fiber, polyphenylene sulfide fiber, continuous basalt fiber and so on have achieved rapid development.

Among them, there are various high-performance fiber materials that have emerged on the Chinese fiber fashion trend publishing platform. Jiangsu Aoshen New Material Co., Ltd. has successively released products such as non dye polyimide fiber and easy dye polyimide fiber. Polyimide fiber has excellent flame retardancy, warmth retention, high temperature resistance, antibacterial and other properties. The fabric made of polyimide fiber has the properties of low burning damage length, zero smoldering duration, no melt dripping, etc. it can effectively protect the safety of firefighters when used in Fire clothing.

Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber Co., Ltd., as the first enterprise in China to master the dry jet wet spinning technology of carbon fiber, relying on the technical advantages of dry jet wet spinning, has achieved the industrialized mass production of T700, T800, T1000 and other different levels of carbon fiber, successfully filled the gap of domestic high-end carbon fiber, and established the company's leading position in the field of domestic carbon fiber technology. In recent years, Zhongfu Shenying has successively launched sym40 high-strength and high modulus carbon fiber and ultra-high strength carbon fiber on the Chinese fiber fashion trend release platform, which have been widely used.

Hf30f carbon fiber and hf40t high-strength medium modulus carbon fiber for pressure vessels launched by Jiangsu Hengshen Co., Ltd. were selected into the fiber trends in China in 2020 and 2022 respectively. These products are targeted products launched by Hengshen according to the application needs of the state-owned market. Among them, hf30f carbon fiber is superior to imported equivalent products in modulus, and hf40t carbon fiber is superior to imported equivalent products in strength.

In recent years, Jilin chemical fiber group has continuously strengthened basic research and scientific and technological research on carbon fiber, and focused on solving key core technologies. Carbon fiber has achieved the upgrading from quantitative change to qualitative change in terms of quality, cost, flexibility and efficiency from small tow to large tow, from precursor, carbon fiber to composite.

Weihai development Fiber Co., Ltd. has successively launched dry and wet carbon fiber and qm4035, qm4050 high-strength and high modulus carbon fiber, breaking the blockade of foreign countries on this product, while improving the quality, giving the composite better mechanical properties. Its production process is refined, digitalized, and the quality is more stable, which can be used in cutting-edge fields.

Yantai Taihe new materials Co., Ltd. introduced the raw liquid coloring meta aramid. This product is different from the interface polycondensation and wet spinning process of Teijin company in Japan and the solution polycondensation and dry spinning process of DuPont company in the United States. It is manufactured by low-temperature solution intermittent polymerization and wet spinning process, creating the third meta aramid manufacturing technology in the world. In addition, the product also integrates the raw liquid coloring technology to further expand the application field of aramid fiber. The halogen content is extremely low, and the ecological safety of the product is better than that of similar products.

02

Help textile go to heaven and earth

With the deepening understanding of high-performance fibers in China, the quality and application level of domestic high-performance fibers continue to improve. First, the field of product application has been gradually expanded. At present, high-performance fibers have been used in aerospace, national defense and military industry, wind power generation, civil construction, automotive industry, rail transit, ocean engineering, optical cable communication, safety protection, environmental protection, sports and leisure and other fields, and have formed stable applications in specific fields. Second, the scale of product application has been gradually expanded. In 2020, the total consumption of domestic high-performance chemical fiber is about 135000 tons, carbon fiber is about 48800 tons, aramid fiber is about 25600 tons, and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fiber is about 21700 tons.

Among them, the most remarkable is the prosperity of carbon fiber. With the growing maturity of carbon fiber manufacturing process and the continuous decline of manufacturing costs, the application from the downstream new energy industry has ignited demand, and the large-scale application scenario of carbon fiber has achieved a breakthrough. Especially under the current "double carbon" strategy, the wind power industry needs to use carbon fiber materials to use wind blades; The hydrogen industry needs to use carbon fiber materials as fuel cell hydrogen storage bottles to facilitate transportation; The photovoltaic industry needs to use carbon fiber materials to replace graphite for key components such as carbon felt functional materials, insulation barrels and protective plates in monocrystalline silicon furnaces; The new energy vehicle industry has also been expecting the carbon fiber price to fall to a reasonable range, which can be used to reduce self weight and improve endurance. "High performance fibers represented by carbon fibers will usher in a golden age." Industry experts predict.

Polyimide, whose comprehensive properties are at the top of the pyramid of polymer materials, has also been well used. Wang Shihua, chairman of Aoshen new material, introduced that the company, together with Donghua University, has broken through the key technology of dry spinning of polyimide fibers. The new technology of "reactive spinning" developed by Aoshen new material is the first in the world. It is with this technical research achievement that Aoshen new material has completed the construction of the first heat-resistant 1000 ton dry spinning polyimide fiber production line, which has been successfully put into production in special protection Structure and composite materials as well as environmental protection and high-temperature dust removal have been widely used. Especially after the release of the Chinese fiber fashion trend platform, the large-scale production of easy dyed polyimide fiber and non dyed polyimide fiber has been realized, which has increased the sales revenue of the company by 20million yuan. At present, the products have been applied in the field of special protection and civil thermal insulation.

The hf40t high-strength medium model carbon fiber launched by Jiangsu Hengshen has smooth surface, few structural defects, higher tensile strength and pressure resistance, and the pressure resistance is more than 80MPa. It is suitable for pressure vessels and civil aviation and UAV applications, especially hydrogen storage containers. It is the first material for weight reduction of type IV bottles in the future. By participating in the release of Chinese fiber trends, the company has greatly promoted the carbon fiber application market, and the turnover has increased from 160million yuan in 2018 to 900million yuan, with remarkable results.

Qm4050 high strength and high modulus carbon fiber launched by Weihai development has obvious advantages in the aerospace field. Its tensile modulus is particularly high and its rigidity is strong. As a mechanism material, it has strong deformation resistance; The coefficient of thermal expansion is very low, with excellent dimensional stability; With high specific strength and low specific density, the weight can be reduced better, which is conducive to the lightweight of structural members.

03

Continuously expand the industrial chain of high-performance fibers

Although China has made some achievements in the field of high-performance fibers, we can see that due to the high technical barriers, the international high-performance fiber market is still a monopoly pattern of Japan and the United States, and China's domestic carbon fiber self-sufficiency rate is less than 40%, which is still subject to Europe, America, Japan and other countries.

In order to speed up the breakthrough of the technical bottleneck of the high-performance fiber industry, alleviate the dependence on foreign imports and promote the high-quality development of the industry, the state has issued a series of policies to support the industrial development, creating a good environment for the development of the high-performance fiber industry. The Ministry of industry and information technology, the national development and Reform Commission and other six departments jointly issued the "guiding opinions on promoting the high-quality development of the petrochemical and chemical industry during the 14th five year plan", proposing to vigorously develop new chemical materials and fine chemicals, and the guarantee level of new chemical materials should reach more than 75%. This includes high-performance fibers. The "guiding opinions on the high-quality development of chemical fiber industry" issued recently proposed that during the "14th five year plan" period, breakthroughs in key technologies of high-performance fibers and efficient and low-cost production should be carried out, and the application of high-performance fibers in aerospace, wind and photovoltaic power generation, marine engineering, environmental protection, safety protection, geotechnical construction, transportation and other fields should be further expanded.

With the support of relevant policies and platforms, China's leading high-performance fiber enterprises have also made plans for the future. Zhang Ming, deputy general manager of Jiangsu Hengshen, introduced that the company is actively exploring the airworthiness certification of domestic carbon fiber prepregs for commercial large aircraft and the development of composite structural parts, and actively layout wind turbine blades, hydrogen storage cylinders and photovoltaic carbon composites in the field of new energy. It plans to invest in the construction of a 20000 ton / year high-performance carbon fiber production base in Yulin City, Shaanxi Province, to develop and promote a new generation of high-strength, high modulus and high toughness carbon fibers.

The 10000 ton carbon fiber production base built by Zhongfu Shenying in Xining was officially put into operation in 2021. The project uses the third generation carbon fiber manufacturing technology, and realizes the independent control of the production line design and high-end complete sets of technologies with an annual output of 3000 tons of high-performance carbon fiber per single line for the first time. At present, the company has made further efforts in the large-scale, low-cost, intelligent and environmental protection of carbon fiber production, and strives to break through the fourth generation of carbon fiber manufacturing technology as soon as possible. At the same time, in order to lay out the layout of the whole carbon fiber industry chain, in August 2021, Zhongfu Shenying launched the construction of the "research and development and manufacturing of carbon fiber aerospace applications" project in Shanghai Lingang New Area, which will focus on the research and development and manufacturing of aviation resin, Aviation carbon fiber composite intermediate products and molding processes, and is committed to promoting the high-end application of domestic carbon fiber composite industry.

Recently, the carbon fiber project with an annual output of 60000 tons of Jilin chemical fiber was officially launched. The project covers an area of 720000 square meters, with a total investment of 10.3 billion yuan. It plans to build 18 self-developed intelligent carbon fiber production lines, which mainly produce large tow carbon fibers of more than 35K. The whole carbonization line has realized the localization of equipment and the maximization of single line capacity. The products are mainly used in new energy fields such as green electricity, optoelectronics, hydrogen energy, and will also be widely used in automobile lightweight, rail transit lightweight and other fields.

Based on the understanding of the development of civil carbon fiber and the expectation of future demand, Guangwei composite started the Baotou 10000 ton carbon fiber project in 2019. At present, the first phase of the 4000 ton annual output project is under construction as planned and is planned to be put into operation in the second half of this year.

Taihe new material will also add 45000 tons / year of spandex, 1500 tons / year of para aramid and 3000 tons / year of aramid paper in 2022; At the same time, it is planned to expand the production capacity of 16000 tons / year of para aramid and 17000 tons / year of para aramid.

Driven by a large number of leading enterprises in the high-performance fiber industry, China's high-performance fiber industry will continue to expand the industrial chain, attract more relevant enterprises to gather, build a whole industrial chain from raw materials, high-performance fibers, intermediate materials to composite materials, create a competitive advantage in China's high-performance fiber industrial chain, and promote China's high-performance fiber industry to a higher level.