Vehicle Textile: What Is The Shortage Of Local Manufacturers?

Today, the smallest defects in the interior of the car can also become a major failure of the whole car.

Consumers' demand for cars is not only limited to the shape of the car, but to the interior of the car.

At a car show, reporters found that even the United States and Asia did not pay much attention to interior decoration in the past.

The improvement of basic conditions, such as technological pformation and domestic equipment, has created a good environment for the innovation of automotive textiles, and has enriched the quality of automobile textiles in terms of quality, environmental protection, functionality and fashion.

The choice and use of automotive textile materials have a very important impact on the beauty of cars.

If the average consumption of 15 kilograms of ~20 kilograms of textiles per car is calculated, the consumption of automotive textiles in China alone will reach 83 thousand to 110 thousand tons per year.

A survey also shows that the sales volume of China's automotive interior textiles is increasing at a rate of 15% to 20% per year.

However, the production of automotive textiles in China is far from meeting the needs of the automotive industry.

Some car textile manufacturers are too small, the development capacity is generally weak, the varieties are single, the quality is not high, and the sedan fabrics and raw materials still rely on imports.

These are all urgent problems to be solved for automotive textiles.

Technological innovation must not hurt quality.

With the heating up of the automobile industry, automobile manufacturers have put forward higher requirements for automotive textiles.

Automotive interior

A well-known expert in the industry explained that technological progress and technological innovation capability are two different concepts. Technological progress can be achieved through the introduction of technology, and technological innovation is much more difficult.

The quality problem will be involved.

Automotive interior textile manufacturers should increase investment in equipment and technology, fundamentally improve the quality of automotive interior textiles, develop new technologies, and lay a solid foundation for the production of high-grade automotive interior textiles.

With regard to technological innovation and product quality, the reporter had the honor to interview Yao Minghua, general manager of Shanghai Shenda Limited by Share Ltd and general manager of Shanghai auto Carpet General Factory Co., Ltd.

He said that from the perspective of enterprises, the main driving force of technological innovation is market demand.

Market demand is mainly manifested in two aspects, one is to guide customers by improving the performance of products. This is a relatively high level of technological innovation, and the general method is to improve the quality of products, such as developing new materials, improving product processing technology to improve product physical durability, weather resistance, antistatic performance, acoustic performance, flame retardancy and so on.

On the other hand, the market demand of automotive textiles is largely manifested in reducing the procurement cost of products.

In this case, there may be two ways for technological innovation of enterprises. First, in the process of production, we should shorten the process, reduce material losses, enhance process reliability, save energy, or seek alternative energy and reduce waste. In addition, we should raise the level of equipment, such as increasing the degree of processing mechanization and increasing labour productivity, so as to achieve this goal. This innovation has limited contribution to quality improvement.

Secondly, only to meet the relevant standards of products, reduce the excess quality of materials and production processes, such as the surface of composite materials, reduce the use of recycled materials or other relatively low cost materials in the grass-roots level.

In this way, the quality of products on the surface has not declined, and has met the relevant standards and regulations, but in essence, it has reduced the internal quality of products.

When it comes to whether the relationship between product performance and product cost is more difficult, Yao Minghua's answer is affirmative. "Because of the fierce competition in the domestic car market, the trend of product homogenization is obvious. How to reduce production cost to meet the needs of customers is the mainstream of technological innovation of vehicle textiles at present.

The highlight of many new technologies is primarily to reduce the cost of products.

Of course, we did find a lot of good examples of reducing the cost of products and improving the quality of products.

However, once the new technologies that are devoted to hard work or new technologies introduced from abroad are listed, due to the lack of awareness and means of domestic technology protection, the replication and low-cost development of this innovative technology will follow, and the quality of products will obviously decline, which will cause users' suspicion of the technological innovation.

Recyclable environmentally friendly products are the core of development

Sun Ruizhe, vice president of China Textile Industry Association, pointed out that the diversified demand for high-grade automotive interior textiles is particularly urgent. Developing recyclable products is one of the core of the current development.

EU law requires that part of the recycling of automotive materials be necessary. In 2006, the recovery rate of cars has reached 80%, and by 2015, it will reach 85%, which means that the interior textiles for automobiles also need to be recycled.

At present, China's automobile textiles have not yet met these requirements, and there is a low pollution and low recycling rate.

Therefore, the research and development of new environmentally friendly and recyclable automotive interior textiles will be the main development direction of our country in this field.

Experts have predicted that by the middle and late 2030s, the number of cars in China will catch up with or surpass that of the United States, which will bring broad space for the development of automotive interior textile enterprises.

Facing the market demand of attractive automotive interior textiles, the head of the nonwoven research and development center of Donghua University said that the two major problems currently restricting the development of China's automotive interior textiles are safety and environmental protection.

In recent years, a number of key automotive interior textile manufacturers are stepping up their development.

According to the European vehicle regulations, after 2015, a large proportion of all components of the car require recycling, which means the application of natural cellulose fiber and single component polymer materials.

Carmakers and nonwoven manufacturers are constantly experimenting with existing fibers, developing their use in the manufacture of car body and interior materials, in order to reduce vehicle costs and reduce fuel consumption.

In the process, the amount of nonwoven materials is increasing.

According to statistics from relevant departments, the automobile industry consumes about 1 million 280 thousand tons of nonwoven materials every year.

It is understood that carbon fiber is widely used in the manufacture of Formula One racing cars and high-end bicycles, and can be used in various accessories and components, such as fenders, car flooring, car seat frames, pedals, shift handles, etc.

According to information from Japan, some major automakers are exploring the possibility of replacing carbon steel with steel in automobiles, and Japan's trade and industry also support this project.

The United States is also conducting research in this area.

Carbon fiber instead of steel has many obvious advantages: the strength of carbon is higher than that of steel and the weight is 1/4 of steel, which can reduce the weight of vehicle by at least 40%, and increase fuel efficiency and reduce carbon dioxide emissions.

Improving cooperation is a top priority, {page_break}

Through technological pformation and technological improvement, the products and equipment of the vehicle textile enterprises have been greatly improved, and a number of key non-woven materials manufacturing enterprises have been formed to meet all kinds of interior nonwovens required by the complete plant.

But compared with the advanced level in foreign countries, there is a big gap between the research and development of automotive interior materials in China. Especially, we can not achieve synchronous development with the whole vehicle. The development of environment-friendly materials, lightweight, high-strength composite materials and high-performance automotive filtration materials needs to be improved.

In addition, China's automotive textile production enterprises are mostly Sino foreign joint ventures, advanced production technology from abroad, lack of product development autonomy.

Therefore, enterprises should strengthen the research and development of products and develop their own intellectual property rights.

In the opinion of experts, according to the current situation of automobile fabrics, domestic enterprises must learn from advanced foreign enterprises, and the automobile industry must also take the vertical and horizontal joint road between them.

Along with a series of obvious policy pulling effects of the state on automobile industry, it will also create a good opportunity for domestic and foreign automobile manufacturers and automotive fabric suppliers to achieve linkage and common development. Textile mills need to strengthen ties with the automobile manufacturers and cooperate in the development, so that the fabric's structure and appearance can reflect the intention and style of the design, and form special materials for automotive textiles, so as to achieve variety, specialization, functionalization and serialization.

Yao Minghua said, for automotive interior enterprises, "collaboration" is particularly important, and the product supply contracts signed with customers need to ensure batch supply for several years, and to ensure the supply of 10 years aftermarket parts.

Therefore, finding stable supporting channels is very important for the first class suppliers.

As a supporting enterprise of vehicle products, no matter what the order in the parts supply system is, it must first be a responsible enterprise, and the end user of the product must be frozen on the customers of the car buying vehicle.

Take the responsibility of users to do well in product quality, cooperate with downstream enterprises and ensure stable supply.

Of course, automobile enterprises should shoulder the responsibility of maintaining their own reputation and brand, monitoring the situation of parts suppliers, and doing a good job of contingency and preventive measures.

"Automotive textile enterprises generally serve as suppliers of first-class enterprises, so they play a very important role in improving the supporting channels of vehicle textiles. In the process of survival and development, enterprises strive to build a competitive vehicle enterprise with stable operation, superior product quality, product cost advantages, new product development and customer development tasks, and can continue to develop professional vehicle materials suppliers.

If there is really difficulty, the enterprise can not maintain, in the process of shutting down, changing production or restructuring, we must pay attention to the characteristics of automotive materials supply, and put forward early, to help customers find alternatives, we must not go away. "

Yao Minghua added.