Expert Analysis Of Future Development Trend Of Flame Retardant Fiber

Guest: Dr. Shi Meiwu, a professor at the Quartermaster Equipment Research Institute of the General Logistics Department.

"At present, our country

The development should be at the best stage. With the increase in demand for flame-retardant textiles, this development will continue to rise.

Speaking of the current development and future trends of domestic flame retardant fibers, Dr. Shi Meiwu, a professor at the Quartermaster Equipment Research Institute of the General Logistics Department, is clang and confident.

As one of the sponsors of this academic salon, Dr. Shi Mei Wu has interpreted the current situation, urgent problems and future development models of the domestic flame retardant industry from the perspective of the development of the industry, and put forward some pertinent suggestions for enterprises to better adapt to the market competition.

Host: what is the development of flame retardant fiber in China? Are there any advantages in terms of performance and price?

Shi Meiwu: in the past few years, the Chinese Academy of engineering's "high performance fiber and its products development strategy research" project and several national 863 projects have led to the rapid development of China's flame retardant fiber and other high-performance fibers.

They include aramid fiber, polysulfone fiber, polyaromatic two azole fiber, high strength flame retardant vinylon, polyimide fiber and polytetrafluoroethylene fiber. Some of these fibers have reached mature industrial production, and some have begun to enter industrial production.

Under the precondition that domestic flame retardant fibers are basically mature, China's flame retardancy

For the first time, the standard divides the flame retardant properties of fabrics into three grades: A, B and C. Among them, the thermal protection coefficient of Grade A is required, and the washing resistance requirement of 50 washings is required.

This high class flame retardant protective clothing can only be borne by intrinsic flame retardant fibers.

For modified flame retardant fibers, it has also made considerable progress in recent years. The most representative is the successful development of high-strength flame-retardant vinylon and its industrial production. Its strength reaches 7 ~ 7.5cN/dtex, and significantly improves the strength of flame retardant textiles.

With high flame retardant and low cost fibers, it can mix with flame retardant viscose fibers with low strength, comfort and good dyeing, and ultimately achieve a balance of flame retardant, high strength, comfort, appearance and price, and adapt to broader market demand.

In addition, there are also some flame retardant fibers, although there are some problems such as droplet phenomenon, chlorine easily smoking, low strength, flame-retardant property and water resistance, but they can also be used in some suitable occasions.

Flame retardant fibers have been selected on different grades of flame retardant fibers, including interaramid aramid, polysulfonamide and badilon as essential flame retardant fibers, as well as high performance flame retardant vinylon and flame retardant viscose with high cost performance and modified flame retardant. In addition, our researchers have made many researches on the rational use and synergistic effect of various domestic flame retardant fibers. Many simple and quick test methods have been formed, and some high-performance formulations and textile dyeing and finishing processes have been developed, so that the flame retardant fabrics made of many kinds of domestic flame retardant fibers can even surpass the technical level of the typical international flame retardant fabric brand, and show obvious advantages in terms of price. Therefore, at present in China

Moderator: from a technical point of view, at present, the R & D capability of domestic enterprises can be met.

Demand? What are the problems?

Shi Meiwu: in China's flame retardant fiber production enterprises, some enterprises themselves have strong technical strength.

Such as Yantai Taihe, Shanghai, and so on are all high-tech enterprises with strong R & D team. The aramid fiber produced by Taihe and Yantai is different from that of Nomex due to the difference of spinning routes. The flame retardant fibers produced by Jiangsu Bao de company and Shanghai Quan Yu company and universities have good prospects for development.

Now, polyimide and other high temperature resistant flame-retardant fibers have also been made domestically, and we also have the ability to produce most of the flame retardant fibers in the world.

From this perspective, domestic enterprises can meet the needs of the market.

However, similar to most of our products, our flame-retardant fiber also has some problems such as lack of special products and in-depth research on the lack of final products.

Just like the production of polymer materials, there are many kinds of specific brands for a variety of polymer materials, such as polyethylene PE, which can be adapted to different specific uses abroad. The vast majority of PE in China are general materials, and few special materials are available.

Our flame-retardant fibers have not been subdivided into specific protective requirements applicable to fire protection, arc protection or metal spatter protection during metal smelting.

In the final research and development of protective products, there is also a lack of technical personnel who know all about the properties of flame retardant fibers, textile dyeing and finishing technology, and on-site protection requirements. Therefore, the research and development of final products are often not thorough enough, and the products developed by them are relatively coarse, and their performance is naturally poor.

Therefore, for China's high temperature and flame-retardant occupational protective equipment, although the flame retardant fiber materials have all kinds of products with high performance, they still have a large majority of them.

These products can only meet the general requirements for use. Enterprises have not specifically developed special fibers for specific purposes. For the final products, we are not professional enough in design and manufacture, and the final products are relatively coarse.

Moderator: after the technical level has made some progress, what are the characteristics of domestic enterprises in market development?

Shi Meiwu: China's flame retardant fiber production also reflects the characteristics of each war, that is, each flame retardant fiber production enterprise first of all, in order to sell their products, do everything possible to use their own varieties of fiber.

Of course, the same is true for foreign countries, for example, the "93-5-2" formula of a large company, that is, 93% aramid, 5% para aramid and 2% conductive fiber, except for certain rationality in some occasions, most field combinations are unreasonable. Experiments have shown that the direct effect of adding 5% pairs of aramid fibers is about 17% lower in strength.

Therefore, some people think that one of the possible ways to design this formula is to mix and sell the raw materials of the same enterprise.

Therefore, some people and units should not keep a clear view of all kinds of flame-retardant fibers, and make careful research on the performance and price of the flame retardant fabrics, and aim at the specific needs of all kinds of flame-retardant protective textiles needed for various industries, so as to carry out the research on the performance and cost performance of the final products, so as to truly develop the flame retardant textiles that the society needs and meet the market demand at present.

Moderator: in view of such a problem, how can enterprises take fewer detours and upgrade the competitiveness of the domestic flame retardant industry as soon as possible?

Shi Meiwu: in addition to meticulously studying the mixing ways of many kinds of flame retardant fibers and finding synergies, we should also study the mechanism of producing this synergistic effect, study the methods of spinning and weaving non-uniform structures, arrange all kinds of flame retardant fibers to specific positions of fabrics, so as to give full play to their functions of flame retardance, strength, touch, warmth and comfort.

In terms of concept, it should be established that in most indicators of high temperature resistant and flame retardant textiles, most of the flame retardancy should not be the primary indicator.

Because most of the flame-retardant products are "keeping soldiers for thousands of days", that is, most of the time when wearing fireproof clothing is not fire, so in most of the time, strength and comfort are the most important. If wearing this fire clothing brings strong discomfort to the wearer, then the wearer will definitely not want to wear it. This will lose the significance of protection; even if it does not reach the level of no comfort, it will also affect the work efficiency; moreover, if the strength of the fabric is not enough, it will also affect the protection effect.

That is to say, for flame-retardant textiles, the strength, comfort and flame retardancy should be taken into account. From the perspective of economy and protection, strength should be used as the primary index of flame retardant protective clothing, and comfort should be placed in the second place, and then the flame retardant energy that can be used occasionally.

In addition, we should develop the finishing flame retardant products according to the different uses of flame retardant textiles, and have a fair evaluation of the flame-retardant fibers using halogen containing flame retardants. It should be safer to use flame-retardant products made from halogen-containing flame retardants in open space.

In fact, at the legal level, the world does not exclude the use of halogenated flame retardants. The criticism of halogen containing flame retardants is only the commercial level.

And the products that use phosphorus flame retardants are not necessarily without criticism.

In the case of eutrophication in water system, environmental scientists pointed out that the main reason is the accumulation of phosphorus in detergents in water.

At present, halogen containing flame retardants are actually the most effective flame retardants.

Moderator: to achieve "performance lifting, price down", what bottlenecks domestic fiber industry needs to break through? What are the good experiences abroad?

Shi Meiwu: France has a brand of flame retardant products called Fitek, which is characterized by the use of 3 kinds of fiber blended yarn, although the company's technical staff do not want to tell me which three fibers are used, but its technical thinking is clear.

It is impossible to find a perfect and cheap flame retardant fiber. Any flame retardant fiber has its advantages and disadvantages.

To enable the final performance to take account of all aspects and meet various requirements, multiple fiber mixing methods should be adopted.

In fact, high grade fabrics abroad are often not entirely woolen, but are blended with a variety of natural fibers and chemical fibers.

In the same way, in order to raise the performance of flame retardant products and reduce the price, we must rely on the study of reasonable blending formula and rely on various fibers to play their respective roles. Finally, the fiber properties can be taken into account in all aspects, and the price is relatively low.