From Scratch, The Carbon Fiber Industry Has Achieved "Three Initial Stages"

Industrialized production of carbon fiber "from scratch"

Carbon fiber is an inorganic fiber material with a carbon content of more than 90%, which is made of polyacrylonitrile, asphalt and other chemical materials as precursors through pre oxidation, carbonization and other processes. Due to its light weight, high strength, high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, fatigue resistance, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity and other carbon material properties, as well as the soft processability of fiber materials, carbon fiber is widely used in aerospace, industrial applications and sports and leisure. It is one of the fastest growing new materials in the world in recent years.

Materials are the basis and premise of equipment. There is a saying in the industry that "one generation of materials, one generation of equipment". The research and development of carbon fiber in China began in the early 1960s, but due to many reasons such as system mechanism, basic science, engineering technology, industrial equipment, etc., it has always stayed at the level of low performance carbon fiber, and the key technology of industrialization of high performance carbon fiber has not been able to achieve an effective breakthrough.

Since 2000, China has attached great importance to the development of carbon fiber. The key technology project of carbon fiber was included in the National High Technology Research and Development Plan ("863" Plan) during the Tenth Five Year Plan period, and the "Basic Scientific Issues of High Performance Polyacrylonitrile Carbon Fiber" was included in the National "973" Plan during the Eleventh Five Year Plan period. The strategic emerging industry plan during the Twelfth Five Year Plan included carbon fiber as one of the priorities. The Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other departments have also increased their support for carbon fiber industrialization.

Xu Lianghua, a researcher at the National Carbon Fiber Engineering Technology Research Center of the School of Materials Science and Engineering of Beijing University of Chemical Technology, believes that with the support of national policies, China's carbon fiber industry has grown from scratch, and its industrial scale and technical level have been greatly developed.

　　 industry Make progress to realize the "Three Beginnings"

Vice President of China Chemical Fiber Industry Association Zhao Xiangdong Said that the progress of China's carbon fiber industry in recent years can be summarized as "three initial stages": first, it has begun to take shape, second, it has reached a higher level, and third, it has initially met the needs of national economic and social development.

Initial scale means domestic production carbon fibre Large-scale industrial production has become a reality. According to experts, at present, China's key technologies in the whole process of industrial production of T300 carbon fiber have basically achieved a breakthrough in localization, formed a set of carbon fiber industrialization technologies with high independent intellectual property rights, reached the capacity of thousands of tons of industrial scale production, and products have partially replaced imports.

The initial level means that China has made breakthroughs in the R&D and industrial production of more advanced high-performance carbon fibers. At present, China's T700 carbon fiber has completed the construction process of pilot line and 100 ton line in some regions and enterprises, initially realized industrialization, and is carrying out high-level industrial production and construction. T800 carbon fiber has broken through the key technology of preparation and is ready to enter the engineering stage. In addition, M50J high modulus carbon fiber has also broken through the key technology of development.

Domestic carbon fiber has been able to meet the needs preliminarily. Whether the research and development of high-end carbon fiber products and their composites meet the needs of the development of national defense science, technology and industry, and whether China's national defense independent support level can be continuously improved is an important indicator of the development level of carbon fiber industry. China uses nearly 10000 tons of carbon fiber every year, including about 2000 tons of domestic carbon fiber, which has been successively applied to high-end equipment such as launch vehicles, satellites and large aircraft.

With the rapid development of the carbon fiber industry, China has cultivated leading carbon fiber enterprises such as Jiangsu Hengshen, Zhongfu Shenying and Weihai Development, forming an industrial cluster effect. Up to now, there are more than 30 carbon fiber production enterprises in China, and the scale of production lines has reached about 20000 tons.

Xu Jian, an expert of the "863" Program Expert Committee and the Strategic Emerging Industry Development Expert Advisory Committee, said that China has developed relevant high-performance carbon fiber, but has not solved the problem of overall parallelism in terms of technology, technology, equipment, etc. The real gap is more than ten years.