A bundle of carbon fiber, can pull two large aircraft! The "King of New Materials" opens a 5 trillion yuan "new wind mouth".

In recent years, a number of flourishing new industries, is in a breakneck speed, become a new pillar of the modernization of the industrial system. Among them, as the "chassis technology" of advanced manufacturing, new materials are the indispensable material foundation to support high-end equipment and major projects.

According to estimates, from January to September this year, the total output value of new materials industry exceeded 5 trillion yuan, maintaining double-digit growth. Accelerating the outbreak of new materials, in fact, "new" in where? Compared with traditional materials, what are the advantages? Today, "accelerate the formation of new productivity" special program into the "king of new materials" - carbon fiber.

On the field, it helps athletes to set new records; in life, it makes light load a habit; in space, it launches a severe impact on metal materials. It is carbon fiber. A bunch of chopstick-thick T1000 carbon fiber, enough to pull two C919 domestic aircraft. There are only a few countries in the world with carbon fiber R & D and large-scale production capacity, and China is one of them.

Chen Qiufei, Deputy General Manager of Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber Co., Ltd: A 5 mm wide bundle of carbon fiber contains 12,000 monofilaments. This year has just achieved mass production of T1100 grade carbon fiber is not the same as the laboratory breakthrough. Only batch stabilized production, the quality is stable, to meet the needs of a large number of industrial applications such as aerospace.

In 2021, China became the world's largest producer of carbon fiber for the first time; in 2022, the amount of domestically produced carbon fiber for the first time beyond the amount of imports. In May this year, the world's largest single annual output of 25,000 tons of high-performance carbon fiber project, full production in Xining. With the large-scale production of domestically produced carbon fiber, once pushed up by import restrictions on the price should fall back, limited by the cost of a large number of demand release.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)In 2021, China became the world's largest producer of carbon fiber for the first time; in 2022, the amount of domestically produced carbon fiber for the first time beyond the amount of imports. In May this year, the world's largest single annual output of 25,000 tons of high-performance carbon fiber project, full production in Xining. With the large-scale production of domestically produced carbon fiber, once pushed up by import restrictions on the price should fall back, limited by the cost of a large number of demand release.

An area as open as a ski slope is the inner cavity of an offshore wind turbine blade, which is 123 meters long. Suspended in the air is the main beam being lifted, mainly made of carbon fiber, the role of the main beam in the blade is equivalent to the human spine.

The amount of carbon fiber used for a blade is about 10 tons, with carbon beams accounting for one-fifth of the weight of a wind turbine blade and more than one-third of the cost.

The thin layer of carbon beams laid in the blades of the huge wind turbine, like seaweed sheets, is actually made up of more than a dozen layers of carbon plates at its thickest point. A piece of carbon plate weighing about one kilogram, its carbon fiber content of more than 70%. Before this year, the factory has been using imported carbon fiber, a carbon plate price of about 150 yuan. The factory started using domestic carbon fiber from this year, and the cost of carbon boards dropped by half.

More and more industries can afford carbon fiber, carbon fiber market is also accelerating the formation of the use of carbon fiber. Under the promotion of the "dual carbon" strategy, hydrogen energy, as an important part of the future national energy system, has attracted a number of future industrial layout, storage and transportation is the urgent need to crack the problem.

The hydrogen storage cylinder wrapped with carbon fiber, which is used for hydrogen transfer between hydrogen refueling stations, can reduce the thickness of the inner liner of this cylinder wrapped in its middle from two centimeters to one centimeter compared to traditional hydrogen storage cylinders, and can transport 30% more hydrogen under the same weight.

Using lighter containers to store more hydrogen is the industry's direction of development, but also where carbon fiber can make a big difference. A batch production line for a product that just received a manufacturing license this year is currently working with car companies to jointly develop hydrogen storage cylinders needed for hydrogen fuel cell passenger cars.

A 63-liter hydrogen cylinder can hold 500 times its volume of hydrogen, while the inside of the cylinder is under high pressure at 70 MPa.

Ji Zengxiang, deputy director of the R&D center of Sinoma Science and Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd: 70 MPa can be interpreted as 700 kilograms of weight in an area the size of a fingernail cap. White is the plastic liner, play a sealing role, the strength of the entire 70 MPa is provided entirely by the black carbon fiber.

Whether it is a breakthrough from 0 to 1, or from 1 to 100 deep plowing, carbon fiber as the representative of the new materials, constantly through technological innovation, prying product upgrades, and promote industrial leap.

Gathering resources and collaborative innovation China's new materials industry has entered a new stage of development

As a star in the field of new materials, carbon fiber is just a microcosm of the rapid development of new materials. Data show that in 2022, the total output value of China's new materials industry will be about 6.8 trillion yuan, an increase of nearly six times over 2012, with an average annual compound growth rate of more than 20%.

Behind the breakthrough progress of a number of key new materials, inseparable from the power of scientific and technological innovation, and the development of new materials, and further support the progress of new technologies to accelerate the formation of new qualitative productivity, new materials will also be how to power?

Gan Yong said, a generation of materials to determine a generation of technology, new materials is a chassis technology, but also a pioneer technology. In recent years, it is in the key materials on a breakthrough, strong support for China's rail transportation, manned spaceflight, energy engineering, electronic information, biotechnology and other new generation of technology development, and the upstream and downstream industries to form a strong impetus.

Director of the National Expert Advisory Committee on the Development of New Materials Industry, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Gan Yong: new steel materials, special alloy materials, we built the world's longest 42,000 kilometers of high-speed rail, and the development of new materials to promote our new energy vehicles to lead the technological development in the world. Information materials, especially compound semiconductors, we have made many breakthroughs. The development of these new materials has laid a relatively good foundation for the manufacturing powerhouse to enter the high-quality stage in high-quality development.

At present, China's new materials industry is facing major strategic needs and has entered a critical window of development. The key core areas represented by advanced new materials such as nanomaterials, carbon-based materials, coating materials, advanced fiber materials, third and fourth generation semiconductors, etc., are becoming the focus of global competition in the future.

Director of the National Advisory Committee of Experts on the Development of New Materials Industry Gan Yong, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering: especially in the integrated circuit 14 nanometer, 22 nanometer below or even to 7 nanometers. Some materials in this area we have to keep up. In the layout of cutting-edge materials, a very important kind of material is the new information material. It supports the country's overall arithmetic base with the future of artificial intelligence era of national power struggle. Now we are in the layout of quantum communication, quantum display, quantum computing, quantum detection, including the future 6G materials, information storage materials and so on. In fact, it also provides a foundation for future industrial development.

In recent years, in the field of new materials, global competition has become increasingly fierce. Gan Yong believes that through the national major special projects to gather innovative resources, to create a multi-body, full chain, systematic new materials system, can realize the transformation from a large material country to a strong material country. At present, the number of professional and skilled personnel in the field of new materials in China ranks first in the world. Among them, there are more than 200 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Engineering, and more than 1.15 million materials science and technology talents; more than 60 national key laboratories of new materials; and the gradual implementation of the recently launched major special projects of new materials, which will become the support for the comprehensive promotion of the high-quality development of China's new materials industry.

Director of the National New Materials Industry Development Expert Advisory Committee, Academician Gan Yong of the Chinese Academy of Engineering: Form a number of long-lasting, stable, high-level R&D platforms to comprehensively promote China's new materials to high-end development. Under the new stage of new quality productivity, new materials will enter a stage of vigorous development. And some materials due to the huge demand, through the mega-market drag, the development speed will exceed the conventional, our independent localization of the material varieties are more and more, in the high-end materials breakthrough ability is more and more strong.