How does the fiberglass industry innovate technologically?
Technological innovation is a hot topic that attracts attention from various industries. In today’s era of economic globalization, our country’s national economy has experienced rapid development for many years and has now put forward the situational requirements for creating an innovative society. In the 60 years of development, the fiberglass industry has been constantly exploring innovative ways to adapt to the development of the situation.
Although my country’s total fiberglass output currently ranks first in the world, only through continuous and in-depth technological innovation can the fiberglass industry grow from large to strong.
1. Pay attention to the common technology of the industry. Each industry has its own common technology, which determines the division of the industry from a technical level. In a sense, it is the common law of the industry. It can also be said to be the core technology of the industry, and its development determines reached the industry level. The progress of shared technology can only be achieved through hard accumulation and joint efforts, especially under the leadership of industry leaders.
Summarizing domestic and foreign experience, the common technologies in the glass fiber industry are roughly concentrated in the following four levels: fiber glass composition, which determines the essential performance; fiber glass melting, which determines the stable performance; glass fiber molding, which determines the fiber performance; glass fiber sizing agent and product post-processing processing to determine the application effect.
The National Science and Technology Development Outline attaches great importance to solving shared technologies because shared technologies play a vital role in improving industrial levels. The industrial development of tank kiln drawing technology in my country’s fiberglass industry to this day is enough to illustrate the importance of shared technology. The industry recognizes that OC Company has strong core competitiveness. In recent years, it has successively launched new technologies such as advantex, windstrand yarn, and new low-bubble glass fiber direct twistless roving, which shows its profound technical foundation.
We might as well take a rough look at OC’s three platform innovations:
1. In order to protect the environment and save energy, OC Company launched advantex yarn in 1997. Its composition does not contain fluorine and boron. It also adopts full oxygen combustion and electric boosting. The smoke and dust emissions are reduced by nearly 85%, and the overall energy efficiency in production is improved. More than 20%, the heat consumption of the 60,000 tons/year pool kiln is only 1,320 kcal per kilogram of glass. In its Battice factory in Belgium, it has also upgraded its wastewater treatment technology, reducing water consumption by 50% and reducing pollution content in wastewater by about 80%. It has been widely praised by European industries. OC is also actively developing the application of advantex. At present, adcantex fiber production accounts for 70% of the company’s total glass fiber.
2. Based on the development of advantex fiber, OC actively improves melting and molding technology and launches a new low-bubble glass fiber direct twistless roving-SE8400LS, ensuring that the bubble content is far less than 0.5/g. This twistless roving has Especially good resistance performance, high mechanical strength, better corrosion resistance and heat resistance than E glass fiber, which can reduce brittle cracks. It can be used to manufacture high-voltage insulators, which can greatly improve the safety of insulators. OC Norway’s Birke Juanland factory claims to have achieved bubble-free production.
3. In order to meet the higher requirements of wind turbine blades for glass fiber in terms of strength, elastic modulus and fatigue strain performance, OC has recently launched Windstrand direct twistless roving. Its tensile strength is 35% higher than that of E-glass fiber, its rigidity is 17% higher, its tensile strength is 33% higher than that of advantex fiber, its tensile modulus is 19% higher, and its fatigue performance is enhanced by 25% to 50%. It is a Alkaline earth aluminosilicate glass.
New melting and forming technologies have enabled large-scale production of some alkali-free and boron-free glass fibers with better properties.
The success of OC lies in the fact that they attach great importance to the concept of “platform” in innovation, that is, shared technology – common laws – core technology – core competitiveness, and better use “innovation” to promote the transformation from big to strong.
2. Current Focus of Glass Fiber Technology Innovation Looking at the international and domestic development trends of glass fiber, the author believes that the current focus of my country’s glass fiber technology innovation has the following two aspects:
1. Further improve glass fiber production technology, solve its own technical bottlenecks, provide high-quality products with price advantages, and take the three directions of energy conservation and emission reduction, quality optimization, and variety diversity as the sustainable development direction.
Start by striving to narrow the gap with the advanced, that is, transition from initial digestion and absorption to innovation, to integrated innovation, and then independent innovation. On the one hand, the entire industry must promote domestic advanced pool kiln technology, and on the other hand, it must strive to catch up with international advanced pool kiln technology. The following introduces some information representing foreign advanced levels for reference:
①In terms of energy saving and consumption reduction: A company in the United States has a 60,000/year alkali-free tank kiln, which uses pure oxygen combustion and electric boosting on the top of the kiln. The heat consumption per kilogram of glass is only 1,320 kcal. The company’s alkali-free fiber glass tank kiln The highest melting rate has reached 2.7t/m2·day. Foreign countries are actively developing new melting technologies with government support, including promoting and improving pure oxygen combustion technology and developing latent bottom combustion technology.�High-strength glass fiber, basalt fiber, and even mixed yarns of glass fiber and other fibers are still used. In terms of form, not only traditional continuous fibers are available, but also chopped glass fiber cords have been developed. As for fiber thickness and cord structure, there are more series to meet different performance requirements.
Secondly, the sizing agent for cord yarn and cord impregnating material are continuously improved to achieve better reinforcement effect on the rubber matrix, and can adapt to the reinforcement of different rubbers such as chloroprene, nitrile, polyurethane and so on.
In addition, the market demand for chopped glass fibers used to enhance friction materials, such as making safety braking devices, is also expanding. It is expected to have good compatibility with phenolic-based resins and sufficient heat resistance.
It can be seen that the successful application and development of fiberglass products in many fields can be summarized as follows:
① Pay full attention to the characteristics of glass fiber and maximize its strengths and avoid weaknesses.
② Enterprises with a large market share have their own innovative features, independent brands, and open fields.
③ Only large-scale application is effective. New technology, strict management, and high quality often come with scale.
3. Learn from the experience of successful companies 1. The three major fiberglass giants in China seize opportunities, integrate resources, rapidly expand scale, and improve technology levels. The main features of each are:
(1) Zhejiang Jushi: The largest and highest level, the world’s largest 100,000 tons/year output pool kiln is under appraisal, the 120,000 tons/year output pool kiln has been ignited, and the 140,000 tons/year output pool kiln project has been launched. Comprehensive integrated innovation is reflected in the high-level and extra-large pool kiln wire drawing production line.
(2) Chongqing International: Pay close attention to its core competitiveness, and it is a leader in the production of alkali-free and boron-free ECR fibers and the development of sizing agents.
(3) Shandong Taishan: It has established a national enterprise development center to improve its technological innovation capabilities with a complete technology development system. It has a high localization rate of equipment and attaches great importance to product development. It has the largest output of chopped strand mats and thin mats.
2. Jiangsu Jiuding Group, a deep processing base for fiberglass products, is a leader in the development of deep-processed products in the industry. It has developed steadily without large external investment. Its annual revenue from fiberglass and products is nearly 500 million yuan, and 80% of its products are exported. Among the main products, fabrics and mesh products for the alkali industry account for 40%. From yarns to fabrics to processing, we constantly strive for improvement. The quality of the grinding wheel mesh is the best. Its output ranks first in China and second in the world. It is gradually moving towards the third place. one. FRP started by hand lay-up and has been constantly improving and adapting to the market. The current output value has reached 130 million yuan. It has independently developed centrifugal FRP poles, vehicle parts and wind turbine covers. It has also gained international recognition and is trying to accelerate its expansion. Many of the company’s technologies originated from CSG Research Institute, but have been further developed. The company has a good innovation atmosphere and mechanism, and has 16 patents. The market adapts quickly and the new product scale cycle is short.
Based on the successful experience of the above enterprises, it can be seen that most of these enterprises determine the focus of innovation based on their own actual conditions, make choices and give up, and form characteristics. For example, OC Company Zengshe Textile, S, and ECR are fully committed to developing new glass fiber reinforced substrates. ; Saint-Gobain plans to strengthen the promotion of building materials; Jiuding Group also abandons air duct products.
In the process of innovation, you must pay attention to learning and expanding your own new knowledge. It can be said that without new knowledge, there will be no innovation. At the same time, we should focus on studying the market, predicting the market, and improving our ability to respond to the market. To determine advanced goals with high standards, we must have the desire to be number one and have a high market share, and we must also carry out meticulous technical accumulation work in a down-to-earth manner. Improve equipment levels, solve large-scale production as soon as possible, and solve necessary supporting problems.
4. Take practical measures to promote scientific and technological innovation
1. Based on the actual situation of the enterprise, formulate innovation plans based on enterprise development, industry leadership, market competition, and high level, and actively serve the enterprise development strategy. Develop characteristics based on reality and determine direction, focus and steps. Focus on the construction of innovative mechanisms, focusing on incentives (conditions, encouragement) and accountability (performance appraisal).
2. Use “projects” as clues to promote the implementation of innovation. Develop an innovation plan based on the production plan every year, and arrange innovative projects of different sizes and types. The plan determination process is also the launch process. The project is based on the needs of the company and reflects the company’s advantages. It is important to avoid tailoring things to people or following trends. When confirming projects, pay attention to accumulation and operability. Do not lose one after another, and do not blindly seek perfection and perfection. Continuously improve technology and equipment levels to achieve the best production results.
3. Use the enterprise development center as a link to establish an enterprise innovation network. For large enterprises to establish an enterprise development center (with dedicated personnel in charge of small enterprises), it is an important measure to promote innovation. Use the enterprise development center to build an information platform, and pay attention to the collection and accumulation of professional information sources related to enterprise development. With the development center as the link, we coordinate the relationship between innovation and production, form a reasonable echelon of knowledge and talents, and form an innovation network. The enterprise development center must play a role in promoting, driving, and coordinating. 4. Handle the relationship between absorption and innovation, and continuously improve innovation capabilities. Understand innovation approaches from the characteristics of fiberglass technology and the current situation of fiberglass in my country. Pay attention to the fiberglass edge disciplines, which involve many and long links. Actively carry out outsourcing, strengthen cooperation with technology and product extension units, and focus on integrated innovation. Actively and effectively learn foreign advanced technologies, do a good job of digesting, absorbing and re-innovating. Always pay attention to improving your own innovation capabilities, adopt patent strategies, and strive for independent innovation.
�Pay attention to the edge disciplines of fiberglass, which involve many and long links. Actively carry out outsourcing, strengthen cooperation with technology and product extension units, and focus on integrated innovation. Actively and effectively learn foreign advanced technologies, do a good job of digesting, absorbing and re-innovating. Always pay attention to improving your own innovation capabilities, adopt patent strategies, and strive for independent innovation.
