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In 2022, the main application fields include wind turbine blades (23.5%), sports and leisure (30.9%), aerospace and military industry (10.5%), carbon-carbon composite materials (9.1%), and pressure vessels (8.1%).
With the continuous breakthrough and volume of domestic high-quality carbon fiber production, as well as the continuous development of downstream military industry, satellite Internet, artificial intelligence and other fields, satellites, rockets, robots, etc. will become a new growth point for carbon fiber demand.
In 2022, the global demand for carbon fiber will reach 135,000 tons, of which China's demand will account for 74,400 tons, compared with the previous year's global total of 118,000 tons and China's demand of 62,400 tons. China's carbon fiber demand is expected to climb further to 132,000 tonnes by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.6% between 2021 and 2025.
Pay attention to Leqing's industry observation and gain insight into the industrial pattern!
Overview of the carbon fiber industry
As the basis of various high-tech new materials, carbon fiber plays a vital role in improving equipment performance and achieving independence.
Carbon fiber is a microcrystalline graphite material fiber with a carbon content of more than 90%, which is made from organic fibers (especially polyacrylonitrile fibers) through carbonization and graphitization treatment. The material plays an important role in both military and civilian applications due to its unique physical properties – high strength, light weight, high specific modulus, excellent corrosion resistance, fatigue resistance, low coefficient of thermal expansion, and excellent resistance to high and low temperatures.
Compared to traditional industrial metal materials such as titanium alloys, resin-based carbon fibers perform better in terms of modulus and strength. It is designed to be as strong as or even exceed the level of high-strength steel, and at the same time has significant advantages in terms of weight reduction.
Despite the many advantages of carbon fiber in terms of performance, its relatively high cost limits its application in certain industries.
At present, in fields with extremely high requirements for material performance, such as aerospace, carbon fiber has begun to partially replace traditional materials. However, in traditional industries with less stringent requirements for mechanical properties, traditional materials still dominate due to the greater emphasis on economic benefits.
High-end carbon fiber, especially small tow products used in the aerospace industry, has a complex and demanding preparation process. Every step from polymerization and spinning to pre-oxidation and carbonization has a crucial impact on the performance of the final product.
Among them, the quality of the precursor is the basis for the preparation of high-performance carbon fiber, and the industrialization process and reaction device technology are the key to ensure the stable quality.
At present, the spinning methods commonly used in industry include wet jet wet spinning and dry jet wet spinning.
Although the spinning speed of wet jet wet spinning is slow, the product quality is relatively stable, while dry jet wet spinning combines the advantages of dry and wet spinning, which is the main process for large-scale production of PAN-based carbon fiber precursors.
Carbon fiber composite materials have the characteristics of light weight and high strength, and their density is only 1.5-2g/cm³, which is half of aluminum alloy and one-fifth of steel. The quality of parts made of carbon fiber composites is only 15%-30% of that of traditional aluminum alloy parts. For example, BMW has made extensive use of carbon fiber reinforced plastic materials in its i3 and i8 battery electric vehicles produced in 2014, achieving a breakthrough application of carbon fiber in production vehicles. However, due to the higher cost, BMW reduced the amount of carbon fiber in subsequent hot-selling models.
In terms of the preparation of carbon fiber composite materials, leading companies such as Guangwei Composites have realized the independent research and development and production of core equipment such as carbonization and oxidation.
Among carbon fiber composites, resin matrix composites (CFRP) are the most common, accounting for more than 90% of the market share. In this type of material, carbon fibers play the role of force, while resin plays the role of bonding. Due to its significant weight reduction and enhancement effect, CFRP has been widely used in aerospace, sports and recreational goods, and other fields.
In the field of application of carbon fiber, the robotic arm is a typical case, and in addition, in the tire manufacturing process, the truss robot also widely uses carbon fiber material. According to the data of the article "Design of T-axis Carbon Fiber High-speed Truss Robot", in order to meet the requirements of different working conditions for the strength, life and quality of high-speed truss robots, carbon fiber materials are used in key components such as T-axis slider rectangular tubes, Z-axis fixed channel steels and Z-axis slider rectangular tubes.
Carbon fiber industry chain carding
The entire carbon fiber industry chain includes production equipment, precursor production, intermediate manufacturing, carbon fiber product production and final application links.
The complete value chain of carbon fiber covers the entire manufacturing process from crude oil initiation to end application. It begins with the extraction of propylene from fossil fuels such as oil, coal, natural gas, etc., followed by an ammonia oxidation reaction to obtain acrylonitrile. Acrylonitrile undergoes polymerization and spinning processes to form polyacrylonitrile precursor, which is the core link in the industrial chain.
The quality of the precursor, especially its micromorphological structure and compactness, has a decisive influence on the strength of carbon fibers. In addition, the quality and production cost of precursor also largely determine the final quality and price of carbon fiber. The precursor is converted into carbon fiber after pre-oxidation, low temperature and high temperature carbonization treatment.
The key to the preparation of high-performance carbon fiber lies in the high-quality PAN precursor, which is the precursor of carbon fiber. The polymerization, spinning, carbonization and oxidation processes involved in the production of PAN precursors are not easy, and key industrial processes and reactor technologies need to be mastered.
In addition to the quality of PAN precursors, the design, manufacture and evaluation of carbon fiber composite materials are also the key factors restricting the development of the carbon fiber industry.
In carbon fiber composites, resin substrates play an important role. Even with high-quality PAN precursors, the large-scale application of carbon fiber will still be limited if there is no high-performance, industrial-scale resin substrate and corresponding composite material production equipment. #New Materials##Materials##Carbon Fiber##Wind Power##Automobiles##Article Launch Challenge##Finance##汽车#
Carbon fiber market competition pattern and leading carding
The core production technology of carbon fiber is mainly mastered by enterprises in Europe, America and Japan.
In terms of production capacity, Japan's Toray ranks first in the world. Some domestic enterprises have made achievements in the carbon fiber industry chain. For example, Guangwei Composites has realized the layout of the whole industrial chain of carbon fiber, Zhongfu Shenying is the leading enterprise of civil small tow carbon fiber, and Jilin Carbon Valley is the leading enterprise of carbon fiber precursor.
Jilin Chemical Fiber Group is the leading enterprise of large tow carbon fiber in China; Shanghai Petrochemical is building the first set of 10,000-ton 48K large tow carbon fiber localization device in China; Zhongjian Technology is the leading enterprise of military carbon fiber; Hengshen Co., Ltd. has realized the integrated development of carbon fiber, prepreg and composite materials; and Seiko Technology is the leading enterprise of carbon fiber carbonization equipment. Carbon fiber composite material manufacturers also include Jinbo shares, Tianyi Shangjia and so on.
Among the world's top ten carbon fiber manufacturers, China's Jilin Chemical Fiber Group, Zhongfu Shenying and Baojing are also on the list.
The development of the carbon fiber industry also faces some challenges. In the context of the accumulation of carbon fiber inventory and the decline in prices, the profitability of carbon fiber products and the operation of enterprises are under pressure. As a result, large-scale capacity expansion is likely to slow down, while leading companies are expected to rely on their advantages in scale, cost, technology and capital to further amass resources.
Although the development of the carbon fiber industry is facing some challenges, considering that its price is gradually bottoming out, and the long-term growth space of downstream demand is still good, the application scenarios are also expected to be further expanded.
Pay attention to Leqing's industry observation and gain insight into the industrial pattern!