The "Chang'e-5" lunar flag does not fade at plus or minus 150 °C, high-performance fibers such as aramid, aramid, and carbon fiber help C919 reduce weight by 7%, graphene fiber warms the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, seaweed can also be made into clothes, and smart textiles have brought great changes to people's lives...... A series of disruptive and cutting-edge textile technology changes are systematically promoting industrial and market changes.
This spring, the "new quality productivity" has become a new wave surging strongly in the sea of China's economy. As the core element of the development of new quality productivity, scientific and technological innovation determines the value of the industry and the bottom line of safety, and builds the initiative and discourse power of the industry. At present, through scientific and technological innovation, the textile industry is accumulating strength and laying a solid foundation for the development of new quality productivity in many fields.
01
Extend new spaces with new materials
In the textile industry, from manufacturing innovations such as intelligent manufacturing, biomanufacturing, nano manufacturing, laser manufacturing, and circular manufacturing, to material innovations such as carbon fiber, graphene materials, bio-based materials, 3D printing materials, fibrous energy and electronic devices, to innovation in the energy fields such as nuclear energy, nuclear fusion, hydrogen energy, and biomass energy, and product innovation such as smart textiles and high-performance textiles, a series of disruptive and revolutionary new materials and technologies are promoting the upgrading of industrial structure and the extension of application scenarios.
Sun Ruizhe, president of the China National Textile and Apparel Council, once pointed out that the development of new textile productivity should be guided by the new characteristics of new quality productivity and form a new input-output relationship. It is necessary to actively lay out new tracks for high-quality development, tap the vitality and potential of industrial development, and become a new breakthrough for accumulation and improvement of development resilience. It is necessary to extend the new space with new materials. Continuously develop the categories and applications of new fiber materials, textile composite materials and industrial finished products.
Wuhan Textile University has applied many scientific and technological achievements of textile materials in major national strategic projects, exerted its textile strength, and broadened the field of textile applications. For example, the "Chang'e-5" lunar flag developed by Wuhan Textile University has become the first fabric version of the national flag on the moon in the history of China's aerospace industry that "does not fade at plus or minus 150 °C", and the high-temperature elastic sealing device that helped Tianwen-1 land in "Devil 9 minutes" has made outstanding contributions in the field of China's deep space deep diving and aerospace military industry. In addition, it has also made breakthroughs in the research of artificial heart valves, artificial blood vessels, and nanofiber flexible sensing in the fields of biomedicine, health, and smart wearables. Xu Weilin, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and president of Wuhan Textile University, introduced that aerospace and military industry, biomedical materials, and smart wearable textiles are currently very potential research directions, and they are also the focus of the next research.
As a national manufacturing innovation center, the National Advanced Functional Fiber Innovation Center has focused on cutting-edge technologies, created a leading force in industrial innovation, strengthened the forward-looking basic research of fiber materials, solved various key common technical and scientific problems from the source, and promoted the cross-innovation of fiber materials and intelligent manufacturing, life science, green recycling, etc., and made great contributions to serving the national strategy. Wang Yuping, director of the innovation center, said that in the next step, the center will focus on independent, original and leading scientific and technological research for the national strategy, take fiber materials as the traction, accelerate the formation of systematic integration, promote the development of innovation chain, industrial chain cooperation, and technology chain interoperability, and accelerate the formation of new textile productivity.
The mainland has issued the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting the Innovation and Development of Future Industries", pointing out that it is necessary to focus on promoting the development of industries in six directions: future manufacturing, future information, future materials, future energy, future space and future health. The future industry has the dual attributes of science and technology and industry, represents the direction of a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation, and is a strategic choice for cultivating and developing new quality productive forces.
As a witness and practitioner of domestic carbon fiber from scratch and from having to standing on the world stage, Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber Co., Ltd. has successfully developed T300, T700, T800, T1000 and T1100, with a scale from 100 tons to 1000 tons and then to 10,000 tons, and the application field is also expanding. Now, the company has already started the research and development of the fourth generation of carbon fiber. "This generation of carbon fiber will be a lower-cost, larger-scale, and more stable carbon fiber, which will play a greater role in aerospace, wind turbine blades, monocrystalline silicon, photovoltaics, construction, hydrogen energy and other fields in the future, and I am confident that it will do a good job." Chairman Zhang Guoliang has laid out the future industry in his heart.
Seaweed is used to develop fibers, which has also been produced on a large scale at Qingdao University. Xia Yanzhi, dean of the Institute of Marine Fiber New Materials of Qingdao University and director of the State Key Laboratory of Provincial and Ministerial Co-construction, introduced that seaweed fiber has not only successfully opened up the third source of textile fiber, but also has a green and environmentally friendly production and processing process, and is also a typical green fiber. Moreover, the fiber strength of this product is 1.5 times that of traditional cotton, but the feel is close to cashmere, and it is flame retardant, and the prospect is very broad.
With the systematic development of manufacturing innovation, material innovation and product innovation, textile technology innovation has entered the stage of coexistence of "following, running and leading". On this basis, accelerating integration and innovation will pave the way for a splendid and smooth road, new fields, new tracks, and new scenarios will continue to emerge, and the future of the industry and the future development of the industry will be steady.
02
Enhance the old industry with new quality and efficiency
Experts interpret that the core of the "newness" of the new quality of productivity lies in promoting industrial innovation through scientific and technological innovation, and the key to the "quality" of the new quality productivity lies in bringing about the new "quality and efficiency" of development with the new "quality" of the industry. Industrial upgrading and business innovation are not only important scenarios for driving new quality productivity, but also an important landing point for realizing the leap of productivity system.
However, the development of new quality productivity is not to ignore and abandon traditional industries, but to base ourselves on our own reality and comparative advantages, use new technologies to transform and upgrade traditional industries, and promote high-end, intelligent and green industries. Shao Changjin, chairman of Xinxiang Egret Investment Group, believes that the new quality productivity takes innovation as the core and the foundation is hardware. Whether it is equipment renewal or process innovation, it is necessary to continuously pursue innovation in order to form an efficient production system. By promoting large-scale equipment renewal, the equipment manufacturing industry will be able to develop rapidly, and the latest and most advanced equipment will be applied to the textile industry and other fields.
"We have increased our productivity by 30 percent through equipment renewals. In the case that the number of workshops did not increase or even shut down the four old workshops, the output did not decline but increased. It relies on equipment innovation and intelligent transformation to develop new quality productivity. Shao Changjin gave an example.
Digital productivity is the core content of new quality productivity, and it is also one of the key directions of the current development of the textile industry. In 2022, the readiness rate of intelligent manufacturing in the textile industry will reach 14.6%, higher than the national average of 13.1%, and the satisfaction rate of the intelligent manufacturing equipment market will exceed 50%. Networked collaboration, platform-based design, intelligent manufacturing, flexible supply chain, intelligent marketing, immersive experience, and rich digital practices accelerate the systematic transformation and reconstruction of the industry.
In the intelligent workshop of Dali Silk (Zhejiang) Co., Ltd., the data beating on the large screen on the wall reflects the output and energy consumption of the workshop in real time. Lin Ping, chairman of Dali Silk (Zhejiang) Co., Ltd., introduced that this intelligent unattended black light workshop has established a whole-process digital and intelligent integration system of "source can be checked, whereabouts can be traced, and responsibility can be investigated", realizing an unattended intelligent black light workshop at night, reducing labor by 60%, and increasing the equipment operation rate from 75% to more than 95%.
In recent years, Di Shang Group has continued to promote the development of garment production in the direction of intelligence and efficiency, increased the application of new technologies such as AI and 3D, created a three-dimensional development model of the whole industry chain by digital means, and continuously promoted the traditional textile and garment industry from "manufacturing" to "intelligent manufacturing" with new quality productivity, and climbed to a higher end of the value chain. Zhu Lihua, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Di Shang Group, introduced: "In the past, modeling was finalized, and it took two or three days to make a dress for a long time, and the capacity was very large. We make samples a year alone, which is equivalent to a medium-sized factory, which can produce 600,000 pieces. ”
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Build a voice with new green
Sun Ruizhe once pointed out that the development of green productivity characterized by low carbon, resource efficiency and social inclusiveness, and the formation of green products, green formats and green values in the emergence of technology are strong supports for the integrity, safety and advancement of the industrial system, and the key to building the sustainable competitiveness of the industry and the right to speak in the future.
At present, the mainland produces about 6 million tons of waste textiles every year, and grows rapidly at a rate of more than 10%, resolving resource constraints, and circular economy has become an important model. Fortunately, many enterprises have focused on the comprehensive utilization of resources, overcome technical difficulties, and developed a series of recycled textiles.
As a leading enterprise in China's civil nylon technology, Fujian Yongrong Jinjiang Co., Ltd. has been advocating green product research and development, and has developed a green and low-carbon series of products represented by dope dyed nylon and bio-based nylon in recent years, which are widely recognized by the downstream. Last year, the company overcame the core technical barriers, used waste textiles as raw materials, and led the industry to develop post-consumer recycled nylon fiber E-SUNLON® (Chinese name "Aisiron"), and received considerable orders in the domestic and foreign markets. The company has taken into account economic development and low carbon emissions in the process of "turning waste into treasure".
Yibin Siliya Group Co., Ltd. uses dissolving pulp and wood made of some or all waste textiles to prepare regenerated cellulose fiber Yissel, which has been widely used in knitting, weaving, denim, business, leisure, sports and other fields, and has won many awards and been highly recognized by the market for its excellent green and sustainable characteristics.
Through chemical recycling technology, Zhejiang Beauty New Materials Co., Ltd. depolymerizes and centrifuges waste polyester textiles to recycle polyester at the molecular and atomic levels, so that it can be reused with the same purity of original resources. Today, beautiful new materials can convert nearly 40,000 tons of waste polyester textiles every year, which means that nearly 12,000 tons of oil are saved every year, 46,500 tons of carbon dioxide emissions are reduced, 57,000 tons of standard coal are saved, and 126,000 tons of water are saved, which has produced good economic and ecological benefits.
Anhydrous dyeing, a previously unimaginable technology, has now been successfully produced. Lianyungang Yingyou Xinlicheng Textile Technology Co., Ltd. developed a fully automatic water-free joint production line without using a drop of water in the whole process, let alone producing wastewater. Compared with traditional printing and dyeing, this technology can reduce water consumption by more than 90%.
In addition to the research and development of green products, many enterprises have raised green sustainability into their corporate development strategies. As early as 2017, Inner Mongolia Ordos Cashmere Group Co., Ltd. integrated sustainable development into the development strategy of the group headquarters, and formulated a corresponding action plan, successively built the source ranch of Ordos Group, launched a carbon neutrality project, and used new technologies and processes to develop sustainable products - "Shanshàn series". Wang Zhen, President of Ordos Investment Holding Group and Chairman of Ordos Resources Co., Ltd., said that the group will build the first batch of zero-carbon factories and zero-carbon workshops in the industry, and complete the green electricity substitution of cashmere production by the end of 2024, so as to set a benchmark for building a world-class cashmere industry with "sustainable cashmere" and "responsible cashmere".
For the cultivation of new quality productivity, the textile industry is full of confidence. It is believed that under the guidance and efforts of all parties, there will be more and more practical cognition of the development of new quality productivity, and the textile industry will also have a deeper integration with the digital economy and green economy, and develop more subversive and revolutionary technologies and products. Let us look forward to the acceleration of the formation of new quality productivity in the textile industry.
Source: Textile and Apparel Weekly
Contributed by Carnard Mao