【Ten Years of Rapid Development in Chemical Equipment】The first large-tow carbon fiber production line in China was successfully commissioned between 2017 and 2022
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This post was last edited by Desert Fish on 2022-12-23 at 08:09. Witnessing the ten-year rapid development of chemical processing equipment, let’s celebrate the prosperity and strength of modern China. This is just a starting point; we welcome everyone to participate more actively in discussions on this forum – the more people involved, the more lively it becomes. Haichuan becomes even better with your presence. Replies will be rewarded; feel free to discuss! ------------------------------------------------- On October 13, 2022, Sinopec announced that the first domestic production line for 48K large-tow carbon fiber, with a capacity of 10,000 tons per year, at Sinopec’s Shanghai Carbon Fiber Industry Base had produced qualified products. The performance of these products is comparable to that of similar products abroad, and their quality meets international advanced standards. This marks the successful transition of China’s large-tow carbon fibers from key technological breakthroughs, industrial pilot production, and industrialization to large-scale production. In the carbon fiber industry, carbon fibers with more than 48,000 fibers per strand (referred to as 48K) are generally classified as large-tow carbon fibers. Large-tow carbon fiber is known as the “king of new materials” and “black gold”. It is widely used in industries such as wind energy, solar energy, high-speed trains, and aircraft components. The large-tow carbon fiber put into production this time is a high-strength new type of fiber material with a carbon content of over 95%. It boasts excellent mechanical properties: its density is less than one-fourth that of steel, yet its strength is 7 to 9 times that of steel. In addition, it also possesses corrosion-resistant characteristics.
It is reported that the large-tow carbon fiber put into production this time is a high-strength new type of fiber material with a carbon content of over 95%. It has excellent mechanical properties: its density is less than one-fourth that of steel, its strength is 7 to 9 times that of steel, and it also possesses corrosion resistance. Furthermore, the advantage of 48K large-tow carbon fibers is that, under the same production conditions, they enable a significant increase in the production capacity and quality of individual carbon fiber strands, thereby reducing production costs and overcoming the application limitations imposed by the high price of carbon fibers.
Industry insiders say that the technical barriers related to carbon fiber are quite significant. For a long time, the development of carbon fiber in China has seen breakthroughs primarily in the area of small-tow carbon fiber. However, the high cost of such carbon fiber reduces the enthusiasm of downstream enterprises to use it. “By uniting more than 10 universities, research institutions, and enterprises, and through over a decade of effort, we have developed specialized production lines tailored for large-tow fibers, covering both equipment and manufacturing processes, thereby achieving advancements in carbon fiber strength from 12K to 48K. ”Huang Xiangyu, deputy general manager of Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical, said that the carbon fiber production base at Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical is scheduled to be fully completed and put into operation by 2024, at which time it will have an annual production capacity of 24,000 tons of precursor fibers and 12,000 tons of large-tow carbon fibers, sufficient to meet the demands of various industries.