(hereinafter referred to as ‘Hengshen shares’) workshop, from pre-oxidation to low-temperature carbonisation, high-temperature carbonisation links, tall, neatly arranged various types of equipment is running efficiently, the entire workshop a hot and busy scene, and a few years ago when the reporter first walked into the scene here to form a big contrast! Contrast.

Riding on the domestic carbon fibre to experience a new round of rare ‘golden opportunity period’ of the east wind, as one of the leading enterprises in the industry Hengshen shares from the second half of 2020 into a new stage of development. Hengshen firmly adhere to scientific and technological innovation as a leader, keep a close eye on industry trends, seize the first opportunity for change, promote scientific and technological innovation to continue to go deep and practical, the innovation ‘gene’ into the high-quality development of the ‘bloodline’.

Over the past few years, what are the new breakthroughs in new product development and industrialisation of Hengshen shares? What progress has been made in the expansion of application fields, especially in the expansion of high-value application markets such as aviation? How is the construction of Yulin Hengshen, its production expansion project? What is the company's next step in the overall development of ideas?

Continuous breakthroughs in key carbon fibre technologies

Hengshen is subordinate to Shaanxi Coal Industry and Chemical Industry Group, and its business covering the whole industrial chain is its typical feature. Its annual production capacity of carbon fibre is 5,000 tons, annual production capacity of fabrics and prepregs is 15 million square meters, annual production capacity of high-performance resins is 1,200 tons, and annual production capacity of composite parts is 5,000 tons, and it has the research and development and production capacity of carbon fibre composite parts and aviation composite structural parts.

Public financial data show that in the first half of this year, Hengshen shares achieved operating income of 439 million yuan.

Over the past few years, Hengshen has made continuous breakthroughs in the research and development of new products, focusing on the development of new products such as HF60 (T1100 grade), HF55M (M40X grade) high-performance carbon fibre, as well as low-cost large tow (50K) carbon fibre.

Financial data show that in the first half of this year, the company's R & D investment totalled 47.69 million yuan, an increase of 4%.

Particularly noteworthy is that Hengshen shares in the ultra-high-strength and high-modulus carbon fibre research and development and engineering made a major breakthrough.

Ltd., Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Harbin Institute of Technology jointly undertaken the ‘ultra-high-strength, high-mode carbon fibre (HF55M) engineering key preparation technology’ project recently passed the appraisal organised by the China Textile Industry Federation. The appraisal committee believes that the results of the project have reached the international advanced level.

High modulus carbon fibre, also known as ‘graphite fibre’, is a high-performance carbon fibre containing more than 99% carbon. This kind of fibre has the advantages of high specific modulus, small coefficient of thermal expansion, dimensional stability, etc. It is an irreplaceable key material for the main structure, functional structure and protective structure of satellites and spacecrafts, and it is also a dual-use industrial material with unique performance.

Hengshen's products are used in aerospace, emerging markets and industrial markets. (File photo)

‘At present, high-mode carbon fibre is widely used in the application fields of advanced composite materials, such as aerospace, sports equipment and civil high-end products. Especially in the aerospace field, the market share of high-mode carbon fibre reaches about 50%.’ Qian Hongchuan, Chief Engineer of Hengshen Stock, introduced to the reporter, ‘High-mode carbon fibre is the core key material for spacecraft structures at all levels, and it is the focus of future aerospace material development.’

It is reported that the traditional high-strength carbon fibre has high tensile strength and high elongation at break characteristics, but weak resistance to deformation; high-modulus carbon fibre has a high tensile modulus, but the strength and elongation at break (0.7%-1.2%) is low. High-strength high-modulus high tenacity carbon fibre to take into account the advantages of the above two types of carbon fibre, with high tensile strength, high tensile modulus and high elongation at break (≥ 1.5%), to meet the high-modulus carbon fibre application processability, to improve the utilization of carbon fibre properties, to enhance the composite material tensile properties.

Qian Hongchuan introduced: ‘In the past few years, the development of new foreign carbon fibre, no longer the pursuit of ultra-high tensile strength, but towards high strength, high modulus, high elongation “three high” direction, towards the direction of the development of the application target fit.’

The project ‘Ultra-high Strength and High Modulus Carbon Fibre (HF55M) Engineering Key Preparation Technology’ has developed continuous long-cycle polymerisation and high molecular weight, narrow distribution polyacrylonitrile spinning stock preparation technology, high temperature and high concentration solidification and forming technology, and polyacrylonitrile fibre pre-oxidised carbonisation structure regulation and nano defect control technology. Combined with the composite electrochemical surface treatment process, a complete engineering technology for ultra-high strength and high modulus carbon fibre has been formed.

Zhang Ming, general manager of Hengshen, said that the company has the ability to produce ultra-high strength and high modulus HF55M carbon fibre. The product has been tested by a third party, carbon fibre tensile strength ≥ 5800MPa, carbon fibre tensile modulus ≥ 377GPa, elongation at break ≥ 1.5%. This product has passed many batches of trial by many application units, and has achieved batch sales, which can meet the requirements of future national defence and high-end equipment field on carbon fiber composite material performance equalisation.

‘The new round of vigorous development of the domestic carbon fibre industry has not only led to the expansion of the production scale of carbon fibre manufacturers in the upper reaches of the industrial chain, but also made enterprises have accelerated the pace of research and development.’ Qian Xin, a senior engineer at the Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that with the acceleration of the localisation process of carbon fibre, it will further promote the enhancement of carbon fibre and its composite material manufacturing technology, and will also promote the high-quality development of the whole carbon fibre industry chain.

Actively expanding high value-added markets

The aviation field has always been a high-end application market for global carbon fibre and its composite material enterprises. Facing the new competition pattern in the global market in recent years, the civil aviation field has become a key application market for leading domestic carbon fibre enterprises.

With the industrialisation of the domestic large aircraft project entering a new stage, China's demand for automated manufacturing of advanced aviation parts is growing, and the demand for automatic lay-up equipment is growing rapidly. Relying on the advantages of the whole industrial chain, Hengshen stock designs and develops composite structural parts around large aircraft, general-purpose aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles, and implements the concept of composite material development and application of the integration of materials, design and manufacturing into product services.

Zhang Ming introduced, Hengshen shares currently has an advanced automatic wire laying machine, tape laying machine each. The introduction of equipment for undertaking civil large aircraft related tasks to speed up production has a better support, at the same time, the localisation of materials to promote also played a greater role. ‘In recent years, the company from the material, making parts work package at the same time, with the progress of the material project and work package undertaking, Hengshen shares and COMAC cooperation gradually deepened.’

The reporter learnt that previously, Hengshen Stock also carried out the trial production of typical structural parts such as large aircraft rear fuselage pressure frame and cap-type reinforced wall plate, and the composite material performance and processability of the prepreg met the relevant requirements. In these years, Hengshen Co. has developed material systems such as highly toughened resin and its prepreg, high-strength medium-mode carbon fibre prepreg, and a series of composite parts for applications in aviation and aerospace fields.

‘Following the national development strategy of autonomous and controllable development of civil aircraft, Hengshen's T800-class products have begun to cooperate with localised applications in related components. In the long run, large aircraft development process are typical structure of domestic material demand, to be improved after the maturity, will gradually achieve carbon fibre composite material localisation replacement.’ Zhang Ming said.

Public financial data show that in the first half of the year, Hengshen shares of high value-added business market to achieve sales revenue of 188 million yuan.

In addition, Hengshen shares in wind power and other markets are also expanding applications.

Pan Yi, deputy general manager of Hengshen shares, introduced: ‘The company's main push in the wind power market carbon fibre pultruded boards and carbon fibre fabrics two types of products, and the products are currently supplied in batch to Vision Energy, Shanghai Electric and Mingyang Intelligent three domestic wind power head enterprises.’

Overall, Hengshen's products are mainly used in aerospace, emerging markets and industrial markets. Among them, the aerospace market mainly includes defence aerospace and civil aviation, the emerging market mainly includes wind power, photovoltaic and hydrogen energy, etc., and the industrial market mainly includes building reinforcement, sports and leisure.

‘For a long time, due to the high difficulty of carbon fibre application technology development, long R&D and design time, large R&D investment, high production costs, resulting in expensive high-end products, there is still the potential for large-scale popularisation. The main application areas of carbon fibre in China are still dominated by the industrial market that applies standard-mode carbon fibre, such as sports and leisure, wind turbine blades, and building reinforcement. The high-end products of several enterprises, including Hengshen, can be applied to civil aviation, weaponry and other high value-added areas.’ Pan Yi said.

‘Internal and external cultivation’ to embrace market opportunities

Accompanied by a new round of domestic carbon fibre scale expansion, a number of leading enterprises in technology, research and development, process support and other comprehensive aspects of the level of leading enterprises to rapidly expand the scale. Hengshen shares also invested in the construction of a new project in Yulin, Shaanxi Province - Yulin Hengshen New Materials Co.

Yulin Hengshen general manager Fang Xinjun said, the company intends to invest in Shaanxi Yulin to build 20,000 tons / year of high-performance carbon fibre production base, a phase I project investment of 1.32 billion yuan (including land use rights), subsequent planning and project construction rhythm will be based on the market changes and technological iteration of step-by-step, phased implementation.

Fang Xinjun said, Yulin Hengshen project phase I will build two production lines, annual capacity of 5,000 tonnes, is scheduled to be completed in December 2024, the end of the first quarter of 2025 will have the conditions for production, the subsequent production line will be gradually put into operation according to market demand. The large tow carbon fibre production line will have an annual capacity of 2,500 tonnes each, with the main products being HF20-50K and HF30-50K, which are mainly oriented to the wind power and rail transportation markets. The dry-sprayed wet-spun carbon fibre production line has an annual capacity of 2,500 tonnes, with the main products being HF30T-12K/24K and HF40T-12K/24K, which are mainly oriented to the markets of photovoltaic, hydrogen energy and civil aviation.

On the basis of scale expansion, Hengshen will continue to cultivate internal strength.

In order to improve the stability of product performance, the company has developed the PTS traceability system has been on-line operation, the system can establish a database of production operation, process parameters, etc., and is able to carry out multi-dimensional analysis, to achieve the precise control of the whole process. At the same time, the company actively introduces technical personnel to optimise the production equipment and process to provide support for product stability. Through the continuous accumulation of technology and technological innovation, the company's stability control level of the whole process of the product process has been greatly improved, and the quality qualification rate of the product and product performance is leading in the industry.

Pan Yi said: ‘In the next few years, our development focus includes three aspects: first, through process and material innovation, consolidate and enhance the position in key markets, and continue to optimise the cost and performance; second, in the industrial market, we will continue to develop high-value-added products for new applications, expanding the demand for composite materials; third, we will take the existing overseas bases as a pivot to actively develop the mature market of composite materials. The third is to take the existing overseas bases as the pivot point and actively develop the mature market of composite materials. Scientific and technological innovation, cost reduction and efficiency, quality improvement and market development will always be our focus.’

For the market development prospects of carbon fibre, Pan Yi said, ‘Although the price of carbon fibre is in a state of regression this year, but from another perspective, this also helps to accelerate the development of carbon fibre new application market, stimulating new demand. Moreover, carbon fibre is an iterative high-tech industry, especially in high value-added applications, high-performance carbon fibre materials still have advantages. Carbon fibre and its composites, as a new type of material with a wide range of uses, the growth of market demand comes from the growth of the stock market, and more importantly from the upgrading and substitution of traditional materials, which is a market with endless potential.’