September 20, 2019 Source: People's Daily Online - China Automotive News

In recent years, "carbon fiber" has gradually become a hot word in the automotive industry. With the need of environmental protection and energy conservation, the lightweight of automobiles has become the trend of the world's automobile development, and the carbon fiber composite material with both light weight, safety and economic characteristics has undoubtedly become a toon. After more than 50 years of development, carbon fiber technology has begun to mature, and the time for large-scale application has arrived. On September 19, during the 13th Automotive Lightweight Conference and Exhibition, Jiang Shicheng, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a consultant of Sinopec Yizheng Chemical Fiber Co., Ltd., clearly accepted the China Carbon Fiber Composite in an exclusive interview with China Automotive News. Prospects for the development of materials technology, bluntly: "Before carbon fiber technology has been monopolized by the United States and Japan, but due to the high attention of the Chinese government, and research institutes, enterprises and other efforts, China's independent research and development of carbon fiber products covers almost all The models, especially the cutting-edge types in the defense and aerospace fields, have been realized." Therefore, he believes that after five years, China's carbon fiber technology can not only reach the international advanced level, but even catch up with foreign countries.

Quality and quantity, carbon fiber development momentum is strong

It is understood that carbon fiber is a high-strength and high-modulus fiber material with a carbon content of more than 90%, and is widely used due to its excellent properties. Jiang Shicheng said that in addition to the national defense and military fields, in fact, carbon fiber composite materials have been widely used in various industries, including aircraft in the transportation field, high-speed rail and automobiles, as well as the blades of wind turbines in the energy field. A large part of it is used in sports equipment and other industries, such as golf clubs, fishing rods and other sports products. Of course, with the lighter development of the automotive industry, the application of carbon fiber materials in the automotive field is also increasing. As we all know, new energy vehicles have entered a stage of rapid development. At present, one of the biggest obstacles for consumers to pure electric vehicles is the problem of mileage anxiety. In order to more effectively improve the driving range of pure electric vehicles, the weight of the vehicle body is reduced. It is vital. Among new energy vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are known as environmentally-friendly vehicles with zero emissions, but a major problem with such vehicles is the safety of hydrogen. For this, carbon fiber materials can also play a key role, Jiang Shicheng The high-pressure gas storage tank used to store hydrogen can use carbon fiber materials to better ensure the safety of the gas storage tank.

Carbon fiber still faces four major problems in the automotive industry

Jiang Shicheng admits that China's carbon fiber materials are facing four problems in the development of the automotive industry. The first is related molding equipment. Since carbon fiber materials are different from traditional automotive materials, continuous industrialization and automation are required to achieve real industrialization. In this respect, we need to speed up the independent research and development of related equipment. On the other hand, we need to combine advanced foreign technology with domestic technology. Second, carbon fiber materials cannot be directly applied to automobiles, and some processes are required to be combined with other composite materials, such as rapid prototyping of composite materials. Only by realizing these technologies can the development be accelerated. Third, the establishment and design of the entire carbon fiber material database, carbon fiber composite material as a new material, is anisotropic in terms of physical indicators, so it is necessary to accumulate the most basic database, find its rules and establish a The series of standards and systems, currently in this area is a relatively weak area of the automotive industry. Fourth, the talents related to carbon fiber composites are facing a shortage.

Subverting traditional automotive technology, leading the "second revolution" of the automotive industry

Among the car companies at home and abroad, some car companies have applied carbon fiber materials to automobiles, but there are not many large-scale applications. Jiang Shicheng used a set of data to illustrate this problem: At present, the global carbon fiber production capacity is about 90,000 tons, of which China can reach 20,000 tons; China's growth rate in the use of carbon fiber is increasing year by year, from the previous year's annual growth of 3,000 tons. To 5,000 tons, the latest growth has reached 9,000 tons. However, although China's carbon fiber production has increased year by year, it still cannot meet the demand for carbon fiber in China. More than two-thirds still need to be imported. Among them, the amount used in the automotive industry is even less, only 700 tons, accounting for only about 3% of the total.

However, Jiang Shicheng believes that the future lightweight will be the trend of the automotive industry. Once carbon fiber composite materials can be used in large-scale automotive parts or OEMs, its processing technology is completely a new manufacturing process, and will even subvert the existing Traditional car craftsmanship. He said that the application of carbon fiber in automobile lightweighting will change the automobile production organization mode, and the traditional four major processes will be replaced by the new four major processes (molding, cementing, spraying, final assembly).