On November 6th, at the biennial Zhuhai Air Show, a 280-seat long-range wide-body passenger aircraft CR929 jointly developed by China and Russia debuted at the International Air Show with a 1: 1 demonstration prototype. The use of composite materials is expected to exceed 50% in this latest generation of large aircraft. Similarly, on the C919 passenger plane that flew for the first time on May 5, last year, the composite material used accounted for 12% of the aircraft structure weight. The composite materials here are mainly carbon fiber composite materials.
According to aviation experts, in order to improve the advanced nature and environmental protection of aircraft, carbon fiber composite materials are currently the main means of aircraft lightweighting, and they are also the mainstream trend in the future. Due to its light weight, high strength, fatigue resistance, corrosion resistance, good molding processability, and low cost, a large number of applications of carbon fiber composite materials in aviation equipment can effectively improve performance, reduce structural weight, reduce operating costs, and strengthen market competition. Forces are therefore increasingly used in aircraft structures.
"The amount and application of carbon fiber composite materials on aircraft has become an important indicator for measuring the advanced structure of aircraft and an important reference indicator for airlines when purchasing aircraft. Vigorous development of aviation composite materials technology has become the consensus of domestic and foreign aviation manufacturing enterprises. "Zhong Yu, head of Kangde Group, a new materials company, believes.
In addition to the aviation field, many composite carrier shells for solid launch vehicles are also wound with carbon fiber. Carbon fiber is a major advanced material in high-end sports cars. Experts said that carbon fiber is an inorganic polymer special fiber with a carbon content of more than 90%. Compared with titanium, steel, aluminum and other metal materials, carbon fiber has a small specific gravity, high strength, high modulus, high temperature resistance, and friction resistance. , Excellent properties such as corrosion resistance and soft processability of fibers. Compared with another "magic material" graphene, which is also a "carbon series", carbon fibers are currently more clearly used in commercial applications.
Zhong Yu said that as one of the important strategic materials in the high-end technology and industrial fields, carbon fiber core industrialization technology and supporting key equipment can only be obtained through independent research and development and long-term engineering practice. After unremitting efforts, domestic high-performance carbon fibers have made breakthroughs in basic research, engineering, and industrialization, and have developed rapidly. For example, Kant's subsidiary Zhong Anxin independently developed and mastered the core technology of high-performance carbon fiber manufacturing, and its related testing technology has been recognized by the CNAS (China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment) National Laboratory.
With the explosion of demand for carbon fiber in aerospace, automotive lightweight, wind power, rail transportation and other industries, carbon fiber industrial applications have begun to enter large-scale production. The industry predicts that by 2020, the global demand for carbon fiber will exceed 160,000 tons, and by 2025, it will exceed 330,000 tons. Zhong Yu believes that for such a huge and important market, domestic companies must not only master key technologies to achieve stable mass production of carbon fibers and large-scale engineering applications, but also aim at the early development and deployment of a new generation of domestic carbon fiber and its composite materials Therefore, it has firmly established itself in the global high-end carbon fiber market.