In the global high-performance fiber field, regardless of product type, serialization development, performance index or production cost, Japanese companies have strong competitiveness, and these advantages are particularly obvious in the carbon fiber field. This is due to the strong promotion of government policies, as well as its industrial alliance model and talent training method, and it is inseparable from the company's long-term vision, long-term persistence and huge investment. In summary, the development of Japan's carbon fiber industry has the following characteristics.
▌The government's vigorous promotion and support
The Japanese government attaches great importance to the research and development of high-performance carbon fiber and related energy and environmentally friendly technologies, and provides strong support in terms of human and financial resources. In China, this is a strategic project that should be promoted.
Major projects supported by the Japanese government in carbon fiber technology research and development
▌Industrial collaboration promotes technological breakthroughs
In the carbon fiber industry, Japan formed an industrial alliance earlier. The members of the alliance cover the entire carbon fiber industry chain. They can fully understand the problems and needs in the industry and effectively serve all aspects of the industry. Nu Skin Construction Materials Technology Research Alliance (ISMA) has a total of 39 members, of which 37 are enterprises, another is a national research institute (Industrial Technology Research Institute), and a national university (Nagoya University).
▌High industry concentration, leading companies form differentiated competition in technology and products
Toray Co., Ltd. started to produce PAN-based carbon fibers in 1971. It has operating networks in 26 countries and regions around the world, and has carbon fiber production bases in Japan, the United States, Europe, and South Korea. Toho Corporation began to produce PAN-based carbon fibers in 1975. , With operations in 80 countries and regions around the world, with carbon fiber production bases in Japan, Germany, and the United States; Mitsubishi Rayon is the only company in the world that has both PAN-based carbon fibers and pitch-based carbon fibers. It started producing carbon fibers as early as 1974. There are carbon fiber production bases in Japan, the United States and Germany.
▌Enterprises focus on patent protection and have a strong advantage in scale
Carbon fiber preparation technology is relatively complex, involving the interdisciplinary and application of multiple disciplines, with hundreds of key nodes. At this stage, the core technology of carbon fiber production is mainly in the hands of Japanese companies and is strictly confidential. Each company has the world's largest number of technology patents in the carbon fiber field, and basically covers all aspects of the industrial chain, and has patented layout in many countries.
▌Japanese carbon fiber companies pay attention to the integration of upstream and downstream, and develop suitable products for different fields
Leading companies all focus on vertical operations on the industrial chain to control process parameters in each link of the industrial chain, promote understanding of market evolution and customer needs, so as to prepare qualified products that meet specific uses. At the same time, the carbon fiber models developed by these leading companies cover multiple performance levels, including standard elastic modulus, medium elastic modulus, and high elastic modulus, which are suitable for different fields; in order to avoid excessive homogeneous competition, enterprises in carbon fiber There are some differences in the details of the preparation technology and the types of products.
Toray's layout on the carbon fiber industry chain
Part of the cooperation established by Japanese carbon fiber companies and downstream giants
▌Enterprises attach importance to talent development and training
Take Dongli as an example. First, the R & D personnel are reasonable in layout, and they focus on the training of composite talents. More than half of the R & D personnel take into account more than two R & D directions to ensure the coordination of R & D in each link; The main product has a fixed R & D team for subsequent technical upgrades. Third, the core inventors have a prominent role, and each R & D team is relatively stable. They also bring in newcomers while leading the invention to achieve smooth transition and handover.
▌Enterprises respond to the future development of the industry by improving production efficiency, expanding production capacity and mergers and acquisitions
In order to cope with the growing downstream demand of automobiles and aircraft, major carbon fiber companies in Japan have plans for capacity expansion in recent years. According to estimates, from 2015 to 2018, Toray, Teijin and Mitsubishi's carbon fiber production capacity increased by 45,500, 30, 000 and 11,300 t / a, respectively; continuously committed to reducing production costs and increasing production costs through the use of new raw materials and new processes Production efficiency, and further expand the field of carbon fiber applications; launch a large number of acquisitions to extend vertically or horizontally.
▌Enterprises treat development with a long-term perspective
The Japanese textile industry invests 70% of its research and development funds into the research and development of new products and technologies. This is likely to be an important reason why Japanese companies can take the lead in the world. In the field of carbon fiber, Japanese companies have also demonstrated such characteristics. Japanese carbon fiber manufacturers represented by Toray have seen the important value of PAN-based carbon fiber as a manufacturing material since the beginning of the invention of the PAN-based carbon fiber, and continued to invest in technology accumulation (only Toray ’s family has invested more than 140 billion yen so far) .