Vacuum insulation Panel[VIP] is a new type of high-efficiency, energy-saving and environmentally friendly insulation material produced by the principle of vacuum insulation. It has low thermal conductivity, small size, environmental protection and pollution-free, and has broad application prospects. Its structure is mainly composed of three parts: core material, gas barrier layer and getter. Comparing various types of insulation materials, the thermal conductivity of VIP vacuum insulation panels is only 0.004W/m.K, which has an absolute advantage compared with the thermal conductivity of polyurethane foam insulation materials, which are widely used in refrigerators, of 0.025W/m.K.
Vacuum Insulation Panel/VIP is a kind of vacuum insulation panel in thermal insulation materials, which is mainly composed of core thermal insulation material, closed gas barrier film and getter, and achieves the purpose of insulating heat conduction through the vacuum environment in the panel. At present, Zhengkong heat insulation panels are mainly used in many fields such as construction, cold chain industry, refrigerators…
Types of VIP core materials Common core materials mainly include particle core materials, foam core materials, fiber core materials and composite core materials. The core material is the skeleton of the VIP, which supports the VIP and guarantees the long-term service of the VIP. It is also a key factor in determining the thermal insulation performance of the VIP. The thermal conductivity of glass fiber is low, and the production of finer glass fiber is the development direction of fiber core material in the future. Glass fiber is currently the most commonly used VIP fiber core material. For glass fiber core material, the fiber diameter has a greater impact on its thermal conductivity. The smaller the diameter, the lower the thermal conductivity. This is due to the increase in pores due to the smaller diameter. Although the indirect contact of the fiber increases, the contact area is significantly reduced. At the same time, the number of microscopic layers of the core material increases, thereby reducing the solid heat transfer. For VIPs with high performance, high thermal insulation capacity, and low thermal conductivity, the use of glass fiber core materials with finer fiber diameters is the development goal of VIP.
VIP is mainly used as cold chain heat insulation and vacuum insulation materials in downstream industries, including refrigerators, freezers, incubators, refrigerated containers, vending machines and other cold chain logistics and building energy-saving industries. The average market penetration rate of VIP in the global refrigerator and freezer field is only about 10%, and there is still a lot of room for improvement. At present, vacuum insulation panels are widely used in Japan, South Korea, and European and American countries, especially in large-volume air-cooled refrigerators in Japan and South Korea. In order to maximize the use volume, vacuum insulation panels are widely used, and the market for vacuum insulation panels energy-saving refrigerators is developing. Faster, the application ratio reaches 70%. The market penetration rate of China's vacuum insulation panels in the domestic refrigerator and freezer field is only 3%, and the average market penetration rate in the global refrigerator and freezer field is only about 10%.
China is one of the main refrigerator producing countries. In 2015-2019, China's refrigerator production decreased from 89.927 million units to 79.043 million units. Due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic,the impact of China's refrigerator production from January to July 2020 is 55.372 million units. Due to its relatively high production cost, VIP has been applied earlier in refrigerator products with high energy efficiency requirements and high floor area ratio requirements in the field of home appliances. At present, most refrigerators and freezers in the Chinese market still use polyurethane as the main insulation material, and the thermal conductivity is higher than VIP. VIP, as a new type of high-efficiency, energy-saving and environmentally friendly thermal insulation material, will have more obvious substitution effect on polyurethane foam, and the market penetration rate will continue to increase.
Vacuum Insulation Panel (VIP) industry competition landscape
At present, the core material of the insulation board industry is mainly fumed silica, with a thermal conductivity of 2-4.5W/m.K. The main manufacturers are Va-Q-tec, Porextherm, China's SCMK insulation technology group and JSSY energy-saving material technology group. China`s FJST Thermal Insulation Material Technology Group’s VIP core material is glass fiber chopped strands and has an absolute advantage in thermal conductivity. The thermal conductivity of the core material produced is only 1.7-2.5 W/m.K.
The future development trend of China's VIP industry
With the continuous expansion of VIP application scenarios, incubator products are mainly used in the field of cold chain logistics (medical and food incubators, etc.), and downstream customers are mainly logistics transportation companies, pharmaceutical logistics companies or pharmaceutical companies (testing reagents, biological products, etc.) , According to the different needs of different customers for the incubator, a personalized customization mode is adopted. According to statistics from the Department of Market Order of the Ministry of Commerce, the scale of China's pharmaceutical logistics reached RMB 201.6 billion in 2017, a year-on-year increase of 8.40%. The use of VIP in the refrigerated incubator can reduce the volume, reduce the use of coolant, and extend the insulation period. Compared with the traditional medical incubator insulation material, the insulation time of VIP is more than two times higher than that of it, so that medical supplies can be transported, Temporary storage is more secure.