Basalt is an important component of the earth's crust and oceanic crust. The basalt fiber extracted from it can be used as a component for bicycles, and can be used as a material for manufacturing heavy equipment such as C919 large aircraft.
On September 7, the world's first 10,000-ton continuous basalt fiber tank kiln production demonstration line invested and constructed by China High Performance Basalt Fiber Technology Company was put into operation. The production line can produce 10,000 tons of continuous basalt fiber per year. In the later stage, the annual production capacity will be expanded to 90,000 tons.
Basalt fiber is a new type of inorganic environmentally friendly green material. It is another high-performance fiber material after carbon fiber, aramid, and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fiber. It is listed as a strategic high-performance material by China. Products are widely used in national defense and military industry, aerospace, building materials, rail transit, coastal defense engineering, shipbuilding, wind power generation, environmental protection equipment and other fields.
The manufacturing of basalt fiber generally has global problems such as difficulty in drawing operations, large fluctuations in product quality, low production efficiency, and high product costs.
In this regard, SCBX Advanced Fiber Technology Corporation began to conduct systematic research on continuous basalt fiber production technology in 2009. It has established 13 laboratories and established a core R&D team of nearly 40 people in cooperation with many research institutions in China.
After more than 10 years of hard work, the R&D team has overcome a number of key technical problems in the continuous basalt fiber production process. In 2017, the continuous basalt fiber pool kiln drawing pilot project started construction. The project was officially ignited on August 9, 2018, with completely independent intellectual property rights.
"Basalt fiber is produced in a tank kiln. This is a major technological breakthrough and a milestone in the development of basalt fiber." said Ye Guangdou, a professor at SC University who studies basalt fiber.
In addition to the 10,000-ton continuous basalt fiber tank kiln production demonstration line put into operation this time, it is expected that a 20,000-ton continuous basalt fiber tank kiln production line will be put into operation by the end of 2021. In 2023, it plans to invest another 600 million yuan to build a 60,000-ton continuous basalt fiber tank kiln production line.