I report to you in three parts:
I. Ten-year Review of Unsaturated Polyester Resin Industry in China and Its Development in 2009
Second, low-carbon economy and emerging markets of FRP
Three, China's wind power market and megawatt FRP blades
I. Ten-year Review of Unsaturated Polyester Resin Industry in China and Its Development in 2009
In 2009, UPR industry in China experienced an extraordinary year. According to the preliminary statistics of UPR industry association in China, the total output reached 6.5438+0.53 million tons, an increase of 5.5% over the previous year. Among them, the epoxy vinyl ester resin reached 33,000 tons, up 1 1% year-on-year. The total number of private enterprises in yabang, Tianhe, Futian and Hua Xun in China reached 440,000 tons, an increase of 1 1% over the previous year. The total number of foreign-funded enterprises such as DSM, Ashland, Changxing, Shang Wei, Huari and Showa reached 654,380+200,000 tons, an increase of 9% over the previous year. Jiangsu reached 630,000 tons, an increase of 5% over the previous year. The domestic UPR mainly flows to three markets in its terminal composite industry: the FRP market dominated by UPR accounts for 55% of the total resin consumption, and the artificial stone, handicrafts and buttons dominated by UPR account for 35% of the total resin consumption; UPR-based functional coatings account for 10% of the total resin consumption. Table 2 From the analysis of application fields, the FRP market is concentrated in Jiangsu, Shanghai, Shandong, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Hebei, Tianjin and Henan. The markets for artificial stones, handicrafts and buttons are concentrated in Zhejiang, Guangdong, Fujian, Shandong, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Sichuan. The functional coatings market is concentrated in Guangdong, Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and Hebei. Under the influence of the global financial crisis in the second half of 2008, the slow sales of resin once appeared, and it soon resumed growth after 10. The national investment of 4 trillion yuan and the plan for the adjustment and revitalization of ten major industries are of great significance for resisting the impact of the financial crisis, optimizing the industrial structure and achieving sustained growth and development. Ten industries such as steel, automobile, ship, petrochemical, textile, light industry, nonferrous metals, equipment manufacturing, electronic information and logistics are closely related to the FRP industry. These ten industries depend on the opportunity of large-scale economic construction of China's urban industrialization and urban-rural integration. This opportunity is also a low-carbon economy aimed at traditional energy conservation and emission reduction and new energy development. Glass fiber reinforced plastic composites have won opportunities and growth points for themselves with their own innovation. From the international market, the global financial crisis in 2008 put European and American economies in trouble. Crude oil fell to a high of $50 a barrel, and there was a staged market surplus of chemical raw materials, and the price went down. Domestically, the phased, structural and regional uncontrolled development of glass fiber has exceeded the annual output of more than 2 million tons, about half of which are exported overseas. When the financial crisis struck, the export was blocked, and a large number of glass fibers were "poured" into China, pushing down the prices of each other. The sharp drop in the prices of chemical raw materials and fibers has given the FRP composite industry unprecedented opportunities for many years, provided conditions for its low-cost expansion, and also promoted the growth of resins.
In 2009, UPR industry showed five major trends and hot spots: the popularization and improvement of the growing FRP composite industry went hand in hand, on the one hand, it promoted the expansion of low-cost and general-purpose resins, on the other hand, the development of emerging FRP market promoted the growth of high-performance and personalized resins. It is reflected in the comprehensive spread of o-benzene winding resin, vacuum resin, SMC/BMC resin, pultrusion resin, polyester and p-benzene modified resin. In addition, the market demand for high-performance FRP composite products, such as fan blades, electrical switches, pressure pipes, power components, desulfurization, high-speed train interior and exterior decorative structures, luxury yachts, work boats, sports boats and so on. It has led to the rapid growth of m-benzene, epoxy vinyl ester vacuum resin and SMC/BMC resin. , showing the "two heat" of the resin market. State-owned enterprises such as Tianma, Tianjin Cai He, Feilong and Huachang, large domestic private enterprises such as yabang and Tianhe, domestic scientific and technological personnel combination enterprises, and foreign-funded enterprises such as DSM, Huari, Changxing, Ashland, Showa and Shang Wei are all in the leading position in the domestic UPR stage.
The second trend and hot spot is the rapid development of casting resin. A few years ago, faced with the weak overseas market, casting resin handicrafts took a sharp turn in the domestic architectural decoration market, and entered buildings, halls and high-end shopping malls in large quantities, and achieved very obvious results. The technological upgrading of casting artificial stone has changed from large cabinet panels to mechanized artificial marble and artificial quartz stone panels, which are widely used in wall decoration and floor materials. Stone enterprises in Fujian, Guangdong, Shandong and other places have begun to shift from mining to manufacturing with synthetic stones. In 2009, the output of resin for artificial stone in China exceeded the previous two years. Traditional casting products such as polyester buttons, putty resin and mineral riveting resin continue to maintain a good growth momentum.
The third flow direction and hot spots are Jiangsu, Shanghai and Tianjin, which have become very active areas in domestic UPR development in recent years, leading the domestic UPR and its composite market trend with technological innovation and new product development, and promoting the popularization and perfection of the domestic UPR composite market. In 2009, the output of unsaturated polyester resin in this region accounted for more than half of the country, and 95% of the output of epoxy vinyl ester resin was concentrated in Shanghai and Jiangsu. This area is also a production area with intensive UPR enterprises at home and abroad. Foreign-funded enterprises, such as Huari, DSM, Ashland, Changxing, Zhaoshangwei, which entered earlier, transmitted mature overseas industrial markets to China, occupying the advantages of domestic high-end markets. There are also a number of enterprises such as Tianma, Huachang, yabang, Feixun, Huake, China Resources, Tianma Shengrui, Fuling and Xinghe. What I want to mention here is the "yabang" phenomenon in the domestic UPR industry. In 2009, yabang Company produced 6,543,800 tons of resin. Yabang, with the simple emotion of "I have you" and "you have me" in an industrial chain, is close to the market and customers, and vigorously develops low-cost general resin, high-performance crystal resin and stone resin to make contributions to the industry; The output ranks first in the country for five consecutive years. Over the years, yabang's sales companies all over the country have developed from single resin sales to providing "one-stop" services for FRP enterprises with raw materials; Sales companies all over Yabang are also branches of Yabang School. While doing a good job in materials and services, they actively conduct market research. They can quickly reflect the trends of FRP industry all over the country within 12 hours. Yabang becomes bigger and stronger through continuous interaction with enterprises under the market.
The fourth direction and hot spot is the high performance requirements of megawatt FRP blades, which accelerates the technical climbing of UPR and epoxy vinyl ester resin. The domestic megawatt wind power market entered a period of rapid development in 2007, with an average annual installed capacity of more than 6 million kilowatts, and the total installed capacity reached 20 million kilowatts in 2009. Calculated by 1.5 MW, the total number of blades in the whole year is 15990, and the resin consumption is more than 50,000 tons. In addition, the resin consumption of foreign-funded wind power enterprises can reach more than 70,000 tons, of which 50% are UPR and epoxy vinyl ester resin. China's patented technology of megawatt FRP blades is imported from Germany and the Netherlands, which has high performance standards for fibers and resins and has been demonstrated by the German Classification Society GL. The two "thresholds" put forward extremely strict requirements for domestic resin and fiber enterprises. Foreign-funded enterprises such as Ashland, Shawn and DSM have the conditions to "get used to" and seize the domestic wind power megawatt blade market. It is a very complicated system engineering for megawatt blades from blade shape design, structure design, pavement design, die technology to blade manufacturing. Blades run for 20 years, which is a "test" for resin enterprises. Resin enterprises mainly rely on independent technical strength to "test the water" megawatt blade market. The fifth trend and hot spot is the development and improvement of domestic FRP composite equipment manufacturing. The design and manufacture of SMC, winding, pultrusion, artificial stone, molding and other equipment and their molds in Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Hebei, Shandong and other provinces not only meet domestic demand, but also export in large quantities. The progress of equipment technology has improved the performance and quality of unsaturated polyester resin and increased the demand for medium and high-grade resin. 20 10 there is still a lot of room for the development of domestic UPR industry. Foreign-funded enterprises believe that China is the fastest-growing country and the largest compound market in the world, and they are full of confidence in the development of China. DSM, Huari, Ashland etc. Is expanding production capacity and increasing production. In addition, the record will also be put into production in Tianjin. Domestic resin production giants Yabang, Tianhe, Futian and Hua Xun are all expanding.
Another phenomenon that cannot be ignored in the development trend of UPR in China is that the new development layout of FRP composite industry will appear in the central and western regions and southwest regions. According to the understanding of relevant parties, around Xi 'an, Luo Yang and the south of Jinzhong, around the implementation of "zero tariff" in trade between ASEAN and China and the construction of southwest region, around the supporting bases of chemical raw materials in Gansu and Xinjiang, the construction of northwest region and the export of west Asia, the demand for FRP composite materials is increasing day by day, and large enterprises of UPR and fiberglass will soon appear in these regions. By the end of 2009, there will be 160 UPR enterprises in China, of which 2/3 will be transformed from township enterprises into private enterprises and private enterprises. Some of these enterprises actively introduced technical talents and advanced equipment, improved themselves and gradually established their own brands. The vast majority of enterprises, lacking technology, are struggling, and some even use "saccharification" to mix. These enterprises are faced with two ways out, one is to develop downstream products, and the other is to upgrade enterprises through technological progress. Neither way will work, only let the market eliminate you. It can be predicted that UPR industry will face continuous integration and reorganization in three stages: three years, five years and eight years, and the growth mode of resin will change from output growth to brand and quality upgrading.
Second, low-carbon economy and emerging markets of FRP
The term "low-carbon economy" first appeared in the British energy white paper "Our energy future; Create a low-carbon economy. As a pioneer of the first industrial revolution and not rich in resources, Britain is fully aware of the threat of energy security and climate change. According to related reports, the global annual carbon dioxide emissions are close to 30 billion tons. The massive emission of carbon dioxide has caused global warming and seawater intrusion. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has warned that sea level will rise by 65,438+08-59 cm every year due to climate warming. At this rate, by 265,438+000, some low-lying island countries and 32 deltas at the forefront of global climate change will be completely or partially submerged by seawater. Advanced developed countries have regarded carbon dioxide as an air pollutant, and accordingly raised the carbon emission tax.
Low-carbon economy, the world has experienced three development periods in the past decade. 1997 12 The Third Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, held in Kyoto, Japan, adopted the Kyoto Protocol to limit the greenhouse gas emissions of developed countries in order to curb global warming. According to the protocol, by 20 10, the emissions of six greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, in all developed countries will be reduced by 5.2% compared with 1990. The Protocol has no mandatory emission requirements for developing countries such as China, and has been ratified by more than 70 countries.
The second meeting was held from 5 June to 5 February 2007. The13rd Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change was held in Bali, Indonesia, and the Bali Road Map was adopted. The main contents include: significantly reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, and setting specific greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for all developed countries (including the United States) should be considered in future negotiations; Developing countries should strive to control the growth of greenhouse gas emissions, but do not set specific targets; In order to cope with global warming, developed countries have the obligation to help developing countries in technology development and transfer and financial support. The Bali Road Map brought the United States into the negotiation process for the first time, requiring all developed countries to fulfill their measurable, reportable and verifiable greenhouse gas emission responsibilities. In addition, the Bali Road Map also emphasizes the importance of technology development, transfer and financing to adapt to climate change. In terms of targets, the Bali Road Map proposes that developed countries should reduce emissions by at least 25% to 40% on the basis of 1990 by 2020. The third meeting was held from February 7 to February 8, 2009, with1representatives from more than 90 countries and regions 15000 people. The United Nations Climate Change Conference was held in Gobenhagen, Denmark. This meeting has great differences on emission reduction, mainly on emission reduction ratio and fund amount. The United States, China, Brazil and other countries are already big emitters of greenhouse gases in the world. The expressions of China and the United States at the meeting made the participating countries see hope. Before the meeting, China officially announced the action target of controlling greenhouse gas emissions on June 27th last year, and decided to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions per unit of GDP by 40% to 45% compared with 2005 by 2020. Earlier, the White House announced that it would promise to reduce 17% of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 on the basis of 2005 at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. At the Copenhagen conference, more than 20 developed countries privately drafted an emission reduction target to be adopted, but the result was opposed by developing countries; The United States cannot legislate on specific emission reduction because of "difficulty in turning around". The meeting had different opinions on specific emission reduction targets, but it finally formed an understanding, that is, to accelerate the adoption of environmental protection technologies and accelerate global carbon emission reduction.
Today, let's talk about low-carbon economy, which is an economic model based on low energy consumption, low pollution and low emissions. Its essence is the problem of energy utilization efficiency and clean energy utilization, and its core is the fundamental change of energy technology innovation, system innovation and human survival and development concept. The mainstream understanding of low-carbon economy refers to an economy that minimizes greenhouse gas emissions. Mainly reflected in: industry, efficient production and energy utilization; In terms of energy structure, renewable energy production will occupy a considerable proportion; In terms of transportation, vehicles with high fuel efficiency and low carbon emissions are used, public transportation replaces private transportation, and bicycles and walking are used more; In terms of architecture, office buildings and family houses adopt efficient and energy-saving materials and energy-saving construction methods. In the final analysis, gradually reduce the carbon emissions per unit of GDP. "Low-carbon economy" is not only a new concept, but also the growth point of the next round of new economy. As far as China's economic development prospects are concerned, the former "Made in China" is facing the pressure of reducing emissions. The way to reduce carbon will be to use the "low-carbon technology" of production technology upgrading and technological innovation to form a "low-carbon standard" by implementing low-carbon technology, so as to achieve low-carbon high growth and low-carbon cost reduction. Popularizing low-carbon technology is closely related to FRP industry. In 1960s, the FRP industry entered the market with the simple concept of "replacing steel and wood". The specific strength of FRP is high, which largely replaces steel and metal materials. From the perspective of saving resources, replace wood in large quantities. With the market operation of FRP industry for decades, many excellent properties have been derived, especially in plasticity, designability and versatility. Its plasticity endows various characteristic molding processes; Its designability simplifies the traditional manufacturing process, reduces the cost and realizes the best combination of materials and properties. Its versatility is manifested in excellent electrical properties, chemical properties, aging resistance, fatigue resistance, water resistance, fire resistance and so on. It can be seen that the low-carbon technology promoted by the industry in the future cannot achieve a low-carbon economy without FRP; At the same time, it also provides a new development space for the FRP industry.
From the industries we are familiar with at present, such as vehicles, shipbuilding, water treatment, chemical corrosion protection, building energy conservation, etc. Will face the constraints of global low-carbon economy, and FRP composites will become an important choice to realize industrial low-carbon economy in the future. Low-carbon vehicles include cars, buses, engineering vehicles, commercial vehicles, high-speed trains, ships, planes and space vehicles. Qingdao Romio New Material Products Co., Ltd. is a domestic professional manufacturer of lightweight FRP internal and external structural parts for high-speed train bodies. Over the years since its establishment, the company has actively adopted international advanced product standards, optimized raw materials, and met the requirements and standards for lightweight car bodies. The first batch of accessories have been successfully applied to Beijing-Tianjin intercity high-speed rail. At present, the company's car body parts have received a large number of orders from Qingtie, Tangshan and Changtie, which are in short supply. Starting from the concept of low-carbon economy, through the implementation of low-carbon technology, Romio has reached the low-carbon standard stipulated by accessories and become the best supporting enterprise for domestic rail transit to achieve high speed and low emissions. It was also awarded the title of "Top Supplier" by Siemens, an internationally renowned company. For another example, Daewoo Bus Company in Guilin, Guangxi, together with its supporting enterprises surrounded by FRP, changed the previous phenomenon of "buying and selling FRP products by weight" and launched a design scheme with the goal of reducing weight and low carbon. In the field of transportation, China's ships have great development prospects. It has been put on the agenda for large steel ships to realize low-carbon emission and reduce their own weight. After several years, if the requirements of international convention on emission reduction 15% are not met, it will be impossible to enter the high seas. In the FRP yacht market in China, the design of light sandwich structure will gradually replace the biased structure of single board design through carbon emission design specifications. Yachts will become lighter, run faster and consume less energy. Water treatment technology and water resources development will be important markets for the emerging FRP industry in the future. Hebei Zhong Yi Composite Materials Co., Ltd. and Beijing Institute of Technology jointly developed the research on seawater corrosion-resistant winding of super-large FRP pipes and the mobile winding equipment. Some enterprises also pay attention to the development and application of FRP high-pressure pipeline in seawater desalination technology.
Compared with developed countries, China's FRP industry is obviously backward in "low-carbon economy". With the concept of low-carbon economy deeply rooted in people's hearts, domestic industries will need to re-interpret, re-recognize and accelerate the necessity. Domestic traditional export products are still wandering in the "high carbon economy" and are likely to encounter a new round of "green barriers" of "carbon tariffs". Integrate the ideas and measures of "low-carbon economy", "low-carbon technology" and "low-carbon standard" into all industries in which FRP materials participate, and truly make our FRP materials become light materials, functional materials and structures with the best cost performance and strength-weight ratio, and truly synchronize low carbon with "FRP economy".
Three, China's wind power market and megawatt FRP blades
Developing clean energy and wind power generation is a major event to realize low-carbon economy in the world, and the total installed capacity of wind energy in China ranks fourth in the world. To develop megawatt wind power, China lacked complete sets of technologies at that time, and the state decisively organized enterprises to introduce mature technologies from Europe, which made the wind power industry in China develop extremely rapidly. What is the wind power market in China? What are the prospects? Here we analyze some figures:
The above data show that China is rich in wind energy resources, and the total installed capacity of grid-connected wind power that has been utilized accounts for only 6‰ of the total resources, accounting for 1.8% of the total installed capacity of the national electricity, which is far from the developed countries in Europe such as Denmark and Germany. In addition, from the current situation of wind power grid connection in China, nearly one-fifth of wind energy equipment is not connected to the grid (2000- 16 13=387). In addition, it has been learned from relevant parties that in recent years, the situation of China's wind power industry is worrying, with more than 80 MW-class complete machine enterprises and more than 70 MW-class blade manufacturing enterprises. Compared with the advanced developed countries and domestic status quo, it is obviously a bit "tricky" and "riding a tiger is difficult". Soon, the national development and reform commission document pointed out that wind power generation is also facing overcapacity. Then, the state cancelled the stipulation that the localization rate of wind power equipment was 70%. The overcapacity of wind power and the cancellation of the 70% localization rule are timely sobering agents for the wind power industry in China. At present, on the one hand, it is low-level redundant construction, on the other hand, it is medium-sized and efficient advanced equipment. The introduction of national policies makes the free choice of the market more transparent and clear, which is of practical and far-reaching significance for promoting the healthy development of China's wind power industry.
MW-class FRP blades account for about 20% of the total cost of wind power equipment. The design, material selection and technology of blades are the main factors that determine the performance and power of wind power generation devices, and also the unit cost of wind power generation. Looking at the development trend of global blade technology, considering the two factors of fan efficiency and cost reduction, blade production is developing towards large scale. The greater the power of a single machine, the lower the power generation cost per kilowatt. Therefore, wind power generation equipment all over the world is developing in the direction of megawatt high power and long blades. The typical Danish LM company is the largest wind power group in the world, with 28 years of practical production experience. Its annual output of blades exceeds 654.38 million, and it has factories in Tianjin, China and Qinhuang Island. LM Company is also the only company in the world with internal testing capability, which can carry out full-scale testing on its blades, and all newly designed blades can be put into production after 20 years of operation testing. These test items include static, dynamic and lightning strike tests, and the laser scanner in the test equipment provides accurate geometric data for the blades. At present, the longest blade produced by LM Company is 6 1.5m, which is the longest blade in the world and weighs 17.7 tons. It is made of epoxy-based glass fiber reinforced composite material, and the blade ends are made of carbon fiber, which has been installed on the 5MW offshore fan of REpower Company in Finland. LM's blade manufacturing technology includes laying glass fiber with multifunctional manipulator, which improves the laying progress by 25%; Innovative bolt support force can increase the blade length by 20%; RIM shortened the resin penetration time by 15-20%. Replacing steel mold with FRP mold can achieve low cost. According to relevant data, the Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation allocated 60 million Danish kroner for LM Company to carry out research on innovative new blade technology, and the research project was named "King of Blades". The blades are made of mixed yarns of FRP, carbon fiber and thermoplastic materials. After this yarn is laid in the mold, heating the mold will melt the plastic yarn, which will shorten the manufacturing time of the blade by half. In terms of blade design, LM Company also introduced a new concept of elastic deflection blade, referred to as pre-bent blade, about 10 years ago. The blade bends outward at the tip of the blade, so that the blade can keep a certain distance from the tower when rotating, even in strong wind, to avoid the blade hitting the tower. Pre-bent blades have large allowable bending and equivalent stiffness, thus reducing material consumption and weight and obtaining more wind energy. According to relevant sources, compared with standard blades, pre-bent blades can be started at a wind speed of 2.6m/ s ... It is understood that a case study was conducted in a cooperative project between LM Company and GE Company to determine the increase of power consumption by developing extended blades. The 37.5m long blades on the original 1.5MW fan were replaced by 40.3m long blades, resulting in an increase of 7% in power generation. The reason is that the scanning area of the outer ring is increased by 14.8% compared with that of the inner ring. It can be considered that the design and manufacturing technology of LM megawatt blades is the most advanced and competitive in the world.
In China, AVIC Phaeton is in a leading position in the wind power blade industry through continuous innovation, and independently develops unsaturated polyester resin FRP blades. Its 600kw-750kw blades account for more than 90% in China, and the 37.5m blades are successfully developed with high performance UPR. Over the years, the company's installed blade capacity accounts for nearly half of the country. In the process of seeking technical cooperation, the company has conducted technical exchanges and cooperation with nine wind turbine blade enterprises, including the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom. The independent technical capability of megawatt blades in China has been established. The main features of Whitten blade technology include structural damping patent (reducing vibration), tip proprietary technology (providing aerodynamic performance and reducing noise), mirror mold technology, rapid room temperature curing technology, high-precision balancing technology, high-precision blade root positioning technology and so on. Taking a blade with a weight of 1.5MW and a weight of 6t as an example, if the weight error of each blade is below 1kg and the deviation of the center of gravity is not more than 10mm, the starting wind speed is only 2.6m/ s, and the generating wind speed is 3m/s. At present, the company has developed 2MW blades and carried out new blade design work according to the requirements of wind field. Domestic enterprises have also formed mass production, such as Zhongfu Lianzhong, Beijing Sinoma FRP Research Institute and Shanghai FRP Institute. The glass fiber products supporting wind power generation equipment also include a hood and a deflector. There are four domestic companies adopting the most advanced vacuum pump and LRTM technology, namely Shuang Yi, Huayi and Jupita in Dezhou, Shandong Province, and Yaxi Road Company in Jiangsu Province. Most products are exported by foreign businessmen. Changzhou Huaxin New Materials Company first provided these enterprises with high strength, low viscosity, low heat release and excellent performance.
In order to reduce the cost of power generation, in addition to blade design, materials and process molding are also changing with each passing day. By selecting materials and processes, we can realize lightweight and functionalization, thus improving the utilization efficiency of wind energy. In order to obtain the best performance-to-price ratio of blades, in recent years, OCV has introduced high-performance Advantax glass fiber in the global blade market. Compared with E glass fiber, this kind of glass fiber has higher strength and modulus, and has been successfully applied to the manufacture of megawatt blades. Recently, OCV applied S glass fiber to larger blades. The modulus of S glass fiber reaches 85.5Gpa, which is 18% higher than that of E glass fiber, and its strength is 33% higher. From a technical point of view, it is more advanced to apply S glass fiber with high strength and high fracture strain to fan blades. Recently, PPG introduced high-performance, high-strength and fatigue-resistant glass fiber into the global wind energy blade industry. According to reports, the developed HYBON2026 is 20% higher in tensile strength and several times higher in fatigue strength than the glass fiber products used to make blades on the market at present. Domestic enterprises have also carried out a lot of research and development work on the materials of megawatt blades. Chongqing International has successively developed ECT and TM high-performance fibers, and the sales volume accounts for 1/3 of the domestic consumption of MW-class glass fiber for blades. In 2009, it also exported 25,000 tons of high-performance fiber to Western Europe. In addition, high-performance fibers such as GMG from Tai 'an and E6 from Jushi have also entered the market. With the increase of blade length, the application of lightweight high-strength carbon fiber in wind power generation is expanding day by day, and the reduction of the price of large tow carbon fiber has become the first choice of structural materials for wind turbines. It is also a 34-meter-long blade with a GF/UP mass of 5800 kg, a GF/EP mass of 5200 kg and a CF/EP mass of 3800 kg. Therefore, the development trend of blade materials is to adopt CF/EP, but it also faces price pressure. Foreign countries are making in-depth research on raw materials, technology and quality control to reduce costs. According to relevant data, in order to increase the stiffness of blades and prevent the pre-bending part of the blade tip from hitting the tower, carbon fiber will be widely used in blades with a length of more than 50 m.
Lightweight closed-cell high-strength foam is another main component of blade materials, which is applied to structures. According to the data of DIAB company in Sweden, it can be used for 60-meter-long fan blade cores. Using this core material and shunting technology, the cycle time can be reduced by 50% and the labor cost can be reduced by 30%. Compared with the open technology, the sandwich diversion technology can reduce the styrene emission by 90%, and make the whole blade lighter and stronger. PVC special-shaped boards imported by DIAB Company in Kunshan, China are directly applied to blade production according to the product's "tailor-made", which saves time and materials and reduces costs. At present, foreign companies producing leaf foam structure include Gurit Tianjin Company and Alcan Shanghai Company, while domestic Changzhou Tiansheng Company cooperated with relevant research institutes and successfully developed structural foam last year.
With the development of offshore wind power, higher requirements are put forward for the performance of blades. Lightweight, high strength, high elasticity and fatigue resistance will promote the continuous production of new materials. Not long ago, Bayer Company introduced commercial brand Baytube carbon nanotubes to be used in epoxy resin to improve the fatigue resistance and impact resistance of blades and improve the resilience of materials. According to the company, the use of carbon nanotubes in resin will reduce the quality of blades by 20-30% and increase the strength by 30%. There is a new trend in blade forming technology. After Zhongfu Lianzhong Company completed the prepreg forming process, the blade manufacturing was changed from wet forming to dry heat forming. Siemens of Germany has created integral molding in the blade forming process. The application of these new technologies further improves the dimensional stability of products and shortens the manufacturing time.