Small Silk Threads Connect Large Industries, And This "Black Gold" Will Realize Carbon Fiber Freedom For China

Today, Jilin is making greater efforts to promote the digital transformation of traditional manufacturing industry, relying on the "first power" of scientific and technological innovation to increase the "intelligence" and improve the "quality" of traditional industries.

At the same time, the development and application of new materials are also promoting technological progress and industrial upgrading. This is a strand of carbon fiber precursor. Unexpectedly, There are 35000 fibers in this bundle To see each fiber clearly, you need to use a microscope.

The picture above shows its state under the microscope. The strength of this bundle of carbon fibers is more than 7 times higher than that of ordinary steel; The weight is only one quarter of that of steel 。

　　 The "Wonderful Journey" of White Silk to Black Silk Carbon Fiber

　　 Sun Jiande, Head Office reporter: The rapidly rotating white silk, called carbon fiber precursor, is processed from acrylonitrile extracted from petroleum.

　　 Sun Jiande, Head Office reporter: When the precursor enters the oxidation furnace, a wonderful transformation begins. The precursor must go through many processes, such as low-temperature carbonization and high-temperature carbonization. Especially when it is oxidized at a high temperature of about 1500 degrees Celsius, ordinary fibers have already turned into ashes. The precursor is "quenched into gold", removing non carbon elements, leaving carbon elements with a purity of more than 95%. After many processes, this carbon fiber, called "black gold", is finally obtained.

　　 Sun Jiande, Head Office reporter: Its strength has reached the international leading level. Although it is soft and thin, its strength is actually 7 to 9 times that of steel, but its weight is only a quarter of that of steel. Technicians conducted a tensile strength test in the workshop. They used two sections of such carbon fiber as trailer ropes, connected two forklifts in front and back, and could easily drag the 4.3 ton forklift forward without breaking.

　　 Sun Jiande, Head Office reporter: Why is carbon fiber so good? Look at its internal structure. In fact, each bundle of carbon fibers is composed of tens of thousands of monofilaments. Under a 500 times microscope, you can see the invisible monofilaments, whose thickness is only one tenth of that of hair. This is the cross section of monofilament. The roundness and thickness of each monofilament are basically the same, that is, each monofilament is playing a role. In fact, tens of thousands of small silk threads exert force at the same time. They are arranged together, giving play to a strong approximate density.

Breaking through technology blockade, domestic carbon fiber grows from scratch

　　 Sun Jiande, Head Office reporter: Behind the production of such high-quality products is the continuous independent research and development of domestic carbon fiber. After more than five years, hundreds of tests, thousands of debugging and tens of thousands of sets of data, the mass production of carbon fiber precursor was finally realized in 2011, which also created the first large-scale production of carbon fiber precursor in China.

Extensive application scenarios to continuously reduce manufacturing costs

　　 Sun Jiande, Head Office reporter: Today, the production capacity of raw silk here is 160000 tons, accounting for more than 90% of the domestic market. The production capacity of carbon fiber here is 49000 tons, ranking the top in the world.

　　 Sun Jiande, Head Office reporter: In recent years, with the strong rise of domestic carbon fiber, the price of imported carbon fiber has dropped by more than 40%. Now, carbon fiber has been widely used in aerospace, automobile lightweight manufacturing, energy equipment, UAV manufacturing and other fields. In the future, domestic carbon fiber will stride forward to a higher level, and we also look forward to its great performance in more fields.

(Source: CCTV News)