China's automotive composite vehicle drag industry development hind legs

Accompanied by the rapid development of China's auto industry, the emerging auto parts industry shows attractive business opportunities. As a new material, cutting-edge technology, composite materials will surely become the dominant factor in this emerging industry. According to reports, the Canadian car supplier Magna Corporation, in partnership with the Canadian government’s R&D organization, aims to develop “safety, economical, environmentally friendly and fuel-efficient” “new generation” vehicles. As part of the partnership, the two parties will create a Magna-NRC composite winning center in Concord, Ontario, Canada, focusing on the development of thermoplastic composite automotive parts. This composite material winning center will be equipped with thermoplastic composite molding equipment. The cooperative team of both parties will use long fiber reinforced thermoplastics and sheet molding compounds to develop light and durable auto parts.

It is reported that the research institute has been put into operation this summer. In China, Airbus China and a Chinese company such as Hafei Group have jointly established a composite aircraft parts manufacturing center to produce composite parts for Airbus aircraft. This also gives us close contact with the application of composite materials in China. With the continuous development of the automotive industry, people are increasingly demanding the lighter weight and environmental protection of automobiles. Plastics, as a new type of parts and materials, have an increasingly broad application prospect in automobiles. In 2009, with the scale of domestic auto production exceeding 13 million vehicles, the demand for plastic parts from domestic automakers has increased significantly. China has become the world's largest market for demand for automotive rubber, plastics and composite materials.

It is worth rethinking that the application of composite materials in China's auto parts is very scarce. What is worse is that people in the industry are ambiguous. Many people even do not understand the concept of composite materials at all, and some people do not even know that FRP is a composite material. It can be seen that the application of composite materials in the automotive field is just a matter of domestic media. Although the FRP composite material has been applied in China's automobile field, there are more and more emerging composite materials such as carbon fiber and natural fiber being applied to the automobile field in foreign countries. The glass fiber reinforced plastic will gradually become a past tense. Because the performance of more innovative composites is even better than FRP. As a large consumer of automobiles in China, the production and use of new energy vehicles will surely become the future development trend, which gives the automotive a lightweight opportunity, but also a huge market for the development of composite automotive parts. Domestic parts and components companies should seize this opportunity to quickly cultivate their own markets.

It is reported that there are many types of automotive thermoplastic composite materials, including: First, glass fiber mat reinforced thermoplastic composites (GMT), glass fiber (felt) as a reinforcing material, thermoplastic resin as the matrix, made by heating, pressing Composite materials are the most active composite material development varieties in the world. GMT sheets have more than 40 kinds of applications in the automotive industry. They mainly include seat frames, bumpers, dashboards, hoods, battery trays, and pedals. , front, floor, guards, rear door, roof, luggage carrier, sun visor, spare tire frame and other components; Second, long fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites (LFT), its composition material can be glass fiber, aryl Fibers, carbon fibers, steel fibers, and other fibers that can form continuous yarns are now widely used in the automotive industry. Ticona's products are successfully used in the VWGolf IV type. Third, natural fiber reinforced thermoplastic composites (NMT) are inexpensive. , Recyclable, Degradable, Renewable, etc., The application in the automotive industry is still limited to automotive interior components; Fourth, carbon fiber reinforced composite materials, it For the manufacture of car chassis starts with high strength, durability, reliability and weight loss benefits.

At present, China's composite materials companies still cannot participate in the automotive industry, and face the huge market opportunities. They can only act as supporting roles in the historical stage of automobile development. The deep reasons for this embarrassing situation are complicated: the malformed industrial structure, the weak technical level, and the pressure of the domestic auto industry environment... Some of the dominant factors are in the hands of the materials industry, while others are completely subject to the people. For the automotive composite materials industry, in order to realize the leap-forward development goals in the future, we must change those that can be changed while acceptance can't be changed! There is also a big gap between domestic composite material performance and foreign advanced level.

Automotive materials require particularly high stability and consistency, while the quality of engineering plastics of domestic manufacturers is not stable. This is the first problem that the manufacturer must solve. Compared with technical problems, non-technical obstacles make those manufacturers of materials that have the ability to innovate, and who are committed to jointly developing with car manufacturers, to be more incompetent. At present, 70% of the domestic automobile shares are joint venture brands. For these joint venture brands, the procurement system is closed and not open to domestic enterprises, but for domestic auto manufacturers with their own brands, the performance price of materials, suppliers The credibility of the product, long-term reliability of the product has not yet ranked in the most concerned position, the domestic auto industry's R & D capability is weak, it is even weaker for the application of materials. ”

It is very difficult to get products into foreign or joint venture auto companies and give them a chance to understand the quality advantages of domestic engineering plastics. It will take one year to obtain the general certification of auto material GB16949. Each auto manufacturer must also obtain materials. Do experiments on their own models, material manufacturers simply do not have such patience, do not know the cost of nine tigers and two tigers, can not guarantee the long-term customer source. Due to the relatively long period of time from the application of materials to the sale of automobiles, in order to reduce the financial pressure, domestic OEMs often default on the payment of materials and parts manufacturers, which also dampened the enthusiasm of the material companies. Automobile manufacturers also have their own ambiguities in choosing upstream supporting companies. If a new material or component is to replace the original one, it faces a relatively large non-technical problem. That is how to get the original product out of the market. If the replaced product is supplied by a co-op factory, it must be cancelled. The right to match, but to cancel the right to support whether it is at home or abroad is a very difficult thing.