The domestic industry related to continuous carbon fiber tube reinforced thermoplastic prepreg started relatively late. So far, the market is still dominated by continuous glass fiber reinforced PP, PA and other general plastic thermoplastic prepreg, and the continuous carbon fiber tube reinforced thermoplastic prepreg has not yet achieved large-scale mass production.
With regard to the research on continuous carbon fiber tube reinforced thermoplastic composites, some universities and research institutes and scientific and technological enterprises have also begun to set foot in it. For example, Jilin University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Shanghai jieshijie new materials Co., Ltd. have successively applied for a large number of patents:
Shanghai jieshijie new materials (Group) Co., Ltd. applied for the preparation method of continuous fiber reinforced thermoplastic prepreg tape with carbon fiber tube and glass fiber as reinforcements and PP, PE, PA6, PA12 and pa1212 as matrix;
Jilin University studied the preparation method of continuous carbon fiber tube reinforced phenylacetylene side based thermoplastic prepreg with carbon fiber tube content in the range of 20% -80%; Shanghai Jiaotong University's solution to the problem of continuous infiltration of carbon fiber tubes.
Although the preparation method of general thermoplastic prepreg reinforced by continuous carbon fiber tube is becoming more and more mature, due to the high processing temperature of PPS, peek, PI and other engineering plastics, the production line needs to operate stably in the range of 350-450 ℃ for a long time, and the vast majority of domestic manufacturers still can not meet this standard.
Therefore, the prepreg of high performance engineering plastics (PEEK, PPS or PI, etc.) reinforced by continuous carbon fiber tube has not been actually mass produced in China.
In this case, the development of continuous carbon fiber tube reinforced high performance composite prepreg is of great significance. On the one hand, the continuous carbon fiber tube reinforced high-performance thermoplastic composites have the same performance advantages as thermosetting carbon fiber tube composites, such as light weight, high strength, corrosion resistance, fatigue resistance and so on, which can significantly reduce the weight and improve the performance of parts in practical application.
On the other hand, compared with the thermosetting carbon fiber tube composite prepreg, the continuous carbon fiber tube reinforced high-performance thermoplastic composite prepreg has the advantages of low storage requirements, recyclability, secondary processing and utilization, which is more in line with the national new energy and sustainable development strategy.
However, it is not easy to develop prepregs for continuous carbon fiber tube reinforced high-performance composites. The technical achievements of continuous carbon fiber tube reinforced high-performance thermoplastic composites abroad have long been marketized, but their core manufacturing technology and related equipment are strictly kept secret, and a more stringent blockade policy is implemented against China.
At present, most enterprises, research institutes and import and export trading companies can only rely on a small amount of imports, and bear higher application costs for them. Taking the peek prepreg reinforced by continuous carbon fiber tube as an example, the foreign price is equivalent to about 5500 yuan/kg, which is restricted for domestic enterprises to purchase.
Trivial issues such as tariffs and transportation have further pushed up the actual price, and the actual price in hand is almost 2-3 times the cost price. This greatly limits the wide range and in-depth application of such products in the market. Therefore, the development of high-performance continuous carbon fiber tube reinforced thermoplastic prepreg in China can only rely on itself.
Seeing the market demand and application prospect of continuous carbon fiber tube reinforced thermoplastic prepreg, Wuxi Zhishang New Material Technology Co., Ltd. invested heavily to build a production line for manufacturing continuous carbon fiber tube reinforced thermoplastic prepreg by relying on the mode of independent research and development and manufacturer cooperation.
This prepreg production line can not only batch produce carbon fiber tube Reinforced PEEK prepregs, but also be used to manufacture continuous carbon fiber tube reinforced PI, PPS and other thermoplastic high-performance composite prepregs. The early samples of this new production line of our company are relatively smooth.
The continuous carbon fiber tube Reinforced PEEK prepreg produced has stable fiber volume fraction, good surface condition, and a daily output of 100 square meters. After technical debugging and improvement in the later stage, the output is expected to be further improved.
After the continuous carbon fiber tube reinforced thermoplastic prepreg enters the mass production, it will break the monopoly situation of foreign countries, make up for the gap between domestic and foreign related fields, and the relatively lower price can also expand its in-depth application in the fields of transportation, medical equipment, civil equipment and so on, so that the high-performance carbon fiber tube thermoplastic composite truly enters the industrialization era.