Contribution is woven by innovation for a nonwoven breakthrough

By Shen Da

Zeng Shijun， who graduated from Dalian University of technology， the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences MBA graduate， current chairman and general manager of Dalian Huayang New Materials Technology Co.， Ltd.， has been engaged in the development of PET spun-bonded production technology and equipment as well as the design work for chemical fiber engineering. He became eloquent when chatting with reporters about their research and development project that fills domestic blank in spun-bond nonwoven field， although he is not very talkative.

Mr. Zeng introduced the situation of development of high-strength polyester filament-based geotechnical cloth that company has focused on in recent years. He pointed out that with the rapid development of Chinas economy， the market demand for waterproof materials continued to grow. Modified asphalt waterproof material is so important that the localization of its equipment has been put on the agenda. As the higher quality index of filament polyester asphalt felt technology is dominated by the developed countries， the production line of Chinas PET spun-bonded needle punching nonwoven is used mainly on geotechnical cloth， filter material and so on for a long time， which forms a seriously unreasonable raw material structure， widening the gap between China and developed countries in the field of waterproof material. Due to the high price of such products， the proportion of their actual application is less than 2%， causing weakness of polyester waterproof material in the market share.

It is learned that in order to change the passive situation of our country in PET filament asphalt felt， Huayang worked with its business peer， Qianjin nonwoven in Anguo City Hebei Province， in a joint R&D team， to take on the technical project “The product and equipment development of high-strength polyester filament waterproof backings” listed in the technology guide programs by China National Textile and Apparel Council in 2007， aiming to jointly develop the technology for polyester filament spun-bonded needle punching nonwoven sustracts as soon as possible to break the overseas technical monopoly， and to contribute to the waterproofing industry in China. After four-year arduous efforts， Huayang has made a number of breakthroughs in key technology of spinning， drawing， filament deposition（deflecting and traversing）， web forming， stitch bonding and in the finishing technology of thermal setting， laminating， drying and so on. Chinas first domestic production line for high-strength polyester filament waterproof backing was successfully completed， with independent intellectual property rights in 2011， with various technical indicators equal to or better than the level of similar foreign ones. This project won the first prize of the national textile light awards.

The success in development of the production line for high-strength polyester filament nonwoven backing has important social and economic significance， breaking through the bottleneck that has challenged China for many years for the simple reason that polyester spunbonded needle-punching nonwoven cant be used as waterproof rolls， enriching the varieties of nonwovens， promoting the upgrade of product and technology in waterproof engineering industry， and improving construction quality and service life of waterproof engineering. The advent of products aroused strong response immediately， and also brought generous market return to Huayang.

Thereafter， Huayang has supplied more than 20 high production lines with such technical innovations for many domestic enterprises in a few years， occupying 80% market share， which drives polyester filament asphalt felt in waterproof application to increase rapidly to 30%. With this， Huayang was also appointed as“Equipment and Production R&D Base of China PET Spun-bond Technology” by relevant authorities.

In addition， he led his team to develop the project of “domestic PET spun-bonded production technology and equipment for light-weighted nonwovens”， which was awarded the second prize of scientific progress by China National Textile & Apparel Council， and was selected as key technical project for promotion of textile industry in the Eleventh Five-Year Plan period， for “domestic initiation， filling in the blank， international advanced” as evaluated by accreditation system. The project of “complete filter material technology of PPS spun-bonded needle and spunlace nonwoven” he participated was also awarded the second prize of sci- entific progress by China National Textile & Apparel Council， which first achieved industrialized production of PPS spun-bond in the world.

Reviewing the development over the past few years， Mr. Zeng thinks that Chinas economy in a sustained growth accelerated urban-rural integration and improved the infrastructure bringing about enormous opportunities for waterproof industry， especially for the high-performance and engineering waterproof material with ascendant market demand. “The development of polyester filament asphalt felt production technology and equipment tends towards high speed， high efficiency and low energy consumption.” he said.

China is a big country for industrial textile production and application， but not a strong one in design， especially for the PET spunbonded technology and equipment， so it is necessary for us to consider how to better adapt to the market demand and carve out a Chinas own road for PET spun-bond nonwoven production and new product development.

Mr. Zeng said in terms of technological innovation， Huayang will never stop. Now， company is working on the development of polypropylene filament geotextile， two-component coarse denier spun-bonded composite carpet backing， filter material， new waterproof material and so on， promoting its sustainable development.