Zhang Guoliang：Dream realization of“Made in China”for carbon fiber

At the National Science and Technology Awards Conference held in January， 2017， a project from Lianyungang attracts attention particularly. This project of “the key technology and application of dry-jet wetspinning thousand-ton high-strength/hundred-ton medium mode carbon fiber industrialization” has obtained Country technology advancement award. Zhang Guoliang， as the primary consummator of this project and the president of Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber Co.， Ltd.， devotes himself to overcome various technical difficulties. Finally， the industrialization of carbon fiber has been realized and international blockade has been broken， which make outstanding contributions for Chinas economic development and national security. Hence， he is the reform pioneer of China carbon fiber industry.

“My dream is to make Chinas own carbon fiber”

Zhang Guoliang always adheres to the faith of“winning honor for the motherland， fighting for the nation”， to realize the dream of “Made in China” for carbon fiber over 40 years， to build the biggest domestic ten thousand ton carbon fiber manufacturing enterprise， and to realize the localization and the industrialization of carbon fiber. Therefore， the extended monopoly of developed country on domestic carbon fiber market has been broken thoroughly and Chinas carbon fiber is no longer utterly dependent on imports under the leadership of Zhang Guoliang.

Zhang Guoliang， as the NPC member， went to Beijing to attend the NPC and CPPCC sessions in March， 2005 and knew about carbon fiber. During the conference， he learned about the current situation of carbon fiber development in China from several materials experts. Carbon fiber is a key strategic material urgently needed for national security and weaponry， while the few countries which master this technique impose technical blockade and monopoly， resulting in demand exceeding supply of carbon fiber in Chinas market and strictly influencing the economic construction and national defense development of our country.

Since the two sessions， Zhang Guoliang generated the idea of developing carbon fiber industrialization， to change the passive situation of our country. Zhang Guoliang told the experts he visited： “I will accomplish the industrialization of carbon fiber”.

Carbon fiber is called “the king of new material”and “black gold” by industry insiders， which is quite important. Chinas study on carbon fiber has been carried out for more than 30 years， however， it still stranded on experimental exploration stage， which cannot achieve industrialization.

“As an entrepreneur， I should have adventurous spirit to share the burden of our country， and I will make every effort to create our own carbon fiber！”Zhang Guoliang said firmly.

However， Zhang Guoliang faced tremendous difficulties： there was no equipment for reference or relative information. Furthermore， faced with foreign technology blockade， he knew nothing about carbon fiber industry. He looked up almost everything about carbon fiber and record more than 3000 main process data. Zhang Guoliang spent over ten hours in reading every day， and the professional books wrote by the professor He Fu of Shanxi Institute of Coal Chemistry， Chinese Academy of Sciences is the guiding light. He also visited almost all the people in the country who have studied， tested and been exposed to carbon fiber to earnestly survey and consult modestly.

In September， 2005， Zhang Guoliang authorized a professional manager to manage his profitable ZGL Textile Machinery Group. Then he， as a layman， devoted himself to carbon fiber business with more than 70 million yuan in cash， and stepped the road to industrialization at a saline-alkali beach with reeds on the outskirts of Lianyungang. On September 29 of the same year， carbon fiber project was officially approved， which was named as “9·29 Engineering” by Zhang Guoliang.

Although there was no domestic experience for reference and foreign technology was blocked， Zhang Guoliang and his team established Carbon fiber precursor fiber production line with an annual output of 500 tons for trial production. Since this was a macromolecule chemical reaction process， the raw materials were flammable and explosive substances， if the reaction process had a slight improper operation or control， serious explosion accidents would occur. The hopeful and dangerous start button was pushed by Zhang Guoliang himself， without the worst case， but the trial production process was not successful and there existed numerous problems. Zhang Guoliang， together with technicians and workers， ate and slept next to the production line for 74 days， and eventually the qualified raw silk was manufactured.

With the expansion of the production line and constantly improved of technical maturity， Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber Co.， Ltd. produced the first batch of carbon fibers in 2007. In 2010， the largescale production of 1，000 tons of T300 grade carbon fiber was realized， which broke the long-term monopoly of developed countries on domestic carbon fiber market.

Never stop， breaking through dry-jet wet-spinning carbon fiber core technical problems

Zhang Guoliang is not only the decision maker and leader of enterprise development， but also the backbone and bellwether of enterprise technology innovation. As the foregoer of scientific and technological innovation， he led the team to devote to the technical progress and product innovation of carbon fiber， conquer numerous worldwide technical problems. Eventually， he obtained the first prize of National Prize for Progress in Science and Technology in 2017. “The key factor for success is to innovate， we will never stop on the road of innovation！” Zhang Guoliang said firmly.

China has made significant development in wet process carbon fiber technology， moreover， they fulling developed dry-jet wet-spinning technology， to create carbon fiber power internationally. Compared with wet process carbon fiber， the dry-jet wet-spinning technology can boost enormously the mechanical property， production efficiency and significantly lower energy consumption， which becomes a new technology of high-performance carbon fiber. Nowadays， dry-jet wet-spinning technology has been regarded as spinning technology that is difficult to break through. Only Toray in Japan and Hexcel in America can master the above technology， and its preparation technology and equipment have always been monopolized and blocked.

Zhang Guoliang was keenly aware that dry-jet wet-spinning technology would be the mainstream of carbon fiber in future. He blew the horn to march toward the above T700 grade carbon fiber. He knew that it was difficult for universal T300 carbon fiber to adapt to the demand of aviation and emerging industries on high-performance carbon fiber. Above T700 grade carbon fiber manufactured by utilizing dry-jet wet-spinning technology is in urgent need of modern national defense and important new material in advanced equipment manufacturing of defense， which plays an important role in anti-deformation， temperature difference resistance and weight reduction. High-performance carbon fiber can be widely applied to marine， land and air weapons.

To break through this bottleneck as soon as possible， Zhang Guoliang starts again personally. He constantly learns， absorbs and innovates during the exploration of carbon fiber， becomes a real expert in this field and has more profound understanding on carbon fiber. “The only approach to make key breakthroughs on the road of carbon fiber industrialization and develop new material is self-dependent innova- tion！ Our innovation is to dare to integrate innovation， dare to break out of the book to innovate， and dare to innovate from practice.”

Dry-jet wet-spinning technology is highly dependent on the requirements for high molecular weight， narrow distribution and high homogeneity of the original solution. Meanwhile， there still existed numerous key technical problems， for instance， high viscosity fluid spinning molding， dry-jet wet-spinning solidification aggregation control， high-power drafting of compact structure， homogeneous pre-oxidation and so on， which are urgently broken through. In addition， dry-jet wet-spinning carbon fiber technology and equipment system should also be built independently.

Zhang Guoliang led the team to overcome tremendous difficulties and advance bravely. He believes that it sould break the routine and habitual thinking， and find another way on the road of science； finally you will find a bright future. To tackle key problems， Zhang Guoliang spent almost every day with engineers， talking about products and technology for independent design， autonomous manufacturing， independent installation and independent debug-ging. Furthermore， Zhang Guoliang directly decided and participated in all engineering design， mechanical design， each equipment installation， and each process formulation.

After more than three years of hard work and experimentation， Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber Co.， Ltd. broke through core technical difficulties of dry-jet wet-spinning carbon fiber and obtained a series of major scientific and technological achievements eventually. They innovated and developed high-capacity polymerization and homogenizing original solution preparative technique， conquered key high-strength/ medium mode carbon fiber precursor dry-jet wet-spinning techniques， independently developed PAN fiber rapid homogenous peroxidation， carbonization integration technology， and initially built production system of dry-jet wet-spinning thousand-ton high-strength/hundred-ton medium mode carbon fiber industrialization owning proprietary intellectual property rights. Through integrated innovation of process and equipment， high-performance carbon fiber can be manufactured efficiently， and the products can reach the international advanced level of similar products. Therefore， the company has become the first enterprise in China and the third in the world， to overcome the problem of dry-jet wet-spinning， to fill the blank of high-performance carbon fiber production technology represented by dry-jet wet-spinning process in China， and to break through the long-term monopoly of foreign giants in the Chinas market.

The study on T1000 grade carbon fiber was launched by adopting dry-jet wet-spinning in 2015， and pilot scale experiment was realized in 2016. On this basis， tackling engineering technology was carried out， to make a great breakthrough on hundred-ton scale production. Meanwhile， the company totally owned proprietary intellectual property rights in terms of key technologies and core equipment； and the products solved the countrys urgent need for high-end materials. In 2018， T1000 carbon fiber engineering has made dramatic breakthroughs， the production line of completely self-developed hundred-ton T1000 carbon fiber has realized production and operated stably. This marked a new step for Chinas high-performance carbon fiber， and entered into a new era of higher quality development.

Currently， Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber Co.， Ltd. has mastered T700， T800 thousand-ton grade techniques， T1000 grade， M30 grade and M35 grade hundred-ton techniques. The market share in domestic carbon fiber market reaches over 60% year after year， which greatly promotes the development of carbon fiber composite material industry in China. Zhang Guoliang notes that location will run through the entire production line， hence we should truly master the core technology of carbon fiber production， to better serve the terminal users of carbon fiber and composite materials. In addition， the application of domestic carbon fiber is a contribution to the development of Chinas carbon fiber industry.

Undertake the mission， innovation is begged to change

Looking forward the future of carbon fiber industry， Zhang Guoliang says frankly that there would be plenty of room for carbon fiber research. “By virtue of the current technology， the carbon fiber has limited application， while more high- performance carbon fiber products will be produced， which has great potential.

Meanwhile， he notes that： “Chinas carbon fiber production is still not high enough currently， the supply can only meet one-fifth of the demand. In the future， we should grasp the opportunity to expand production and satisfy the needs， and especially to meet the country's major demand. On the premise of ensuring quality， the quantity should keep up stably.”

In May， 2017， the homemade large aircraft C919 took off successfully on the fourth runway at Pudong airport， which marked China had become one of the few countries in the world that can make giant aircrafts. According to reports， 12% composite material used by C919 is carbon fiber composite.“At present， our carbon fiber products are mainly applied to aerospace， weaponry， carbon core cable， construction strengthening， pressure vessel， sporting goods， wind turbine blade， automobile manufacturing and other fields.” Zhang Guoliang presents. With the successful development of large domestic aircraft and other heavy equipment， the application amount of carbon fiber will definitely increase in the coming decades.

Zhang Guoliang told the journalist that carbon fiber has various varieties and performance， which can be applied widely. Among them， civil aviation is the highest application of carbon fiber， carbon fiber is the king in material field. The focus of future research is to apply the carbon fiber to civil aviation and civilian use， and our research will never stop.