Rebirth 99 to become a car giant.

Chapter 650 Nanshan Chemistry Exploded, New Breakthroughs in Materials Science

The Nanshan Group's siege on Nokia is destined to take a certain amount of time before this generation of giants comes to an end.

However, Cao Yang's attention was attracted by another important development.

Nanshan Chemical has successfully developed foam materials that meet the needs of wind turbine blades.

This is not an easy achievement.

Among the upstream materials in the wind power industry, blades are the most expensive and important components, accounting for approximately 30% of the total cost of the wind power generation system.

From the perspective of wind turbine blade structure, it is mainly composed of reinforcement materials, sandwich materials, matrix materials, surface coatings and structural adhesives between different parts.

At present, the mainstream of onshore wind turbines is fiberglass blades, that is, the main beam, shell, and blade root structures use fiberglass.

The blades used in offshore wind turbines replace the main beam material with carbon fiber to meet the lightweight needs of large blades. The cost of raw materials accounts for about 75% of the total cost of blades, of which reinforcing fibers, matrix resin, and core materials account for a relatively high proportion.

The raw materials for reinforcing materials used in early blades were relatively single. The base material was mainly epoxy resin, the reinforcing material was mainly fiberglass, and the core material was mainly balsa wood.

As the blade length increases, the overall deformation control becomes more difficult. In order to avoid tower scraping and tower sweeping accidents, the requirements for material specific modulus and specific strength increase. Early manufacturers improved strength and modulus through glass fiber material updates, but the increase has already Gradually reaching the limit.

Therefore, after Nanshan Carbon Fiber entered wind turbine blades last year, it significantly increased the amount of carbon fiber used and solved many problems with blade materials.

After all, the modulus of carbon fiber is 3-8 times higher than that of glass fiber, and its specific gravity is about 30% smaller. It can meet the needs of larger and lighter blades at the same time.

But this mainly solves the problem of reinforced materials, that is, core materials.

It is impossible to use carbon fiber for the entire blade. After all, the cost is too high and few companies can afford it.

And after using carbon fiber as the core material, the sandwich material can actually be cheaper and lighter than carbon fiber.

This is beneficial to the entire wind turbine blade.

The core materials currently used in wind turbine blades mainly include balsa wood, PVC foam, PET foam, etc.

The same is naturally true for wind turbine blades produced by Nanshan Carbon Fiber.

However, these three materials are currently all imported, which definitely does not meet Caoyang’s 100% localization requirements.

Therefore, whether it is Nanshan Carbon Fiber or Nanshan Chemical, they have been working hard to find suitable domestic material solutions in the past year.

In everyone's mind, wood is often large and bulky, and grows very slowly.

However, there is such a plant that has set a Guinness World Record and is called "the lightest wood in the world" and "the fastest growing tree in the world". This tree is called "balsa wood".

Balsa wood is a kind of light wood that grows in the tropical forests of America. Its leaves are like sycamores, heart-shaped, its five yellow-white petals are like hibiscus flowers, and its fruit is split like cotton. It is widely distributed in the rainforest areas of South America. Grows at the highest point of the tree.

It grows extremely fast and can grow five to six meters in a year, so it is called "the fastest growing tree in the world."

In addition to its growth rate, balsa wood also has a natural advantage over other tree species - weight!

Balsa wood weighs only 0.1 grams per cubic centimeter, which is one-tenth the weight of the same volume of water, so it is called "the lightest wood in the world."

Balsa wood is very light and grows quickly, but its structure is very strong. It has the magical advantages of low density, good strength, easy processing, non-worming, and fast growth rate. It is often suitable for making small ships, model aircraft, and surfing. Boards, buoys, musical instruments and other products.

Wind turbine blades are naturally one of the best application markets for balsa wood.

However, this material is not produced in China, the supply is unstable, and the price has been rising in recent years.

As a result, foam materials, which are lighter than balsa wood, began to replace it.

"Mr. Cao, PVC foam, also known as closed-cell polyvinyl chloride foam, is made of polyvinyl chloride resin as the main raw material, adding auxiliary materials such as polymer modifiers and foaming agents."

"PVC foam is a closed-cell soft foam with good impact absorption and mechanical properties. It is one of the most commonly used core materials for high-performance sandwich structures and is widely used in wind turbine blades, ships and yachts, vehicles, aviation Aerospace, rail transportation and other fields.”

"Although the process temperature of PVC foam is -240℃~100℃, when the temperature is -240℃~80℃ for a long time, the discoloration of PVC is likely to cause carbonization, which may cause the core material to be scorched and the blades to be damaged. scrapped."

"There have been cases like this in the Middle East, so the most advanced one in the industry is PET foam."

"On the other hand, PVC foam is a thermosetting polymer; PET foam is a thermoplastic polymer, which means that PVC foam cannot be recycled, but PET can be used."

"Many European and American customers are very concerned about this situation."

"So what we are directly developing this time is PET foam. According to the current test results, it can fully meet the material needs of wind turbine blades."

Lai Yuanhong is in a very good mood now.

Nanshan Chemical has not achieved many achievements in recent years, and the pressure on him as the person in charge is also a bit high.

However, in the field of materials, sometimes your achievements may not be directly related to your efforts, but also require a little bit of luck.

"Isn't foam material very common in the market?"

"Is it okay if we just buy it directly from the market?"

Cao Yang asked a question that many people take for granted.

After all, foam can be seen everywhere, and people cannot easily feel its technical content.

"The difference between foam and foam is very big, and PET foam has many specialities."

“Things like high-quality performance, excellent high-temperature insulation properties, and good chemical and oil resistance.”

"In addition, its good hole structure and process performance that are conducive to processing are all critical."

"Another point is that the smooth surface, high rigidity and compression properties of PET foam create strong mechanical and fatigue resistance properties, which is extremely important for wind turbine blades."

Lai Yuanhong took the trouble to popularize the extraordinary features of PET foam materials to Cao Yang.

Although Nanshan Chemical purchased ordinary PET materials directly from the market, after special modification processing, it had PET foam materials suitable for processing into wind turbine blades.

This process seems relatively simple, but it is such a "simple" process that cannot be done in China.

In fact, this is not only true for PET foam, but also for many high-end resin materials.

Regardless of various materials such as PP, ABS, and PET, China's output is very high.

However, many of the high-performance resin materials produced based on these materials cannot be produced domestically.

"We still need imported materials now. It seems that most of them are special resin materials?"

Cao Yang was not really that novice. After listening to Lai Yuanhong's explanation, he understood the significance of the PET foam material being solved by Nanshan Chemical.

"Yes, at present, whether it is China as a whole or our Nanshan Group, the resin materials that need to be imported have relatively special properties."

"For example, polyimide is one of the organic polymer materials with the best comprehensive properties. It can withstand high temperatures above 400°C, has a long-term use temperature range of -200~300°C, has no obvious melting point, and has high insulation properties. It has been used in aerospace applications in various countries. Basic configuration in the aviation field and on American military ships.”

"Currently, only a few countries have the ability to produce polyimide foam materials. Due to the particularity of the application fields, neither technology nor products are exported to China."

"Another example is polyetheretherketone, which would also be PEE."

"It has excellent physical and mechanical properties. It can replace traditional materials such as metals and ceramics in many special fields. It has made outstanding contributions in reducing mass and improving performance. It has become one of the most popular high-performance engineering plastics today. Currently, Huaxia PEEK resin and There is still a big gap abroad, and we also need to rely on imports.”

"There is also polyamide, which is the familiar PA material, which is used in our engines and body parts."

"The overall production level of domestic PA is low and the output is small. Not only does the quantity of domestically produced PA fail to meet production requirements, but the grades and types of products are even rarer, which is far from meeting domestic demand. A large amount of imports are required every year, and imports are It’s growing rapidly.”

When it comes to his professional field, Lai Yuanhong immediately speaks clearly and clearly.

Materials science, especially materials science in the field of polymers, the things there are definitely worth studying for several lifetimes.

The content in various subdivisions is complicated.

The most critical thing is that in some relatively segmented markets, global demand is relatively limited.

If you invest a lot of manpower and material resources in research, you may be able to research it, but the cost will be much higher than importing.

That would be very embarrassing and I would have to give up passively.

Eventually, the technical gap between this solution will become wider and wider, and when the demand comes, you will no longer be able to keep up.

"So, some research related to resin materials needs to be intensified."

"So many types of materials require a lot of manpower to research, right?"

Nanshan Group is not short of money now.

As long as he can spend money to recruit people to do things, Cao Yang is very interested in doing it.

Although Cao Yang paid more attention to the existence of Nanshan Chemical before, this area was not his area of ​​expertise, so he did not participate in it that much.

At most, when it comes to chip-related material research, everyone can discuss it together.

It seems that I need to invest more time in this area in the future.

"Indeed, the company has built a lot of laboratories and purchased a lot of equipment."

"But if breakthroughs are needed in various fields, there will definitely be a lot of manpower needed."

"Especially the research and development of new materials requires technicians to constantly conduct experiments and tests before they can be determined."

"However, the R&D personnel our company needs are all engaged in material research and development. If they do not have a Ph.D., recruiting them will not bring much promotion."

"Even if we are willing to spend money to recruit Ph.D.s in materials science, we can't recruit too many at once."

"And after these people enter the company, it will take some time to adapt to the work."

"When it comes to basic technology research and development, you can't rush it even if you want to."

Lai Yuanhong is not too ambitious.

Nanshan Chemical's current scale is not large among the group, but its R&D strength is not bad in the industry.

In the future, he will recruit hundreds of R&D personnel every year. He thinks this rate is enough.

However, Cao Yang couldn't wait any longer.

“For some cutting-edge technology research and development work, people with a Ph.D. degree may be better at understanding it.”         “But for basic testing work, a graduate student is enough.”

“Even some low-tech jobs can be completed by undergraduates.”

"In the future, various laboratories of Nanshan Chemical will further subdivide their personnel work. Starting this year, at least a thousand new R&D personnel will be recruited every year."

"As long as you have a Ph.D. in materials science, you will be counted as one. We will accept everyone who is willing to come."

"It also allows those who think that majors such as biochemical and environmental materials are tiankeng majors to experience the high employment rate of materials science."

In 2011, any graduate who could get a doctorate in materials science, whether from an ordinary university or a key university, had a few skills.

It may be difficult to expect these people to produce Nobel Prize-level results, but there is still no problem in completing various basic experiments step by step.

Cao Yang didn't want the various high-end resin materials that Nanshan Group needed to use to be stuck in a few years.

By then, all the equipment in the chip factory will have been domestically produced. Just because several glues or other materials needed for the intermediate processing need to be imported, there will be no way to continue production.

That would be too much!

Compared with the risks and benefits in the future, the money invested in recruiting people now is nothing at all.

Other companies developing new materials may face the risk of disproportionate investment and output.

But for Nanshan Chemical, this risk does not exist.

Cao Yang, who is already preparing to get involved in Nanshan Chemical's R&D work, will naturally point out some R&D directions for everyone.

In the early days, what Nanshan Chemical had to do was to localize advanced resin materials that had been produced internationally, not to create original inventions.

Therefore, the relevant technical threshold and difficulty are relatively low.

If there is a specific direction, then this difficulty will be even lower.

Seeing that the boss Cao Yang was so active in expanding the scale of Nanshan Chemical, Lai Yuanhong naturally had no reason to object.

Nanshan Special Steel and Nanshan Carbon Fiber, two brother companies engaged in materials, are now very prosperous. If he is not envious at all, it must be fake.

Soon, with the support of the big boss, Nanshan Chemical took various actions.

The first to feel the changes brought about by Nanshan Chemical were various wind power equipment manufacturers.

After all, Nanshan Chemical's other new technology research and development are only in the research stage, but PET foam has already begun mass production.

As long as a material is domestically produced in China, the price is definitely not as simple as lowering a few points compared to imported ones, or even lowering it by dozens of points.

That means you can directly convert a ton of materials worth 50 yuan into tens of thousands of yuan per ton.

Of course, Nanshan Chemical does not need to cut prices so much, as it can still make the blades produced by Nanshan Carbon Fiber Wind Turbine Blade Factory competitive.

After all, for their wind turbine blades, the core base material carbon fiber is produced by themselves, as is the key PET foam material.

The material cost accounts for 70% of the blade cost. How can other manufacturers compete?

"Minister Fang, the cost of wind turbine blades calculated by the Finance Department is 55% higher than your latest quotation. Are you sure that external suppliers can really achieve such a low price?"

"This was not the data in last year's report, right?"

Fan Huabo, general manager of Modu Electric, was very confused and called Fang Hongmei, the director of the purchasing department, to his office.

The wind power business is a sunrise industry, and Modu Electric is ready to vigorously develop products in this field.

Fan Huabo has specially deployed a group of technical personnel to develop wind power equipment with greater power generation. The increase in power generation of wind power equipment has led to the enlargement of wind power blades.

According to the latest plan given by the designers of Modu Electric, the length of the wind turbine blades has exceeded 100 meters.

Such a large part is also a core part of wind power equipment. Modu Electric must consider producing it in-house.

Otherwise, wind turbine blades are purchased from suppliers, and wind turbine bearings are also purchased from suppliers.

There are even some other parts bought from outside. How does this reflect the technical advantages of Modu Electric?

Therefore, setting up a specialized wind turbine blade factory is something that Modu Electric must consider.

However, just as this project was about to be officially approved, the final cost comparison data surprised everyone.

It is obvious that large wind turbine blades imported from overseas or blades purchased from domestic suppliers are more expensive than those produced by Modu Electric's own investment in factories.

Why is it cheaper now?

"Mr. Fan, this data is correct. It was proactively updated by Nanshan Carbon Fiber last week."

"In the past few months, they have been working with us on various projects. It is said that they have achieved localization of PET foam materials, so the cost has dropped significantly."

"The blades we produce ourselves are used in relatively high-end products and are mainly used for export."

"For overseas users, wind turbine blades made of PET foam are more environmentally friendly and have advantages in the bidding process."

“So we quickly accepted Nanshan Carbon Fiber’s updated quote.”

When Fang Hongmei said this, Fan Huabo felt a little uncomfortable.

He knew that Modu Electric's wind turbine blades actually used PVC foam.

Even so, the cost is higher than other people's more environmentally friendly PET foam materials.

How is this good?

Is it really necessary to buy wind turbine blades from Nanshan Carbon Fiber in the future?

For our own wind power equipment, the bearings have been purchased from Nanshan Group. If the blades are also...

Isn’t it true that most of the output value of that piece of wind power equipment was contributed by Nanshan Group?

If Nanshan Equipment wants to produce wind power equipment, wouldn't it be a matter of minutes?

However, Fan Huabo also knows that if Modu Electric does not use Nanshan Carbon Fiber's more cost-effective blades, then other equipment manufacturers will definitely use them.

When the time comes, their prices will be cheaper than yours, they will be more environmentally friendly, and their performance will be better than yours. Then what will you use to compete?

Therefore, there is actually only one path before Fan Huabo.

He had no choice at all!

After thinking about this, he could only sigh and said: "Since the blades produced by Nanshan Carbon Fiber are cheaper than ours, have better performance, and are more environmentally friendly, then we should purchase our blades from them."

"However, the overall design plan of wind power equipment must be in our hands. Nanshan Carbon Fiber is still responsible for processing it according to the drawings we give."

When Fan Huabo said this, he was basically doing some face-saving persistence.

The so-called processing of customized drawings is a joke in many fields.

In essence, the supplier is responsible for everything, but some work has been recognized by the OEM.

This is the case in many industries.

An automobile company in later generations even exaggerated, directly claiming the die-casting equipment of a large die-casting manufacturer and the motor technology of a motor manufacturer as its own.

It’s as if I have paid the development fee and this technology is already in my hands.

"Scott, is it true that the wind power equipment order for the large wind farm in Qingdao Province, China, was not taken by your Siemens?"

Vestas' Chinese general manager Anderson has been in a very bad mood these past two days.

An order for wind power equipment that he was very confident about had disappeared.

Since this wind farm is built on a plateau, investors have put forward relatively high requirements for environmental protection.

According to his understanding, apart from Vestas and General Electric, only Siemens has this strength.

There is no way that Chinese equipment manufacturers can compare with them in terms of environmental protection.

But yesterday he got the news that this order had nothing to do with Vestas.

After asking around, Anderson could only confirm that this order was not taken by General Electric, Vestas' main competitor. He had not found any other information.

So he simply called the sales director of another competitor, Siemens.

Both are European equipment companies, and Vestas and Siemens have a relatively strong competitive relationship in the wind power field, so the relationship between them was not particularly good before.

Otherwise Anderson wouldn't have hesitated for so long before calling Scott.

"Isn't it basically the default decision for you to be Vestas?"

"Our quotation is not cost-competitive, and I have long been mentally prepared to lose the order."

Scott asked in surprise.

Compared with Vestas' proactive approach, Siemens has never planned to build a wind power equipment factory in China.

This results in Siemens having little advantage in the price of wind power equipment.

Except for occasional special circumstances, Siemens can get orders. In most cases, Siemens cannot get orders for wind power equipment in China.

After all, in terms of technology, in the field of wind power equipment, Siemens is really not better than Vestas.

In terms of cost, they are not as good as China's domestic equipment manufacturers.

In this case, losing orders is normal.

"If it's not Siemens or General Electric, then this order was taken away by a Chinese equipment manufacturer."

Anderson said to himself, "That's not right. This project has very high requirements for the installed capacity of wind power. It requires large wind power blades and environmental protection. China's domestic equipment manufacturers have no advantage."

Anderson was a little confused as to who had taken away his order.

Scott, who was not very interested in this matter at first, became interested in it during the communication with Anderson.

Did local Chinese manufacturers steal Vestas’ orders?

Then this matter is interesting.

(End of this chapter)