Domestic carbon fiber blades increase cost and welcome new opportunities

  On July 19, the global wind power giant Vestas' carbon fiber blade core patent pultrusion process expired. The expiration of this patent may open up the development space of the domestic carbon fiber wind power blade market. Affected by this, on the same day, the stock prices of many carbon fiber materials manufacturers such as Sinoma Technology, Double One Technology, Times New Materials, Jilin Chemical Fiber and so on rose by the intraday limit.

  It is reported that on July 19, 2002, Vestas applied for wind turbines with carbon fiber strips as the main material to the national intellectual property offices of China and Denmark, the European Patent Office, the World Intellectual Property Office and other international intellectual property offices. Related patents for blades. The patent claims contain a method of making a prefabricated strip and a method of making a wind turbine blade. The term of this patent protection is 20 years.

 

 

  Karbon fiber bez is a high performance fiber material formed by pyrolysis and carbonization of polyacrylonitrile, pitch-based and other organic fibers (original fibers) in a high temperature environment. It has the properties of light weight, high strength, corrosion resistance, fatigue resistance, and small expansion coefficient.

  Before 2015, the process of carbon fiber application in wind turbine blades was mainly glass fiber carbon fiber glass prepreg and vacuum infusion, and some small tow carbon fibers were used, and the average price was high.Beginning in 2015, Vestas disassembled the stress-bearing part of the main beam of the integrally formed main beam of the fan blade into high-efficiency, low-cost and high-quality pultruded beam standard parts, and then used relatively more economical large tow materials to convert the standard parts. Pieces are assembled at one time and integrally formed. Through this pultrusion process, the volume content of carbon fiber is greatly increased, the mass of the main bearing part is reduced, and the cost of carbon fiber is reduced, leading wind turbine blades into the carbon fiber era.

  According to the data of the Global Wind Energy Council (CWEA), between 2015 and 2021, the demand for high modulus carbon fibre in the global wind power field has rapidly increased from 18,000 tons to 33,000 tons, accounting for about 30% of the total global carbon fiber demand in 2021; Vestas' carbon fiber consumption is around 25,000-28,000 tons. Carbon fiber wind turbine blades have become the largest downstream market for carbon fiber.

 

 

  There are two main ways for domestic carbon fiber manufacturer to enter the application of wind turbine blades. One is to directly enter the Vestas supply chain and provide them with large tow carbon fibers. The other is to avoid the Vestas patent and develop new main beams completely independently. Structural design and process production mode to develop products with a life-cycle cost close to or lower than Vestas blades.

  Vestas' patent restricts the development space of carbon fiber blades in China to a certain extent. Minsheng Securities analyst Li Yang said in the research report that after the Vestas patent expires, the pultrusion process is expected to quickly become popular, driving the cost of carbon fiber used in wind power blades to decrease, thereby driving the demand for carbon fiber in wind power.

  Previously, a number of carbon fiber manufacturers including Guangfu New Materials (300699) and Hengshen Co., Ltd. (832397) said they had begun to deploy carbon fiber pultrusion production lines.

  In terms of wind power equipment manufacturers, we have yet to see the layout of the leading equipment manufacturers. On June 23, Mingyang Smart Asia's longest typhoon-resistant 111.5m blade officially rolled off the production line. It is reported that the three core materials of carbon fiber pultruded board, biaxial carbon fiber cloth and carbon glass mixed flow guide fabric used in this blade are all supplied by Hengshen Co., Ltd. Regarding the rumor that "Mingyang Intelligence has also laid out a carbon fiber pultrusion production line", Peng Mei News interviewed relevant people of Mingyang Intelligence, and as of press time, no clear reply has been received.

 

 

  It is worth noting that due to the high manufacturing cost, carbon fiber materials are difficult to achieve large-scale applications like synthetic resins and glass fibers. According to the data of "Research on Mechanical Properties of Carbon Fiber/Glass Fiber Hybrid Reinforced Composite Materials and Application of Wind Power Blades", the cost of large tow carbon fibers for wind power is 120,000 yuan/ton, and the cost of fabrics is 180,000 yuan/ton, which is the price of glass fiber fabric. 12 times. At present, carbon fiber is mainly used for the main beam of the blade, that is, to replace the multiaxial fabrics in the original main beam. After the replacement, the weight can be effectively reduced by 20%, but the cost will increase by 82%.

  Sinoma Technology said that after Vestas' patent is not restricted, there will be no patent obstacles in its promotion, but the core of carbon fiber technology is cost, and it may be promoted on a large scale after the cost is reduced.

  China Merchants Securities Research Report said that in the next few years, the new global carbon fiber production capacity will mainly be concentrated in China, while several domestic carbon fiber leading enterprises have mastered the core production technology, and the carbon fiber scale effect is obvious. The expansion of leading enterprises may help reduce production costs. Falling costs will also help boost its penetration in the wind power sector.

  Hebei Yuniu Fiberglass Manufacturing Co., Ltd. is a glass fiber manufacturer with more than 16 years of experience and 8 years of export experience, which can provide you with high-performance carbon fiber materials.