As an industry once monopolized by foreign enterprises, China's polyurethane elastomer industry has developed rapidly in recent years, and now has become the largest growth area of polyurethane elastomer market in the world. At the 2019 annual meeting of the Elastomer Special Committee of the China Polyurethane Industry Association held in Xiamen recently, the participating experts shared the new progress and new direction of polyurethane elastomer technology innovation and product development.

Rapid market development

Liu Jing, senior engineer of the Elastomer Special Committee of the Polyurethane Association, said that thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer (TPU) has excellent wear resistance, high tensile strength, large elongation, outstanding oil resistance, low temperature resistance, weather resistance, ozone resistance, and a wide range of hardness. In recent years, it has been widely used in many areas of the national economy, such as shoemaking, medical and health care, clothing and fabric.

At present, the global TPU market is mainly concentrated in Europe, the United States and the Asia-Pacific region, among which Asia, led by China, is the world's leading and fastest growing regional market. According to the statistics of the Elastomer Special Committee of China Polyurethane Industry Association, the total consumption of polyurethane products in China reached 11.3 million tons in 2018, of which the consumption of polyurethane elastomer was about 1.1 million tons, accounting for about 10% of the total consumption of polyurethane.

The Secretary General of the China Polyurethane Industry Association, Lv Congress, said that China is now the world's largest producer and consumer of polyurethane. Since the "13th Five-Year Plan", the growth rate of China's polyurethane industry has shifted from high speed to low speed, and the polyurethane elastomer and other markets have entered a period of innovative development and upgrading, and are developing in the direction of high performance, high quality, environmental protection and sustainability.

Strong demand growth

Liu Jing said that the rapid growth of TPU was mainly due to the development of shoemaking industry and the increase of film demand, and the market application of TPU was also expanding from traditional footwear industry to pharmaceutical, aviation, environmental protection and other industries with excellent future development prospects. With the development of the market, it is an inevitable trend for plastics to be replaced by TPU in many industries.

Lv also said that TPU is still one of the fastest growing products in polyurethane in the near future. The demand of shoe material, film, pipe, wire and other industries will be more vigorous. The traditional PVC data will be further replaced in the field of medical devices, cable wires and film, and EVA will be very likely to be replaced in the field of shoe material. It is expected that TPU will maintain a growth trend of 10% or more in the future.

It is reported that compared with castable polyurethane (CPU), the final product made of TPU generally does not need vulcanization and crosslinking, which can shorten the production cycle, and the waste materials can be recycled and used, which is suitable for producing small but considerable products. In recent years, the proportion of TPU in polyurethane elastomers has increased year by year, and now it has reached about 40%. It is expected that its production capacity will reach 954000 tons, production will reach 590000 tons and consumption will reach 500000 tons in 2019.

Emergence of innovative achievements

With the continuous expansion of the polyurethane application field, the demand for high-performance and more sustainable TPU is increasing. At present, many polyurethane enterprises are increasing their research and development and innovation efforts.

Zhao Tingwu, deputy director of Shanxi Institute of Chemical Industry, said that with the gradual expansion of the production scale, the cost of polyurethane elastomer products has been reduced, the variety has been more diversified, the market demand has increased, and the industry has developed rapidly. In the international market, enterprises such as Keruya, Huntsman, Costron and Bolei have a high market share. In China, a number of polyurethane elastomer research and development, production and supporting enterprises have been formed, including Shanxi Chemical Research Institute, Suzhou Xiangyuan, Yinuowei, Liming Institute, Wanhua Chemical, Zibo Huatian, Shanghai Hecheng, Jintang Technology, etc.

As the first organization in China to develop polyurethane elastomer data, Shanxi Institute of Chemical Industry has developed polyurethane elastomer products for transportation, such as polyurethane damping materials for ballastless rail transit, polyurethane bearings for bridges, polyurethane cushion pads for sleepers, and polyurethane elastomers for mining machinery, such as polyurethane screen plates, wear plates, hydrocyclones, and couplings.

In response to the demand for offshore renewable energy, Costron has developed elastomers for the protection of offshore cables and pipelines, including bending stiffeners, bending limiters, and submarine cable protective sleeves; In view of the frequent cleaning and inspection of oil and gas pipelines, an elastomer pig has been developed, which can significantly improve the wear resistance and oil resistance, and improve the durability of data.