Wire and cable industry new materials ** era will come

The annual copper consumption in China's cable industry exceeds 5 million tons, accounting for 60% of domestic copper consumption. In order to meet this demand, a large amount of foreign exchange imports of copper materials will be spent each year, accounting for about 3/5 of copper consumption. How to solve the problem of raw materials needed for cables? Recently, the reporter interviewed Wang Xuehai, general manager of Henan Jiutong Cable Co., Ltd. (abbreviated as "Jiutong Cable").

Reporter: In recent years, the price of copper, which is used as raw material for the production of cables, has been rising. This has brought heavy cost pressures to cable companies. How can cable companies break this development bottleneck?

Wang Xuehai: China's aluminum resources are relatively abundant and its reserves in the earth's crust are about 8%. Aluminum has excellent electrical conductivity, conductivity is 61% of copper, mechanical strength is low, easy to oxidize, easy to creep, so that the popularization and application are limited. However, the aluminum alloy conductor cable solves the technical problem of "aluminum substitute copper".

Aluminum alloy conductors have excellent creep resistance. The addition of iron, copper, magnesium and other elements to the aluminum alloy, which has undergone special processing, has greatly improved the creep resistance, reduced the occurrence of creep under long-term mechanical forces, and reduced the accidents caused by creep. probability. Only in the cable industry revolutionary application of new materials, the company's production costs can be reduced, it will not feel the pressure to survive.

Reporter: China's cable market is increasing at a rate of 10% per year. In front of this giant cake, more than 8,000 cable companies in China are in deep existence crisis. How will cable companies survive this cold winter?

Wang Xuehai: Only by concentrating resources and specializing in the main business can we make the cable industry bigger, stronger, and better. Only by focusing on the cable industry will it be beneficial to the training and accumulation of specialized talents. Many areas of the cable manufacturing industry are high-tech intensive industries. Without a strong specialized scientific and technological team, it is impossible to carry out technological innovation and scientific research and development.

In the next few years, China's cable manufacturing industry will continue to experience a difficult stage. Must have a number of backbone, concentrate on the development of the cable industry, and support the banner of national cable industry. The development of specialization can be extended along the upstream and downstream of the product and industrial chain. The development space is actually huge.

Reporter: In the era of knowledge economy, the characteristics of the market competition standards are particularly prominent. Through the integration of standards and patents to achieve patent standardization and standard monopolization, the market share and monopoly profits can be maximized. Therefore, there are “second-rate companies sell products, first-class companies sell patents, and super-class companies sell standards”. So, what is the status of China's cable industry standards?

Wang Xuehai: China's cable industry standards lags behind, and there are still some gaps with European and other countries' standard systems. As the society continues to progress, we are pleased to find that the formulation of China's cable industry standards is constantly improving and improving.

In recent years, China’s economy has developed rapidly. The 12th Five-Year Plan for National Energy Technology, the 12th Five-Year Development Plan for Non-Ferrous Metals Industry, and the 12th Five-Year Plan for Aluminum Industry have been issued in succession to lead the industry. Develop new trends. Whether it is the services of the upstream industry or the support of the downstream industries, it will facilitate the development of cable industry standards.

The formulation of a new round of cable standards will change the shortcomings of China's new cable product quality inspections without legal basis, purify the domestic cable model confusion, uneven quality of the product, making China's cable product quality to a new level.

Reporter: As people attach importance to green, safety, and environmental protection, some special applications of cable are more and more popular. So, what are the trends in the development of green cables?

Wang Xuehai: With the rapid development of economy, high and new technologies are constantly updated, and products are developing to a high level, the dramatic increase in the variety and number of halogen-free low-smoke flame-retardant cables is a general trend. In the environmentally friendly cable component material, no halogen gas or corrosive gas is generated without using a halogen element. Due to the large amount of halogen contained in PVC, its application has been limited or even eliminated.

At present, cable sheathings that are recovered are basically buried or burned as industrial wastes, or mixed with PVC and PE, and compressed and compressed to form sleeper and other building materials. Halogen-free, flame-retardant, environment-friendly cables are made of thermoplastics that can be reprocessed and used. Even thermoplastic thermo-plastics that cannot be recycled are not subject to toxic and hazardous substances during waste disposal (such as incineration). Cause harm.

At present, Shanghai and Beijing have banned the use of non-environmentally friendly cables, and railways, communications, electronics, and other agencies have also issued relevant regulations. It can be expected that the application of non-environmental protection cables in buildings, transportation, communications, power grids, and power supply departments of all large and medium-sized cities will be increasingly restricted. Halogen-free, low-smoke, flame-retardant and environmentally friendly cables have become an impending development trend in the cable industry.

Reporter: With the increasing demand for low-smoke halogen-free flame-retardant cables, many domestic manufacturers have increased efforts to develop low-smoke halogen-free flame-retardant cable materials. So, how is the progress of Jiutong cable in low-smoke halogen-free flame retardant cable?

Wang Xuehai: Low-smoke halogen-free flame retardant cable material is the key development direction of flame retardant cables in the future. In recent years, Jiutong Cable has used its own funds to cooperate with universities and scientific research institutes to continuously carry out new product research and development and technological transformation. It has introduced advanced cable production lines in China and the scale of production has expanded year by year. The company’s R&D capabilities have been greatly improved. Strength continues to increase.

The new low-smoke halogen-free flame-retardant cable jointly researched and developed by Jiutong Cable and research institutes has achieved breakthroughs in flame-retardant and environmental performance compared with similar products in China, and is in line with the current domestic and international market environment-friendly flame-retardant cables. The development situation requires strong market competitiveness.