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

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

Nanshan Chemical has successfully developed a foam material that meets the needs of wind turbine blades.

This is no easy achievement.

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

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

At present, the main stream of onshore wind turbines is glass fiber blades, that is, glass fiber is used in the main beam, shell, and blade root structure.

The blades used in offshore wind turbines are replaced with carbon fiber to meet the needs of large blade lightweighting. The cost of raw materials accounts for about 75% of the total cost of blades, of which reinforcing fibers, matrix resins, and core materials account for a relatively high proportion.

The raw materials of the reinforcing materials used in the early blades were relatively simple, the base material was mainly epoxy resin, the reinforcing material was mainly glass fiber, and the core material was balsa wood.

With the increase of blade length, the difficulty of overall deformation control increases, in order to avoid the occurrence of scraping and sweeping tower accidents, the specific modulus and specific strength requirements of materials are increased, and early manufacturers improve the strength and modulus through glass fiber material updates, but the increase has gradually reached the limit.

Therefore, after Nanshan carbon fiber entered the wind power blades last year, the amount of carbon fiber was greatly increased, and many problems of blade materials were solved.

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

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

It is impossible to use carbon fiber for all the blades, after all, the cost is too high for few companies to afford.

In addition, after the core material is made of carbon fiber, the core material can actually be used as a cheaper and lighter material than carbon fiber

This is good for the entire wind turbine blade.

At present, the sandwich materials used in wind turbine blades mainly include balsa wood, PVC foam, PET foam, etc.

The wind turbine blades produced by Nanshan Carbon Fiber are naturally the same.

However, these three materials are all dependent on imports at present, which certainly does not meet the requirements of Caoyang's 100% localization.

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.

People have the impression that wood is often large and bulky, and that it grows very slowly.

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

Balsa wood is a kind of balsa wood that grows in the tropical forests of the Americas, with leaves like sycamores, heart-shaped, five yellowish-white petals like hibiscus flowers, and fruits that split like cotton, widely distributed in the rainforest areas of South America, generally growing in the highest places of trees.

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

In addition to its growth rate, balsa wood has an inherent advantage over other tree species – weight!

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

The material of balsa wood is very light, the growth rate is also fast, but the structure is very firm, with small density, good strength, easy processing, not mothed, fast growth rate and other magical advantages, often suitable for the production of small ships, model aircraft, surfboards, 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.

In this way, foam materials, which are lighter than basa wood, began to replace it.

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

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

"Although the process temperature of PVC foam is -240 °C ~ 100 °C, but when the temperature is -240 °C ~ 80 °C for a long time, the discoloration of PVC is likely to be carbonized, which can seriously lead to scorching of the core material and cause the blade to be scrapped."

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

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

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

"So we directly developed PET foam this time, and 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 over the years, and the pressure on him, the person in charge, is also a bit great.

However, in the field of materials, sometimes the results are not necessarily directly related to your efforts, and you need a little luck.

"Isn't foam a common thing on the market?"

"Isn't it okay for us to buy directly from the market?"

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

After all, foam can be found everywhere, and people can't easily feel its technical content.

"The difference between foam and foam is very large, and PET foam has many particularities."

"For example, high-quality performance, excellent resistance to high temperatures and thermal insulation, as well as very good chemical and oil resistance."

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

"In addition, the smooth surface, high rigidity and compressive properties of the PET foam result in strong mechanical and fatigue resistance, which is extremely important for wind turbine blades."

Lai Yuanhong took the trouble to popularize the extraordinary PET foam material to Cao Yang.

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

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

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

Don't look at PP, ABS, PET and other materials, Huaxia's output is very high.

However, there are many high-performance resin materials that cannot be produced in China based on the further expansion of these materials.

"We still need imported materials, and it seems that most of them are special resins?"

Cao Yang is not really so innocent, after listening to Lai Yuanhong's explanation, he also understands the significance of PET foam materials after being handled by Nanshan Chemical.

"Yes, at present, whether it is the whole Huaxia or our Nanshan Group, when it comes to resin materials that need to be imported, they all have relatively special properties."

"For example, polyimide is one of the organic polymer materials with the best comprehensive performance, with high temperature resistance of more than 400 °C, long-term use temperature range of -200~300 °C, no obvious melting point, high insulation performance, and has been used in the aerospace field of various countries and the basic configuration of American military ships."

"At present, only a few countries have the ability to produce polyimide foam materials, and due to the particularity of the application field, technologies and products are not exported to China."

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

"It has excellent physical and mechanical properties, and can replace traditional materials such as metals and ceramics in many special fields, and has made outstanding contributions in reducing quality and improving performance, becoming one of the most popular high-performance engineering plastics today.

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

"The overall production level of domestic PA is low, the output is small, and the domestic production of PA can not only meet the production requirements in terms of quantity, but also the brand and type of the product are scarce, far from meeting the domestic demand, and a large number of imports are needed every year, and the import is growing rapidly."

When it comes to his professional field, Lai Yuanhong immediately has a head on the road.

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

The content of various subdivisions is complex.

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

If you invest a lot of manpower and material resources to research, you may be able to study it, but the cost is much higher than that of imports.

It would be embarrassing, and I could only passively give up.

Eventually, the technical gap will widen, and by the time the demand comes up, you can't keep up.

"In this way, some research related to resin materials needs to be intensified."

"With so many kinds of materials, it takes a lot of people to study them, 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 them.

Although Cao Yang paid more attention to the existence of Nanshan Chemical before, this area was not his good field, so he did not participate so much.

At most, when it comes to chip-related material research, let's discuss it together.

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

"That's true, now the company has built a lot of laboratories and purchased a lot of equipment."

"But if there needs to be breakthroughs in various fields, there will definitely be no shortage of manpower."

"In particular, the research and development of new materials requires technicians to constantly do experiments, and tests can be determined."

"However, the R&D personnel our company needs are all engaged in material research and development, and those who have not studied for a doctorate will not be able to play a big role in promoting recruitment."

"This kind of doctor of materials science, even if we are willing to spend money, there is no way to recruit too many at one time."

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

"Engage in basic technology research and development, and I can't be in a hurry if I want to."

Lai Yuanhong is not ambitious.

The current scale of Nanshan Chemical is not large in 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, and he thinks this speed is enough.

However, Cao Yang couldn't wait.

"The research and development of some cutting-edge technologies may be better understood by people with doctoral degrees."

"But for basic testing work, graduate students are sufficient."

"Even some low-tech jobs can be done by undergraduates."

"In the future, each laboratory of Nanshan Chemical will further subdivide the personnel work, and at least 1,000 new R&D personnel will be recruited every year from this year."

"As long as it is a doctor of materials science, one is counted as one, and we will accept all those who are willing to come."

"It also allows those who feel that these majors are sinkhole majors in biochemical and environmental materials to feel the high employment rate of materials science."

In 2011, all graduates who could get a doctorate in materials science, whether it was an ordinary university or a key university, had a few brushes.

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

Cao Yang doesn't want to be stuck in a few years with the various high-end resin materials that Nanshan Group needs.

At that time, all the equipment in the chip factory has been localized, because several glues or other materials used in the intermediate processing process need to be imported, and then there is no way to continue production.

That's too much of a pit!

Compared with the risks and benefits in the future, the little money invested in recruiting people now is not money at all.

Other companies developing new materials may face the risk of being disproportionate to the input and output.

But for Nanshan Chemical, this risk does not exist.

Cao Yang, who is already ready to get involved in the research and development work of Nanshan Chemical, will naturally point out some research and development directions for everyone.

In the early days, Nanshan Chemical's work was to localize the advanced resin materials that had been produced internationally, not to make original inventions.

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

If there is a specific direction, then the difficulty is even lower.

Seeing that Cao Yang, the boss, 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 thriving, if he has no envy at all, it must be fake.

Soon, with the support of the big boss, Nanshan Chemical made all kinds of actions.

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

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

However, as long as a material has been localized in Huaxia, the price is definitely not as simple as reducing a few points compared with imports, or even reducing it by dozens of points.

That is, you can directly dry a ton of 500,000 yuan of material directly to tens of thousands of pieces per ton.

Of course, there is no need for Nanshan Chemical to reduce prices so much, and the blades produced by Nanshan Carbon Fiber Wind Power Blade Factory can be full of competitiveness.

After all, their wind turbine blades, the core substrate carbon fiber, are produced by themselves, and the key PET foam material is produced by themselves.

The cost of materials accounts for seventy percent of the cost of blades, which makes other manufacturers how to compete?

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

"It wasn't that data when I reported last year, right?"

Fan Huabo, the general manager of Modu Electric, was very confused and called Fang Hongmei, the head 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 dispatched a group of technical personnel to develop wind power equipment with greater power generation, and the increase in power generation of wind power equipment has brought about the large-scale 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 the core part of wind power equipment, and Modu Electric must consider its own production.

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

There are even some other parts that are bought from outside, how does this reflect the technical advantages of Modu Electric?

Therefore, the establishment of a special wind turbine blade factory is something that Modu Electric must consider.

It's just that seeing that this project is about to be officially approved, the final cost comparison data is very surprising to everyone.

Obviously, the large wind turbine blades imported from overseas, or the blades purchased from domestic suppliers, are more expensive than those produced by Modu Electric's own investment factory.

How is it cheaper now?

"Mr. Fan, this data is not wrong, it was Nanshan Carbon Fiber that took the initiative to update the quotation last week."

"In the past few months, they have been docking various projects with us, and it is said that they have realized the localization of PET foam, so the cost has been greatly reduced."

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

"For those overseas users, PET foam wind turbine blades are more environmentally friendly, which is an advantage in the bidding process."

"So we quickly accepted an updated offer for Nanshan Carbon Fiber."

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

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

Even so, the cost is higher than that of PET foam, which is more environmentally friendly.

How is this good?

Is it true that you will have to buy wind turbine blades from Nanshan Carbon Fiber all the time in the future?

Own wind power equipment, bearings have been purchased from Nanshan Group, if the blades are also ......

Isn't most of the output value of that wind power equipment 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 Modu Electric does not use the more cost-effective blades of Nanshan carbon fiber, so there will definitely be other equipment manufacturers who use it.

When the price is cheaper than yours, it is more environmentally friendly than you, and its performance is better than yours, so what do you use to compete?

Therefore, there is actually only one road in front of Fan Huabo.

He didn't have a choice!

Thinking of this, he could only sigh and say: "Since the blades produced by Nanshan Carbon Fiber are cheaper than ours, have better performance, and are more environmentally friendly, then our blades will be purchased from them." ”

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

When Fan Huabo said this, he was basically insisting on some face.

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

In essence, the supplier is in charge of everything, but some of the work is recognized by the OEM.

This is true in many industries.

In later generations, an automobile company was even more exaggerated, and directly said that the die-casting equipment of large die-casting manufacturers and the motor technology of motor manufacturers were their own.

It's as if you paid for the development and the technology was already in your own hands.

"Scott, the order for wind power equipment for that large wind farm in Huaxia Qing Province was really not taken by you Siemens?"

Anderson, the general manager of Vestas in China, has been in a very bad mood in the past two days.

Originally, an order for wind power equipment that he was very sure of was gone.

Since the wind farm is built on a plateau, the investor has put forward relatively high requirements for environmental protection.

According to his understanding, in addition to Vestas and General Electric, only Siemens has this strength.

Those equipment manufacturers in Huaxia have no way to compare with them in terms of environmental protection.

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

After inquiring around, Anderson could only confirm that this order was not taken by Vestas's main competitor, General Electric, and other information had not been heard.

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

It is also a European equipment company, and the competitive relationship between Vestas and Siemens in the field of wind power is also relatively strong, so the relationship between us was not particularly good before.

Otherwise, Anderson wouldn't have struggled so long to call Scott.

"Isn't it basically about you Vestas?"

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

Scott asked in surprise.

Compared with Vestas's initiative, Siemens has never planned to build a wind turbine factory in China.

As a result, Siemens' wind power equipment price is not advantageous.

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

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

Compared with the cost, they are not as good as the domestic equipment manufacturers in China.

In this way, it is normal to lose orders.

"If it's not you Siemens, it's not General Electric, then this order was taken away by Huaxia's equipment manufacturers."

Anderson said to himself, "No, this project has high requirements for wind power installation, requires large wind power blades, and also stresses environmental protection. ”

Anderson was a little confused by who had snatched his order.

Scott, who was not very interested in this matter, also became interested in the process of communicating with Anderson.

A local manufacturer in China snatched an order from Vestas?

That's where the matter comes in.

(End of chapter)