The gap between the halogen free flame retardant cable materials in China and the foreign countries

1. Development of halogen free flame retardant cable materials in foreign countries

Halogen-antimony flame retarded system developed during the second world war is known as a milestone in the development history of flame retardant technology. It has been mature after more than half a century of research and application, and has been in an important position in the field of flame retardants in recent 20 years. But the toxic smoke caused by its burning makes it easier to asphyxiate people than burn at high temperatures. In the world, especially the European Union and Japan, the high performance, halogen-free and flame-retardant requirements of flame retardant wire and cable materials were raised earlier, and they have been standardized in many industries. Since 1986, the toxicity and environmental problems of halogen - based flame retardants, such as polybrominated two - benzyl ether, have been debated in European countries such as Germany and the United States. In the RoHS directive issued by the latest EU, it is clear that since July 1, 2006, polybrominated two phenyl ethers (PBDE) and polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and other harmful substances have been banned in the new market of electrical and electronic equipment. The PBDE and PBB are the brominated flame retardants which are used for the flame retardancy of plastics. In addition, the Japanese Sony Corp recently launched the SONY green environmental certification. It clearly emphasized that the PVC cable material should be stopped and halogen free flame retardant cable material should be replaced. It should be said that although these regulations have a great impact on our country, it is very beneficial to the safety of human life and the reduction of environmental pollution.

2, the technical level of wire and cable materials in our country has been far from that of foreign countries.

In the early 80s, many manufacturers in China's cable industry have successfully developed a general flame retardant cable. According to statistics, 1987-1991 years has produced 40 kinds of flame retardant cable, basically use flame retardant PVC and flame retardant neoprene, the flame retardant cable is only suitable for flame retardant situations with low demand.

Cable industry, cable, cable, high-rise building underground cables, oil platforms, marine cables and cable for mine of halogen-free flame retardant and smoke suppression requirements has been relatively high, so the promotion of smoke halogen-free flame retardant cable will be easier in these areas. In 2000, the production of optical fiber cables in China was 5 million 800 thousand km. It is predicted that the production of optical cable in China will be 16 million 400 thousand km in 2005, that is to say, the optical cable industry will grow at a rate of 27% per year in the next few years. In addition, by 2005, China will import 16 million km of optical cable from foreign manufacturers every year, and the market demand is quite large. In 2001, China's optical cable merchants provided only 7 million km of optical cables to the country. By 2006, there will be more than 200 optical cable production lines around the world, with a market size of $11 billion 800 million. With the rapid development of economy, subway and high-rise buildings will develop rapidly. Especially in Beijing, Shanghai and coastal cities, the development speed will be faster. Therefore, the requirements of flame retardance, halogen free and smoke suppression will continue to improve. The flame retardancy and smoke suppression of oil platforms, mines, nuclear power stations and other industries with high requirements are not neglecting. High efficiency flame retardancy and smoke suppression cables are highly valued.

There are a large number of wire and cable enterprises in China. There are 4-5 thousand enterprises, 1000 kinds of wire and cable products, the total output value is about 70000000000 yuan, and the export volume is 700 million yuan. The main wire and cable enterprises are concentrated in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces (especially in Hangzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou and other places), Shanghai and Guangdong. Only Zhejiang Yueqing city has 162 wire and cable enterprises, some small enterprises can reach the output value of tens of millions of yuan each year, and its development is becoming more and more prosperous. Other areas of large wire and cable enterprises include Shenyang cable factory, Chengdu cable Limited by Share Ltd, Kunming cable factory, Zhengzhou cable group Limited by Share Ltd, Xi'an cable factory and so on. All the above enterprises are the consumer enterprises and customers of the cable material products. At present, the high smoke suppression non halogen flame retardant cable is a substitute for the ordinary flame retardant cable material, which has a considerable development prospect.

From the statistical data of past years, it is calculated that only when the output of motor leads to 2000km, the consumption of cable material will reach 300 tons in 2001. The equipment line of other uses is too complicated to carry out specific market prediction. But according to the people concerned, China's wire and cable industry will grow at a speed of 10% - 20% in the first ten years of twenty-first Century, and the wire and cable will still be a development industry.

3. Put forward new requirements on the category of flame retardancy in the form of legislation

For example, (1) the "power engineering cable design code" GB50217-94 stipulates that the capacity of the main power plant and the coal fired, fuel oil system and other inflammable environment of the thermal power plant of 500MW or above shall be selected. The important premises or circuits shall be halogen free flame retardants. (2) the MT386-95 standard of the Ministry of coal provides for the cable "combustion test under load condition". At the same time, in view of the fire safety problems of underground coal mines, all halogen free flame retardant cables are adopted. (3) ships offshore platform and other buildings on the water, the owner and the owner's requirements for ship cable cable factory (including ethylene propylene rubber low smoke halogen-free flame retardant shipboard cable) using halogen-free flame retardant cable. (4) in March 1998, the Pudong international Airport Inc stipulated in the cable purchase bid that the flame retardant cable is made of halogen free flame retardant cable. (5) all cables used in Shanghai Metro Line 3 (Light Rail Viaduct) are all halogen free flame retardant cables. In addition, the halogen-free flame-retardant cable material used in the domestic telecommunications industry is also very suitable for the use of halogen-free flame-retardant cable. In 2001, the Ministry of information industry promulgated the industry standard YT/D1113-2001 for the characteristics of low smoke halogen free flame retardant materials for optical cable protection. (6) for wire and cable communication, electric power, control and other areas in addition to the requirements in the nuclear power plant has 40 years in accordance with the normal operation of the design life of the environment resistance, heat resistance, steam resistance, radiation resistance, fire safety, from the point of view, the cable should also have the resistance and low toxic. In order to improve the safety and reliability of nuclear power plant. Therefore, for the safety and reliability of the nuclear power plant, the use of halogen-free flame retardant cable is of particular significance.

4, high price and no other performance are the main problems at present

From the point of view, as "environmental protection cable" - halogen - free flame retardant cable has a broad market prospects. The demand for halogen-free flame retardancy of wire and cable material has been an international trend. China's wire and cable industry and its products have been aware of this crisis and the strong pressure, have launched the study, but because of non halogen flame retardant polyolefin cable material preparation is very difficult, not a good balance between balance of mechanical properties and flame retardant properties and processing properties of the existing non halogen flame retardant cable material domestic cable material production. Therefore, China's wire and cable industry is still widespread use of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) flame retardant cable material or polyolefin matrix with halogen containing flame retardant three / two antimony oxide (Sb2O3) flame retardant cable material preparation, halogen free flame retardant cable material of wire and cable manufacturer about 10% is imported. The Israel Dead Sea company, union carbide, DuPont Co, Japan Sumitomo group, the British Meglon company, Norway ECC company, Italy Padanaplast company. The price of 23000-30000 yuan / ton. Although these imported cable material with good performance, but compared to halogen flame retardant cable material price is high, most domestic manufacturers are reluctant to use, resulting in China's wire and cable material of halogen free flame retardant process can not meet the international standards of the situation, the sequela is obvious, and the death rate of fire reduction is also influenced by the. Although some domestic research institutes and manufacturers claim to have developed low smoke and halogen free flame retardant cable materials, most products have low mechanical properties, poor flame-retardant properties or poor flow performance.

Therefore, in order to reduce China's non halogen flame retardant cable production costs, and get rid of the passive situation is strongly dependent on imports of halogen free flame retardant cable material demand, high performance halogen flame retardant cable material without the development of China's independent intellectual property rights, low cost, is a very important to study the economic and social benefits.

The key problem in the preparation of halogen free flame retardant cable material is also a difficult problem: how to balance and balance between high halogen free flame retardancy, high fluidity, high tensile strength and high heat resistance.

The main flame retardants of halogen free flame retardant cable materials are magnesium hydroxide and aluminum hydroxide. In order to obtain high flame retardancy and heat resistance, the hydrated metal oxide must be highly added. Due to the difference of surface energy between inorganic flame retardants and organic polymer matrix, highly filled inorganic powder can easily form network structure and aggregate structure, leading to the decrease of cable material strength and deterioration of fluidity. For example, the ordinary production line produced PVC flame retardant cable, can reach the extrusion speed of 30m/min, and the extrusion of halogen free flame retardant cable, often not up to the speed of 8m/min. Rapid extrusion often has the problem of cracking, and the surface of the fine dispersed powder can be found everywhere. The tensile strength and elongation index of the cable material can not reach the international standard and so on. Conventional techniques, such as the surface treatment, the compound of flame retardants and the optimum selection of the matrix, can not achieve the desired results. This is why domestic research units have not produced excellent results. Foreign manufacturers strictly adhere to the technology secret, and the guidance of related patents is not strong enough. If we want to develop high-performance halogen free flame retardant cable material, we must rely on our own strength and spirit of innovation, industry university research cooperation and national support.

From the perspective of the cost of cable material, international products are making huge profits, while cable production in China enjoys great impact on the production cost while enjoying these advanced achievements.

At present, the annual output of China's domestic wire and cable accounts for about 20% of the world's output, reaching 2 million 200 thousand tons. The output value accounts for about 15% of the world's total output value of wire and cable, which is about 80 billion yuan (RMB). China has developed into the world's largest wire and cable market. With the development of society, people pay more and more attention to environmental problems, many countries have developed a variety of environmental policies, such as the EU's ROHS Directive: from July 1, 2006 onwards, the new electrical and electronic appliances market, prohibit the use of lead, mercury, cadmium, hexavalent chromium, six polybrominated diphenyl ether (PBDE two) and polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) and other harmful substances. PBDE and PBB are mostly used for plastic flame retardants. The major electrical companies in Japan have also formulated corresponding requirements. Since March 2006, the wires and cables used in various electrical appliances require halogenation. Therefore, halogen free flame retardant wire and cable have become an important direction of development in this industry. Considering the disguised "technical barriers" produced by some countries in 2006 after restrictions on the import of halogen products, halogen free flame-retardant wire and cable have great potential in the appliance industry. There are relevant regulations in China that require high level building without halogen flame-retardant wire and cable. In addition, with the line and the line for cars in flame retardant on the basis of all additional non halogenated requirements in telecom infrastructure equipment, whether domestic or foreign, non halogenated flame retardant cable is the direction of development, the market prospect is very broad, has great market potential.

At present, there are about more than 30 halogen-free flame-retardant cables produced in China, most of which are halogen free flame-retardant cable materials, which are expensive foreign products. Although there are about 20 halogen-free flame-retardant cable manufacturers in China, the balance of fluidity, processability and mechanical properties of halogen free flame retardant cable materials can not be well solved, and the cost of production is high. The non halogen flame-retardant cable products produced by this project have high performance price ratio and can reach the advanced international level. The goal of the early stage is to replace imported products and other domestic products with superior cost performance. Later goal is to enter the international market and participate in the international competition.