Modified plastics downstream applications
Plastics, as one of the three polymer compounds, is formed by the petrochemical industry, various types of resins through the polymerization or polycondensation polymerization, by virtue of the quality of the lightweight, high strength, insulation, light transmittance, abrasion-resistant properties, is now widely used in the production of various human society activities.
Plastics are widely used in various production activities in human society and have a wide range of downstream applications due to their light weight, high strength, insulating, light transmitting and wear-resistant properties. However, plastics themselves have poor heat resistance, large coefficient of thermal expansion, easy to burn; poor low-temperature resistance, low-temperature brittle; in the atmosphere, sunlight, long-term pressure or the role of certain media are prone to aging and so on, the above shortcomings limit the further widespread use of plastics.
Therefore, in some industries or use scenarios that require high material performance, plastics need to be modified to meet the performance requirements. Plastic modification refers to the general-purpose plastics, engineering plastics or special engineering plastics based on the addition of suitable additives, fillers or other polymer components, after filling, toughening, reinforcing and other means of processing modification, to improve the performance of the plastic material in some aspects. Plastic processed through the above modification technology is called modified plastics, in general, modified plastics in the flame retardant, strength, impact resistance, aging resistance and other aspects of the performance is better than plastic. The main plastic modification methods are as follows:
Polymer modified materials upstream of the petrochemical industry, the upstream raw materials are generally a variety of synthetic resins, as well as various types of additives and modified filler materials, etc., downstream is mainly covered by home appliances, automobiles, communications, electrical and electronic, medical care, rail transportation, precision instruments, home building materials, security, aerospace, military and other fields.
There is some overlap between modified plastics and the application of plastics in the industry, and customers choose the appropriate materials according to the specific needs of different products or components: in the case of a single material performance requirements and conventional plastics to meet the requirements, customers usually use standardized conventional plastics; when the conventional plastics due to the lack of a certain aspect of the performance of the customer can not meet the customized requirements, or the customer seeks to lower the cost of the conventional engineering plastics or special engineering plastics, the customer will be able to use the conventional engineering plastics or special engineering materials. When conventional plastics cannot meet the customer's customized requirements due to insufficient performance in certain areas, or when the customer seeks to reduce the cost of conventional engineering plastics or special engineering plastics, modified plastics are required to meet the requirements.
While there is no strict demarcation between modified plastics and the downstream application of plastics, the two occupy a dominant position in different fields. In the daily necessities, product packaging and other industries, the main use of unmodified plastics as raw materials; while in the automotive, electrical and electronic, communications and other complex scenarios, the material performance requirements of the field, most of the conventional plastic varieties can not be used directly for the manufacture of products, modified plastics are widely used.
Plastic modification rate continues to improve
Modified plastics originated in foreign countries, China's modified plastics development began in the 1990s, along with the "plastic instead of steel", "plastic instead of wood
The development of modified plastics in China began in the 1990s, along with the continuous promotion of "replacing steel with plastic", "replacing wood with plastic" and the rapid development of the domestic economy, the modification equipment and technology have been maturing, and the entire modified plastics industry system has been improved, which has strongly promoted the plastic processing industry from consumer goods to the rapid entry into the field of production of materials of an important transformation, and greatly contributed to the upgrading and development of the plastic processing industry.
According to the statistics of the National Bureau of Statistics, from 2010 to 2019, China's modified plastics also achieved a rapid rise, from an annual output of 7.05 million tons in 2010 to about 19.55 million tons in 2019; the rate of modification from 16.2% in 2010 to 20.4% in 2019.
Automobiles and home appliances are the largest application areas
The home appliance industry is one of the most important downstream industries in the modified plastics industry, and modified plastics have excellent safety, non-toxic, energy-saving and environmental protection, anti-bacterial and anti-mold properties, which can satisfy people's demand for lightweight and healthy home appliances. Modified plastic materials are mainly used in the manufacture of home appliances, such as shells, blades, exterior parts. With the rapid development of the economy and the rapid improvement of people's living standards, the domestic market for home appliances is expanding rapidly. In addition, the export of China's home appliance industry continues to grow, and its position in the global home appliance industry continues to improve, and it has become one of the more globalized industries in China. Domestic and foreign market demand promotes the booming development of China's home appliance market, and at the same time bring the rapid growth of demand for upstream modified plastics industry. The use of modified plastics in the field of home appliances in China has been raised from 3.6 million tons in 2015 to 4.6 million tons in 2019, maintaining continuous growth.
Modified plastics are widely used in the automotive industry and have a long history. With the development of the automotive industry, people are increasingly demanding lightweight, energy-saving, environmentally friendly automotive materials, modified plastic materials with its low density, high strength, molding process performance is good, in the automotive interior, exterior, electrical and electronic, as well as powertrain and other aspects are widely used.
In recent years, China's demand for modified plastic materials in the automotive field has risen from 3.52 million tons in 2015 to 4.66 million tons in 2019, climbing year by year. With the steady rise in automobile production and sales as well as the development of automobile lightweight trend, it is expected that the demand for modified materials in the automobile field will maintain a good upward momentum.
--For more data, please refer to China Modified Plastics Industry Production and Sales Demand and Investment Forecast Analysis Report by Prospect Industry Research Institute.