【Military Second Dimension】 Author: ——Global Mobility ★ Intelligent Victory ——

Today there is a piece of less noticeable good news. China National Building Materials Group officially announced T1200 ultra-high-strength carbon fiber in Beijing, which was globally launched and simultaneously declared that it has achieved hundred-ton-level industrial mass production capability. This news caused a stir in the materials circle and the military industry circle. The reason is simple: T1200 is very useful, and achieving mass production is of great significance.

▲The strongest in the world, no need for doubt

The name T1200 was announced by Japanese company Toray in October 2023 as successfully developed. At that time, the outside world was astonished because Toray is the absolute leader in global carbon fiber, with an annual production capacity of over 29,000 tons, and half a century of technical accumulation is there. According to Toray's own planning documents, it said "the goal is to complete material certification by 2025 and start mass production by 2028." At that time, people were looking at domestic news about T800摆脱 import dependence and T1000 small-scale trial production, and could only sigh: the industry leader indeed has the strength.

Who would have thought that after two and a half years of practice, Chinese enterprises directly brought out a hundred-ton production line in 2026, two years earlier than Toray's own planned mass production node. Moreover, even Toray's planned node may not be fulfilled.

▲Japanese is still a laboratory product

The T series of carbon fibers are classified by tensile strength. Simply put, the higher the number, the stronger the performance. Every step up requires an exponential improvement in the purity of the original fiber, carbonization process, and surface treatment control accuracy. Any link going wrong will result in the fiber breaking and the strength dropping. T300 was the entry threshold for the early aviation industry, with a tensile strength of about 3.5 GPa; T700 is currently the most widely used model in China, approximately 4.9 GPa; T1000 is about 6.4 GPa; while T1200 jumps directly to 8 GPa. With a diameter less than one-tenth of a hair, its density is only a quarter of that of steel, and its tensile strength is ten times that of ordinary steel. The theoretical tensile strength limit of carbon fiber is about 180 GPa, but in reality, it is almost impossible to reach this value. T1200 means that it has reached a very high level of the ceiling under current process conditions.

▲Toray's popular science chart, T1200 is the current technological ceiling

China National Building Materials Group's ability to achieve mass production at this key point is due to the continuous technical accumulation path of the domestic industrial chain. In 2017, Zhongfu Shenying jointly with Donghua University began to tackle the dry spinning wet spinning technology, which is the key pre-process for carbon fiber above T800 level. Previously, this technology was basically blocked by Japan. After breaking through this barrier, the development of high-end carbon fiber in China clearly accelerated.

According to the news, the T1200 produced this time is not a military special product, and its positioning is "civilian + strategic emerging industries" dual application. Aeronautics, aerospace, low-altitude aircraft, humanoid robot structural parts are all on the list. Of course, military applications will not be publicly mentioned. Advanced materials can certainly enhance structural and power performance under extreme conditions. Fighter structural parts, missile casings, bulletproof helmets, and other scenarios can use them.

Although it completed the development in 2023, Toray has been stuck in the material certification stage. Material certification in the aerospace field often takes five to ten years, especially entering the mainstream airworthiness system in Europe and the United States. Without a large amount of flight data accumulation, it is impossible to complete the process. The certification cycle of the commercial aviation market has slowed down the entire engineering progress. However, China National Building Materials Group faces the domestic market, and the certification path for the national large aircraft and national military aircraft system is completely self-controlled. This institutional advantage may not seem significant in the business model, but from a strategic perspective, it means that our advanced materials can be quickly integrated, greatly leading in efficiency.

▲C-919 uses a lot of high-strength carbon fiber

The current production line is of hundred-ton level. Based on the current usage of carbon fiber in aviation composites, a large passenger aircraft consumes about 20 to 30 tons of carbon fiber. A hundred-ton production capacity can fill some small batch high-end demand, but it is still far from large-scale equipment application. The domestic production capacity of T700 and T800 has already reached the level of ten thousand tons. To move T1200 from hundred-ton to thousand-ton level, there is still a climbing period, but it is estimated not to be too long.

The news specifically mentions that this breakthrough fills the global gap in related fields and marks a major leap in China's production of ultra-high-strength carbon fiber. For a long time, the voice in the high-end carbon fiber field was almost entirely held by Japanese companies such as Toray and Teijin, and American company Hexcel. Especially in the T800 level and above, domestic equipment has long relied on imports or roundabout procurement, and there have been instances of being choked. Over the past 10 years, T700 and T800 have gradually achieved mass production, but the most cutting-edge direction was still lacking.

▲Actually, I'm most looking forward to the new fishing rod

Now the T1200 mass production node is earlier than Toray's own plan, which means that in the race of the highest end carbon fiber, China is no longer a follower who just follows the trend, but a real leader.

Original: toutiao.com/article/7615957645370851880/

Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.