Textile industry: Only innovation can keep vitality

Once upon a time, the textile industry was considered a sunset industry. The so-called sunset industry is an image of the traditional industrial sector that is declining. The proposal of retrospective sunset industry was still in the 1977 of the last century. At that time, more than 6,000 experts from the UN organization worldwide conducted research on the world development plan for the first half of the 21st century. According to the findings of the experts, as the main raw material for clothing and home textiles, the space for the development of textile fibers has become saturated, and the development space for the textile industry is shrinking. With the release of this prediction, from 1977 to 1980, the United States, the European Union and other countries and regions successively positioned the textile industry as a "sunset industry."

In China, the textile industry was once Shanghai, the largest industrial industry in the industrial city, and was hailed as Shanghai's “mother industry.” From the birth of New China to the 1980s, it has always been ranked as the first pillar industry in Shanghai, and its output value and profit tax accounted for 1/3 and 1/4 of Shanghai's industry. However, since 1992, the Shanghai textile industry has substantially reduced the size of primary processing, and the number of employees has fallen from 550,000 to 22,500.

The above phenomenon seems to have confirmed the "sunset" facts of the textile industry. However, there is another data that shows the opposite result, that is, from 1980 to the present 30 years, the textile industry has not only declined, but also ushered in another development climax: the global fiber processing volume increased from more than 30 million tons to 7000 More than 10,000 tons, more than doubled. Moreover, this period of high growth will continue. According to the UN’s forecast, by 2050, the total volume of global textile fiber processing will reach 253 million tons, which is nearly 3 times more than the current number of more than 70 million tons.

Why this contradiction arises, in fact, the reason is very simple, the textile industry is actually a big concept, in addition to apparel fabrics, including industrial textiles. In recent decades, the textile industry has re-emerged when it sees the sun and the moon. It is due to the rapid pull of industrial textiles.

Industrial textiles refer to textiles needed in fields such as agriculture, construction, automotive, medical and health, national defense, and aerospace. According to different uses, there are high strength, high strength, high modulus, low modulus, high temperature resistance, low temperature resistance, low resistance, high insulation, anti-high energy particles and other characteristics. For example, in the aerospace field, when astronauts wear a space suit that is out of storage, the minimum temperature on the side facing the sun is 185°C and the maximum temperature on the side facing away from the sun is minus 160°C. Therefore, it is required that the clothing fiber does not become soft above 185°C. Melting, can not be hard, brittle at minus 160 °C. Such high demands are not what traditional textiles can match.

To meet the needs of different industries, we must develop new fiber varieties, develop new textile processing technologies and equipment, develop a series of testing technologies and instruments, and establish a series of new standards.

The high-performance fiber varieties that have been developed into industrialization in China are: ultra-high molecular weight high-strength high-modulus polyethylene fiber, poly(m-phenylene isophthalamide) fiber, poly(p-phenylene terephthalamide) fiber and many more. At the same time, global high-performance fibers are being developed and industrialized: ultra-high-strength carbon fibers, silicon carbide fibers, polyfluorinated fibers, poly-p-phenylene benzobisoxazole fibers, and the like.

As fiber names become more and more obscure, their technological content and application range have greatly increased. The United Nations predicts that the world's steel material processing volume will be reduced to 50% in 1980 by 2050, and the decrease in volume will be mainly due to the replacement of fiber-reinforced composite materials. Although this prediction is not good news for the steel industry, which is also a "sunset industry," it has further increased the imagination of the textile industry.

Since the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, the state has implemented tax cuts and capital subsidies for the research and production of high-end fiber. Among the seven strategic emerging industries identified by the country, high-end fiber is an important part of the new materials industry. This year, high-end fiber has entered the “12th Five-Year Plan” for chemical industry and the “12th Five-Year Plan” for textiles. High-end fiber has become the intersection of the country's three major plans, and its importance is fully visible. At present, China’s dependence on high-end fiber imports is still quite high, and some important products even exceed 95%. If this short board can not be quickly and effectively compensated, it will greatly drag down the development of other industries.

The "old bottle" of the textile industry in the traditional concept has now been put into the "new wine" of high-end fiber. In order to have more innovation in technology and dare to change the sun and moon for the new days, the textile industry's rejuvenation once again proves that no matter which industry, only continuous innovation can maintain vitality.