Winners of CCE-JEC Innovation Award 2023 revealed

This year, 59 innovative products from 47 companies are selected into the final shortlist. After evaluation by the jury composed of Chinese and foreign experts, 10 composite solutions stood out and were awarded for their creative work.

A grand ceremony was held on the morning of Sept. 12, while numerous guests and entreprises had witnessed that exciting moment. 11 companies with 10 products were recognised only for their innovations.

Mr Zhongmin XUE, Vice-President of China National Building Material Group Co.,Ltd. (CNBM), Chairman of Sinoma Science & Technology Co., Ltd., and Chairman of China Composite Group Corp.) and Eric Pierrejean, JEC Group CEO, delivered speeches at the grand ceremony respectively, and gave out prizes to the winners.

The 11 winners are as follows:

Category 1: Raw materials

Recyclable resin for winding hydrogen composite pressure vessel

Exhibitor: Swancor Advanced Materials Co., Ltd.
Partner: WUT STLATFMSP FSLab

EzCiclo RB240 is a recyclable resin suitable for winding process, and the on-board recyclable hydrogen composite pressure vessels made of winding can be separated and reused the resin, carbon fibre and inner tank through the “CleaVER Liberation” technology, which can not only ensure the safety of gas cylinder recycling, but also reduce the carbon footprint of recycling to one-tenth of the original incineration. Composite material recovery rate can reach≥95%, recycled resin and fibre utilization ratio for 100%.

EzCiclo RB240 recyclable resin are currently mainly used in the manufacture of composite pressure vessels for vehicle-mounted compressed hydrogen or natural gas respirators and respirators.

Low dielectric electronic glass fibre cloth for 5G

Exhibitor: A Team Material Tech Co., Ltd.

This product is a low DK glass fibre cloth. It has the characteristics of lower dielectric constant and lower dissipation factor than ordinary electronic glass cloth. The company has independent intellectual property rights for the product technology. The product technology has reached the international advanced level, filled the domestic gap. It can replace imports and be widely used in high-speed and high-frequency servers, switches and other fields for 5G applications.

SYT45S-48K large tow carbon fibre

Exhibitor: Zhongfu Shenying Carbon Fiber Co., Ltd.

Zhongfu Shenying SYT45S-48K large tow carbon fibre is the world’s first 48K large tow product prepared by dry spray wet spinning technology. The tensile strength of the product is 4.5 GPa, the tensile modulus is 235 GPa, the elongation at break is 1.9%, and the linear density is 3,200 g/km. The product takes into account the process performance of small tow and the low-cost advantage of large tow, and has the characteristics of low cost of use, mature and stable production process and excellent mechanical properties. It has a wide range of application prospects in wind power, rail transit, automobile and other industrial fields.

High tex, flat fibre roving for LFT TFG-1000-T838J

Exhibitor: Taishan Fiberglass Inc.
Partner: Kingfa Sci. & Tech. Co., Ltd.

The flat fibre is produced by special technology and equipment, which is different from the traditional round shape fibreglass, whose flat ratio is 3:1. Combined with the LFT process, the flat fibre 1,000 tex direct roving, which meets the production process requirements of LFT. It has the advantages of good fluidity in the resin, low floating fibre on the surface of the product, and high mechanical properties. It can improve the warping phenomenon of thin-walled parts significantly. It provides a solution for the large-scale and modular production of automobile parts.

Category 2: New applications

Recycled carbon fibre notebook A cover

Exhibitors: Nantong Fuyuan Carbon Fiber Recycling Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen Bromake New Material Co., Ltd.

This recycled carbon fibre notebook A shell product is composed of molded carbon fibre composite boards, and injection molded glass fibre modified polycarbonate (PC) frames. Due to the use of a large amount of recycled materials, including 50% recycled carbon fibre (CF), 100% polypropylene (PP) recycled materials, and 35% PC recycled materials, and the innovative structural design and exquisite molding technology, the excellent mechanical properties and low-carbon emission advantages of recycled CF are ingeniously combined.

This has enabled the developed products to have characteristics such as strong performance, light weight, thin wall and environmental friendliness, and has also opened up a new direction for the commercial application of recycled CF.

Regenerated CF, provided by Nantong Fuyuan, is obtained through pyrolysis and extraction from discarded CFRP high-pressure gas cylinders. It is then made into a regenerated CF surface felt using a paper making process, which is further impregnated with epoxy resin to form a 0.1 t pre-impregnated felt for later use.

Currently, representative products include recycled carbon fibre notebook A shells, which are divided into three categories: sandwich recycled carbon fibre A shells; physical recycled carbon fibre A shells; and plant fibre composite A shells (recycled carbon+plant fibres).

Feiyang, the torch of Beijing 2022 Olympics Winter Games and Paralympics Winter Games

Exhibitor: Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co., Ltd.

Through 3D printing, ceramic molding, and other technologies, the handheld torch shell, made of carbon fibre self-developed by SPC, is more than 20% lighter than the aluminum alloy one. It has the characteristics of “light, solid and beautiful”, which is the international initiative for carbon fibre composite to be used for the Olympic torch.

In the R&D progress, many technical difficulties have been solved, such as high-temperature resistance, combustion resistance, and dimensional stability during the high-temperature preparation process. It has been authenticated that this carbon fibre torch shell with lightweight, high strength could be serviceable in the hydrogen atmosphere under the high combustion temperature.

As the sole manufacturer and service provider of the torch designated by the Beijing Winter Olympics Organising Committee, Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical has made great contributions to the successful holding of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics and Winter Paralympics.

Thermoplastic train skirt

Exhibitor:  HRC
Partner: CRRC

The product is a fibre reinforced thermoplastic composite train skirt. The hybrid of both the carbon fibre and glass fibre is chosen to be the reinforcement, while PEEK aerospace grade thermoplastic resin is selected as the composite matrix. The train skirt is manufactured by vacuum infusion technology, therefore, the outer side of the lower part of the train body could be installed with the protective skirt with the functions of aerodynamic conduction, protection, and maintenance. At present, the product has been applied to the train body of Qingdao Subway Line 1.

Sinoma122 ultra-long flexible offshore wind turbine blades

Exhibitor: Sinoma Wind Power Blade Co., Ltd.

Sinoma122 blades are matched with 13.6MW offshore unit platforms. The intellectual property rights belong to Sinoma Wind Power Blade Co., Ltd. Which mainly includes blade aerodynamic design, structural design, process route and protection technology. Sinoma122 blade has been used in demonstration. The launch of this product will enhance the technical level of offshore wind power with innovative products and technologies, and strongly promote the development of renewable energy.

Multi-wall structure RTM net size aileron

Exhibitor: Jiangsu Hengshen Co., Ltd.

At present, advanced composite materials for aviation are mainly prepared by autoclave processing of prepregs. As it is difficult to achieve the integrated components, riveting and welding might be necessary. While the autoclave itself is so expensive with high energy consumption, making the manufacturing cost accounted for 60% to 70% of the total cost. Based on the characteristics of composite materials, the low-cost integrated manufacturing is an important direction for aviation composite technology.

The composite aileron is integrated manufactured by RTM process. The total length of the aileron is 3,336 mm, with 592 mm in width and 122 mm in height. The integral forming of the parts reduces the use of fasteners, and the use of braided CF tubes forming auxiliary wing wall has greatly improved the pre-preparation efficiency, saving more than 60% of the labor costs.

This technology has been applied to similar structural components such as multi-cavity structure cascades and complex structure fairing skins, with an annual output of more than 200 pieces.

Category 3: Process & equipment

Additive and subtractive manufacturing of large UAV skin molds

Exhibitor: Shanghai Kuying Technology Co., Ltd.
Partners: Cetc Wuhu Diamond Aircraft Manufacture Co., Ltd.

Large fixed wing UAVs are the leader in the field of UAV aerial, with characteristics of large carrying capacity and long range.

The UAV in this project has a length of 6 m, a height of 1.2 m, and a wingspan of 11.4 m. It adopts a fully composite material body. In order to accelerate the research and development verification progress and shorten the manufacturing cycle, Kuying have adopted the large-scale composite molds additive and subtractive manufacturing technology for the production of UAV body skin molds. Based on large-scale 3D printing technology and CNC machining technology, it can be quickly completed the manufacturing of skin molds for large UAV fuselage, wings, tail wings, and other components.

The PC-GF pellet material with excellent heat resistance, printability and warpage resistance is selected for the mold. The rapid 3D printing and CNC processing of the mold are carried out through the machine ‘BGAM’ independently developed by Kuying.

The entire UAV skin molds were completed and delivered within one month, which is one and a half months ahead of the traditional metal molds production lead time, significantly shortening the mold manufacturing cycle and promoting the product development process.

At present, the large-scale UAV mold for this project has successfully manufactured 3 UAV skins, completed the preliminary verification stage, and started mass production. At the same time, this technology has gradually begun to be used in composite forming molds for other large aircraft.