On November 26-27, China Polyurethanes Industry Association (PUIA) Auxiliaries Branch held the Polyurethane Auxiliaries Application Technology Conference and the first annual meeting of the Auxiliaries Special Committee in Haikou, which was a complete success.
Han Baole, Deputy Secretary General of China Polyurethane Industry Association, presided over the meeting and read out a congratulatory letter from Zhao Zhiping, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee of China Petrochemical Federation, and a speech from Yang Maoliang, Chairman of China Polyurethane Industry Association.
Zhao Zhiping said that polyurethane additives have a wide range of applications and are an important part of the polyurethane industry chain and supply chain security, and that achieving “independent control” of additives, especially high-end additives, and forging “killer” technologies for the development and production of additives will remain an important direction for the whole industry in the future. One of the important directions of the industry to fill the shortcomings. He hoped that under the leadership of the Board of Directors of China Polyurethane Industry Association and the Additives Branch, the additives enterprises could open up a new chapter for the development of polyurethane additives and polyurethane materials through resource integration and division of labor, and that the Additives Branch would make new contributions to the innovative development of China’s polyurethane industry and the development of the additives enterprises would flourish.
Yang Maoliang said that in the new development pattern, the establishment of the Special Committee on Polyurethane Additives provides a good platform for information exchange for the development of the additives industry, provides a basis for the linkage of different additives, and provides a broad space for the future development of polyurethane additives. The field of polyurethane additives is an important battlefield for the safety of the industrial chain and the transformation of innovative scientific and technological achievements in the polyurethane industry, with strong industrial soil and imagination. It is hoped that through the joint efforts of all of us, the directors and deputy directors of the Special Committee on Additives will be able to unite relevant enterprises, gather strength and consensus, and make positive contributions to the development of China’s polyurethane industry in collaboration with the special committees of the Association.
The Secretary General of China Polyurethane Industry Association, Mr. Lv Guoxuan, said at the opening ceremony that polyurethane additives are important raw materials for polyurethane industry, and they are widely used in various fields of polyurethane because of their excellent performance. With the development of China’s polyurethane industry shifting from high speed to high quality, it is increasingly important to focus on the application of polyurethane additives, expand new fields of application of polyurethane additives, and promote the pace of technical development and industrialization of polyurethane additives.
Zhou Jian, President of the China Polyurethane Industry Association’s Additives Branch and Chairman of Suzhou Xiangyuan New Materials Co., Ltd, said that the Polyurethane Additives Branch was established in April 2019 by the China Polyurethane Industry Association. In order to promote the special committee of additives to better serve the industry and member enterprises, the additives branch holds the development concept of co-creation, sharing and win-win, and is deliberated and approved by the China Polyurethane Industry Association to organize the “First Annual Meeting of Polyurethane Additives Professional Committee Members of China Polyurethane Industry Association and Polyurethane Additives Application Technology Conference” in order to To build a platform for the exchange and service of polyurethane additives and polyurethane-related enterprises and institutions, experts and researchers, and to work together with the polyurethane industry to establish close ties, provide more systematic solutions for polyurethane applications, apply more inexpensive and high-quality new varieties of polyurethane additives to the polyurethane field, and jointly promote the sustainable and healthy development of China’s polyurethane additives industry.
Dr. Sheng Enshan, Executive Director of Huntsman Asia Pacific R&D Center, introduced the current situation and development direction of polyurethane blowing agents. Sheng Enshan believes that although there are many foaming technologies, there is not a “perfect” foaming agent yet, and the situation of ODS elimination is serious. Especially the new HFC abatement regulations have increased the complexity of HCFC phase-out, and the situation of HCFC and HFC substitution for SMEs is very unpromising, and he expects the Chinese polyurethane industry to continue to increase the application, product and technology innovation of blowing agents.
Wan Qihua, manager of R&D Department of Jiangsu Osja Materials Technology Co., Ltd. introduced the application of polyurethane high resilience special additives and mainly introduced the application of three additives. Among them, PF-228, as a cold deformation imitation additive, can prevent cold deformation of foam and increase foam stability, which can solve the cold deformation problem of T9 high resilience formula. an-33 is a gel type low odor catalyst, which can improve pre-fluidity and effectively reduce sponge odor and amine catalyst contribution value. UF-5361/UF-5378 is a low emitting silicone stabilizer.
Chen Jinbiao, technical manager of Tianjin Leelong New Material Co., Ltd. introduced anti-aging solutions for polyurethane. As a global leading supplier of anti-aging additives products and technologies for polymer materials, Leeroy’s main products include antioxidants, light stabilizers and U-pack, a total solution product, and is one of the world’s most complete anti-aging product configurations. With the help of the IPO, the company is accelerating the production capacity layout of anti-aging additives products at home and abroad, strengthening the application technology research and development, and continuously providing more innovative products and application technology solutions.
Chu Songtao, Marketing Director of Zhejiang Wansheng Co., Ltd. introduced the opportunities and challenges of flame retardants. He proposed that the flame retardant industry is an industry driven by fire and flame retardant regulations. With the strengthening of fire safety awareness, fire and flame retardant regulations have been attached importance in all countries, which will promote the development of the flame retardant market. But developed countries have better fire retardant regulations for construction materials, furniture and home decoration industries, while China lacks regulations in this regard, and the toxicity problem has become the key to restrict the development of the industry. He suggested that we should increase the research and development of new products (toxicity reduction and registration cost reduction); pay close attention to safety and environmental protection; develop new processes, reduce costs and increase efficiency and expand scale; provide services and new product development for downstream customers’ needs and provide whole industry chain services; meet the flame retardant requirements (basic), but also meet the industry performance requirements; develop green flame retardants and realize green production process and green recycling of end products.
The afternoon session was chaired by Ji Xiangyang, general manager of Shanghai Chik Fluorosilicon Materials Co.
Ltd. introduced the application technology and development direction of new polyurethane chain extender, including the main varieties of polyurethane chain extender and new special products, latent curing agent – special chain extender/crosslinker, the selection and application technology of chain extender, and the application of some new special varieties of chain extender. Zhou Jian said that the development direction of polyurethane chain extender is to research and develop new non-toxic, non-polluting, high-performance, low-cost, multi-functional products.
Qi Wenbin, technical director of Shanghai Hecheng Polymer Technology Co., Ltd. introduced the application of cast polyurethane materials. The annual growth rate of domestic cast polyurethane market is about 10%, of which 70%-80% of the usage is concentrated in traditional application fields, such as mining, metallurgy, logistics and transportation industries, and the end products are basically sieve rubber rollers, seals, casters and miscellaneous parts, mainly rubber rollers and rollers, mining sieve plates and accessories, spare parts, seal-type accessories, high-strength accessories, etc. In the future, cast polyurethane will have broader applications in new energy field, microelectronics technology field, non-industrial field and national defense science and industry field.
Huang Liangliang, polyurethane project manager of Xiamen Kaiping Chemical Co., Ltd. introduced the company’s promotion of water-based release agent application in the production of automotive interior parts to help systematically improve the quality of the car interior. Especially in the field of high resilience, Kaiping Chemical has launched a variety of pioneering water-based release agents, which can solve the application difficulties in the production line of car seat sponge and meet the needs of mass production, as well as significantly reduce the VOC and odor of seat products; in the carpet and front surround, it can meet the needs of dry and complete surface release of products. At the same time, the water-based release agent launched on the car roof has both excellent mold release performance and high cost performance, which is very competitive in the market.
Zhang Wei, deputy general manager of Jiangsu Methode Chemical Co., Ltd. introduced the application of environment-friendly leveling agent for furniture sponge. With the continuous improvement of people’s living standard, the demand for high quality products and the emphasis on green environment, polyurethane foam keeps developing rapidly in the direction of higher quality, more safety and environmental protection, which also puts forward higher requirements for surfactants and other additives. As a high-tech enterprise and a listed company in Jiangsu Province, Methode Chemical is mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of organosilicon surfactants, and has become a large supplier of organosilicon surfactants for polyurethane foam in China with an annual production capacity of 26,000 tons. 2018 saw the establishment of Methode International in the UK and the addition of the polyurethane catalyst business, which has greatly enhanced Methode’s internationalization and comprehensive competitive strength. The company also has “Jiangsu Organosilicon Surfactant Engineering Technology Research Center”, which is dedicated to the research and development of innovative environment-friendly and low dispersion organosilicon surfactants and has achieved outstanding results.
Ltd. introduced the factors and solutions for yellowing of polyurethane flexible foam sponge. Yellowing is one of the results of aging of polyurethane soft foam, which is an important signal of the change of structure and performance of polyurethane material. By studying the mechanism of yellowing of polyurethane materials, it can provide necessary theoretical support for the improvement of the design, production and storage process of yellowing-resistant polyurethane materials. The study of raw materials and additives of polyurethane flexible foam points out the direction for its yellowing resistance: choosing high quality polyether polyol with low unsaturation and not adding polymer polyol to effectively prevent the yellowing of foam due to the oxidation of double bonds, and then stop the yellowing of foam; grafting and copolymerization of modified aliphatic diisocyanate to improve the yellowing resistance under the guarantee of the use requirements of products; developing green and natural yellowing resistance additives and developing Green, non-toxic yellowing resistance additives become the development trend.
Liu Jing, senior engineer of Shanxi Chemical Research Institute (Co., Ltd.), introduced carbodiimide and its application in polyurethane. With the further development and application of bio-based plastics and bio-based degradable plastics, their hydrolytic stability and durability are more and more important, and the market for related products is huge. However, there are still problems of import dependence and high price of carbodiimide hydrolysis stabilizers, which seriously restrict the development of shrinking engineering plastics, bio-based and biodegradable plastics in China.
More than one hundred representatives from domestic polyurethane additives and related industries attended the meeting.
