Breaking The Monopoly Of Foreign Countries And Strengthening Our Country'S Military Prestige, How Can We Invest In The PTA Industry?

Zhou Hui probably didn't expect that he would become attached to chemical fiber after many years.

He worked in the local development and Reform Commission for many years and was responsible for the management of textile and non-ferrous metal outlets. Hunan chemical fiber enterprise has been vice chairman for many years. In the meantime, in order to buy PTA for the enterprise, he went abroad to investigate many leading PTA companies in Japan and the United States. But since Zhou Hui devoted his enthusiasm for innovation and his enthusiasm to the titanium industry, the textile and chemical fiber industry, which had accumulated a lot of emotion, was gradually away from his vision. Now, things are changing.

"One generation of materials and one generation of equipment." This sentence is not only used to describe the important value of carbon fiber to China's national defense industry equipment, but also applies to description. Titanium materials Value. As the most growing strategic metal material in the twenty-first Century, titanium alloys are widely used in many fields, such as military, aerospace, ocean and so on, which are of great significance for promoting the high quality development of China's industrial equipment industry. As an industry with global competitive advantage in China's chemical industry, the PTA industry in China is currently closely related to titanium materials, and Vivian Chow has caught this trend.

When the accumulation of textile and chemical fibers in the past and the business they are doing today, Zhou Hui feels a different kind of joy. So what is the intersection of PTA industry and titanium materials in China? How does the application and value of titanium materials in the PTA industry be reflected? What will Zhou Hui do when he is in charge of Xiang Tian? Recently, the reporter interviewed. Hunan Xiang Tian Jin Tian technology Refco Group Ltd (hereinafter referred to as "Xiang tou Jin Tian") Chairman Zhou Hui 。

Titanium tubes have become a trend in large PTA installations.

Whether from the scale of production capacity, installation level or technology, product competitiveness, after more than 10 years of rapid development and industrial upgrading, China's PTA industry has won the global competitive advantage. In 2018, the effective capacity of China's PTA reached 45 million 790 thousand tons, the output was 40 million 800 thousand tons, and the self-sufficiency rate reached 99.8%. The large-scale production and integration of PTA production facilities, leading technology, efficient operation and low energy consumption have also become the distinctive characteristics of the industry. 。

In the production process of PTA, it contains complex chemical processes such as mixing, hydrogen production, reaction, evaporation, condensation, extraction, separation and drying, as well as liquid phase transportation, gas phase transportation, gas-liquid miscible transportation, solid-liquid slurry transportation, solid phase powder transportation and so on. Its production process is also characterized by high temperature, high pressure and strong corrosion of process medium.

Affected by technology and production characteristics, Over the years, high performance corrosion resistant titanium plates and titanium tubes have been used in the PTA devices of the international market. 。 Because titanium alloy has strong corrosion resistance, corrosion resistance is far superior to stainless steel, resistance to pitting corrosion, acid corrosion, stress corrosion is particularly strong, alkali, chloride, nitric acid, sulfuric acid and so on also has excellent corrosion resistance. At the same time, it has high strength, tensile strength of 686MPa to 1176MPa, and its density is generally 4.5 grams / cubic centimeter, only about 60% of steel. In the PTA plant, titanium tubes are mainly used for heat exchanger tubes of condensers and heat exchangers, with high reliability and long service life. In Norway, Japan and other countries, titanium alloys are widely used in related fields in the oil field.

Titanium alloy has been used in domestic PTA plant in recent years, but titanium alloy is mainly imported. The reason is, on the one hand, The technology package of PTA equipment in our country mainly adopts foreign technologies such as the technology such as Ying Wei Technology and BP technology. Therefore, the titanium alloy seamless pipe used in the equipment and so on are well matched with foreign materials. On the other hand, Domestic PTA enterprises had not previously bought the domestic titanium welded pipe, because there was no good titanium strip in China, and the quality titanium pipe was welded with titanium strip. Finally, a realistic situation is formed. The seamless titanium tube is used in the domestic PTA plant. 。

Zhou Hui said: " The titanium welded pipe used in PTA device is mainly to solve the problem of corrosion resistance. 。 Large device structure is very complex, so many pipes gathered together, if there are pipelines corrosion, rust and so on, manufacturers will have to stop and repair, not only will increase operating costs, in the busy season will also affect the normal production of enterprises. In addition, there is "two pollution" problem. Therefore, in recent years, the use of titanium alloys in domestic PTA devices highlights the urgency.

At the same time, From the current trend, the enterprises using PTA joints with titanium joints are increasing. 。 "The production of seamed titanium pipes is more environmentally friendly. It belongs to clean manufacturing and green manufacturing, and is more convenient and more economic value." Zhou Hui said.

Hunan Investment golden days leading domestic titanium industry innovation and upgrading

For a long time, it is even more uncomfortable for the domestic titanium welded pipe to be supplied independently than the PTA installation. Many people may not think that foreign countries in the field of titanium materials once applied "choke" to our country. The localization of titanium materials is imperative under the guidance of innovative technology, while Xiang tou golden sky has achieved breakthroughs in this field and has become a rising star of foreign technology.

Compared with some titanium materials enterprises founded for decades, Hunan Province, which has only 10 years of history, is a "recruits" in the domestic titanium industry. However, the new recruits came from behind with a series of innovative technologies, and quickly grew into one of the "three strong" enterprises of China's titanium enterprises, forming an international advanced and domestic first-class titanium industry platform. The core technology products of R & D, such as large volume, heavy and wide titanium strip, high performance titanium welded pipe and high performance titanium alloy bar, have filled the domestic gap and broken the monopoly of foreign countries. At present, the annual output of the Xiang Tian gold titanium belt is 10 thousand tons, and the annual production capacity of titanium pipe is 5000 tons, which is the first in Asia and second in the world.

Behind the glory is hidden an untold hardship story. "At the beginning, we knew that titanium processing was very difficult, but 10 years later, we didn't expect it to be so difficult. At that time, we lacked technology, talent and resources, and we were new recruits. We must speed up innovation. We were full of ambition and set goals for ourselves. To fill the gap in the domestic market, the joint mode of titanium and steel that we started was an innovation. But in the process of creation, we have no experience to draw lessons from. We can only do it by doing, groping and summarizing. Many days and nights, we kept on doing it. One night in 2007, a product was finally developed, and before that, the company went through a whole year of exploration and made 32 experiments repeatedly. At that time, the most difficult thing was that we did not have benchmarks, although Japanese companies had technology, but they were strictly confidential to our country. Finally, we rely on independent research and development to get out of a road of our own. Recalled that difficult and muddy and passionate burning day, Zhou Hui is full of emotion now.

All the pay is obviously worth it. At present, the products of Xiang tou Jin Tian have successfully entered the "national team" square, and become the core suppliers of China's big aircraft, nuclear power, warships and other strategic markets. Titanium alloys can be used in the field of naval submarines and so on, which can reduce weight and improve corrosion resistance. Since the beginning of last year, China's application of titanium materials in submarines, aircraft carriers and other fields has been led by Xiang tou Jin Tian. Titanium alloys are widely used in aircraft engine components and skeletons, and about 50% of the titanium materials used in large domestic aircraft come from Hunan investment. At the same time, Xiang Tian gold is also the only supplier in the international market for high-performance titanium and titanium tubes in energy, desalination, ocean engineering and other fields.

"Ten years of grinding a sword. At present, we are the only Chinese titanium material enterprise that can compete in the international titanium strip Market. Now we are talking about our technology being tied up by others, but in the field of titanium tape, we have the ability to clip other people's necks. Speaking of this, Zhou Hui's tone was obviously excited. "We gathered together and we all felt very proud. The sense of value and sense of achievement of the industrial service nation came to mind at once."

Promoting the refinement of domestic PTA devices

When the application of the market in military industry and seawater desalination was gradually opened, Zhou Hui began to think about how to adjust the product structure and connect the PTA of chemical industry and chemical fiber into his field when the output of the enterprise was gradually made up.

Zhou Hui said: "Our products will mainly realize three alternatives in the field of PTA equipment in China. One is to replace imports, the two is to replace titanium alloy seamless pipes, and the three is to replace titanium alloy materials with other materials. "

According to the introduction, the technology of forming, deformation and springback compensation for the titanium tube welding developed by Xiang Tian Jin Tian can meet the technical requirements of the titanium welded pipe used in the PTA plant. The high efficiency titanium tube welded by the heat exchanger developed for the first time can enhance the heteromorphism and multidimensional structure of the titanium heat exchanger tube. Its products are characterized by chemical composition, metallographic structure, mechanical properties, process performance test, size and accuracy check and NDT. All indexes can meet the requirements of PTA titanium tube standard and ASTMB338 standard, and can replace seamless titanium tubes for PTA heat exchange. Prior to the identification of technical achievements organized by the Ministry of science and technology development of China Federation of textile industry, the expert group agreed that Its achievements are innovative, with independent intellectual property rights, reaching the international advanced level, breaking the long-term dependence on imports of titanium welded pipes in China, and realizing the independence of the whole industry chain of low hydrogen and low iron titanium products.

If we look at cost performance, At present, while the product quality is stable, the price of Xiang Tian Gold Titanium welded pipe is 20%~30% lower than that of Japanese enterprises. This will reduce investment cost for domestic PTA production enterprises with slotted titanium tubes.

On this basis, enterprises may need another way of thinking to consider the ratio of investment to output. Zhou Hui explained: "as a strategic material, the greatest advantage of titanium materials is the realization of product life cycle concept. For example, if it is used in offshore engineering, it will not rust even after ten thousand years. This is why the sea between countries is competing for titanium alloy. PTA belongs to the civilian industry. Some enterprises may feel that the titanium welded pipe is more expensive, but once it is used, it feels good. We encountered a company in the survey. They used titanium alloy in 1994, so there is no problem in operation. Therefore, the accounts of enterprises using titanium welded pipe should be accounted for according to the whole life cycle, but not just in front of them.

In addition, the use of slotted welded pipe in the PTA device will further enhance the quality of PTA products. The complex production process from PX to PTA is accompanied by a large number of high temperature reactions, especially in the condenser. The use of slotted titanium welded pipe can reduce the wall thickness of the condenser and accelerate the heat dissipation of the condenser, thereby improving the exchange efficiency. According to introduction, The thickness of the slotted titanium tube produced by Xiang Tian gold is thinner and thinner. At present, there are only 0.2 millimeters.

" PTA is one of the major applications of titanium tubes in the civilian field. With the continuous upgrading of materials, there is still much to be done in the refinement of PTA installations in China. We hope to expand the consumption of titanium pipe in PTA plant, and also increase the profit margin of PTA enterprises. We are confident that together with PTA enterprises and related equipment enterprises, we will do better in the refinement of PTA devices and production in China, and further promote the high quality development of PTA industry. Zhou Hui is confident that the seam titanium pipe will expand in the PTA installation.