Original Title: Hot Spots | Breaking Foreign Monopoly and Strengthening China's
Military Prestige, How Does Xiangtou Jintian, the Leading Titanium Material,
Work Hard in the PTA Industry? Wen | our reporter with Li Na Editor | Chen Qiong
Zhou Hui probably did not expect that many years later, he would become attached
to chemical fibers again. He had worked in the local Development and Reform
Commission for many years, and was responsible for the management of the textile
port and the non-ferrous metal port. He also served as the vice chairman of
Hunan Chemical Fiber Enterprise for many years. During this period, in order to
purchase PTA for the enterprise, he traveled abroad to inspect many PTA
enterprises in Japan and the United States with advanced technology at that
time. But since Zhou Hui put his passion for innovation and enthusiasm into the
titanium material industry, the textile and chemical fiber industry, which had
accumulated deep emotions, has gradually moved away from his vision. Today,
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 in the field of national defense and military equipment, but also
to describe the value of titanium materials. As the most growing strategic metal
material in the 21st century, titanium alloy is widely used in military, space,
ocean and other fields, which is of great significance to promote the
high-quality development of China's industrial equipment industry. As an
industry with global competitive advantage in China's chemical industry, China's
PTA industry is currently more and more closely related to titanium materials,
Zhou Hui keenly captured this trend. Zhou Hui felt a different kind of joy when
the accumulation of textile and chemical fiber industry in the past converged
with her present career. So, what is the intersection of PTA industry and
titanium materials in China? How to reflect the application and value of
titanium materials in PTA industry? How will Zhou Hui's Xiang Tou Jin Tian do a
lot of work in the meantime, and how can he be confident? Recently, the reporter
interviewed Zhou Hui, chairman of Hunan Xiangtou Jintian Science and Technology
Group Co., Ltd. Application of Titanium Tubes in Large-scale PTA Plant Has
Become a Trend After more than 10 years of rapid development and industrial
upgrading, China's PTA industry has won a global competitive advantage in terms
of capacity scale, plant level, technology and product competitiveness. In 2018,
the effective production capacity of PTA in China reached 45.79 million tons,
the output was 40.8 million tons, and the self-sufficiency rate reached 99.8%.
Large-scale and integrated PTA production plant, leading technology, efficient
operation and low energy consumption have also become the distinct
characteristics of the current operation of the industry. Expand the full text
The production process of PTA includes complex chemical processes such as
mixing, hydrogen production, reaction, evaporation, condensation, extraction,
separation and drying, as well as processes such as liquid phase conveying, gas
phase conveying, gas-liquid mixed phase conveying,nickel
titanium wire, solid-liquid slurry conveying and solid powder conveying. Its
production process is also accompanied by high temperature, high pressure,
strong corrosion of process media and other prominent characteristics.
Influenced by the process and production characteristics, titanium plates and
tubes with high performance and corrosion resistance have been widely used in
PTA plants in the international market in recent years. Because the titanium
alloy has strong corrosion resistance, the corrosion resistance is far superior
to that of stainless steel, the resistance to pitting corrosion, acid corrosion
and stress corrosion is particularly strong, and the titanium alloy also has
excellent corrosion resistance to alkali, chloride, nitric acid, sulfuric acid
and the like. At the same time, it has high strength, tensile strength of 686
MPa to 1176 MPa, and density of 4.5 G/cm3, which is only about 60% of steel.
Titanium tubes are mainly used for heat exchange tubes of condensers and heat
exchangers in PTA plants,titanium
plate gr7, with high reliability and long service life. In Norway, Japan and
other countries, titanium alloy materials are widely used in related devices in
the petroleum field. Titanium alloy materials are used in domestic PTA plants in
recent years, but titanium alloy materials are mainly imported. The reason is
that, on the one hand, the process package of PTA plant in China mainly adopts
foreign technologies such as Invista technology and BP technology, so the
titanium alloy seamless pipe used in the plant is logically matched with foreign
materials. On the other hand, domestic PTA enterprises could not buy domestic
titanium welded pipes before, because there was a lack of good titanium strips
in China, and high-quality titanium welded pipes were welded with good titanium
strips. Finally, a reality is formed that seamless titanium tubes are mostly
used in domestic PTA plants. Zhou Hui said: "The key point of titanium welded
pipe in PTA plant is to solve the problem of corrosion resistance.". Large plant
structure is very complex, so many pipes are gathered together, if the pipeline
is corroded, rust and other situations, manufacturers will stop maintenance,
which will not only increase operating costs, but also affect the normal
production of enterprises in the peak season. In addition, there is a problem of
"secondary pollution". Therefore, in recent years, the use of titanium alloy
materials in domestic PTA plants has highlighted the urgency. At the same time,
from the current trend, the number of enterprises using seamed titanium pipes in
PTA plants is gradually increasing. The production of seamed titanium pipes is
more environmentally friendly, belongs to clean manufacturing and green
manufacturing, and is more convenient and has more economic value. Zhou Hui
said. Xiangtou Jintian Leads Domestic Titanium Industry Innovation and Upgrading
For a long period of time, what is more uncomfortable than the fact that the
domestic titanium welded pipes needed by PTA plants can not be supplied
independently is that the titanium materials needed by our national defense
industry can not be self-sufficient. Many people may not think that foreign
countries once implemented "neck jam" in the field of titanium materials. It is
imperative to conquer the domestic innovative technology of titanium materials,
and Hunan Investment Jintian has made a breakthrough in this field and become a
rising star of foreign technology. Compared with some titanium material
enterprises that have been established for decades, Hunan Investment Jintian,
which has only 10 years of history, titanium
tubing price ,titanium
exhaust tubing, is a "recruit" in the domestic titanium industry. However,
with a series of innovative technologies, this "recruit" has grown rapidly into
one of the "top three" titanium enterprises in China, forming an international
advanced and domestic first-class titanium industry platform. Its R & D and
production of large coil weight wide titanium strip, high performance titanium
welded pipe, high performance titanium alloy bar and other core technology
products fill the domestic gap and break the foreign monopoly. At present, the
annual production capacity of Xiangtou Jintian Titanium Belt is 10000 tons, and
the annual production capacity of titanium pipe is 5000 tons, which is the first
in Asia and the second in the world. Behind the glory, there is often an unknown
story of hardship. At first, we knew titanium processing was difficult, but
after 10 years, we didn't expect it to be so difficult. At that time, there was
a lack of technology, talent and resources, and we were "recruits", so what
should we do? Innovation must be accelerated. At that time, we were full of
ambition and set a goal for ourselves-to fill the gap in the domestic market,
the titanium steel joint model we created was an innovative move. However, in
the process of creation, we have no experience to draw lessons from, so we can
only work, explore and summarize at the same time. How many days and nights, we
have been insisting on it. One night in 2007, a product was finally developed
successfully, and before that, the company had gone through a whole year of
exploration and repeated 32 experiments. At that time, the most difficult thing
was that we did not match the standard. Although Japanese enterprises had
technology, they kept it strictly confidential to our country. Ultimately, we
rely on independent research and development to find a way of our own. Recalling
those hard, muddy and passionate days, Zhou Hui is still full of emotion. All
the efforts are obviously worth it. At present, Hunan Investment Jintian's
products have successfully entered the "national team" phalanx and become the
core supplier of China's large aircraft, nuclear power, ships and other
strategic markets. The application of titanium alloys in naval submarines and
other fields can reduce weight and improve corrosion resistance. Since the year
before last, the application of titanium materials in submarines, aircraft
carriers and other fields in China has been led by Hunan Investment Jintian. A
large number of titanium alloys are used in the engine components, skeleton and
other parts of the aircraft, and about 50% of the titanium materials currently
used in domestic large aircraft come from Hunan Investment Jintian. At the same
time, Hunan Investment Jintian is also the only Chinese supplier of
high-performance titanium strips and tubes in the international market in the
fields of energy, desalination, marine engineering and so on. It takes ten years
to sharpen a sword. At present, we are the only Chinese titanium material
enterprise that can compete in the international titanium strip market. Now it
is said that our technology is stuck in the neck of others, but in the field of
titanium belt, we have the ability to block the neck of others. Speaking of
this, Zhou Hui's tone was obviously excited, "When we get together, we all feel
very proud, and the sense of value and achievement of serving the country by
industry suddenly comes to mind." Promote domestic PTA plant to be more refined
When the application in the military industry and desalination market gradually
opened up, and when the output of enterprises gradually increased, Zhou Hui
began to think about how to adjust the product structure, and PTA, which
connects chemical industry and chemical fiber, entered his field of vision. Zhou
Hui said: "Our products will mainly realize three substitutions in the field of
PTA equipment in China: the first is to replace imports, the second is to
replace titanium alloy seamless tubes, and the third is to realize the
substitution of titanium alloy materials for other materials." It is reported
that the titanium welded pipe forming deformation rebound compensation
technology developed by Hunan Investment Jintian can meet the technical
requirements of titanium welded pipe for PTA plant. The high efficiency heat
exchange titanium welded tube developed for the first time can realize the
special-shaped strengthening and multi-dimensional structural strengthening of
titanium heat exchange tube. Through chemical composition, metallographic
structure, mechanical property, process performance test, size and precision
inspection and nondestructive testing, all indexes of the product can meet the
requirements of the titanium tube standard for PTA and the ASTMB338 standard,
and can replace the seamless titanium tube for PTA heat exchange. In the
previous appraisal of technical achievements organized by the Ministry of
Science and Technology Development of China Textile Industry Federation, the
expert group agreed that its achievements were innovative, had independent
intellectual property rights, reached the international advanced level, broke
the long-term dependence on imports of titanium welded pipes in China, and
realized the autonomy of the whole industrial chain of low hydrogen and low iron
titanium products. If we look at the performance-price ratio, at present, while
the product quality remains stable, the price of Xiangtou Jintian Titanium
Welded Pipe is 20% -30% lower than that of Japanese enterprises. This will
reduce the investment cost for domestic PTA production enterprises using seamed
titanium tubes. On this basis, enterprises may also need to use another way of
thinking to consider the investment output ratio. Zhou Hui explained: As a
strategic material, the greatest advantage of titanium material is that it can
realize the concept of the whole life cycle of products. For example, when it is
used in marine engineering, it will not rust even after ten thousand years,
which is why titanium alloys are used in marine competitions between countries.
PTA belongs to the field of civil industry, some enterprises may feel that
titanium welded pipe is more expensive, but once used, they feel very good. In
our research, we met an enterprise that used titanium alloy in a set of devices
in 1994, and there has been no problem in operation so far. Therefore, the
accounts of enterprises using titanium welded pipes should be calculated
according to the whole life cycle, not just in front of them. In addition, the
use of welded titanium pipes in PTA plants will further improve 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 to
complete a large number of heat exchanges. The use of welded titanium tubes can
reduce the wall thickness of the condenser, accelerate the heat dissipation of
the condenser, and thus improve the exchange efficiency. According to reports,
the wall thickness of the seamed titanium pipe produced by Xiangtou Jintian is
getting thinner and thinner, which is only 0.2 mm at present. PTA is one of the
important application markets of titanium tube in civil field. With the
continuous upgrading of materials,titanium
plate gr7, there is still much to be done in the refinement of PTA plants in
China. We hope to expand the use of titanium tubes in PTA plants, but also to
improve the profit margin of PTA enterprises. We are confident that together
with PTA enterprises and related equipment enterprises, we will do a better job
in the refinement of PTA plants and production in China and further promote the
high-quality development of PTA industry. Zhou Hui is confident about the
application and expansion of seamed titanium tubes in PTA plants. Return to Sohu
to see more Responsible Editor:. yunchtitanium.com