Against the backdrop of a slowdown in the growth of the rubber industry (11540, -215.00, -1.83%), the 13th National Rubber Industry Information Conference and Forum on Accelerating the Transformation and Development of High tech Applications were held in Hangzhou last year. Experts point out that promoting the application of high-tech and transforming traditional rubber industry is the only way for China's rubber industry to continue to develop steadily and rapidly.
The world rubber industry has gone through more than 160 years of development and has now become an important traditional industry in many developed countries. The annual consumption of rubber worldwide has reached over 17 million tons, and there are about 100000 types of rubber products in various fields of human society. The rubber industry stands out in the second industry cluster as the elastic material industry. In the past two to three decades, due to the impact of the two world oil crises in the 1970s, the global rubber industry has gradually shifted from relying on long-term expansion as the main means of increasing economic benefits to a new era with the goal of improving quality, increasing variety, and continuously reducing production costs.
Rubber industry expert Huang Maotong stated that high-tech rubber products have opened up new economic growth points for the rubber industry. In recent years, high-tech rubber materials and products that have emerged to meet the needs of high-tech industrialization have become new economic growth points driving the development of the rubber industry. There are no more than dozens of high-tech rubber materials with new characteristics available in the market. Although their adhesive usage is currently small, their added value is high and their growth rate is fast. They have begun to occupy a certain position in industrial products and may form a new industry in the future.
Currently, the fastest developing areas include high-tech rubber materials used in electronic information, sealing damping, office automation, and household appliances. The vast majority of these materials are products of rubber chemical modification, rubber plastic (8440, -185.00, -2.14%) blending, and various composite methods, most of which have become polymer functional materials that are difficult to distinguish between rubber and plastic.
With the rapid development of high-tech, many traditional rubber products have also begun to achieve high-performance and functionalization. They cover various aspects from tires, industrial products to rubber shoes, mainly including green tires, smart tires, synchronous belts, energy-saving belts, explosion-proof hoses, and various functional shoes, as well as various sealing, shock-absorbing, printing, sensing rubber parts, and so on. These rubber products, which are transformed using high-tech on the basis of traditional rubber products, have opened up new avenues for the future development of the rubber industry.
Huang Maotong stated that the rubber industry should also adjust its product structure through technological innovation to meet the low-carbon requirements of the automotive industry and other fields, such as developing and producing tires and low fuel consumption tires suitable for electric and hybrid vehicles, using new materials such as thermoplastic elastomers to develop and manufacture automotive seals, shock absorbers, and other products, improving the efficiency of automotive conveyor belts, and developing and producing rubber products that meet the needs of clean and renewable energy industries.
The main high-tech areas that the current rubber industry urgently needs to overcome include the industrialization and application technology of Eucommia ulmoides rubber, the development and application technology of dandelion rubber, the industrialization technology of green tires, the development and application of nano modified fibers, and the fully automatic rubber shoe production line. Huang Maotong believes that rubber enterprises should increase their investment strength, promote the development and application of high-tech, and build a green kingdom for the rubber industry.
