The Nanjing Yangtze River Bridge, which had been closed for 27 months for maintenance, opened to the public with a fresh, light load. At key points, advanced composite basalt fibers have been embedded, like a hard and light coat of armor on a bridge.

"Basalt fibers are 5 to 10 times stronger than steel and weigh only a quarter to a third of steel." Speaking of the application of new materials, wu zhishen, director of the national local joint engineering research center for basalt fiber production and application, said :" the high performance fiber represented by basalt fiber and carbon fiber is widely used in energy environment, transportation ocean, aerospace and other fields ." Why is basalt fiber favored? What does basalt fiber have?"

Basalt fiber is a continuous fiber made by platinum-rhodium alloy wire-drawing drain plate after melting at 1450℃~1500℃. Natural basalt fiber color is generally brown, metallic luster.

Basalt fiber has been listed as one of the four major fibers (carbon fiber, aramid fiber, ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, basalt fiber), which has been industrialized production in China. basalt continuous fibers have been widely used in fiber reinforced composites, friction materials, shipbuilding materials, heat insulation materials, automobile industry, high temperature filter fabrics and protection fields.

Liu Jiaqi, an academician of the Institute of Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that basalt fiber materials are characterized by special properties, low heat conduction coefficient and good flame retardancy. It is a good insulation material with high temperature and low temperature resistance. It can be used to manufacture fire-proof blanket, fire-proof curtain and other flame-retardant materials and filter base cloth, filter material and high temperature-resistant felt in the field of high temperature filtration.

Zhou Fengjun, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said at the second Symposium on the Application of Basalt Fiber Products that basalt fiber and its composite materials can play an important role in engineering construction, especially in the construction of traffic road surface, tunnel engineering, wharf engineering, island reef engineering, etc.

Feng Peng, a professor of civil engineering at Tsinghua University, believes that basalt fiber, as a kind of high performance fiber, has the characteristics and advantages of light weight, high strength, design, corrosion resistance, convenient construction, no magnetic, insulation and so on after being made into composite material, which can be used in bridges, industrial platforms and other structures, and can be used as functional structural parts such as electric towers and flues. At the same time, its machinability can be applied to new building or landscape engineering.

In addition, basalt fiber high dielectric coefficient, good insulation performance, can be made of a variety of electrical accessories; high sound absorption coefficient, strong anti-electromagnetic radiation function, vital to national security.

Its congenital deficiency, is the component fluctuation is relatively large. because basalt is formed by earth lava, the composition of the same ore site may fluctuate greatly, which will affect the stability of the fiber. The production cost is high, because the basalt resources are abundant, the raw material cost is low, but its production cost is high, mainly involves the higher energy price and the platinum rhodium alloy leakage plate consumption is large. At the same time, the production efficiency is low. Because of the poor thermal conductivity of basalt melt, the upper temperature of crystallization is high and easy to crystallize, so the production process conditions are high and it is difficult to form fiber.
 

Green New Blue Sea in the Age of Big Capital

From the "new energy pet" to the hot air of the capital market, basalt fiber, a huge market of hundreds of billions, is accelerating to complete its transformation, deriving a series of business models and growth space, and growing into a new investment "blue sea ".

August 2018, Dazhou City, Sichuan Province invested 400 million yuan, Build an annual production scale of 20,000 tons of basalt fiber production research and development base; September Total investment of 90 million yuan in the production of basalt continuous fiber pilot project in Deyang City, Sichuan Province National High-tech Zone Luojiang Park officially ignited; March 2019, Invested nearly $2.5 billion, Covering an area of about 260 mu of Guang'an Huaying City, Sichuan Province basalt fiber new materials industry park officially opened...

It is predicted that during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the output of basalt fiber in China will reach more than 150000 tons.

"Basalt fiber industry has a very broad market prospects ." Liu Jiaqi believes that basalt fiber has the characteristics of good comprehensive performance, wide use and high cost performance, and does not produce toxic substances in normal production and processing, and is a high-tech "green industrial material" in the 21st century.

As long as the properties, quality and quantity of basalt fiber products meet the requirements, its market potential is very great. Industry estimates that the world's production of basalt fiber still can not meet the demand of 1%.

"Basalt fiber will be another market of 100 billion ." Yang Xingming, chairman of Huierjie New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. At present, a number of national standards and industry standards have been formulated to broaden the space and create conditions for the development of basalt fiber industry, and the market awareness of basalt fiber has been greatly improved, and the market demand has also increased year by year.

Some analysis shows that in recent decades, the composite materials in China have been developed rapidly, which has a solid foundation for the development and popularization of continuous basalt fibers. Moreover, China has a vast territory, the reserves of basalt deposits are extremely rich, and there is a huge market for the application of new materials. In addition, basalt ore is a natural material, and there is no boron or other alkali metal oxide discharged in the production process, so there is no harmful substance precipitated in its smoke and dust, which will not cause pollution to the atmosphere and belongs to the environmental protection material.

Yang Xingming said that China has the unique condition of low-cost manufacturing basalt fiber, and has a completely independent intellectual property right of low-cost, large-scale development of continuous basalt fiber new technology, new equipment, new technology. At present, the technology and scale of basalt fiber in the world are still in the initial stage, which provides great development space and market opportunity for our country to continue to develop advanced technology.

It can be said that it is of great strategic significance to take the lead in developing this special inorganic non-metallic mineral new material industry in the background of our economy facing increasing constraints of resources, energy, environmental protection and sustainable development.

It will play the role of "material revolution" in highway construction 

During the 2018 World Transportation Congress with the theme of "Traffic makes the world better ", the" China Highway Society basalt fiber highway industry collaborative innovation community "(the following brief "community ") was established in Beijing, sponsored by the China Highway Society and co-organized by the National Local Joint Engineering Research Center of basalt fiber production and application technology, which marked the opening of basalt fiber in the new period of highway transportation industry development.
 

Hou Jinlong, former vice president of China Transportation Construction Co., Ltd., deputy director and secretary-general of the expert committee of China Highway Society and new chairman of "Community ", said basalt fiber has excellent road performance and has huge application space in highway transportation industry, but it is still relatively few at present.

Hou Jinlong believes that basalt fiber materials have three advantages.

First, environmental protection, basalt fiber has the characteristics of resource saving and environmental friendly. Basalt fibers come from natural stones and are used in artificial stones. Specifically, basalt fiber is a continuous fiber made from natural basalt, which is melted at 1450℃ to 1500℃ at high temperature and quickly pulled by platinum-rhodium alloy wire drawing leakage plate. Throughout the production process, there is no production of industrial waste water, waste gas and other industrial waste, which is known as "the new material of the 21st century ".

Second, relative to lignin fiber, glass fiber and other types of fiber, road technical indicators are high, with excellent high temperature resistance, low temperature resistance, chemical stability, anti-aging performance, water stability, electrothermal insulation performance. According to the current theoretical research, scientific and technological research and engineering application, the production technology and technology of road basalt fiber are very mature, which can effectively reduce the disease of cracks and ruts on the road surface, greatly prolong the service life of the road surface, and have remarkable results in improving and improving the fatigue resistance, high temperature stability, low temperature crack resistance and water stability of the pavement structure. At the same time, the materials have short cut yarn, geotextile, geogrid, composite reinforcement and other application forms, showing excellent road performance and application prospects.

Third, basalt fiber is widely used. Based on two advantages of environmental protection and high technical index of road use, as one of the four high-tech fibers in China, it is a key product of strategic emerging industries in the 13th Five-Year Plan of China. It has been widely used in the field of national defense and military industry, such as aerospace, ship and weapon manufacturing.

In addition, Hou Jinlong believes that the promotion of this work can better serve the "four transportation "," transportation power "," Belt and Road" and other national strategies. "The next step is to further strengthen industry research. Through the application of engineering construction, maintenance and bridge engineering, we can promote the standardization, assembly, industry, factory, intelligence and lightness of transportation industry, and promote the construction of quality engineering in the industry.

At June 2,2020, the second standard of Yao Luan pavement of Zhengxi Expressway in Henan Province YLLM-2 completed the paving of the research test road of basalt fiber asphalt concrete underlayer.

For the scientific research project of Henan Provincial Department of Transportation ," Application Research of Asphalt Concrete Pavement with Same Life Based on Basalt Fiber ", the project construction, project company and Henan Jiaoyuan Engineering Technology Co., Ltd. YLLM-2 the second standard of road surface in Zhengxi high speed Yaoluan section of Zhongjiao Yigong Bureau Group Co., Ltd.

The asphalt concrete mixed with basalt fiber has high strength and elastic modulus, good affinity with asphalt and aggregate, and obviously enhances the stability of asphalt mixture. Basalt fiber asphalt concrete has the characteristics of green environmental protection, which can improve the fatigue cracking resistance, low temperature cracking resistance, rutting resistance, increase the strength and fatigue resistance of asphalt oil film, enhance the water consumption of asphalt oil film, anti-oxidation and anti-aging, and then improve the durability of pavement.

The research project of basalt fiber asphalt concrete understory in Yaoluan section of Zhengxi Expressway has been completed, which will be widely applied. In the development of green environmental protection society, basalt fiber has made outstanding contribution to the sustainable development of highway with its unique advantages.