As the name suggests, the biggest feature of LSZH is halogen-free, which is one of the materials commonly found in optical cable sheaths. Most of the early flame retardant cables contained halogen, and although the flame retardant effect was achieved, hydrogen halide gas and black smoke would be produced when burned. Low-smoke halogen-free polyolefin material is made of polyolefin material as the basic resin, mixed with halogen-free flame retardant, modifier, antioxidant, lubricant, etc., without halogen, which will reduce the release of smoke and halogen acid gas when burning, effectively reduce the secondary injury caused by personnel escape and firefighters, in addition, the smoke concentration generated by its combustion will not reduce visibility to affect escape.
For a long time, low-smoke halogen-free materials have been widely used in rail cables, household optical cables and other cables that need to be routed in relatively closed spaces and places, and the cold weather of the cable industry in 23 years has inevitably affected the low-smoke halogen-free material market. It is mainly affected by two aspects, in terms of upstream raw materials, low-smoke halogen-free substrate polyolefin resin fluctuates greatly in 23 years, and can be roughly divided into four stages. January reached the highest level of the year, then accelerated by the end of May, did not begin to repair until July to late September, and then began again after November, but overall it was still on a downward trend.
In terms of the market, after the epidemic, the finances of various cities have tightened, and a large number of cities with subway construction plans have issued policies to stop projects, and the procurement projects of rail transit cables such as leaky cables have decreased. Since 2005, China has successively promoted the construction of FTTH, and the market for low-smoke halogen-free materials has also entered a period of vigorous development. In recent years, due to the relative saturation of domestic FTTH construction, the decline in orders for related cables has directly affected the market of low-smoke halogen-free materials, which has led to intensified competition among enterprises.
But even in this context, compared with the suffering of other optical fiber cable raw material enterprises, the overall business situation of low-smoke halogen-free manufacturers in 23 years is acceptable, which is mainly due to the continuous exploration of low-smoke halogen-free material manufacturers, expanding overseas markets and developing new application fields.
Butterfly fiber optic cable is the product with the largest amount of LSZH materials, and butterfly fiber optic cable is mainly used in FTTH construction. Nowadays, China's FTTH construction has been basically completed, and the FTTH construction in other regions such as Brazil, Mexico and other countries has just begun, so there is still a lot of room for development in overseas markets, and some manufacturers frankly admit that more than 40% of the current products are used for export. However, it should be noted that due to the impact of the increase in anti-dumping tariffs in the EU and other countries and regions, overseas markets have also been squeezed.
On the other hand, new energy vehicles, photovoltaics, energy storage and other fields are also key development directions of low smoke and halogen-free. In 2023, the total export of "new three" (new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaics) products will be 106 trillion yuan, breaking through the trillion yuan mark for the first time, an increase of 299%；At the same time, according to domestic statistics according to the terminal sales caliber, the market size of China's charging piles in 2022 will be 37.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 691%, about 43.1 billion yuan in 2023. According to analysts from the China Business Industry Research Institute, the market size will reach 51.7 billion yuan in 2024. In addition, according to the statistical analysis of the China Automobile Association, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China will be 958 in 202370,000 and 94950,000 units, an increase of 358% and 379%, with a market share of 316%。According to industry insiders, a new energy vehicle high-voltage line with low-smoke halogen-free materials will be about 4 kilograms, the sum of all wiring harnesses reached 10 kilograms, according to the output of new energy vehicles in China, there is an annual demand of nearly 100,000 tons.
Low-smoke halogen-free for new energy vehicles and photovoltaics is mainly irradiated cross-linked low-smoke halogen-free. Compared with traditional low-smoke halogen-free materials, irradiation cross-linked low-smoke halogen-free uses irradiation technology to turn the polyolefin chain molecular structure into a three-dimensional network molecular structure to form a dense layer, which prevents the combination of water molecules in the air and the flame retardant hydroxide from deliquescent. At the same time, the temperature resistance level can be increased from 100 to 150 after irradiation.
Internally, the development of low-smoke halogen-free material technology is mainly aimed at producing flame retardant products that meet the EU CPR standard and the domestic B1 standard. The CPR standard was proposed in June 2016, which requires all wires and cables produced or imported into the EU, which is the most stringent quality management and regulatory measures for the wire and cable industry in the EU to date. On July 1, 2017, the cable CPR certification became mandatory. This standard has made higher requirements for the combustion performance of cable products, including combustion grade, smoke density, toxic gas concentration, etc. B1 refers to the national mandatory standard GB 31247-2014 "Classification of Combustion Performance of Cables and Optical Cables", which was issued on December 5, 2014 and officially implemented on September 1, 2015. The standard divides the burning grades of cables and fiber optic cables into four grades: A, B1, B2 and B3. Among them, the combustion performance B1 belongs to the flame retardant material; It is difficult to ignite, micro-burn and carbonize in the air when exposed to open flames or high temperatures, and the combustion and micro-combustion stop immediately when the ignition source is removed.
In general, in today's declining business of traditional photoelectric cables in China, enterprises are actively seeking new development breakthroughs, or seeking outward, or broadening the application field to improve the added value of products, or reducing costs and increasing efficiency, focusing on the international market, and continuing to innovate to ensure that products remain competitive in the competition, which is not only the key path for the future development of enterprises producing low-smoke halogen-free materials, but also provides reference for many other material manufacturers in the optical communication industry.