Production status and development trend of chemical fiber oil agent in China

In recent years, China's chemical fiber production capacity has increased greatly, new chemical fiber varieties, new technologies emerge in an endless stream, spinning, spinning speed is more high-speed, the development of new chemical fiber oil agent becomes more important. However, the development and production speed of chemical fiber oil agent in China is still far behind the market demand. This has brought development opportunities to China's chemical fiber oil industry, and also prompted chemical fiber oil production enterprises to develop a variety of new efficient and environmentally friendly chemical fiber oil agents. In this paper, the production status, development requirements and main components of chemical fiber oils in China are described. The manufacturing methods of FDY oils for polyester and polypropylene fibers are introduced. At the same time, it is pointed out that developing chemical fiber oils which can meet the requirements of high-speed spinning process and are friendly to environment is the development trend in the future.

Chemical fiber oil agent is essential in the spinning process of chemical fiber. It can adjust the friction characteristics of the fiber, prevent or eliminate the accumulation of static electricity, give the fiber smooth, soft and other characteristics, so that the chemical fiber smoothly through spinning, stretching, elastic spinning, weaving and other processes to ensure the smooth progress of chemical fiber production. Although the amount of chemical fiber oil in the production of chemical fiber is only 0.15% to 2.5%, it plays a decisive role in the quality of fiber.

According to the 2008 world chemical fiber 39.6 million t consumption of chemical fiber oil agent about 450,000 t to estimate, China's "Twelfth Five-Year" period of chemical fiber annual production is expected to reach 46 million t, the annual consumption of chemical fiber oil agent will also exceed 450,000 t. However, the development and production speed of chemical fiber oil agent in China is far behind the market demand. According to statistics, at present, the maximum annual output of the country (including foreign-funded enterprises in domestic production) is only more than 200,000 tons, and about 40% of chemical fiber oil agents rely on imports. And there is a big gap with the world's advanced countries in quality, technology, variety and other aspects, especially the processing oil agent after spinning drafting, the oil film performance is poor, the quality fluctuation is large, has a great impact on the fiber dyeing performance. In China's chemical fiber products, the oils required for various kinds of differentiated polyester filament products such as synthetic fibers and fine deniers at the stage of multi-variety, small batch and high spinning speed are also basically dependent on imports.

1, the production status of chemical fiber oil agent in China

The development of chemical fiber oil agent has been 5 generations: the first generation is mainly composed of mineral oil, and then add emulsifier and antistatic agent; The second generation is dominated by fatty acid esters. The third generation is composed of fatty acid ester, propylene oxide/ethylene oxide and polyether. The 4th generation is dominated by propylene oxide/ethylene oxide polyether. With the development of chemical fiber filament to high speed, super high speed and multi-functionality, the 5th generation oil agent, which is composed of modified propylene oxide/ethylene oxide polyether and special functional ingredients and additives such as low friction, super heat resistance and easy wetting, came into being. The United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and other countries have been very active in the study of chemical fiber oil, not only developed a lot of new efficient oil, but also the use of compounding technology to develop a good antistatic, smooth and bundling properties of the ideal compound oil.

Since the 1990s, the number of varieties, technical level and production scale of oil agents have developed rapidly, producing dozens of various types of chemical fiber oil agents, and the annual output has reached more than 200,000 tons. In recent years, domestic polyester production has accounted for 60% of the total fiber production, and the use of polyester filament oil has accounted for 45% of the total amount of oil. Polyester filament oil is generally composed of a variety of basic oils and various surfactants, need to take into account lubricity, antistatic, heat resistance, viscosity, so that contradictory performance requirements are balanced to meet, sometimes as many as a dozen components. Therefore, the research of component properties, mastering monomer synthesis, microemulsification, compounding and synergism technology, and matching chemical fiber production technology are the problems that need to be studied and solved continuously in the development process of polyester filament oil.

At present, the polyester filament and high-speed spinning agent of large chemical fiber factories in China basically rely on imports (small chemical fiber factories mostly use domestic oil agents to reduce costs), and the current annual imports amount to tens of thousands of tons. Liaohua, Tianjin Petrochemical, Dandong chemical fiber, Heilongjiang chemical fiber, Yizheng chemical fiber and other 10,000 ton polyester staple fiber manufacturers all use imported oil agent. The first and second polyester plants of Shanghai Petrochemical Complex use domestic E-500 and imported E600 compound oil agent, which has the problem of temperature and humidity difference adaptability, and the spinnability of the fiber is not stable. At present, the localization rate of polyester filament oil is less than 30% (the localization rate of DTY winding oil is about 80%, the localization rate of POY oil is about 50%, and the localization rate of FDY fine denier oil is about 40%). At this stage, China's chemical fiber oil industry and the international development of chemical fiber oil agent in contrast to the five stages, the first generation of oil agent has been localized, the second generation of oil agent is still imported, the third and fourth generation of oil agent has been developed but most of the varieties rely on imports, the fifth generation of oil agent is still in the exploration and trial production. Table 1 shows the product brands of some domestic chemical fiber oil production enterprises.

Polyester staple fiber oil agent not only to meet the production of chemical fiber factory, but also to meet the needs of textile factory after processing, development is difficult, the localization rate is low. Shanghai Petrochemical, Liaoyang Petrochemical, Yizheng chemical fiber and other large chemical fiber, widely = raw materials for high-quality polyester, fast tensile speed, most of the selection of oil from Japan Takemoto oil company and Matsumoto company imported oil, accounting for 80% of the total consumption (in recent years, there are also the use of German double s company, that is, Schill+Seilacher company's oil). The other kind of small chemical fiber plant uses the waste material of large chemical fiber plant and polyester waste bottle as raw materials, the drawing speed is slow, and the first generation of short fiber oil composed of SN, fatty alcohol polyoxyethylene ether and glycerol is used at the beginning. In the 1990s, after the rapid expansion of production capacity and the increase of tensile speed of small chemical fiber factories, the second generation domestic short fiber oil with alkyl phosphate as antistatic agent was basically selected.

2. Development requirements and main components of chemical fiber oil agent

2.1 Development Requirements

After oiling the chemical fiber, some need to be stretched and dried at high temperature, and the finished silk needs to be processed, elasticized, woven and other processes, so the chemical fiber oil agent should have a certain heat resistance, do not decompose when heated, less volatilization, and do not color the fiber; The chemical fiber oil agent should also have a certain oil film strength and good smoothness, so that there is no hair and broken head during the fiber production and post-processing, and the white powder and precipitates are reduced as much as possible. Because the oil agent used in spinning is often an oil-in-water suspension, it must contain emulsifier; The chemical fiber oil agent can also give the fiber excellent antistatic properties. Therefore, the main components of the chemical fiber oil agent include smoothing agent, emulsifier, antistatic agent, and other ingredients can be added according to the different uses of the fiber, such as silicone oil, anti-splash agent, antioxidant, anti-mold agent, anti-rust agent, defoamer, accelerator attached to rubber, organic solvent and water. Among them, the smoothing agent is mainly synthetic fatty acid ester, polyether and a small amount of mineral oil. The floating agent is mainly polyoxyethylene ether. The antistatic agents are mainly alkyl phosphate and alkyl ether phosphate. In the preparation of oil agent, it is difficult to adapt to the requirements of various aspects by relying on a single surfactant. Therefore, it is often necessary to use special compounding and synergistic technology to combine several different types and models of surfactants together to complement each other and exert their synergistic effects. According to the characteristics of specific fibers and the requirements of spinning process for oil properties, qualified oil products can be prepared by special technology.

With the rapid development of the chemical fiber industry and the increase of functional fabrics, the chemical fiber industry has been developing in the direction of fine denier, super high-speed, large capacity, short process, differentiation and functionalization, coupled with the use of new processes and new equipment and the strengthening of ecological environmental protection awareness, which puts forward higher requirements for chemical fiber oil agents. Therefore, the development direction of chemical fiber oil agent is to meet the needs of chemical fiber production and process improvement, so that new, differentiated, serialized, functional, green, both require an oil agent to meet the requirements of different varieties, but also put forward higher and higher requirements for special oil agent. Chemical fiber oil agent not only to meet the normal production requirements of fiber, but also through the oil agent to achieve the fiber with water, oil, anti-bacterial, soft feel, smooth and other unique properties. The green color of chemical fiber oil requires that the oil product is non-toxic, harmless, easy to use, and has good degradability. For example, in the winding oil agent, a completely biodegradable polycarbonate is used to replace mineral oil as lubricant, so that the biodegradation rate of the finished oil of the lubricant can reach more than 90%.