Structural foam is a kind of isotropic 100% closed-cell foam, which is compatible with wet and prepreg materials and thermoplastic resins, and has a good strength/weight ratio, fatigue resistance, good fire resistance, thermoformability, and good compression creep resistance in processing. Currently there are the following main types of structural foams: polyvinyl chloride (PVC) structural foams, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polymethacrylimide (PMI), and styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer (SAN) types of structural foams.
Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) structural foam material: PVC foam material is made of polyvinyl chloride resin as the main body, adding blowing agent and other additives, is a kind of foam used earlier. It is divided into two categories: rigid and soft, with soft being the most common.
Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) structure foam material is a thermoplastic foam, the production process of waste and recycled materials for re-foaming, with environmental protection features; part of the crystallization of plastics, temperature resistance and chemical solvents, at the same time, self-extinguishing from the fire, combustion without toxic gases emitted, good mechanical properties.
Styrene-acrylonitrile copolymer (SAN) structural foam materials are colorless and transparent thermoplastic resins with high temperature resistance, excellent gloss and resistance to chemical media, uniform density distribution, as well as excellent hardness, rigidity, dimensional stability and high load-bearing capacity.
The main structural foam materials currently available on the market are PVC foam, PET foam and PMI foam. PVC foam is currently the most widely used foam material due to its superior performance and affordable price.
The materials industry, as the foundation and precursor of high technology, has an extremely wide range of applications, and together with information technology and biotechnology, it has become the most important and most promising field in the twenty-first century.
The downstream industry of structural foam material involves a wide range of industries, of which the use as core material of wind turbine blades is the key application field at present, which is supported by the industrial policy.
The fluctuation of raw material prices has a certain impact on the company's profitability. Polyvinyl chloride paste resin, isocyanate and other basic chemical products, its price to a certain extent by the oil and other basic raw material prices, the Middle East geopolitical issues, trade friction between China and the United States will have a direct impact on the trend of the international price of crude oil, which in turn affects the upstream resin and other petrochemical product prices. Therefore, the sharp fluctuations in international oil prices will increase the industry to a certain extent the difficulty of cost control and inventory control of production enterprises.