Xiangyuan Chemical has recently achieved a major milestone in the development of high-performance polyurethane fiber composite materials, marking a significant step forward in the industry’s transition toward lightweight, durable, and low-carbon advanced materials. The newly developed composite can serve as an alternative to traditional metal materials and offers a unique combination of light weight, high mechanical strength, wear resistance, temperature endurance, weather resistance, and environmental sustainability. This breakthrough opens new possibilities for material upgrades in construction, agriculture, photovoltaic structures, rail transit, automotive engineering, aerospace, and municipal infrastructure.
Breakthrough in Polyurethane Fiber Composite Material Technology
The new material is built on a polyurethane resin system—using Xiangyuan Chemical’s independently developed polyurethane Component A and Component B—reinforced with high-performance fibers and manufactured through a continuous pultrusion process. The resulting composite delivers ease of processing, fast curing, structural optimization, and stable performance, with customizable functionality based on application needs.
The technology supports multiple reinforcement options, including glass fiber, basalt fiber, and carbon fiber. These can be flexibly combined to tailor strength, modulus, toughness, insulation, or flame-retardant characteristics to specific product requirements.
Key Performance Advantages
Lightweight yet strong — Capable of replacing steel, aluminum alloys, and PVC in many structural applications.
Superior wear resistance — Provides 2–7 times higher wear performance than standard rubber.
High temperature resistance — Maintains performance under long-term exposure up to 130 °C.
Ultra-low thermal conductivity — Reaching as low as 0.025 W/m·K for outstanding insulation.
Eco-friendly design — Solvent-free or waterborne system with near-zero VOC emissions; recyclable material.
Flexible design and manufacturing — Broad performance tunability suitable for construction, automotive, agricultural equipment, renewable energy, and aerospace applications.
Core Technical Innovations in Production
Through extensive R&D, Xiangyuan Chemical has refined four key technical pillars that ensure reliable performance and batch stability during composite manufacturing:
1. Precision Mold Engineering & Temperature Control
High-precision mold design and tightly controlled curing temperature guarantee uniform solidification and compact composite structure, enabling excellent dimensional accuracy and enhanced mechanical performance.
2. Raw Material Selection & Structural Matching
Depending on end-use requirements—strength, elasticity, modulus, insulation, flame retardancy, or outdoor durability—the R&D team precisely matches isocyanates, polyols, chain extenders, and additives. Such fine-tuning ensures reliability across diverse industrial applications.
3. Optimization of Resin Injection & Traction Systems
By upgrading the resin injection box and traction unit, the pultrusion line achieves more uniform fiber impregnation and greater forming precision—essential for mass production of polyurethane composites.
4. Standardized Fabrication & Formula Optimization
Continuous data accumulation and iterative process optimization have resulted in a highly standardized and scalable production system that guarantees batch-to-batch consistency and supports industrial-level manufacturing.
Industry Impact and Future Prospects
Experts view polyurethane fiber composite materials as one of the most promising next-generation lightweight materials, offering advantages across durability, strength-to-weight ratio, corrosion resistance, and design flexibility. Xiangyuan Chemical’s progress will accelerate the lightweight transformation of vehicles, upgrades in agricultural machinery, innovation in wind and solar structural components, and modernization of power grid and rail infrastructure. It also has strong potential in defense and aerospace material systems.
Despite being 76 years old, Chairman Zhou of Xiangyuan Chemical continues to work at the forefront of R&D. He emphasized to PUdaily that the advancement of high-performance polyurethane composites requires synergistic collaboration across the entire industrial chain—from equipment manufacturers and process engineers to downstream application partners—to jointly drive high-quality development.
Under Mr. Zhou’s leadership, the team invested more than 18 months into overcoming key challenges in production technology, resin formulation, and performance control. He also expressed willingness to share technological achievements with industry peers to collectively push forward the commercialization of polyurethane composite materials in China.
About Xiangyuan Chemical
Founded in 2007, Xiangyuan Chemical is a wholly owned subsidiary of Suzhou Xiangyuan New Materials Co., Ltd., both established by Mr. Zhou Jian. The company serves as a modern, intelligent manufacturing base specializing in polyurethane chain extenders, and operates the world’s largest and most advanced MOCA production facility.
As of 2025, Xiangyuan Chemical’s annual production capacity for polyurethane chain extenders has reached 35,000 tons, covering more than 30 products across five major series—including aromatic diamines, polyether amines, aliphatic diamines, latent curing agents, and multiple high-performance variants supplied to over 50 countries worldwide.
Recognized as a national “single-champion” manufacturer, a “specialized, sophisticated, distinctive, and innovative” enterprise, and a national high-tech company, Xiangyuan Chemical has leveraged its deep technological accumulation to advance its research in polyurethane composite materials. The company remains committed to supporting the sustainable and high-quality development of China’s new materials industry.