PET foam material has excellent comprehensive performance, is currently mainly used in wind power generation, rail transport, aerospace, energy-saving buildings and many other fields. By the national development advocate new energy, energy saving and emission reduction, saving the influence of environmental protection, the domestic wind power generation, building energy saving field of PET foam demand continues to grow. In addition, in recent years, with the rapid development of domestic rail transport, as well as new energy vehicles in the interior parts of the application of the spread, PET foam demand will grow further.

Structural foam materials are based on plastics (PVC, PET, etc.), etc., through the penetration of the aromatic amide polymerisation network correction of the foam material, and flexible foam materials, as the same density is very low, but has a high strength, suitable for the requirements of lightweight materials, high strength of the high-end field.

PET foam, commonly known as polyester resin material, is mainly composed of polyethylene terephthalate. Polyethylene terephthalate (polyester resin) is mainly used in the manufacture of synthetic fibres, films, bottles, and also in engineering plastics and other fields. PET foam is mainly produced by foaming process of PET in production, and is a new type of high-performance, green, recyclable and lightweight material. It has excellent thermal stability, fatigue resistance, thermal expansion, good mechanical properties, flame retardant, low smoke, non-toxic, environmentally friendly and other advantages.

According to the "China PET Foam Material Industry 2022-2027 Market Deep Research and Forecast Analysis Report" published by CRRP Industry Research Institute:

Global PET foam consumption is about 1.1 million cubic metres in 2019, and is expected to grow to 1.36 million square metres in 2022, with a CAGR of about 7.5%, and domestic consumption is about 170,000 cubic metres in 2019, with imports as the main source, and the apparent consumption is expected to be about 266,000 cubic metres in 2021.

PET foamed material preparation is mainly divided into batch foaming method, moulding foaming method and extrusion foaming method, of which extrusion foaming method can achieve continuous production, is the main method of PET foam industrialisation. Extrusion foaming method to alkane or liquid carbon dioxide as extrusion blowing agent, polymer particles and foaming additives in the extruder barrel completely melt and mix to form a melt with good fluidity, high melt strength, quantitative pressure injection of blowing agent, through the high-speed shear mixing, extrusion, shaping and cooling and other steps to get the preparation of PET foam.

At present, the domestic extrusion equipment, product quality and process stability and foreign enterprises still have a certain gap, while the domestic PET foam-related application standards also need to be improved.

PET foam is a new type of high-performance, green, recyclable and lightweight material, which is mainly produced by foaming the PET in production. It is a new type of high-performance, green, recyclable and lightweight material with stable physical and chemical properties, excellent mechanical strength, heat resistance and biodegradability, and is widely used in the fields of environmental protection building materials, automobile interiors, roof insulation, sports equipment, wind power generation and aerospace industry.

The application of domestically produced PET structural foam is mainly concentrated in the wind power market. As of the end of December 2022, the cumulative installed capacity of power generation in China was about 2.56 billion kilowatts, representing a year-on-year growth of 7.8%. Among them, the installed capacity of wind power is about 370 million kilowatts, up 11.2% year-on-year; the installed capacity of solar power is about 390 million kilowatts, up 28.1% year-on-year.

PET foam material downstream for the wind power industry, by the national level onshore wind power subsidy policy regression, the traditional coal power, photovoltaic industry, the impact of increased competition, the whole machine price decline. At the same time fan large-scale trend and the average power of wind turbines to further enhance, resulting in further reduction of fan unit cost, so the average price of the fan in the bidding continued to fall.

In 2022, China's wind power wind power installed capacity of 37.63 MW, a year-on-year decrease of 21%. At present, China's wind power installed capacity from the "14th Five-Year Plan" target (to 2025 the cumulative installed capacity of 581GW) is still a considerable gap. 2022 was suppressed by the demand for installed capacity is delayed, will be released in the following three years. On the other hand, the trend of large-scale wind turbines and the decline in wind power bidding prices have also made the power generation cost of wind power plummet, requiring manufacturers in the industry to continuously improve their cost competitiveness.

Polymer materials and other new materials has been the state's key support for high-tech industries, especially "the State Council on accelerating the cultivation and development of strategic emerging industries decision", it is the "new materials" industry in the strategic emerging industries, and introduced a number of technological research and development, financial and other aspects of the encouragement of the policy. In addition, in recent years, China has achieved a number of innovations in the production process of polymer foam materials, product performance is gradually improved, the application field is also increasingly broadened, these will further promote the polymer foam industry to achieve faster development.

With the continuous development of China's new materials and civil environmental protection, PET foam will be applied to more areas. At present, China's PET foam industry is in the stage of growth and rapid development, domestic PET foam manufacturers through cooperation with universities and colleges to develop, is gradually narrowing the technology gap with developed countries.

In the future, the potential demand for PET foam in automobile, building insulation and other fields is very large, but limited by low density and flame retardant technology bottlenecks, the domestic low-density and flame retardant foam is still unable to normal production, so the automobile and building insulation and other markets are still not open to domestic foam. In order to expand the application fields of PET, it is imperative for domestic foam producers to develop low density and flame retardant foam technology.