With the development of China's power industry, the requirements for supporting industries are also increasing. As a crucial link in the power supporting industry, wires and cables are no exception, facing the need for upgrading and replacement to adapt to the demands of China's power development. Future wire and cable companies should focus on improving technology, conserving raw materials, and developing new environmentally friendly materials. Based on the author's assessment, the future technological development of the wire and cable industry mainly involves the following aspects.
The development of carbon fiber has accelerated rapidly in recent years, and it's possible that carbon fiber cables may eventually replace traditional steel-cored aluminum stranded wire. Carbon fiber cables are a replacement for traditional steel-cored aluminum stranded wire (bare conductors) and are mainly used in 110kV~220kV lines. Compared to conventional steel-cored aluminum conductors (ACSR), ACCC has a 29% larger aluminum cross-sectional area and is 20% lighter per unit length. Therefore, given a certain allowable sag, using ACCC can significantly improve line transmission capacity and reduce losses. Power grid companies can expand their grid capacity without adding new lines by replacing a large number of ordinary conductors with ACCC conductors, significantly saving land, towers, and engineering costs, aligning with energy conservation and efficiency policies. Carbon fiber composite conductors will be a revolutionary replacement for existing conductors, thus providing new development opportunities for companies with strong competitive advantages in the field of carbon fiber composite conductors.
High-temperature superconducting technology is poised for significant future development. Due to its advantages such as relatively low price, large capacity, low loss, and no electromagnetic pollution, high-temperature superconducting cables have gained considerable international attention, with many countries elevating the development of the superconducting industry to a strategic level. my country has already achieved a major breakthrough in high-temperature superconducting technology. In August of this year, under the on-site supervision of officials from the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project headquarters, the longest superconducting cable operating in the ITER device—a 765-meter CB (factory standard) superconducting cable conductor—rolled off the production line at Baiyin Nonferrous Metals Changtong Co., Ltd.
Meanwhile, in addition to high-temperature cables, relevant national plans also include support for major projects related to "high-temperature superconducting power transmission." Currently, my country imports approximately 2 billion yuan worth of high-temperature cables annually for domestic construction. It is estimated that by 2020, the global market for superconducting applications will reach 244 billion US dollars (approximately 1.4869 trillion yuan), with high-temperature superconducting cables accounting for about 5% of the market share.
Therefore, the research and application of high-temperature superconducting technology will be an important technology for the wire and cable industry in the future.
The optimization and treatment technology of aluminum and rare earth elements will see significant development. The production of electrical aluminum rods using continuous casting and rolling processes is already quite widespread in China, and the performance is good. However, the equipment remains at the level of the early 1970s, with little technological innovation. We must actively promote my country's unique aluminum and rare earth optimization and treatment technology, and utilize some imported key specialized equipment and technologies to add aluminum-zirconium alloys. We should also transform coal-fired aluminum melting furnaces into oil-fired or natural gas furnaces, completely eliminating the emission of coal dust and flue gas from coal-fired aluminum melting furnaces, and installing flue gas filtration devices to purify the flue gas, improving emission quality, increasing yield, and reducing costs. Simultaneously, this will increase the conductor operating temperature from 70℃ to 150℃ and increase the current carrying capacity by 1.6 times.
The technology of replacing copper with aluminum has been proposed for many years and is widely used in Europe and the United States. Its application in Asia is not widespread, but in recent years, many Chinese wire and cable companies have begun to experiment with this technology. General Electric in the United States has even collaborated with the Shanghai Electric Wire and Cable Research Institute to develop a standard system for aluminum alloy cables. Because copper has better electrical and thermal conductivity than aluminum, and can reduce energy loss when transmitting current, it has always been a favorite of wire and cable manufacturers. Currently, over 60% of cables in my country's wire and cable industry are made of copper. However, copper resources are relatively scarce, and the existing copper resources in China have been extensively, even over-exploited.
Aluminum alloy cables have conductivity comparable to copper core cables, but their flexibility is superior. They overcome the shortcomings of traditional pure aluminum cables, such as poor mechanical strength, low fatigue resistance, and easy accidents at joints. They ensure the continuous stability of cable connections under long-term overload and overheating conditions, and also make up for the defects of traditional copper cables, such as memory effect and high rebound performance, thus reducing line loss.
In addition, from raw material production, processing, and manufacturing to transportation, installation, operation, and recycling, aluminum alloy cables have unparalleled economic and environmental advantages over traditional copper core cables, making them undoubtedly the best alternative to copper cables. This is actually good news for wire and cable companies that rely heavily on materials and have low industrial costs, as it reduces their capital requirements. It's worth noting that China is a country with very low copper production, relying almost entirely on imports, but it is a major aluminum producer. Furthermore, aluminum prices are much lower than copper prices, which is highly beneficial for reducing capital requirements.
With the emergence of environmental pollution such as smog, people are paying increasing attention to environmental protection, and the wire and cable industry is no exception, inevitably facing environmental requirements. Environmental protection in the wire and cable industry mainly refers to the environmental friendliness of materials. Currently, the production of wires and cables uses a large amount of high-molecular chemical materials such as rubber, polyvinyl chloride, and polyethylene. This generates a large amount of toxic and harmful gases during the production process. Therefore, it is necessary to actively develop environmentally friendly materials and produce environmentally friendly wires and cables. After developing environmentally friendly wires and cables, cable companies such as Fujikura in Japan actively promoted the promulgation of environmentally friendly wire and cable product standards by the government in order to monopolize the market. In recent years, the sales share of environmentally friendly wires and cables has expanded dramatically, making it impossible for ordinary wires and cables and flame-retardant wires and cables to compete. Furthermore, the scraps and waste generated during the wire and cable production process can be directly recycled and reused.
From the perspective of wire and cable installation, a new development trend is emerging: thinner sheaths and smaller cross-sectional areas. Given the convenience of installation, use, and transportation, and to minimize raw material costs, wire and cable products are increasingly trending towards thinner sheaths, smaller cross-sections, and still sufficient current carrying capacity. Compared to the previous trends, this requires a more comprehensive approach to wire and cable technology.
