China is a country with extremely scarce forest resources. The deforestation of mankind, the declining forest resources and the increasing demand for wood have forced the industry to urgently demand the emergence of wood materials. Wood-plastic composite materials (also known as plastic wood materials, referred to as "WPC") are such a product. It is mainly made of plastic as raw material, by adding wood pulp, rice husk, straw and other waste plant fibers into a new wood material, and then extruded, molded, injection molding and other plastic processing technology to produce the sheet or profile. Due to its combination of water resistance and corrosion resistance of wood and wood texture, it is an excellent outdoor building material with excellent performance. WPC embodies the advanced concepts of sustainable development such as low-carbon technology, recycling economy, resource utilization, environmental protection, and economical substitution. It is a new material industry project encouraged by the state.
In China, wood-plastic composite materials have a unique material source and application market. China is a large agricultural country, and the production of various types of abandoned agricultural and forestry fibers is very large. The landfill and incineration of agricultural and forestry wastes is one of the important factors affecting greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, the total amount of waste plastics in China has exceeded 15 million tons. Together with the annual import of about 6 million tons, the annual production of waste plastics has exceeded 20 million tons. The emergence of wood-plastic composite materials can make full use of the two to achieve a win-win situation of economic and environmental benefits.
WPC has a wood-like appearance and secondary processing properties. It has better dimensional stability, corrosion resistance, insect and moisture resistance than logs. It also has the processability of thermoplastics, and has no formaldehyde emission, hardness and rigidity than plastic. High; plus the addition of various additives can also give it more special properties.
Since the birth of wood-plastic composite materials, this new environmentally-friendly material product has received more and more attention and recognition worldwide: in 1964, wood-plastic materials were once regarded as one of the world's top ten scientific achievements; 20th century 80 In the era, foreign countries have in-depth research results and practical applications, mainly used in construction products, furniture, logistics and packaging industries. With the continuous improvement of material properties and the improvement of new additives and processing techniques, plastic wood materials have also expanded the scope of application. Garden wares, flower stands, benches, wooden houses and architectural finishes are all trying to use plastic wood materials. According to the type of matrix resin, WPC can be divided into polyolefin WPC and polyvinyl chloride WPC; according to the standard of foaming, it can be divided into non-foamed WPC and foamed WPC.
In the past ten years, China has gradually promoted the use of plastic wood materials. In 2004, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "Development and Reform Office High Technology (2004) No. 1277" text, which listed wood-plastic composite materials as a major industrial technology development project. In 2005, the State Council issued a notice on the recent work on building an energy-saving society. Document No. 2 and the Opinions on Accelerating Wood Energy Conservation and Substituting Work laid the development direction of wood-plastic composite materials on a macro level.
The use of wood-plastic composite materials plays an important role in the expression of landscape design. With the rapid development of the domestic plastic wood industry and the concept of low-carbon environmental protection, wood-plastic materials are used in landscape design expression; plastic wood materials are themselves The superior performance of “anti-corrosion, paint-free, maintenance-free” not only meets the requirements of low-carbon environmental protection proposed by landscape materials in the new period, but also conducive to human health and natural resource protection while beautifying the environment.
With the deepening of research, the process of plastic wood is constantly fine. In the future, the WPC market will present the following development trends: while raw material standardization and product diversification, on the one hand, high-performance wood-plastic products will further strengthen the properties of toughness, rigidity, hardness, anti-aging and anti-fading. Functionalized wood-plastic products will require higher requirements in terms of flame retardancy and mildew resistance.
Under this trend, I believe that in the near future, the application prospects of wood-plastic composite materials will be more extensive, creating a harmonious, ecological and beautiful human environment for us.