On how to realize the High quality Development of Zinc Alloy Industry

1. Present situation of Zinc Alloy Industry

Zinc alloy was mainly used in industry on a large scale from the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century. During World War II, because of lack of copper, Germany used zinc alloy instead of copper alloy as wear-resistant parts. At the end of 1950s, there was a shortage of international copper resources, zinc alloy attracted attention, and several typical die-casting zinc alloys were invented.

It is not too late for our country to pay attention to zinc alloy, but the real large-scale research, development and application is after the reform and opening up, first of all, many zinc alloy die casting plants have been set up in the coastal areas to produce zinc alloy die castings and sell them at home and abroad; in addition, with the development of iron and steel industry, the consumption of zinc alloy for coating has increased sharply, making our country a big country in the production, application and export of zinc alloy.

In 2021, the output of zinc alloy in China was 6.561 million tons, an increase of 1.7% over the same period last year. At present, domestic zinc alloy upstream refining enterprises are relatively concentrated, represented by Zhuye Group, Tongling Nonferrous Metals, Huludao Zinc Industry, Chihong Zinc Germanium and other enterprises, occupying most of the zinc smelting capacity. The largest downstream application field of hot-dip galvanized alloy is subject to demand contraction, which has shown an overall shrinking trend in recent years. Due to the strong demand for die-casting zinc alloy, the overall production capacity is expanding. However, in the die-casting zinc alloy market, the downstream customers are extremely scattered, and many family workshop enterprises still have room for survival. Next week, small die-casting enterprises are subject to weak bargaining power, and under cost pressure, industrial chaos such as inferior quality still exists widely.

two。 Comparison of Zinc Alloy Ingot products at Home and abroad

How big is the gap between domestic and foreign zinc alloy products? With this problem, in 2021, Suzhou Xiangguan Alloy Research Institute purchased Zamak 2, Zamak5 and Zamak7 alloy ingots of a well-known zinc alloy enterprise from the United States, and tested and compared them with those of a mainstream manufacturer in China. We cut all kinds of samples of the original zinc alloy ingots of Mei Brand and Copper Guan brand by wire cutting, and carry out ICP, metallographic, density, tensile and hardness tests; the original zinc alloy ingots of Mei Brand and Copper Guan brand are remelted and cast with the same process, and the remelted ingots after casting are sampled again by wire cutting and a series of tests are carried out.

1) composition comparison: there is a slight difference in the required ex-factory composition range of zinc ingots of the corresponding brands of Mei Brand and Tongguan Brand. However, from the ICP test results, the impurities in Tongguan zinc alloy ingots are more strictly controlled.

2) metallographic structure: in the original state, the grain size of Tongguan brand zinc alloy ingots is smaller than that of American ingots; after the same process remelting, the grain structures of the two ingots are basically the same.

3) density: the density of copper crown zinc alloy ingots is smaller than that of American ingots, and both of them are basically the same; after remelting, the density values of both zinc alloy ingots are decreased in different degrees.

4) Mechanical tension: the original ingot of cymbidium, the copper crown zinc alloy ingot is better than the American ingot, and the tensile strength of the two ingots is lower than the lower limit of the national standard; the original ingot and the copper crown zinc alloy ingot are better than the lower limit of the national standard, and the two are basically the same after remelting; the original ingot and remelting ingot of Tongguan brand zinc alloy ingot are better than the lower limit value of the national standard, and both of them are larger than the lower limit value of the national standard.

5) hardness: in the original state, the hardness values of Tongguan brand zinc alloy ingots are better than those of Mei Brand and greater than GB value, and both of them are basically the same; after remelting, both of them are obviously improved, and the hardness of Tongguan brand zinc alloy ingots is still better than that of American brand ingots.

Table 1. Comparison of composition between Mei Brand Zinc Alloy Ingot and Copper Guan Brand Zinc Alloy Ingot (ICP-OES Test results, SPECTRO)

From the above test results, we can see that there is no significant difference between China and the United States in terms of various indexes of zinc alloy ingots. In the composition control and other aspects, from the sample test results, the domestic is slightly better.

3. High quality Development of domestic Zinc Alloy Industry

Generally speaking, there is no obvious gap between China's zinc alloy ingots and foreign countries. What we are lagging behind is mainly the equipment for the production of zinc alloy. And the research and development of zinc alloy high-tech and high value-added products.

By visiting some domestic zinc alloy smelting plants, we found that most of them are still produced with very primitive equipment and processes.

Fig. 2 smelting workshop of a domestic enterprise

3.1 optimize domestic zinc alloy production equipment

Under the guidance of the national policy of "intelligent manufacturing" and "green manufacturing", our head design institute and stoves, assembly lines, and automation equipment enterprises within the United Nations plan to build an intelligent chemical plant with an annual output of 100,000 tons. Factories make full use of automation equipment, Internet of things, intelligent logistics warehousing, information management and other technologies, can greatly save labor costs. The use of advanced industrial stoves and heat recovery technology can effectively reduce energy consumption and meet the requirements of national green manufacturing. The use of advanced alloy composition addition equipment, methods and self-developed refining agent can improve the uniformity of alloy composition and reduce impurity content and burning loss rate.

3.2 perfecting the standard system of zinc alloy

At present, we are also working on the drafting of zinc alloy national standards, together with Tongling Nonferrous Group Anhui Tongguan Nonferrous Metals (Chizhou) Co., Ltd., to draft the national standard of "zinc alloy and terminology". Take the lead in drafting "zinc alloy casting process", "zinc alloy tile" and other industry standards. We sincerely invite colleagues to participate in the drafting of relevant standards with us.

3.3 develop high-end zinc alloy products

Zinc alloy ingot belongs to raw material industry and traditional industry, and its profit margin is very low. At present, we are committed to developing high value-added zinc alloy products, such as biomedical biodegradable zinc alloy and 6-7N high purity zinc alloy products.

As a new member of biodegradable biomedical alloy, zinc-based biodegradable biomedical alloy not only has excellent biocompatibility such as magnesium alloy, but also has suitable service time in organism, and is not easy to be disturbed by external magnetic field. it is considered to be a kind of biodegradable material with great potential. However, there are relatively few researches on zinc-based biodegradable biomedical alloys at home and abroad. Professor Li Junzhu of Xiangguan Alloy Research Institute in Suzhou developed Zn-Cu-Sr ternary alloys, which filled the gap in the research of zinc-based alloys as biodegradable biomaterials and contributed to the engineering of zinc-based alloys as biodegradable biomaterials in clinical medicine.

At present, Xiangguan Alloy Research Institute can extract 6N high purity zinc products by vacuum melting technology. In 2022, our hospital continued to introduce regional smelting equipment with the goal of developing 7N ultra-high purity zinc products to fill the domestic gap.

4. Initiative

Scientific and technological progress is the decisive factor to enhance the strength of enterprises, and the competition in the market is actually the competition of science and technology and talents. Zinc alloy enterprises should take training, attracting and making good use of talents as a major strategic task, and strive to establish a team of high-quality talents in zinc alloy theory and forming technology. Absorb and digest foreign advanced technology as soon as possible, and boldly adopt high and new technology to arm zinc alloy production and management, so that China's zinc alloy industrial production can reach the international advanced level.

China's zinc alloy has a long way to go. Looking up at the sky and keeping our feet on the ground, the biggest enemy of the development of China's zinc alloy industry is not others, but ourselves. Let us open our hearts, embrace the sea, break through ourselves, enlighten the future, unite all forces that can be United, join hands to build Chinese zinc alloy, and contribute the due contribution of materials science to the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. contribute our youth and sweat to the realization of Chinese Dream.

April 11-13 the 17th International lead and Zinc Summit

Focus on the win-win future of lead and zinc with double carbon goals

2021 is the first year of the 14th five-year Plan. China has strived to start a new journey of high-quality development. Lead and zinc industry is an important part of the non-ferrous metal industry and has a special status in the economic and social development of our country. Facing the future, under the background of realizing the goal of "double carbon", the development of lead and zinc industry has also ushered in an important strategic period, and the industrial pattern needs to be optimized urgently!

In order to create a platform for exchange and cooperation, promote the high-quality development of the lead and zinc industry, and create new potential energy in traditional industries! SMM invites industry colleagues to gather together in April 2022 the 17th International lead-Zinc Summit and International lead-Zinc Technology Innovation Conference, which will gather high-quality enterprise customers in the industrial chain, look forward to the new trend of industry development under the new normal, and explore the professional methodology of market changes.

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