Civil aircraft industry has to break through the aluminum processing industry to welcome the market

Recently, China's ARJ21 new regional aircraft flew from Shanghai to Chengdu and was officially delivered to Chengdu Airlines. This was another major breakthrough in China's aviation industry following the final assembly of the C919 large passenger aircraft on November 2. The new ARJ21 regional aircraft is China. For the first time, a mid-range and short-range new-type turbofan feeder aircraft developed by itself in accordance with international civil aviation regulations and with independent intellectual property rights.

According to industry insiders, thanks to advances in technology and support from state policies, China’s civil aircraft manufacturing market is vast, and aluminum, as one of the most important metal materials for aviation equipment manufacturing, will play a decisive role, and relevant aluminum companies will also benefit significantly.

Civil aircraft industry made a historic breakthrough

The new ARJ21 regional aircraft includes basic models, freight models and business jet models, with 78 to 90 seats and a range of 2225 to 3,700 kilometers. It is mainly used to meet the requirements for the use of radiating routes from central cities to surrounding small and medium-sized cities. .

According to reports, after delivery of ARJ21, according to industry regulations, the new aircraft must undergo a 100-hour verification through operation certification, review the supplementary documents, prove that they are in compliance with the standards of the Civil Aviation Administration, and it is expected to be delivered after 3 months of delivery. market.

The ARJ21 aircraft is the first aircraft of our country's civil aircraft industry that has been put into operation and has completely independent intellectual property rights. It has initially explored a civil aircraft technology route of “independent development, international cooperation, and international standards”. ARJ21 has established a management system for foreign system suppliers in accordance with the internationally-researched management model of "Main Manufacturer-Supplier". The system developed by the Chinese put forward the system design requirements and technical indicators, China and foreign suppliers for joint definition, foreign suppliers for research and development, China for monitoring, review, approval and airworthiness certification, China finally completed aircraft-level system integration and integration.

Jin Zhuanglong, chairman of China Commercial Aircraft Corporation, stated that through the development of the ARJ21-700 aircraft, China has completed the design, manufacture, test and flight of the jet branch passenger aircraft, and mastered the stall, minimum ground clearance, flutter, natural ice, and landing gear. A large number of key flight test technologies, new technologies, new materials, and new processes such as shimmy, established a civil aircraft industry system, opened the way for the smooth development of the C919 domestic large passenger aircraft project, and created favorable conditions.

Shortly before the ARJ21 new regional plane set sail, on November 2nd, the first aircraft of the C919 large passenger aircraft independently developed by China was put on the assembly line at the Shang Fei Pudong base of China, officially announcing that China could independently produce large passenger aircraft.

C919 is a medium- and short-range commercial trunk aircraft with independent intellectual property rights in China. The standard range design range is 4,075 kilometers, and the increased range design range is 5,555 kilometers, which can meet the airline's operational requirements for different routes. The development goal of the C919 passenger aircraft is to provide a safe, comfortable, energy-saving, environmentally friendly and competitive medium and short-haul single-aisle commercial transport aircraft for the civil aviation market. In the market positioning, taking the domestic as the starting point, taking into account the foreign market at the same time, providing multi-level, multi-range products.

At present, there are 21 domestic and international users of C919 large passenger aircraft, and the total number of orders has reached 517. The C919 first aircraft is scheduled to fly first in 2016. According to forecasts, after the C919 has successfully entered the market, the total sales volume is expected to reach around 2,000 vehicles, and the era of China's lack of large civilian passenger aircraft will also become history.

According to industry insiders, the successful self-study of ARJ21 and C919 has not only become a historic turning point in the development of the civil aircraft industry, but also will bring a huge market for the aluminum processing industry closely related to the aviation industry.

Increased demand for aviation aluminum

Aluminum alloys are the key structural materials for aircraft manufacturing due to their unique advantages such as low density, moderate strength, easy forming, corrosion resistance, abundant resources, and high recyclability.

High-strength aluminum alloys have the advantages of low density, high strength, and good thermal processing properties. The fabricated sheets, extruded profiles, and hub parts have wide application prospects in aerospace components. For example, high-strength aluminum alloy slabs are used as the main load-bearing components, and the use ratio accounts for 30% to 35% of the total amount of aluminum on the aircraft.

At present, aluminum alloy materials used in airline civil aviation mainly include: aluminum alloy castings, aluminum alloy forgings, large section aluminum alloy extruded profiles, and aluminum alloy thick plates.

It is reported that the selection of the ARJ21 aircraft is based on aluminum alloys. The quality of aluminum components accounts for 75% of the aircraft's net mass. The aluminum alloy used in the ARJ21 aircraft is roughly the same as that of the Boeing B777 aircraft, and the fourth-generation high-strength engine with excellent overall performance is selected. Damage-resistant aluminum alloy manufacturing main structural parts; and C919 front fuselage, mid-fuselage, mid-rear fuselage, nose and wing structural parts are almost all made of aluminum, C919 aluminum work total quality It accounts for 65% of the total net aircraft mass.

The growing demand for air transport and general aviation services has created a broad market space for the development of aircraft manufacturing. It is expected that in the next 10 years, the world will need 12,000 mainline aircraft, 0.27 million regional aircraft, 18,300 general aircraft, and 12,000 helicopters, with a total value of approximately US$2 trillion; at the same time, with the reform of China’s airspace management and low-altitude airspace With the promotion of openness, there is a huge market for domestic general aircrafts, helicopters, and drones.

The International Air Transport Association (I.TA) survey report stated that in 20 years, China will surpass the United States as the world’s largest aviation market in terms of the number of aircraft passengers: in 2034, the total number of global aircraft passengers will double to reach 7.4 billion people. With an average annual growth rate of 5.2%, China will have 1.19 billion passengers in 2034, exceeding 758 million in 2014; the number of aircraft passengers in the US market will grow at an average rate of 3.1%, which can make the number of passengers at 2034. The year reached 1.16 billion people. At the same time, the association predicts that China will become the world's number one in 2029.

According to Airbus’ forecast, in the next 20 years, the total number of newly added aircraft in China will be 5,363, including 3,567 single-aisle aircraft, 1,477 dual-aisle aircraft and 319 ultra-large aircraft.

Acceleration of Aeronautic Aluminum Autonomy

After years of development, China's aluminum processing industry has become an internationally recognized leader in the production of aluminum materials. At present, whether it is aluminum alloy melting equipment, rolling equipment, or aluminum alloy extrusion equipment and finishing equipment, modern first-class aluminum processing equipment The quantity is the highest among countries in the world, but due to the weakness of basic research and high-end technology, the high-end aluminum used in the aerospace industry is still short. Since China had a modernized aluminum processing industry in 1956, the aviation aluminum alloy thick plates required have been in a net import state.

In the materials of regional jets ARJ21-700 and C919 passenger planes with independent intellectual property rights in China, the quality of aluminum alloy components accounts for 65% to 75% of the total mass of the aircraft. According to the plan, by 2018, domestic aluminum will be used for more than 30% of aluminum alloy materials used in ARJ21 regional airliners and C919 large aircrafts. However, Zhang Jun, deputy chief engineer of Shanghai Aircraft Design and Research Institute of COMAC, attended the 2015 New Materials International The Development Trends High-level Forum stated that at present, the proportion of domestically used materials used in China's large aircraft C919 is only 5% to 6%. The demand for aluminum alloy materials from China’s large aircraft has increased the urgency of aluminum alloy R&D and large-scale production of aviation civil aircraft in China’s aluminum processing companies.

Recently, the Department of Raw Materials Industry and the Department of Equipment Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly organized the first “Cooperation Mechanism for Upstream and Downstream Aluminum Equipment for Civil Aircraft” in Shanghai. Zhou Changyi, Director of the Department of Raw Materials of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that in order to promote the collaborative innovation of civil aluminum machinery across industries, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will take the lead in setting up the “Coupling Mechanism for Upstream and Downstream Aluminum Equipment for Civil Aircraft” and focus on the development and production of aviation aluminum. And apply key links to promote the full supply of aviation aluminum materials, establish independent innovation material systems and equipment technology systems, give full play to the role of cooperation mechanisms, increase support for key brand development and platform construction, and improve guidance policies for civil aircraft aluminum applications. The standard system encourages state-owned enterprises and private enterprises to promote each other and integrate civil-military forces.

China Zhongwang, the world's second largest manufacturer and developer of industrial aluminum extrusion products in Asia, took part in the conference as a member of the "Couple Mechanism for Upstream and Downstream of Civil Aircraft Aluminum." It is reported that as a leader in private aluminum enterprises, China Zhongwang has already begun its exploration and practice in the field of aerospace aluminum: In 2013, Zhongwang launched the specification, characteristics and strict quality requirements for aluminum materials for the aerospace industry. The R&D project of “7075 aviation extrusion bar”; in 2015, the 7075 alloy thin wall profile structural parts developed by Zhongwang Civil Engineering was successfully developed to meet the needs of civil aircraft design and manufacturing, laying the foundation for the company to enter aircraft manufacturing; 2015 In addition, Zhongwang also established a joint research and development laboratory for aluminum alloys in Liaoning Aerospace with the cooperation of Shenyang Aerospace University and AVIC Shenfei Civil Aircraft Co., Ltd. Zhongwang Group can now produce high-strength aluminum alloy plates, rods, tubes and aluminum extrusion products with different sections for aircraft components.

In addition, Zhongwang’s Tianjin aluminum-rolled steel project has been prepared for five years. The first phase of the project has a designed annual production capacity of 1.8 million tons, including two production lines. The current plant construction and equipment installation for the first production line is basically Completed. The final stage of equipment commissioning is in progress. The first production line mainly produces aluminum alloy plates, including transportation plates used in the fields of aerospace, marine, commercial vehicles, and rail vehicles, and plates used in chemical containers. It is expected that the production of domestic high-end aluminum products will rely on imports after production.

“The development requirements for the autonomy of civil aluminum materials will inevitably push forward the further development of domestic high-end aluminum materials.” According to industry insiders, “As the technical requirements are very high, some aluminum companies with scale and strength base will benefit first. Enterprises often have the world's leading modern aluminum processing technology and equipment, are also strengthening research and development efforts, and actively introduce industry personnel, coupled with the implementation of national policies to promote the domestic aviation aluminum is expected to achieve early 'curve overtaking'.