What is UHMWPE Fiber?
Ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fiber is referred to as UHMWPE fiber, also known as high-strength PE fiber. Its molecular weight is between 1.5 million and 8 million, which is dozens of times that of ordinary fibers, which is also the origin of its name.
UHMWPE fiber is one of the three major high-tech fibers in the world today, and it is also the toughest fiber in the world. Its strength is 15 times that of steel, and 2 times higher than carbon fiber and Fang 1414. It is currently the main material for making body armor.
UHMWPE fiber has unparalleled performance advantages. At present, there is no pure polymer material with so many excellent properties, which has the reputation of "King of Plastics".
UHMWPE fiber is light, with a density of only 0.97 glem', and has strong chemical inertness. Strong acid and alkali solutions and organic solvents have no effect on its strength. Moreover, it has excellent weather aging resistance and UV resistance. After 1500 hours of sunlight, the fiber strength retention rate is still as high as 80%. It still has ductility at the temperature of liquid ammonia (-269 ℃), and can maintain excellent impact strength in liquid nitrogen (-196 ℃), which is unmatched by other plastics. In addition, UHMWPE fiber has the strongest wear resistance, bending resistance and tension fatigue performance among the existing high-performance fibers, and has outstanding impact resistance and cutting resistance toughness. A UHMWPE fiber that is only a quarter of the thickness of a hair can be cut almost continuously with scissors. Compared with other engineering plastics, it mainly has shortcomings such as low heat resistance, stiffness and hardness, but it can be improved by methods such as "filling" and "crosslinking".
The basic theory about ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene fibers was put forward as early as the 1930s. However, it is the gel spinning and plasticizing spinning that have really made a major breakthrough in technology. In the 1970s, the University of Leeds first successfully developed high molecular weight polyethylene fibers with a molecular weight of 100,000. In 1975, DSM of the Netherlands invented the gel spinning method using decahydrotea as a solvent, successfully prepared UHMWPE fibers, and applied for a patent in 1979. After ten years of hard research, it was confirmed that the gel spinning method is an effective method for manufacturing high-strength polyethylene fibers, which has industrial prospects, and its raw materials are easy to obtain and the production cost is low. UHMWPE fibers immediately attracted the attention of the world's industrial powers.
Due to the many excellent properties of UHMWPE fiber, it has shown great advantages in the high-performance fiber market, including from mooring ropes in offshore oil fields to high-performance lightweight composite materials. Equipment and other fields play a pivotal role, especially in the military field.
In aerospace engineering, due to the light weight, high strength and good impact resistance of UHMWPE fiber composite materials, it is suitable for wingtip structures of various aircraft, spacecraft structures, buoy aircraft, deceleration parachutes, etc. In the civilian field, ropes, cables, sails and fishing gear made of UHMWPE fibers are suitable for marine engineering. The breaking length under dead weight is 8 times that of steel ropes and 2 times that of aramid fibers. In industrial applications, UHMWPE fibers and their composites can be used as pressure vessels, conveyor belts, filter materials, automotive buffer plates, etc. In sporting goods, helmets, snowboards, sailing boards, fishing rods, rackets, bicycles, hang gliding boards, and ultra-lightweight aircraft parts have been made, and its performance is superior to traditional materials. In medicine, it has been used in clinical applications in the fields of dental tray materials, medical implants and plastic sutures.
