Recently, the biodegradable BOPLA film ( biaxially oriented polylactic acid), the first product to reach mass production in China, has put into production in Xiamen. Sinolong New Materials Co., Ltd., the world’s largest BOPA (biaxially oriented polyamide film, also known as polyamide material) supplier in Xiamen, takes the lead in overcoming this technology.

BOPA is a little-known industry except professionals, but it runs through all aspects in people’s daily life. It can be seen everywhere from the packaging of frozen food, retort food and vacuum food, involving the flexible packaging applications in daily-use, pharmaceutical, machinery and electronics etc.. Recently, the reporter came to Sinolong to explore the mystery behind the Hidden Champion in Manufacturing Industry.

 Standing Out by Mature Technology
Walking into the BOPA production workshop of Xiamen Changsu industrial Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Sinolong the reporter saw that all kinds of machines were running at high speed, including melt extrusion, casting, water bath, simultaneous stretching, driving & winding etc.. All production steps are in order and highly automated. It is understood that the company’s annual production capacity is about 90000 tons.

China’s BOPA industry started late and did not introduce BOPA production line until the beginning of the 21st century. Xiamen Changsu industrial Co., Ltd., established in 2009, surpassed UNITIKA, a Japanese enterprise known as the ancestor of BOPA industry, in only six years.

Zheng Wei, General Manager of Changsu, said, “behind this achievement is the result of our adherence to market-oriented, intensive work and continuous innovation in the industry.”

“Sharp tools make good work.” If enterprises want to grow, equipment must go first. At the beginning of its establishment, Changsu imported the most advanced production line from Germany, carried out independent research and development on this basis, and increased investment in technology.

In 2013, Changsu successfully transformed the mechanical simultaneous production line and mastered the core technology of simultaneous stretching. In 2015, with the efforts of the technical team, two of the world’s most advanced LISIM production lines introduced and transformed by Changsu were successfully put into operation, becoming the only enterprise in China that fully mastered this production technology.

Actually, the initial production of LISIM production line was not smooth. In order to overcome the technical difficulties, the technical team of Changsu collected a large number of data parameters through countless day and night research and countless simulation tests, and solved a series of difficulties that German experts could not overcome.

Zheng Wei told reporters this story, at the beginning of the transformation of the production line, the German team did not believe that Changsu could transform their production equipment. During an equipment commissioning, a technician of Changsu wanted to adjust a detail, but was blocked by the German team: “don’t touch this, you can’t move here!” but the technician of Changsu was very confident and stayed up late to improve this detail. The next day, the German staff were shocked when they saw the results, “how did you do it?” It was with the tenacity and efforts of the technical team that Changsu industry realized dozens of technological innovations in one year.

 Green Materials Help Carbon Emission Reduction
Through the localization of degradable BOPLA film, Sinolong has shown their environmental protection proposition.

Huang Honghui, Secretary of the Board of Directors of Sinolong, told reporters that Originating from biodegradable polylactic acid and through the innovation of formula and process, the biodegradable BOPLA film was obtained by biaxial stretching technology. It has a remarkable effect in reducing carbon emission, and its carbon emission is more than 68% lower than that of traditional fossil based plastics.

In recent years, the national attention to plastic pollution control has continuously increased. The government encourages the R & D, promotion and application of all biodegradable plastic substitutes, especially to strengthen the R & D and innovation of key core technologies and promote the industrialization and greening of plastic products and substitutes, which has created a favorable market environment for the R & D, production and sales of BOPLA.

PLA has been commercialized and mass produced for more than 20 years worldwide, and has long been widely used in many fields. Because China’s technology in the field of biaxial stretching has not been able to make a breakthrough, BOPLA products have remained in the stage of R & D and test.

Guo Baohua, Director of the Institute of Polymer Research of Tsinghua University, said that controlling the molecular number and distribution of PLA, appropriate molecular chain structure, material formula research and development, film structure design and stretching process are the key and difficult points for the successful development of BOPLA.

The breakthrough of Sinolong in this field shows that China is at the world leading level in the field of biaxial stretching technology. Compared with other processing methods, biaxial stretching process not only greatly improves the mechanical properties of PLA film, but also gives the film thinner thickness, which makes the process of material disintegration and microbial erosion faster and easier to be degraded. By controlling the crystallization rate of PLA materials, the degradation rate of BOPLA is controlled, and its application field is further expanded. It can be used as packaging materials in food, electronic products, books and other fields, which is of positive significance for packaging reduction, environmental protection and carbon emission reduction.

“As a new material, BOPLA has a large space to replace traditional materials and can effectively meet the needs of downstream customers for high-quality biodegradable film,” Huang Honghui said.

 Keeping Innovation with Danger Thinking in Times of Peace
During the interview, Yang Qingjin, Chairman of Sinolong, repeatedly stressed the importance of innovation to enterprises. It is this corporate culture that encourages Sinolong to constantly seek breakthroughs and develop more revolutionary products.

In 2015, the EHA launched by Sinolong has super oxygen resistance and flavor retention, which can extend the shelf life of food for half a year.

In 2016, the company also developed a Li-battery PHA film with high pit depth punch resistance, which can effectively meet the material performance requirements of the outermost structure of lithium battery and can be applied to the packaging of lithium battery of new energy vehicles, so as to help realize the localization of lithium battery aluminum plastic film.

BOPA film has excellent high barrier, flexibility and puncture resistance, which is its advantage. However, through observation, R & D team found that when many consumers use some products packaged with ordinary BOPA, if they do not have external tools, they need to work hard to open. In order to meet people’s demand for easy tearing of packaging, the R & D team made ULTRANY series product linear tear TSA through specific process on the basis of ordinary BOPA film, which has “extremely comfortable” linear tearing performance and is the key material to upgrade the consumption experience. It is laminated with packaging materials without any auxiliary tools, so that the elderly and children can easily tear the packaging in a straight line and prevent the contents from splashing.

Through the research and development of various functional films, Sinolong has filled the gap in the high-end film material market at home and abroad and realized domestic substitution in key products. At the beginning of this year, Changsu was selected into the list of the second batch “Little Giant” of the National Professionalization, Refinement, Specialization and Innovation Enterprises by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Despite having a number of revolutionary products pioneered in China, Sinolong still hasn’t stopped its pace of innovation. This year, a 10 billion yuan project landed in Hui’an County, Quanzhou, Fujian Province. “Quanzhou film project is an important development strategy for the globalization of our enterprises. With the development of intelligent and digital enabling industries, we will expand and strengthen the ‘Chinese core film’ in the field of new materials.” Yang Qingjin said that Sinolong will adhere to the two wheel drive of “innovative technology + applied science”, increase investment in the field of functional, ecological and intelligent films and continue to innovate, Continue to write a new chapter in enterprise development.

by Liu Chunmuyang | Economic Daily