The automotive industry is a very broad field of composite applications, especially in Europe. Due to the requirements of relevant regulations, cars must meet the corresponding emission standards by 2020. To reduce emissions, it is important to reduce the weight of cars. Lightweight is the development trend of the automotive industry, and this development trend has brought great opportunities to composite materials. In the automotive, construction, energy, industrial, and transportation industries, material solutions are changing. Moving from traditional materials to high-performance composites offers market opportunities for the rapid deployment and use of high-performance composites. Materials science, especially composite materials, is one of the main driving forces behind today's technology development. Due to the increasing market demand for glass fiber and its composite materials in the automotive industry, the development of the glass fiber and composite materials industry has been promoted. In terms of fiberglass, each fiberglass company has continuously developed a variety of new fiberglass products for the automotive industry. In the fiberglass composite industry, the widely used SMC molding process was originally developed for the automotive industry. Some new processes and new products that have been introduced in recent years, such as long fiber reinforced thermoplastics, glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic sheets (CMT), and programmable powder preforming processes (P4 process), have also been developed for the automotive industry.
In the long run, the strengthening and transformation of infrastructure in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific has increased the demand for glass fiber. As the global demand for glass fiber in glass fiber modified plastics, sports equipment, aerospace and other fields continues to grow, The outlook for the glass fiber industry remains optimistic. In addition, the application field of glass fiber has expanded to the wind power market, which may be a bright spot in the future development of glass fiber.
According to the latest forecast, in 2011 and 2016, driven by global industrial growth, the average annual growth rate of the fiberglass market was 7%. The global market for glass fiber reinforced materials totals $7 billion. The global trend of population growth and climate change makes glass fiber composites lighter, more impact resistant, durable and high strength than traditional materials; its characteristics can meet the rapidly growing market demand driven by sustainable development demand. According to statistics, 32% of the global fiberglass market is used for construction, including residential, commercial buildings, water storage and transportation; 21% for industry, including factories, mining, offshore platforms; 8% for wind energy; 11% for consumer products , including household appliances, electronics and entertainment; 28% for transportation, including cars, trucks, buses, trains.
