Can Shoe Materials Be Used As Raw Materials For Aircraft?

Making shoes

It can be applied to aircraft manufacturing? It sounds incredible, but for a shoe factory in Jinjiang, this is not just a concept. In fact, the related projects have entered a stage of substantial progress, and the new sponge developed may soon appear on the fuselage of a flying machine.

Not only new sponge, but also new materials, such as degradable shoes, snow, temperature sensitive and anti slip soles, have been published. This year, the leading shoe materials enterprises in Quanzhou, such as Tai Ya and Zhengda, are constantly developing new technologies, extending product lines and expanding new markets.

Perhaps the new project of single shoe material enterprises is accidental, but if placed in the context of the entire industrial chain, it is inevitable.

Behind this upgrading of shoe material enterprises is the tremendous pressure of survival for the entire industry.

The downstream market of sports goods enterprises is declining, overcapacity and inventory crisis. All kinds of pressure have been pmitted to the shoe material enterprises downstream.

Instead of putting eggs in the same basket, shoe materials enterprises began to look for new supply fields, and new materials and new technologies are stepping stones. Some enterprises even take advantage of this pformation to start their own brand.

New trend: footwear manufacturers develop multi industry products

"At present, this project is still in negotiation stage, and it is not convenient to disclose."

Talking about shoe material can be applied to aircraft manufacturing, the head of a company in Jinjiang, Mr. Chen does not want to speak more.

After repeated questioning by reporters, Mr. Chen said that it is not impossible for shoe materials enterprises to provide materials for aircraft.

"Sponge is a common raw material for shoes.

If the sponge developed by the enterprise is super light and ultra-thin, it can also have high temperature resistance, cold resistance and other properties, and has a certain degree of hardness, which can meet the material standards required by the aircraft, and is expected to be universal.

Chen said that the requirements of the aircraft for material quality are light weight and safety performance standards. The sponge can be used as a filler for shells or inside the fuselage, and has wide application scope.

Many of the materials for shoe materials can be applied to other areas besides shoes. This view has also been recognized by senior engineer Chen Yonghua of Limited by Share Ltd.

"For example, rubber, plastic, PU (polyurethane) and so on, in many areas, materials are universal, but the formula is different."

Chen Yonghua said, like sole may be composed of ten or twenty materials.

He also cited the fact that DuPont, a world-famous research firm, is usually just providing something for an enterprise, but in different fields, it can synthesize different things.

"What DuPont provides is like salt, and how you use it and mix it with other materials is another product."

He believes that the same reason, some technical materials in shoe materials can be used in other aspects besides shoemaking.

Background: upstream shoe manufacturers reduce production scale.

According to the industry, it is not surprising that shoe material enterprises have been pformed into suppliers of aircraft materials.

In fact, in recent years, shoe material enterprises have turned to other fields such as building materials.

"Under the pressure of survival, it is normal for enterprises to explore new market areas."

The personage expresses, at present shoe industry is faced with a few survival pressure already conduction upstream shoe material business.

On the eve of this year's national day,

The news that the biggest shoe material enterprise Qing Mei (China) Limited quietly stopped production is reported in the newspapers.

It is said that the total income of Qing Mei shoe materials from 2007 to 2009 amounted to 1 billion 755 million yuan in the three years. It has done OEM for famous sports brands such as birds, Jordan, sing Qi and 361 degrees. But now there are not many people in the huge industrial parks.

After contacting the responsible person, the reporter learned that most of the original equipment and production lines had been sold. At present, the company only receives a small number of orders, and the operating capital comes from the rental income of factory buildings and office buildings.

In fact, the situation of shoe materials in Qing Mei is not a case.

"Shutting down production is the most practical choice for many small and medium-sized shoe factories."

Mr. Xiao, director of marketing of a shoe company, told reporters that the export volume of footwear industry has declined in recent years. Many export manufacturers have turned to the domestic market and have expanded their production capacity. However, the continuous downward trend of the domestic and foreign economic situation has led to the embarrassment of overcapacity in the whole industry.

Mr. Shaw introduced that the general shoe material enterprises and shoes enterprises could directly produce the products required by shoe manufacturers through the cooperation of orders.

"This year, sporting goods enterprises are mainly actively reducing the inventory, and the production scale of all products will be compressed. The reduction of their production capacity will inevitably affect the purchase amount of shoe materials."

He said.

Huang Zhenji once worked in Nike company and was very well aware of some of Nike's production. Now he is a technical director in Fujian Zhengda Group Co., Ltd.

He told reporters that in 2010 alone, Nike's output had been reduced by 30% to 35%. "Orders for international first-line brands are decreasing. This situation is spreading to the domestic sporting goods industry."

"Look at the situation of large enterprises, we know that inventory is too high, orders are reduced by two or three at least, and the reduction of downstream enterprises directly leads to a serious shortage of orders for shoe materials enterprises.

What's more, the pformation and closure of some small shoe factories also make the order of the upper shoe materials enterprises worse.

Mr. Xiao said that the shortage of orders is an important reason for many shoe enterprises to stop production. "If you want to make a production line, you have to raise the unit price, but the market is unlikely to accept it.

Raise price not to become, that can cause loss only, shoe material enterprise bears consequence.

The two roads are not easy to go. They can only stop production. "

The industry believes that the impact of shoe sales is not only due to overcapacity, high inventory, and so on. The whole environment, such as the European debt crisis, the spread of the dollar and labor costs, the rising prices of various raw materials and other factors, have led to the tough situation of shoe material enterprises.

It has been revealed that hundreds of shoe factories have been closed down this year.

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Find countermeasures; high tech content is the direction of R & D.

In this situation, improving the technological content and increasing the profit of single products has become a new choice for shoe material enterprises.

Shoe material leading enterprises, such as Tai ya, Zhengda and so on, are investing heavily in research and development every year, while Anta, 361 degree and other brand sporting goods enterprises invest huge amounts of technology research and development funds on shoe materials every year.

"The technical content of a pair of shoes is mainly on sole, so a sporting goods brand that wants to be bigger and stronger must pay attention to the development and production of sole."

As the first shoe material enterprise to be listed on A shares in China, the Limited by Share Ltd has maintained a leading position in the research and development of its products, and its responsible person, Yu Shufang, said that at present, Fujian is one of two moving shoe soles enterprises with municipal and provincial enterprise technology centers at the same time.

Chen Yonghua, senior engineer of Thailand, said that since this year, the company has developed degradable shoes, rubber bearings that can be kept warm in the snow and so on, and has applied for a patent.

"For example, the sole with temperature and skid resistance is that people tend to slip when they walk in the snow. We add chemical materials that can induce temperature through the technology research and development. The lower the temperature, the harder the soles will become, the stronger the grip will be, the stronger the skid resistance will be."

Chen Yonghua said that such new technologies, in fact, lay the foundation for enterprises to widen the product chain. For example, such soles can be widely used in the field of outdoor shoes.

In Zhengda office building in Huian, Huang Zhenji, chief technology officer, presented a patent technical document for 10 years.

Huang Zhenji took an integral red rubber soles and bent them in his hands. He told reporters that the soles are elastic bottom, elastic, and can be flexed and twists at will, but they are not easy to deform, but also wear resistant and skid resistant.

"General vulcanized rubber soles, in technical testing, the dry test time coefficient is 0.7, the coefficient of this elastic bottom is 0.95; when smeared with oil, water and other wet testing, the coefficient of general vulcanization rubber bottom is 0.5, and the test coefficient of this sole is 0.68."

In addition to increasing the functionality of sole, degradable environmentally friendly shoe materials have also become one of the directions of R & D in enterprises.

"If it's a general sole, it will still be that material for decades, but by adding synthetic catalyst into the material, it can control the degradation time of the sole, for example, after 5 to 10 years, the soles will be degraded."

Chen Yonghua said.

"You see, this elastic leftover material can be recycled and added to the new material, which can continue to make soles."

Huang Zhenji said that the Degradable Polypropylene soles of the Zhengda were prone to degradation in the process of melt foaming, and the enterprises could inhibit the degradation reaction tendency by adding efficient protective AIDS, so as to control the degradation time.

He said that modified polypropylene materials instead of man-made and natural rubber as raw materials for sports shoes can not only be recovered and easily degraded, but also do not need vulcanization treatment.

"From the price point of view, the price difference between these materials and all kinds of rubber is about 10000 yuan per ton, which can effectively reduce operating costs."

Seek development and create brand: Farewell to semi finished products

Brand is attractive to many suppliers of raw materials.

Having a brand means that the enterprise can bid farewell to the semi finished product era and gain more profit space in the industrial chain.

This is also true for shoe material enterprises.

Quanzhou shoe material enterprise pformation brand management, in fact, there is no precedent.

Meck was born in Heng Qiang shoes and plastic, Adi Wang's investor is new synergy shoe material, and Chia Tai also launched a brand strategy a few years ago, the company in 2010.

"The advent of the world is a great moment.

With several state-level and world-class patents, but the cutting-edge fashion and the "rocking shoes" that make people "unstable", they not only opened up the sales situation, but also made the enterprises quickly establish a reputation in the field of market segmentation.

The wealth effect created by the brand is undoubtedly enormous, and it also makes more shoe materials enterprises want to rush into this camp.

According to the announcement of Thailand's shares, in 2011, the company injected 30 million yuan into a new wholly-owned subsidiary, Xiamen Rui hang Agel Ecommerce Ltd, to build RAX outdoor sports brand project, and create a new outdoor mode of micro outdoor.

In addition, Thailand shares acquired the British brand HI-TEC (Hathaway) 30 years of operation authorization through the acquisition, and made good progress in the brand management strategy.

Zhang Shixu, director of marketing, said that in addition to doing well in its own brand, this year, enterprises will also cooperate with international brands in the field of OEM.

"Since July this year, we have started working with international brands to provide shoes for Reebok, NEW BLANCE (New brun) and so on."

He said that at present, the company is actively working with Paul, Denmark ECCO (ECCO), Lotto and other domestic brands, as well as WAL-MART and other large shopping malls footwear brand to talk about cooperation, and strive to expand the international market.

"Our goal is to achieve a goal of 20 million pairs of sales in one year in the international market, which is expected to be achieved in 3 to 4 years."

He said.