Present Situation and Development Trend of Foreign Rubber Hose Industry

The rubber product of the hose began at the beginning of the last century. The braided material was used as the reinforcement structure of the hose. At the beginning, the vertical braiding machine was used to strengthen the hose with yarn braiding, while the steel wire reinforcement began in the 1920 s. The steel core of the horizontal braiding machine 15-18m long produces steel wire reinforced rubber hoses. The emergence of automotive hydraulic braking devices in the mid-1930s, as well as the emergence of hydraulic devices on machine tools, construction equipment, underground mining, oil exploration and other equipment in the 1940 s and 1950 s, as well as offshore oil development, rapidly expanded the hose market and made The hose industry has developed rapidly. According to statistics, the output of hoses in Europe reached 240000 tons in 1997 and 130000 tons in North America, while Japan's output of hoses in 1998 was 280 million standard meters and China's output of hoses was 100 million standard meters. Looking at the world, the current hose industry has entered a period of low-speed growth, the market tends to be saturated, the hose industry must be further rationalized reform, opportunities and challenges coexist.

The current situation of foreign hose industry production capacity is well known. The development of foreign hose industry is closely related to automobiles, machine tools, construction industry, underground mining, oil exploitation and offshore oil drilling. As the accessories of the above industries, hose has shown strong vitality, and has also bred many famous hose manufacturing enterprises (see attached table).
 

Status of foreign hose production equipment


In recent years, foreign hose manufacturers have all used vacuum cold feeding extruders with rubber filter devices (and began to use granulated rubber materials), which can not only ensure the inner diameter, outer diameter and wall thickness of the hose, reach the specified eccentricity, but also eliminate impurities. After entering the 1990 s, American Actoetrix and other companies applied laser technology to measure the size of the hose, realizing all the automation of measurement, feedback and adjustment. In addition, the application of shear head extruder, composite extrusion process and short fiber reinforced rubber extrusion process application, so that the United States, Europe hose manufacturers to further improve the degree of continuous production, in the molding process, is still hard core method, soft core method and coreless method three. However, the soft core method is a commonly used method, which is generally suitable for large length hoses with a diameter of 38mm or less. In addition, some factories use the coreless method to produce hoses, and the continuous production of large lengths of hoses can be implemented by tightly braiding or winding steel wires (the coreless molding process can continuously apply tension and prestress to the hose skeleton material, so that the reliability of the hose can be improved). From the perspective of some hose manufacturers, they all use advanced performance and high degree of automation of steel wire braiding machines, z-winding machines, as well as supporting the use of steel wire stringing machines and wire machines. For example, RB-2 type high-speed braiding machine, 225-II type high-speed braiding machine, WSWII type precision wire winding machine and MR1 type wire braiding machine produced by Mayer company are all widely used. According to statistics, there are nearly 280 RB type braiding machines in Europe and North America, and nearly 950 225I type high-speed braiding machines in Europe and North America, WSWII type precision steel wire winding machine in Europe and North America there are 49 in use, and Mayer produced MR1 type high-speed braiding machine due to the comprehensive performance, the price advantage is more by the hose manufacturers welcome, there are thousands of machines in use. The above shows that the steel wire braiding and winding equipment used in the production of high-pressure hoses abroad is very perfect, realizing high-speed, continuous, and combined configuration automatic production.


The development trend of foreign hose industry hose industry has undoubtedly achieved considerable development. From the beginning of limited types and specifications to today's development involving hydraulic engineering machinery, oil drilling, aerospace, automobiles, ships, coal mining, agricultural water conservancy, etc. In many fields, the types of hoses used are hundreds, and the specifications of hoses are thousands, according to ISO/TC45 (International Organization for Standardization 45th Technical Committee) SCI hose sub-committee statistics, has been developed hose standards there are as many as 77, involving the hose test method of international standards there are 20.


In recent years, due to the growing voice of environmental protection, the use of unleaded gasoline and the use of refrigerant R134a require hoses to meet the requirements of the rubber to meet the requirements of environmental protection. At the same time, people have paid more attention to the application of flame retardant and flame resistant hoses. With the emergence of more sophisticated mechanical equipment, higher requirements have been put forward for the hoses used. For example, a better bending radius and lighter weight are required. It is also desirable that the hose industry, as well as the tire industry, should recycle discarded hoses to avoid polluting the environment. With the emergence of new materials, thermoplastic elastomers are widely used, and the hose industry will also develop rapidly.