At the just-concluded 29th China International Composites Exhibition, a set of live performance data deserves industry attention: a domestic glass-fiber air-jet loom stably wove 2116 electronic fabric at 950 rpm, and maintained 900 rpm on the more demanding 1036 style. This is not just a display of parameters but a signal of domestic weaving equipment's positional shift in the high-performance fiber arena.
Event Background
Held from September 1 to 3 in Shanghai, the exhibition gathered global composite industry chain players and professional buyers. Zhejiang Rifang Textile Machinery Co., Ltd. ("Rifang") brought four machines, including two glass-fiber air-jet looms, one glass-fiber rapier loom, and one carbon-fiber jacquard rapier loom, all in dynamic operation. Among them, the two air-jet looms wove 2116 and 1036 electronic fabrics at 950 rpm and 900 rpm, respectively.
Electronic fabric is a key reinforcement for copper-clad laminates, and its weaving precision directly affects signal transmission performance of downstream PCBs. The 1036 style is thinner and uses finer yarns than 2116, imposing higher demands on tension control, shedding mechanism, and weft insertion. Rifang's stable 900 rpm on-site indicates engineering capability in high-speed vibration suppression and weft flight control.
During the event, professional visitors from over ten countries—including Germany, Japan, South Korea, India, Turkey, and Brazil—visited Rifang's booth, discussing equipment performance, weaving speed, adaptability, and process solutions. Some European and Southeast Asian customers expressed interest in further technical talks and project cooperation after observing the live runs. This detail suggests that domestic high-end looms are no longer merely low-cost alternatives but have entered the technical comparison lists of international buyers.
Industry Impact
From the demand side, the expansion of new energy, aerospace, low-altitude economy, and robotics is reshaping upstream equipment logic for composites. Applications like wind turbine blades, hydrogen storage tanks, and drone structures require wider, more uniform, and consistent glass/carbon fabrics, directly pushing weaving equipment toward higher speed, precision, intelligence, and stability. Rifang's four machines exactly cover typical categories from electronic fabric to carbon fiber fabric, reflecting a "follow the application" product strategy.
For buyers, the value of 950 rpm and 900 rpm goes beyond speed. In electronic fabric production, higher speed increases output per unit time, but without stability, warp breaks and weft stops can reduce efficiency or even damage yarns. Rifang's continuous stable operation indicates that its control system and mechanical structure have been tuned, providing a reference for plants to evaluate true production capacity.
For the domestic loom industry, this showcase is akin to a technical benchmark. Although domestic equipment has approached international advanced levels in speed parameters, gaps remain in core components (e.g., high-performance sley, solenoid valves), long-duration reliability, and process database accumulation. Whether the on-site buzz translates into orders depends on subsequent yield and energy consumption data during customer validation.
In terms of competitive landscape, international giants still dominate high-end electronic fabric looms, but rapid iteration of domestic equipment is compressing their technology premium. By displaying carbon-fiber jacquard rapier looms alongside glass-fiber looms, Rifang hints at building a platform capable of multi-material, multi-structure weaving, which could reduce customers' capital costs when switching between fibers.