In May, the Long March 5B carrier rocket took off on its maiden flight, successfully sending a new generation of manned spacecraft test ship and cargo return capsule test module into the predetermined orbit, thus opening the curtain for the construction of China’s space station.

On this rocket, polyetheretherketone (hereinafter referred to as “PEEK”) components supplied by Jiangsu Junhua Special Engineering Plastic Products Co., Ltd. play an important role.

The PEEK supplied by Jiangsu Junhua Special Plastics helps the booster servo mechanism achieve high-reliability zero-position locking performance, helping the Long March 5B carrier rocket successfully complete its mission.

As one of the earliest PEEK companies in China, Jiangsu Junhua Special Plastics is good at finding the application direction of PEEK, which is also the most critical point for the development of PEEK industry. Li Jun, general manager of Jiangsu Junhua Special Plastics, has always had a wish, which is to open up a broader market space for this material in China.

This is the direction he is working on.

01. Enter the PEEK industry

During the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, there was an arms race, and high-performance materials were continuously developed.

With the increasing demand of manufacturing industry and the need of national defense industry, my country introduced relevant policies to support the research of PEEK in the 1980s. Three scientific research institutes in China, including Jilin University, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, and Dalian University of Technology, independently developed PEEK patented technology with independent intellectual property rights.

In the early 1990s, China invested in small-batch commercial production. In 2003, Changchun Jida officially put it into mass production.

This special engineering plastic is PEEK. However, there are very few domestic manufacturers and the output is pitifully small. Li Jun, who has been dealing with the chemical industry for many years, has never seen this material in person.

Soon, this chemical plant also began to introduce PEEK technology for production. Seeing the market potential of PEEK, Li Jun decided to quit his job and start his own production four years later.

As a technical entrepreneur, General Manager Li Jun is more cautious. He did not get involved in PEEK raw materials and semi-finished products at the beginning, but bought injection molding machines to start producing PEEK parts.

At that time, PEEK parts were expensive, with high profit returns, and the initial investment was not much. You only needed to understand what equipment this material can be used on to find corresponding customers. Li Jun, who had worked in the chemical industry for many years, was undoubtedly familiar with the process and slowly developed the company.

Later, he began to think about exp