What is the Development and Challenges of the CPU Industry?
Polyurethane elastomers, which combine the advantages of both rubber and plastic, are widely used in various high-tech fields. According to the different processing methods, polyurethane elastomers can be classified into cast (CPU), thermoplastic (TPU), and blended types. Among these, cast polyurethane elastomers (Cast Polyurethane Elastomer, referred to as CPU), also known as polyurethane casting rubber, are a type of elastomer produced through a casting process where multi-component materials undergo a chain extension and crosslinking reaction in molds, resulting in a material with adjustable structure and excellent performance.
According to statistics, in 2022, China's total production capacity of polyurethane elastomers reached approximately 1.3 million tons, with an annual compound growth rate of nearly 13.0% from 2018 to 2022. As one of the largest and most widely applied types of polyurethane elastomers, the production scale of cast polyurethane elastomers continues to expand. These elastomers are increasingly used in aerospace, medical equipment, construction engineering, defense and military, chemical manufacturing, electronics, and automotive industries, showcasing a broad market prospect.
According to the "2024-2029 China Cast Polyurethane Elastomer (CPU) Industry Market Deep Research and Development Forecast Report" by New Thinking Industry Research Center, CPU is mainly divided into two categories based on product forms: prepolymers and finished products. Prepolymers are intermediate materials widely used in the production of screening plates, rollers, rubber rollers, and seals. In China, there are many prepolymer producers, with leading companies such as Inovay and Zibo Huayuan having a higher output, accounting for about 50% of the total market share.
Cast polyurethane elastomers offer significant advantages due to their excellent mechanical strength, fatigue resistance, wear resistance, and good chemical stability, making them ideal for the production of medium- and large-sized structural components, particularly in high-load, long-life applications. However, CPU materials also have certain limitations, such as poor resistance to strong acids and bases and relatively moderate high-temperature resistance, which may restrict their performance in some extreme application scenarios.