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Ilkay Özkisaoglu

Since 04/2021 229 Episoden

#219 Carbon Fibers at Scale: ChangSheng Carbon’s Path from T700 to T1100

20.05.2026 17 min Staffel 5 Episode 177

Zusammenfassung & Show Notes

At JEC World 2026, #Composites360onTour stops at ChangSheng (Changjiang) Carbon, one of China’s most ambitious carbon fiber manufacturers, to explore how innovation, technology, and sustainability are shaping the future of advanced composites.

In this in-depth conversation, Addison Yao, Executive Vice President of ChangSheng Carbon (Shanghai), shares insights into the company’s evolution from its origins in 2016 to becoming an internationally relevant player with cutting-edge carbon fiber solutions for aerospace, civil aviation, eVTOL, motorsports, space, and sporting goods.

Recorded live on the exhibition floor at JEC World, this episode also captures the atmosphere of the show — including carbon fiber violins playing in the background.

🎥 Part of #Composites360onTour — your gateway to the people, technologies, and ideas shaping the global composites industry.

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Transkript

So wonderful Good afternoon, dear LinkedIn Community Composites Lounge members. Now I am here at JEC World 2026, still at day one, going strong on the booth of AVIC together with ChangSheng Carbon. And together with me is Miss Addison Yao. She’s the executive vice president and we will be diving in into carbon materials. Thank you for being part of my show. My honor. So my first question to Miss Addison is let’s go through ChangSheng Carbon’s portfolio in regards to innovation, technology and sustainability, which are our three content pillars. So ChangSheng Technology established in 2016 and we rebranded as ChangSheng Technology in 2021. We have a couple of fiber production from polymerization spinning to carbonization. The company currently operates with an annual production about 2500 metric tones. Miss Addison, I’m totally delighted to know that you’ve studied in Berlin, our capital city in Germany. Do You speak German? Ein bisschen. So we carry on in English right now. But maybe we can practice your German in the near future. So what did you study in Berlin? And how did you like Berlin? I studied neuroscience, neuroscience and mathematics. But I studied in Berlin, like ten years ago. This long time. I love Berlin because of this culture. Actually, I learned about Germany when I was elementary school from a movie. So that’s why I chose to go to Berlin for my high school and also postgraduate. Let me ask you this question because I’m curious, in cultures, in different cultures. Now, you have seen the German culture in the university. I assume the Berlin is a very multinational city anyway. Alright, let’s reframe this. If you would have an advice for a company that wants to go international, for example, to China, a German company. German company. Yes. So what would be the number one recommendation you have to visit China and do business in China? Act fast. Act fast. I like that. A lot of the European customers we’ve reached out to more if you have a contact with. Really slow. They are always on vacation. And they reply email really slowly. Really slow. Okay. They are always on vacation. And they reply email really slowly. Sometimes, we lost patience. Yeah. Yeah. So if a German company want to do business in China? We suggest you go fast. I also, had contact with one of your colleagues regularly. Of course. From my lens. The time distance is a serious one. Yeah. It’s like seven hours between. Berlin and Beijing. Yeah, definitely. So that is one thing to consider. Anything else that comes to your mind? Any other recommendation? Be more open. Because from my understanding, German people are more conservative. Yes. But they’re really good. I love Germany and i love german people. So talking about culture. If I may ask. How would you describe the culture of ChangSheng Carbon? It’s mixed. It’s a little bit tricky because, there’s one group of people really young, such as marketing and business people. Really young. They are millennial. Or definitely born after, 1995, 2000. This people, they are more, innovative and they're open minded very fast. But our engineers, several technician, relatively old. Oh, old in a good way. Let's say they are more senior. Yeah. More senior. Most of them. They are already over, like 60 or 55. They have like, more than 30 to 40 years in this field of carbon fiber. Some of them they don’t do college, but they are on the production line from like 15…16. Sometimes they don’t solve problem using theory. They’re more like using the experience. So we do have doctorate in the facility, in the company. And we also have engineers, but engineers, you know, in experience way. I think we are a company that includes experience, academia, young minds, innovative people. I mean, it’s very mix. And we have expertise in either way. But the combination makes it interesting. So you got the younger generation is in Germany, the same, who’s driving is very creative. And then you have more the senior engineers. Who have already experienced a lot of stuff in the past. So the combination makes it ideal again. Sometimes we have this new idea that engineers and the veterans say no, no, we cannot achieve this. But we push them. We push their boundary. Actually, so we believe this is a really good way, for innovation. So that was, dear community and excursion in, Chinese and German cultures because we had the fantastic opportunity that you have studied in Berlin. Let’s come back to ChangSheng Carbon for a minute. One more time. So our product portfolio spans from T700 to T1100 grade of carbon fiber. And also we manufacture high modulus fibers such as M40, M40X and M46. And they are already using a lot of high level application for example, T700. We use it in more than ten evtol manufacturer and for T800, as this one in my hand, we use it in COMAC C919 project which is precedented for Chinese carbon fiber.This is first used in civil aviation. And for T1000 carbon fiber. We use it in a lot of sports and leisure application, such as fishing rods, bicycles and also golf clubs. And one type of fibers we are most proud of is our T1100 of carbon fiber, which means that it’s a breakthrough for a Chinese carbon fiber manufacturer. And for high modulus, it is a very common fiber that you use in satellite and space. We are now developing a new type of fibers that will be fire resistant in extreme condition in the space. So in terms of just making fiber via customized for our clients, especially, for our clients abroad, because they’ll keep asking us, what’s the difference between you and other Chinese manufacturers? We believe that the first thing is that we are small. We have two production line and we are very adjustable. We are not fixed to certain types. So, Miss Addison, now you have also this T800 grade. Tell us about the T800. We actually have four types of T800 grade. But the one type that we are most proud of is this one ZA55GC. This one we passed COMAC’s PCD approval and already used in COMAC C919 widebody aircraft project. We are the first Chinese Carbon fiber manufacturer ever get into this civil aviation project. Oh, congratulations. It’s in terms of the T800, But we are proud to say that our Chinese carbon fiber manufacturer of such as T300 to T700, that already in this aviation project, we are the first one, for T800, to use in this secondary structural part of the aircraft. Okay. So then after the T800 you have also the T1100. So what’s the specialty of the T1100? T1100, we are now have industrial scale production of T1100. And we have two types of T1100. One is called ZA70UC, this tensile stress above 7000 Mega Pascal and ZA70GC with tensile strength about 6600 megaPascal and this two, the difference between ZA70UC and ZA70GC is that they are used in different application. For ZA70UC, we use it in bicycles, F1 (race car). We have a lot of application in F1 (race car). And for ZA70GC, we started the development of ZA70GC for C929 project, Okay. the new widebody aircraft. We are still in the process of getting testing, getting a piece of the approval for that, but we believe we are on the way. It won’t take too long. Our passing rate of the production of T1100 already passed 98%, which means the yield rate is really high and we can manufacture T1100 grade of carbon fiber in a very cost effective way. How do you see the future, what future developments will ChangSheng Carbon hold in this industry? Actually, we have a strategic plan called a five year plan. You know, a lot of Chinese, in tradition, we use this five year as a interval. For ChangSheng Carbon, we do have one foundation, two wings. One foundation is our current facility in Langfang city, one hour drive from Beijing which is the capital city of China. In that place we do carbon fiber by ourselves. We manufacture. We do research, we do R&D, and we have about 3,000 metric tons per year. It’s about the annual output. For two wings. First is in Shanghai. It’s our new R&D center, which means we are closer to our clients and customer because Shanghai is a very international city. So in Shanghai, we can reach out to the world, such as our German customers. They go to Shanghai a lot. Also in Shanghai, we will do some pilot line about thermoplastic, which is a new direction. And it’s very mature in Europe and it’s environmentally friendly. And our second wing is in Shenzhen, Shenzhen area. We’re gonna expand our production scale. We gonna increase to 10,000 metric ton, in terms of T700 of carbon fiber, which means if we produce T800 or T1000 or T1100, we’re gonna cut it to one third, about 3000 metric tons per year. Because we believe when we go abroad, the annual capacity is the most thing that our customer care about. And that’s the question actually they asked the most, what’s your future plan? If we gonna reach to a certain consensus? Can you guarantee our use of carbon fiber? In Shenzhen, the facility gonna expand our product portfolio. We gonna manufacture 3K, 6K, you know, addition to 12K and 24k, but we gonna stick to T700 above, because there’s something we should do and something we shouldn’t. That's how we stay focused in this industry. That sounds very ambitious. Oh thank you. Thank you so much, Dear community, if you heard in the background some violin sounds we deliberately let it work so that you get the atmosphere and the environment of this exhibition. And these violins, they are made from carbon fiber and they have a really a nice sound. Thank you so much, Miss Addiison, for this very pleasant interview, for the insights into ChangSheng Carbon and the Chinese mentality and the cultures. I wish you a very great rest of the show. Thank you. You too. Good to see you. How do we connect you with the stories within the composites and sustainable materials industry? We are on the ground to find the facts and we examine big, innovative ideas. We let perspectives on technology and sustainability emerge and ignite conversations that matter most to bring you the composites and sustainability world to you. Stay informed. Stay connected. Stay inspired. From our online studios in Germany, we cover events and corporates from Germany France, UK, Central Europe Italy, Türkiye and other European regions. Join us for creating sustainable value. This is #Composites360onTour - your fast lane access to the global composites community. From factory floors to breakthrough labs. From startup powerhouses to industry leaders. We capture the people, the processes and the ideas shaping the next generation of advanced materials. Where innovation meets real world applications, we bring you the voices that define the future - directly, authentically, and live from the heart of every major composites event. In 2026 and 2027 #Composites360onTour continues its journey across Europe, bringing you closer to the people and breakthroughs shaping our industry. At JEC FORUM DACH 2026 in Cologne, we reconnect with the German speaking composites ecosystem innovations, SMEs, suppliers, buyers and industry leaders driving high performance, lightweight solutions. At JEC WORLD 2027 in Paris, we step onto the global stage, capturing world class technologies, international collaborations and the future of composites at the industry's biggest gathering. 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