On April 16, 2026, the student team of the “Double Helix” Innovation Talent Cultivation Program at the Anhui Provincial Engineering Research Center for Advanced Functional Polymer Films, University of Science and Technology of China, visited the Fiber Branch Plant of Anhui Wanwei Group for an on-site tour and technical exchange. The team went deep into the production frontline to study the full-process manufacturing technology of PVA fibers, with a particular focus on addressing the urgent demand from major national projects such as the Yajiang Hydropower Station for high-performance concrete-reinforcing PVA fibers. Together with the company’s technical experts, the team discussed and established directions for subsequent joint research and development. Relevant leaders and technical specialists from the Fiber Branch Plant of Wanwei Group accompanied the visit and participated in the discussions.
The faculty-student team visited key production workshops including PVA resin polymerization, wet spinning, multi-stage stretching, heat-setting treatment, and finished-product packaging, observing the entire industrial manufacturing process of high-modulus, high-strength PVA fibers from raw materials to finished products. Drawing on the production-line equipment, the company’s technical staff explained in detail how key factors such as degree-of-polymerization control, spinning-solution formulation, and stretching-process parameters affect the mechanical properties of the fibers. They also introduced the differences in the applications of various PVA fiber specifications in water conservancy dams, rail transit, seismic-resistant buildings, and other fields. The students engaged in interactive discussions with the technical staff on issues such as quality control and energy-consumption optimization in the fiber production process, gaining a direct understanding of the challenges involved in transforming polymer materials from laboratory achievements into industrial products.
At the technical exchange meeting, the technical leader of Wanwei Group focused on the stringent technical requirements imposed by major national hydropower projects on concrete-reinforcing materials. As an important clean-energy project in Southwest China, the Yajiang Hydropower Station requires its dam concrete to withstand high water pressure, large temperature differences, and long-term geological stress, posing unprecedented challenges to the crack resistance, impact toughness, and durability of concrete. Existing conventional PVA fiber products face problems such as insufficient single-filament strength and weak interfacial bonding with the concrete matrix. In addition, bundled fibers show poor dispersion at engineering construction sites, making it difficult to fully realize their reinforcing effect. These issues have become core bottlenecks restricting their large-scale application in major engineering projects.
In response to these industrial pain points, the two sides held thorough discussions and identified two core directions for joint research and development. The first is to carry out research on the reinforcement and modification of single PVA fibers, further improving their tensile strength, elastic modulus, and alkali-corrosion resistance through molecular-chain structure design, crystallinity control, and surface modification technologies. The second is to overcome the challenge of efficient dispersion of bundled fibers and develop new PVA fiber products that combine good bundle integrity with strong dispersion during construction, thereby solving the problem of fiber agglomeration in engineering applications. According to the agreed division of work, the student team will rely on the Engineering Center’s advanced characterization platform to undertake material formulation optimization and laboratory performance testing, while Wanwei Group will provide support through its pilot production lines and engineering application validation.
This activity enabled the student team to engage closely with the industrial frontline and gain a deeper understanding of the practical demand for polymer materials in major national engineering projects. Both sides stated that they would take this exchange as an opportunity to further deepen university-enterprise collaborative education and technical research, accelerate the technological upgrading of high-performance PVA fibers, provide key material support for major national infrastructure construction, and cultivate more innovative talent capable of solving practical engineering problems.
