China’s transformation from “manufacturing” to “intelligent manufacturing” of high-end medical spunbond fabrics and the achievement of import substitution is a typical case of China’s industrial upgrading. Its success was not achieved overnight, but rather is the result of the combined effects of national strategy, market demand, enterprise innovation, and supply chain collaboration.
Why is “Import Substitution” Necessary? — The Past Dilemma
In the early days, China’s medical spunbond fabrics, especially high-end products used in surgical gowns, protective suits, and sterilization instrument wraps, were heavily reliant on imports (mainly from European and American companies such as those in Germany and Sweden). The reasons were:
Material performance gap: Imported products were superior in key indicators such as hydrostatic pressure, breathability, antistatic properties, and blood/alcohol permeation resistance, exhibiting better stability and consistency.
“Chip-level” raw material dependence: The core raw material for high-end medical spunbond fabrics is medical-grade high melt index polypropylene. This specialized material has a high technological threshold and was long monopolized by foreign chemical giants.
Outdated Equipment and Processes: High-speed, stable, and wide-width spunbond nonwoven fabric production lines rely on imported core technologies and equipment (such as spinnerets and drawing systems), indicating a lack of independent innovation capabilities among domestic enterprises.
Standards and Certification Barriers: International markets have stringent certification systems for medical products (such as EU CE and US FDA), and domestic enterprises lack the experience and ability to overcome these barriers.
How to Achieve “Intelligent Manufacturing” Upgrade? — Core Driving Force
“Intelligent manufacturing” is key to import substitution, permeating the entire chain from raw materials and equipment to production processes and quality management.
1. Upstream Breakthrough: Overcoming the Challenges of “Core Raw Materials” in Intelligent Manufacturing
Industry-University-Research Collaboration: Large domestic petrochemical enterprises (such as Sinopec and PetroChina) have collaborated with universities and research institutes to overcome challenges in the catalytic system, polymerization process, and additive formulation for medical-grade polypropylene, achieving large-scale production of high-purity, high-stability, and low-exudate medical-grade polypropylene.
Customized Development: Based on downstream customers’ diverse needs for softness, strength, antibacterial properties, etc., a series of specialized materials have been developed, eliminating reliance on single imported brands.
2. Midstream Innovation: Intelligent Manufacturing of Equipment and Production Processes
Equipment Localization and Intelligentization:
Domestic equipment manufacturers, through assimilation, absorption, and reinnovation, have launched high-speed spunbond production lines with independent intellectual property rights.
“Intelligence” is reflected in: The production line integrates Internet of Things (IoT) sensors and big data systems, monitoring thousands of parameters such as temperature, pressure, and flow rate in real time. Artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms are used for process optimization and predictive maintenance, ensuring stable and efficient production.
Process Refinement and Digitalization:
From traditional single spunbond technology, the technology has evolved to SMS (spunbond-meltblown-spunbond) composite technology, achieving a balance of strength, barrier properties, and comfort through multi-layer material composites.
“Intelligence” is reflected in: Utilizing digital twin technology, production processes are simulated and optimized in virtual space, significantly shortening the new product development cycle. Online quality inspection systems can detect and eliminate defective products in real time, raising the yield rate to internationally advanced levels.
3. Downstream Applications: Intelligent Manufacturing for Product Innovation and Quality Management
Functional Product Development: Moving beyond basic protection, high-value-added products with special functions such as three-resistant (blood-resistant, alcohol-resistant, antistatic), antibacterial, antiviral, and biodegradable properties are being developed.
Full Lifecycle Quality Traceability: By assigning QR codes or RFID tags to each roll of material, full-chain quality traceability is achieved from raw material warehousing, production and processing, finished product delivery to hospital use. This not only improves quality management but also enhances customer trust.
How to Achieve “Import Substitution”? — Market and Ecosystem Construction
“Intelligent manufacturing” provides hard power, but import substitution also requires the support of the market and a favorable soft environment.
1. Historic Opportunity: The Stress Test and Catalyst of the COVID-19 Pandemic
During the pandemic, global supply chains were disrupted, and China, as the “world’s factory,” undertook a huge task of producing protective equipment.
This provided domestic enterprises with a rare opportunity to “try it out.” In emergency situations, domestically produced high-end medical spunbond fabrics underwent real-world testing, and their performance was recognized by medical institutions both domestically and internationally, shattering the preconceived notion that “imported products are always better.”
2. Strong Policy and Standard Support
National Strategies: “Made in China 2025″ and the “14th Five-Year Plan for Bio-economy Development” both list high-end medical devices and biomedical materials as key development areas.
Standard Improvement: The National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) continuously improves the standards for medical dressings, aligning them with international standards and driving industry upgrading. Simultaneously, it accelerates the registration and approval process for domestically produced products.
Preferential Procurement: Guided by the “domestic first” policy, public hospitals and other procurement units are more willing to give opportunities to domestically produced high-end products, forming a virtuous cycle of “market for technology” and “market-driven innovation.”
3. Supply Chain Collaboration and Brand Building
Integrated Development: Some leading enterprises (such as Winner Medical and Aomei Medical) extend upstream, building or collaborating on raw material R&D, and downstream, creating their own brand of medical consumables, forming a strong supply chain synergy and cost advantage.
Branding and Certification: Leading companies are actively investing in obtaining top international certifications (such as US FDA 510(k) and EU MDR) and participating in international standard setting, moving from “Made in China” to “Chinese Brands.”
Conclusion
The import substitution path for high-end medical spunbond fabrics in China follows a clear upgrade path of “demand-driven – policy support – technological breakthrough – market validation”:
From “Manufacturing” to “Intelligent Manufacturing”: Essentially, this shifts from relying on cheap labor and scale expansion to a development model driven by technological innovation, digitalization, and intelligentization. It solves the problem of “can we manufacture well?”
Achieving “Import Substitution”: Building upon “Intelligent Manufacturing,” this involves seizing market opportunities, leveraging policy support, constructing an industrial ecosystem, and building brand reputation, ultimately solving the problem of “market acceptance.”
Today, China’s high-end medical spunbond fabrics not only dominate the domestic market but are also being exported overseas on a large scale, competing with international giants. This serves as a vivid microcosm of the successful transformation of China’s “new quality productivity” in traditional manufacturing.
Dongguan Liansheng Non woven Technology Co., Ltd. was established in May 2020. It is a large-scale non-woven fabric production enterprise integrating research and development, production, and sales. It can produce various colors of PP spunbond non-woven fabrics with a width of less than 3.2 meters from 9 grams to 300 grams.
Post time: Nov-03-2025