As a new-type foreign trade service provider driven by dual engines of technology commercialization and foreign trade services, HiSiaddi has established a "1+2+3+4=1" service system and can supply polyimide products from multiple well-known original manufacturers. As a foreign trader with R&D capabilities, HiSiaddi has repeatedly resolved customers’ customized polyimide product demands through technological transformation cooperation with factories and accurate insight into market needs. Below is a case where HiSiaddi delivered a solution for customized polyimide products.
Please contact HiSiaddi customer service if you need more customized service support.
The cooperating buyer is Sermatech Instrument SAS based in Lyon, France, a specialized and sophisticated military supporting enterprise rooted in France. For 32 years, it has engaged in the R&D and manufacturing of airborne aerospace test instruments and high-altitude environmental detection sensors, serving as a secondary designated raw material supplier for Airbus Helicopters and Safran Group of France. Its core products include high-altitude airborne temperature & humidity sensing modules and in-situ inspection probes for aero-engines, which are mass-equipped on general helicopters of the French military and airborne detection equipment for European regional civil aviation. It belongs to the global high-end special PI procurement circle and has long placed fixed orders for aviation-grade standard polyimide raw materials from DuPont and Ube Industries. It never purchases general electrical insulation PI or low-grade recycled modified PI. All products must meet four stringent international standards for market access: EU EN45545 aerospace fire resistance, REACH environmental protection, UL94-V0 flame retardancy, and low-temperature aerospace reliability. All incoming raw materials must be accompanied by dual laboratory physical property certification reports issued by CNAS-accredited labs and EU labs.
In Q3 2024, constrained by three factors: capacity contraction of major European and American chemical giants, continuous price hikes of international raw materials, and raised R&D thresholds for customized products by overseas original manufacturers, DuPont and Ube lifted the minimum order quantity for non-standard modified PI customization to 6,000 kg, with new product formula development cycles exceeding 90 days. In addition, they refused to adjust molecular formulas separately for small-batch special working conditions. Quotations from local French PI processing plants rose by 38%, failing to match the customer’s cost control targets for new product R&D. Through the liaison of the French Industrial Chemical Materials Association, the customer’s procurement director conducted an on-site visit to HiSiaddi New Materials Foreign Trade Co., Ltd. in Shanghai, launching the first customized project: modified thermoplastic PI precision special-shaped structural parts resistant to wide temperature fluctuations and aviation oils, plus ultra-thin anti-static PI insulating liner films. The total customized demand for the first phase stood at 380 kg, divided into 12 non-standard special-shaped specifications, all applied to the housings of new-generation high-altitude airborne detection sensors and internal circuit isolation substrates. Initially, the customer placed orders following mature parameters from European and American original manufacturers. However, after the first batch of samples underwent laboratory evaluation in France and small-batch airborne testing, three major implementation obstacles emerged successively: formula incompatibility, non-standard molding difficulties, and import & export compliance issues. The customer’s new product R&D progress stalled, delaying the finalization of complete sensor machines. Leveraging its in-house chemical R&D team and supply chain resources, HiSiaddi eliminated the customer’s pain points one by one from four dimensions: formula modification, flexible mass production, process optimization, and customs clearance compliance, ultimately delivering full-category customized mass production as scheduled.
The customer’s airborne sensors operate continuously under alternating extreme temperatures ranging from -62℃ to 295℃, with long-term immersion in aviation hydraulic ester oil and de-icing alcohol solvents. Initially, the customer placed orders using the mature binary base PI formula BPDA-PDA adopted by European and American manufacturers. After 720-hour accelerated aging tests conducted by a third-party French aerospace laboratory on the first batch of samples, two fatal defects were identified: First, microcracks appeared on PI housings after 500 cycles of cryogenic cycling at -60℃ due to insufficient low-temperature toughness; Second, the material swelling rate reached 4.2% after 300 hours of immersion in aviation hydraulic oil, leading to excessive dimensional deformation and offset of precision chip clamps inside sensors, which invalidated the sealing protection function.
Leading European and American chemical enterprises only mass-produce fixed-grade PI and refuse to adjust the copolymer monomer ratio for the customer’s niche working conditions. The customer’s in-house R&D team lacks polymer synthesis R&D capabilities and cannot independently complete formula improvement, forming the primary bottleneck of the customization project.
The customer’s 12 types of precision PI parts each require only 12 kg to 58 kg of raw materials, with a total batch weight of 380 kg, requiring separate mold opening and small-batch injection molding for each specification. General domestic PI processing plants adopt standardized mass production lines with a minimum order quantity of ≥2,000 kg, and excess raw materials would result in hundreds of thousands of yuan of slow-moving inventory for the customer. The wall thickness of special-shaped parts spans 0.28 mm to 3.2 mm, featuring narrow inner cavities and special-shaped snap structures. Conventional injection molding processes tend to cause material shortage, sink marks, and internal stress cracking. Three ordinary domestic PI manufacturers previously declined the order due to scattered specifications and excessive production costs, bringing customized production channels to a standstill.
The customer specified ultra-thin black anti-static PI liner films with a thickness of 8μm±0.3μm, while mass-produced general films on the market are mostly 12.5μm or 25μm thick, with a pass rate below 70% for ultra-thin casting processes. In the initial trial production, the surface resistance of films fluctuated between 10⁵Ω and 10¹¹Ω, failing to stably maintain the anti-static range of 10⁷Ω to 10⁸Ω required by the customer. Static electricity broke precision sensing circuits after assembly, causing component scrappage.
French customs impose strict K-REACH pre-declaration requirements on aerospace-grade fine chemicals. Ordinary foreign traders cannot handle full sets of aerospace material testing and English compliance reports. Airfreight shipment to Lyon requires original material traceability documents, full-item SGS physical and chemical reports, and certificates of origin; missing documents will lead to customs detention or return of goods. Unfamiliar with Chinese testing standards and customs clearance rules, the customer would spend over 40 days handling formalities independently, severely delaying the mass production timeline for new products.
All four issues are exclusive pain points of mid-to-high-end aerospace PI customization. Low-grade civil PI only needs to meet basic temperature resistance and insulation requirements without stringent constraints on low-temperature toughness, aviation solvent resistance, and aerospace compliance certification, which constitute the core obstacles for overseas mid-to-high-end customers to switch to domestic procurement.
Led by HiSiaddi’s foreign trade team and in collaboration with cooperative polymer R&D laboratories, a Sino-French online technical docking group was established to synchronize working condition data with the customer’s French R&D department. Abandoning the traditional binary BPDA-PDA base formula, a ternary copolymerization modification scheme combining rigid dianhydride, alicyclic diamine, and trace fluorine-containing monomers was adopted. By introducing cyclic rigid structures into the PI molecular main chain to enhance stability under alternating high and low temperatures and grafting fluorine-containing groups on side chains to boost solvent swelling resistance, 19 groups of gradient monomer ratio small-scale trials were carried out to screen the optimal feeding proportion. After modification, the optimized PI raw material passed 600 cycles of thermal cycling at -65℃ without cracking, and the swelling rate after immersion in aviation hydraulic oil dropped to 0.78%, fully meeting the access standards of the French aerospace laboratory.
For ultra-thin black anti-static films, nano-grade high-purity conductive carbon black was added during polymerization, and the dispersion process was optimized to avoid resistance imbalance caused by carbon black agglomeration. Finally, the surface resistance of liner films was stably controlled within 10⁷.²Ω to 10⁷.⁸Ω, with thickness tolerance strictly limited within ±0.2μm. Five rounds of sample delivery were sent to France for full reliability testing, and the final finalized formula was confirmed after 38 days.
After formula finalization, HiSiaddi dispatched material process engineers to station at a cooperative Class 10,000 dust-free customization workshop, targeting the renovation of injection molding and casting production lines to adapt to small-batch non-standard orders: First, separate small molds were developed for special-shaped precision PI parts, adopting segmented low-temperature slow injection molding and batch production in small furnaces to break the industry’s high minimum order quantity rule. The total 380 kg order was scheduled into 12 batches, with on-demand production for each specification to eliminate excess inventory. Warming, pressure holding, and cooling three-stage injection molding parameters were optimized to reduce internal molding stress and resolve material shortage and cracking defects of thin-walled special-shaped parts, controlling part dimensional tolerance within ±0.02 mm, reaching the precision machining standard for aerospace applications. Second, a stepped temperature rise imidization oven curve was redesigned for ultra-thin PI films: low-temperature slow solvent removal, medium-temperature gradual imidization curing, and high-temperature closed-loop maturation. A constant-temperature tension-free annealing procedure was added after film production to eliminate film warpage and pinhole defects, lifting the mass production pass rate of ultra-thin films to 95.3%, exceeding the industry average.
Remote technical support was simultaneously provided to the customer’s machining workshop, offering guidance on subsequent CNC finishing processes for PI parts and optimizing tool cutting parameters to avoid edge chipping during PI precision machining.
Industrial-grade low-cost monomers and recycled modified waste materials were completely excluded. All polymerized dianhydride and diamine raw materials were sourced from aerospace refined raw materials manufactured by leading domestic electronic chemical enterprises with monomer purity ≥99.96%, with each batch accompanied by original COA purity test certificates. Surface silane-modified nano boron nitride and fluorine-containing additives were selected as modified fillers to avoid performance fluctuations caused by impurity mixing from the source. A dedicated dust-free production zone for aerospace PI was designated throughout production, isolating dust and metal debris during feeding, synthesis, and molding. Key physical properties of finished products were benchmarked against DuPont’s original PI used by the customer, with performance deviation controlled within 2.8%, fully complying with incoming inspection standards of Safran Group’s supply chain.
HiSiaddi took full charge of all compliance formalities: Authorized CNAS-accredited third-party domestic testing institutions to conduct full-item testing for flame retardancy, environmental protection, temperature resistance, and solvent resistance in accordance with EU aerospace standards EN45545, REACH, and UL94, issuing bilingual Chinese-English SGS test reports and material traceability lists; Completed pre-registration filing for French K-REACH in advance, sorting out full sets of customs declaration documents including certificates of origin, MSDS chemical safety instructions, and aerospace material certificates; Products were vacuum aluminum foil dust-free sealed and packed, shipped via constant-temperature aerospace containers to Lyon Airport, France, preventing product moisture deformation caused by temperature fluctuations during air transport. Goods could directly pass customs and enter warehouses for mass production upon arrival in France, eliminating the customer’s time costs of independently coordinating compliance and customs clearance procedures.
1. Delivery of the First Batch Order: After formula finalization, the full specification modified PI special-shaped parts (380 kg) and 1,500 ㎡ ultra-thin anti-static PI liner films were produced and shipped to France within 26 days. All products passed full re-testing at Sermatech’s laboratory, lifting the finished airborne sensor assembly yield from 62% in early sample testing to 98.2%, enabling the successful finalization of the customer’s new sensors and formal integration into Safran’s airborne inspection equipment supply chain. Compared with the customer’s original DuPont procurement scheme, the comprehensive procurement cost dropped by 31.5%, and the delivery cycle was shortened from 85 days for European and American original manufacturers to 26 days, significantly optimizing the customer’s new product R&D cycle and raw material procurement costs.
2. Continuous In-Depth Renewal of Cooperation: One year after project delivery, the two parties signed an annual framework procurement agreement for aerospace PI, with the total annual procurement volume of various customized modified PI rising to 4.1 tons. The customer added two new customized products: high-temperature resistant PI wear-resistant bushings for aero-engines and transparent PI substrates dedicated to low-temperature high-altitude probes, all entrusted to HiSiaddi for targeted R&D and delivery. Relying on technical accumulation from this project and mature aerospace PI customization cases, HiSiaddi successfully contacted two other listed French aerospace instrument enterprises through Sermatech’s referral, tapping incremental high-end PI market demand in France.
3. Strategic Adjustment of Customer Supply Chain: Sermatech officially included HiSiaddi Shanghai in its global Class A qualified raw material supplier list, ending its previous sole reliance on European, American, and Japanese chemical giants for raw material procurement and establishing a dual supply chain model of "European and American Original Manufacturers + HiSiaddi Shanghai". All subsequent special modified PI orders from the military instrument division will prioritize inquiry and customization with HiSiaddi.
This project focused entirely on special modified polyimide for aerospace military supporting applications, with products applied to core precision components of high-altitude airborne sensors. It features high technical barriers, highly customized formulas, and stringent aerospace compliance certification requirements, with no extensive low-price bulk sales logic adopted by low-grade general insulating PI manufacturers. Breaking the superficial business model of traditional foreign trade limited to order receiving and commodity resale, HiSiaddi relied on its in-house chemical technical team to deeply participate in full-chain links including formula R&D, production process optimization, and customer end process adaptation. It resolved customized pain points of overseas mid-to-high-end customers through technical services, serving as a typical implementation example of domestic fine chemical foreign trade enterprises realizing import substitution of high-end domestic PI products.
Please contact HiSiaddi customer service if you need more customized service support.
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