To see how premium protective nets are manufactured, there is no better way than to visit the production site in person. Let’s step into the production and R&D base of Xinghaiyuan Netting in Chucun Town, High-tech Zone. Covering a total area of 23,000 square meters, the site is largely occupied by production workshops. Amid the hum of machine tools, all production lines run in perfect order, where massive piles of high-density polyethylene raw materials are transformed into finished products.
"Polyethylene boasts excellent anti-aging performance, and we only use materials that fully meet our quality standards. Besides, all raw materials require specialized anti-aging additives. We adopt products from BASF of Germany. Since our nets are used in agriculture and often exposed to pesticides, we also add self-developed acid-resistant agents to prevent the nets from being damaged by chemicals."
High-performance stabilizers that deliver corrosion resistance, light resistance, UV protection as well as acid and alkali resistance fundamentally stabilize the quality of every roll of netting and greatly extend its service life.
"Our products can serve for 8 to 10 years. In northern China, the service life generally reaches 10 years. In Xinjiang, where ultraviolet rays are stronger, the lifespan will be slightly shorter. This is the mixing area where all additives are blended thoroughly. The mixed materials are then drawn in by negative pressure, heated and pressurized inside the equipment, before being extruded into filaments through the die head. Freshly extruded filaments are fragile and easy to break."
As we can see from the footage, the filaments are dyed in different colors for various applications. However, they still need to go through multiple technical processes before they can be widely used in agricultural production.
"The key process takes place here. This set of five rollers rotates slowly at around 30 revolutions per minute. Equipped with a heating device filled with hot water, it maintains a temperature of roughly 93 degrees Celsius. The filaments then move to a section running at a much higher speed. The speed difference stretches and thins the filaments, endowing them with tensile strength."
Just as steel is tempered through repeated forging, these fine filaments undergo high-temperature treatment and intense stretching to become qualified materials.
"This is another critical step with the temperature set at around 100 degrees Celsius for thermal shrinkage control. Plastic materials are elastic. A net measuring 1.5 meters wide may shrink to 1.3 or 1.4 meters under high temperatures during use. To avoid such issues, we conduct thermal setting here. The rollers here run slower, creating a speed ratio of 7% to 8% to fix the shape of filaments permanently. After this process, the filaments will no longer shrink even when used outdoors."
Now the entire filament extrusion process is completed. Each filament needs to achieve a perfect balance of toughness and flexibility, which directly determines the progress of subsequent production.
"Then the finished filaments are wound onto rollers. Do you know how long a single continuous filament is? Generally, each one stretches about 8,000 meters as required."
A total of 150 rollers work nonstop. It takes extremely long production time and great processing distance to produce a single qualified filament.
"We adhere to stringent quality standards. Both domestic and export products are manufactured in line with Japanese specifications, which are among the most rigorous in the industry."
With more than two decades of export experience, Xinghaiyuan keeps the breakage rate of finished filaments extremely low. Qualified filaments are then delivered to the next production stage.
"This type of filament is mainly used for multifunctional protective nets and tarpaulins. The white version is widely applied in orchards. This variant is specially made for Anti-bird Net used in fruit farms. Next comes the warping process. Small filament rolls from the extrusion workshop are all wound onto large rollers to prepare for the following procedure."
Countless thin filaments move continuously onto the large rollers, ready for the next production step.
"We arrange the number of filaments according to the requirements of the knitting machines. We calculate the exact quantity based on the mesh specification of finished nets with our exclusive calculation methods."
After precise calculation, the filaments proceed to warp knitting.
"Here are the finished nets. Our self-developed equipment features automatic inspection. The indicator light will turn on, and the machine will stop and send an alarm once holes or defective parts are detected."
Fully automatic warp knitting, manual inspection and length measurement are far more efficient than traditional manual work, while boosting detection accuracy and overall product quality. Thanks to its commitment to independent R&D and technological innovation, Xinghaiyuan Netting has achieved steady growth and built a solid reputation in the agricultural protection industry.