On October 21st, with the official opening of the Weifang-Yantai High-speed Railway, Longkou City fully entered the "high-speed rail era," achieving direct connections with railway hubs such as Weifang and Jinan. This integration allows for a high-quality transportation network, enabling travel to the Jiaodong Peninsula in one hour, within the Shandong province in two hours, and to Beijing in three hours. High-speed rail has been the preferred mode of public transport.

The construction of high-speed railways has an immeasurable role in promoting the development of cities along the lines. The development process of high-speed railways itself is also a history of the development of new materials. When riding the high-speed train, you can see new chemical materials everywhere. These materials not only meet the requirements of strength, fatigue performance and process performance but also feature characteristics of lightweight and green applications.

In addition to advanced materials for car bodies, bogies, pantograph sliding plates, and plate-type ballastless track materials, the materials used in the interior furnishings and equipment that passengers come into direct contact with primarily consist of aluminum alloys and polymer materials. For example, decorative panels are made of aluminum alloy surfaces combined with a layer of non-combustible fiber-reinforced plastic. The combination of metal and polymer materials effectively addresses hygiene issues in toilets, washrooms, seating, and water tanks, as well as concerns related to corrosion resistance and flame retardancy.

There are more than 10 kinds of polymer vibration-damping and noise-reduction materials used in high-speed rail tracks. The convex baffles are filled with polyurethane resin, which features low viscosity, easy construction, excellent settlement resistance, high load-bearing strength and toughness, outstanding impact resistance, good bonding strength, superior fatigue resistance, heat aging resistance, and corrosion resistance.

Located in the Longkou New Materials Science and Technology Industrial Park, Dawn Polymer is a domestic A-share listed company specializing in thermoplastic elastomers. It focuses on the research and application of polymer new materials, aiming for import substitution and consumer upgrading. "Polyurethane, thermoplastic elastomer, polyvinyl chloride, modified reinforced nylon and other products are widely used in the field of rail transit." stated the head of Dawn's research institute. He added that in the future, the company would also develop thermoplastic carbon fiber composites to achieve iterative upgrades in high-speed rail materials.