At the 7th Xpeng Technology Day, the debut of the humanoid robot IRON not only created a buzz in the tech world but also presented a new growth opportunity for the silicone industry. According to Xpeng’s official introduction, the fully-covered flexible skin on IRON is made with silicone as the core material. This material provides the robot with a skin-like feel and flexibility, while also offering excellent high and low-temperature resistance, aging resistance, and biocompatibility, making it perfectly suited for various usage scenarios of humanoid robots. This breakthrough application has quickly attracted attention from capital markets to the emerging silicone sector.
Silicone's application advantages in high-end manufacturing have long been evident, but its large-scale use in humanoid robots is a first. Industry data shows:
Traditional automobiles use about 3-5 kg of silicone per vehicle;
In new energy vehicles, due to the demand for components like batteries and electronic controls, the per-vehicle use increases to 8-10 kg.
If humanoid robots are mass-produced, the amount of silicone required for each robot's flexible skin is expected to reach 15-20 kg, offering a vast market potential.
Beyond humanoid robots, silicone also holds significant application potential in the following areas:
Flexible sensing layers in smart wearable devices;
Bionic medical artificial organ casings, among others.
Institutions predict that in the next 3-5 years, the additional demand for silicone from high-end equipment alone is expected to exceed 500,000 tons, becoming one of the key drivers of industry growth.
