Development and Trend of New Top Five New Wall Materials in

2015-10-21

   In industrially developed countries，new-type wall materials have taken up 60% to 90% of all wall materials. Efficient insulation materials are applied in over 80% of the newly built houses so as to meet the prescribed thermal insulation standards. In some countries, the percentage is even up to 100. The development of wall materials varies from country to country. Basically there are five categories of wall materials.

1. Concrete Block
     In the United States and Japan, building block has become the main wall material, accounting for 34% and 33% respectively of the total amount of wall materials. In European countries, the percentage is about 10 to 30. There is a complete set of concrete blocks of various specifications and varieties, in different colors, with thorough standards for their production, application and construction.

2. Gypsum Board with Paper Surface
    The United States is the largest producer of gypsum plaster board, with annual output exceeding 2 billion square meters. After the 1960s, Japan began mass production of this kind of product, whose annual yield is 6 million square meters, second only to The US. Other countries with large production include Canada, France, Germany, Russia and so on. In terms of gypsum raw materials, there occurs in recent years a rapid development in using waste gypsum to produce gypsum boards and gypsum blocks. 

3. Limesand Brick
    There are many kinds of limesand bricks with specifications up to a dozen, from small bricks to large ones, mostly hollow shaped, with a small amount of solid products. In addition to its natural color, the bricks can also be colored through different surface finishes or by adding toner, so as to meet various construction requirements. All limesand bricks are groove-connected, showing excellent structural stability when applied in exterior wall and partition wall, either bearing or non-bearing. They are also used for flooring, roofing and facing. Besides, there are many a special-shaped bricks (such as U-shaped ones, circular ones, bellmouth ones and blowhole ones) as well as lightweight limesand bricks and limesand plate. Germany is the one with relatively large production and heavy usage of limesand bricks. Russia, Poland and other Eastern European countries are also included in the list of the countries with large production of this product. 

4. Aerated Concrete
    Russia is the largest country in aerated concrete production and consumption, followed by Germany, Japan and some other countries in Eastern Europe. In terms of raw materials, there is an increase in the use of fly ash, slag, waste gypsum, waste siliceous sand and efficient foamer. With new technology, new craft and high strength cement, the strength of aerated concrete is improved, while the density is reduced, pushing forward the aerated concrete to develop in the direction of light weight, high-strength and multi-function. In France, Sweden and Finland, aerated concrete with low density of less than 300Kg/m3 has been marketed, which is a new product with lower water absorption and favorable insulation performance.

5. Light Weight Composite Board 
    Light weight board abroad was mainly developed after 1970, including glass fibre reinforced cement (GRC) board, asbestos cement board, composite plate compounded of calcium silicate board and various insulations materials (such as rock wool, mineral wool, polystyrene foam, rigid polyurethane, etc.), composite plate with metal surface, steel wire mesh framed polystyrene sandwich board and so on. Due to the lack of resources and land, Japan attaches great importance to the development of all kinds of light weight boards and leads the world in the research and production of autoclaved calcium silicon plate and glass fiber reinforced cement (GRC) product. A new product known as ECO-panel, developed by a German company, is a light hollow wallboard. With cement and gypsum or lime as its raw materials, mixed with a certain amount of fibers and additives and fly ash up to 50%, extruded by vacuum, it can be used as either load bearing or non bearing wallboard.

Light weight compound wallboard is currently in vigorous development in the world as a new type of wall material with integrated functions of load bearing, fire prevention, dampproof, acoustic insulation and heat insulation, which results in the broad application of various lightweight composite boardsboth in interior and exterior wall. In France, compound wallboards make up 90% of all prefabricated facade panels. In UK, the percentage is 34, and the United States 40.

    The concept of “Green building material” which is regarded as the direction of building material development nowadays all over the world, was put forward for the first time in 1988 at the first International Symposium on material science and technology. Green Grades of building materials refers to their contributions to environmental improvement and sustainable development. "Green" has become a symbol to bear people’s wish of environmental protection. In 1992, the international academic circles clearly brought forward the definition of “Green Material”. Green building materials are those that bring about minimum environmental burden in the whole process of raw material acquisition, product manufacture, application, recycling as well as waste treatment. According to the definition, green wall materials are expected to be a new type of wall material that is energy and water saving , recycling and environment friendly. All in all, light weight, high strength, efficiency, green and eco-friendly as well as composite type is sure to be the trend of wall materials development.for now and future.