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Saturday, 19 November 2005 | Elif Sungur
Sand-lime blocks: a Sound Building Material with Many Good Properties
White walling material made from sand, water and lime
White walling material made from the natural components sand, water and lime could have a great future, especially so in the Arabian world. This is the opinion of the German manufacturer of production equipment for sand-lime blocks, LASCO Umformtechnik GmbH (Coburg), in view of the approaching building material fair „Big 5 Show" in Dubai (November 16 to 20).
The company states as reason for its optimism, that the sand-lime block, which has been very popular in Germany for more than 100 years and is of a natural white colour in its original form, would in all its properties meet the requirements and demands of this cultural region of the world in a special way. With a presentation of solutions for the production of sand-lime blocks, LASCO takes part in the fair for the first time (Booth A31/Big 5 Marquee). They range from presses with hydraulic drive, through fully-automated lines, to turn-key sand-lime block factories.
The natural deposits of suitable types of sands in this region are valuable for the production of the building material. The water required can come from seawater cleaning plants. These are the essential conditions for the production of sand-lime blocks in local plants to meet the demands for the building activities in this region. Sand-lime blocks are ideally suited for walls of all dimensions owing to their natural raw materials, their sound biology, and their advantages over traditional wall blocks with respect to statics, sound blocking, and laying costs. LASCO presents technical solutions for their production in many formats up to plan elements and custom-made wall sections, which are internationally established, proven, and leading with regard to efficiency and quality.
The sand-lime blocks cured under steam pressure gets their high compression strength (raw density) from the change of their crystalline structure owing to the chemical reaction between burned lime and water. This compression strength permits the required statics of the wall structure to be reached at a considerably smaller wall thickness than when using traditional building materials. LASCO estimates that the use of sand-lime blocks merits an average increase of seven percent in useable floor area.
For many years, LASCO, with its solutions for the production of sand-lime blocks (SL), has been the leader in Germany, the homeland of the white block. SL-presses with hydraulic drive compact the raw material mixture at a high accuracy. This quality permits the cured blocks to be laid using so-called thin-bed mortar to form walls almost without visible joints. An additional rationalisation is achieved by large-format plan elements and wall sections. On site, even unskilled workers can place them in their predetermined position using simple auxiliary devices and thus reducing physical strain. In the factory, elements and fitting blocks can individually be manufactured for a certain building project. This is to be attributed to the supporting software that splits up the building from the drawings of the architect into individual walls and provides the data for an exact production and a palletising ready for the building side.LASCO focuses its presentation at the fair in Dubai on a comprehensive overall system for the production of sand-lime blocks of internationally proven capabilities. Its backbone are the KS presses of the KSP and KSE series, with compaction from one or two sides as an option, equipped with hydraulic drives and electronic process control. The services from a single source comprise automation equipment and tailoring tools in the same way as software. Moreover, LASCO offers the projecting and supply of turn-key sand-lime block factories.LASCO Umformtechnik GmbH, located at Coburg/Bavaria, with its 300 employees is a manufacturer of machine tools for forming tasks and for the production of building material. LASCO products have been in use in more than 50 countries world-wide for over 140 years.
For more information, please visit http://www.lasco.com
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