Countering challenges facing by building industry(3)

Building material, chemical and new energy industries are experiencing a push to transform and upgrade, as the Chinese government promotes eco-friendly buildings. At the same time, building plastics have become a key material in modern building construction, and are enjoying increasingly widespread applications due to their light weights, strong plasticity and high cost-performance ratios, reflected in more than 10 million tons of plastics consumed globally in building industries every year. In particular, non-toxic, harmless, and pollution-free green plastic building materials have become highly sought. Release of pollutants, energy consumption of materials, designed heat loss of buildings, recycling of materials, impact on water and air qualities, etc. all are needed to be taken into account when green plastic building materials are produced, thus driving continuous innovation in materials, production technologies and processes.

"Innovation is Key to the Future", theme of CHINAPLAS 2018, is architected around to provide practical, energy-efficient, eco-friendly, intelligent and innovative solutions to support the transformation of the building industry into one which is green and eco-friendly.

Challenges facing the industry

Despite the recent ups and downs of the real estate and building industries, new, burgeoning demands have been triggered by consumers' unrelenting pursuit of comfort, aesthetic appeal, safety, and durability. However, the weatherability of plastic building materials has been an issue for quite some time. Exposure to the external environment leads to degradation of many building materials and unless handled properly, great economic losses can be induced. Building materials need to withstand the challenge of outdoor weathering for a long period of time in order to have longer lifetimes.

Acrylonitrile Styrene Acrylate (ASA) - a copolymer of SAN and acrylic rubber to have its global launch by LG Chem at CHINAPLAS 2018, is a highly functional plastic with excellent weatherability that retains most of the advantages of ABS. Thanks to its excellent retention of physical properties and appearances after extended periods of outdoor exposure, it is used as a material for automobile exterior, construction and furniture finishing sheet, etc.

Nanjing PMT Pigment Tech., Co., Ltd. is a manufacturer of complex inorganic colour pigments(CICP) which are used in high-grade coating, plastics and building materials. PMT's CICP have excellent chemical resistance, outdoor durability, heat stability and light resistance properties. They are environmentally friendly, non-toxic, and possess high infrared reflectivity. Applications include RPVC, polyolefins, engineering resins, paints and coatings including general industrial, coil and extrusion coatings, etc.

To use plastic building materials, we need to consider not only the environmental impact caused by the choice of materials but also the choice of processing equipment to ensure the stability of the materials during production. Hangzhou Polytech Plastic Machinery Co., Ltd. will display a plastic glazed tile extrusion line, which consists of extruder, T-die and shaping downstream units, and can continuous extruding single layer PVC/PMMA and PVC/ASA composite multi-layer glazed tiles. Compared to ordinary plastic tiles, glazed tiles have much better appearances, better qualities, stronger durabilities and more special features, such as flame-proof, anti-corrosion, anti-freezing, good weather resistance, and colour retention, etc. Glazed tiles are widely used in garden-style factories, tourist scenic spots, pavilions, hotels, family buildings, etc.

There are some problems related to plastic building materials need to be dealt with during molding process. For example, plastics tend to get oxidized during processing and after being used for some time. Oxidized plastics are brittle and lack their original strength. As a result, anti-oxidation should be given a proper role in the formula.

The SONGNOX® 1330, to be displayed by Songwon China Limited, is a low volatility phenolic antioxidant with low polarity. Thanks to its extraction resistance in potable and hot water applications and its excellent line speed for BOPP film or PP raffia production. The SONGNOX® 1330 is very suitable for applications in HDPE potable water, hot water pipes (PE and rPP), BOPP film production and PP raffia production.

Building materials are moving towards high efficiency and eco-friendliness

Plastic building materials are gradually gaining popularity among consumers, which will lead to substantial increase in the demand for various plastic pipes, doors and windows, polymer waterproof materials, decoration materials, insulation materials and other construction plastic products. However, most of the new building materials products are still lacking high-tech, safety and eco-friendly elements, meaning that there is a lot of room for development towards the high-end, particularly in the plastic pipes and doors/windows industry. In other words, enterprises must pay close attention to technology advances, production efficiency, safety and eco-friendliness related to their products in order to increase their edge in the market. Visit CHINAPLAS 2018 and discover cutting-edge technologies may meet different needs.