Stone Inside: Innovations for a Better Climate

Advantages in the classical ranges of application

There are old and new ideas even in the common ranges of application for natural stone: as already mentioned, CFS granites with a thickness of 10 mm as kitchen tops, surfaces with integrated induction cookers or cooling aggregates, as manufactured for the Mariott hotels in Paris, Zurich and Pilsen, combine the classical beauty of natural stone with the state-of-the-art. Those who can afford it (they are still manufactured manually as prototypes and therefore quite expensive) can have a marvellous cooker with an end-to-end granite surface installed, on which an egg can be fried apparently just “somewhere on the table”.

For the Stone+tec fair, a bathroom was presented at the Rossittis stand, which had wand elements made of CFS slabs made of Brazilian granite with a thickness of only 3 mm. There was a thin heating sheeting with a thickness of only 0.1 mm behind the stone – carbon layer, which can heat the stone surface up to 26°C within 90 s. This method of wave heating is energy-saving although it is supplied by electrical energy, as it heats up immediately and has only to be switched on as long as it is needed. Coating elements, that do not have to be bent when they are humid, can be manufactured for all inside applications and there are plans for light weather-proof garden furniture.

Chances for natural stone industry

For the time being, the individual working steps such as calibrating, coating, separating, grinding and polishing as well as water jet cutting and completing of the slabs are carried out at the partner companies such as Grein, Becke, Augst, Tabarelli or Udo Huber on various sites and are therefore quite complex. That is why the planned assembly of the first integrated production line is urgent, but other technological way of application must also be continued consequently.

Co-operation is welcomed. The motto is “design-on-demand”. The idea is to give natural stone companies the opportunity to open up new business segments by means of CFS and develop own ideas for new products in co-operation with TechnoCarbon. Completely new ranges of application and customers become available for natural stone industry. The more so, as the development is at its very beginning: it has to be tested which kind of stone is most suitable for which application.

Mechanical engineers, construction engineers and architects should detect this material and develop completely new designs. Long-term testing and practical experience will present new possibilities – as well as its limits. Permissions of the construction authorities have to be applied for and the required certificates have to be supplied. This will only be possible in the relatively short time desired by Kuse and his presently ten partners if new partners and investors from other branches of industry join them and help to support further development and the practical implementation.

Chances for the climate

“CFSinside”: the trade name is the aim. One day, TechnoCarbon CFS-coated natural stone as a versatile light construction material is supposed be “in” almost all areas of life, as well as Intel processors are in PCs, thus reducing the CO2 emissions into our atmosphere. “As a famous German climate researcher keeps saying, we have to decrease the CO2 emission within 100 years under 20 % of the actual value, if we want to bring climate change even only partly under control” , says Kuse, who is concerned and at the same time encouraged. “This is an ambitious target especially for the highly industrialized countries and CFS could contribute considerably to reach this target”. Therefore we try to make his development available all over the world as quickly as possible and to make marketing of his idea as easy and cheap as possible. “If the application of steel and aluminium can be reduced, a lot of energy can be saved. Moreover, CFS offers a wide range of individual products which can be manufactured manually on site, thus creating and guaranteeing jobs. On the other hand, mass products e.g. for mechanical engineering can be produced cheaper in fully automatised production lines, so that CFS can prove its ecological and technological benefits also on a large scale”. These are some of the reasons for Kuse’s open strategy.

After all, it is not surprising that TechnoCarbon took part in the international climate conference in Bali in November 2007, presenting its innovative ideas to the deciders from all over the world. As Kolja Kuse mentioned, especially the so called “third world” showed maximum interest in the new material, because their countries´ technological development is under great pressure due to the lack of the steel and aluminium, which are very expensive.

Finally a new organisation was founded: GRANIDUS (Granite for Industrial Usage) is an international association with the target to introduce natural stone, especially granite, for a worldwide industrial usage in various fields of building construction and engineering. GRANIDUS is a platform for research and promotion of new CO2 - neutral basic materials based on natural stone (for further information please refer to: www.granidus.eu)

TechnoCarbon Technologies GbR,
D - 81925 München. 
Tel. 0049 89 929 54 22
www.technocarbon.com  -  kk@technocarbon.de