Since 2017, under the guidance of policies and measures introduced by the state, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, and relevant local government departments, prefabricated technology has completed the transition from the pilot demonstration stage to the comprehensive promotion stage, gradually driving the construction industry towards Improving quality, efficiency and green development.
The rise of prefabricated technology is inseparable from the main contradiction of my country's current "good life". Behind it are not only employment and economic factors, but also environmental and demographic factors, but ultimately it is demographic and environmental factors. In the context of resource conservation and environmental protection becoming basic national policies, "carbon peaking" and "carbon neutrality" have also been put on the agenda. Therefore, traditional construction engineering operation methods must be improved to energy-saving and environmentally friendly prefabricated building technology, and this trend will not be hindered by any difficulties.
So, behind the rise of prefabricated construction technology, what changes need to be made in the ceramics industry? How does the rock slab that has emerged in recent years adapt to this future?
1
Prefabricated technology=construction industrialization
Compared with traditional engineering technology, the most prominent point of assembly technology is that human participation will be greatly reduced during the entire engineering process, and the vast majority of engineering operations will be completed on the factory production line; The construction site serves only as a site for parts to be built.
Assembly technology can improve production efficiency and reduce labor costs, thereby reducing the total cost. We calculate based on a 90-square-meter apartment with two workers working fixedly for 8 hours a day. The decoration time under the prefabricated technology will take 75 working days, while the decoration time under the traditional technology will take 150 days. In addition, my country's construction industry is currently facing problems such as insufficient labor, lack of technical personnel, and the overall age of workers, which has led to rising costs and made traditional construction methods unsustainable. Due to the use of prefabricated factory construction and on-site assembly, prefabricated technology has a high degree of mechanization, reducing the number of personnel by nearly 10 times, greatly improving labor productivity, thereby saving considerable labor costs.
Theoretically, improvements in production efficiency will lead to cost reductions, but currently prefabricated buildings not only cost 100-200 yuan/㎡ higher than traditional buildings, but also require segmentation and processing of components due to the existing technical level. Not sophisticated enough to integrate well with on-site assembly, construction speed is slower than traditional construction3Around 0%.
At present, the government is promoting the development of the construction industry in the direction of prefabricated buildings by formulating preferential policies to provide relevant enterprises with substantial subsidies. This requires relevant enterprises in such a dividend period to cross the river by feeling the stones, determine the relevant standards for engineering operations under prefabricated technology, and improve the level of refinement, standardization, and industrialization of the entire industry. The companies involved include not only construction companies, but also building materials manufacturing companies, such as basic floor and wall products; decorative surface material companies, such as ceramic tiles, wooden floor tiles, etc.; and design industries, such as design institutes, design teams, etc.
It can be said that the rise of prefabricated technology will integrate the "pan-home" industry chain in a practical sense, and it is entirely possible to achieve "house customization" like customized clothing in the future.
In this case, ceramic tiles as basic materials also need to be included in the formulation of standards to keep up with "industrialization." The "industrialization" here should be all-round, not only the industrialization of production, but also the "industrialization" of quality control, that is, the standardization of product errors. The requirements for ceramic tiles in projects based on prefabricated technology are not only how good the quality of the product is, but also how stable the quality of the product can be and how small the error between products can be.
This is because the products of any large enterprise in the building ceramics industry can reach or exceed the national standard. The only difference is whether it is 5 times or 10 times the national standard - this means that for prefabricated buildings, Most companies in the industry can provide the tiles it needs.
On the other hand, because the engineering efficiency of assembly technology is closely related to the processing accuracy of the product, developers value the processing accuracy of the product more than the quality of the product. Because the components required for prefabricated buildings need to be transported to the construction site for assembly after they are completed in the factory. Once the component error is not within the standard range, the component will need secondary processing or rework, which will slow down the construction progress. Although this is particularly prominent in basic components, ceramic tiles are not irrelevant.
So, whoever controls the decision-making power of industry standards will be invincible in the future.
2
Composite materials = the future of rock slabs
Prefabricated building is an industrial upgrade of construction technology, including main body industrialization and interior decoration industrialization. Its essence is to create an industrialsystem. This system will involve different industries, and each industry is itself a system. So how to adapt and couple different "systems" is the first problem faced by prefabricated buildings. It is also the creation of a system and system as mentioned above. The reason for the standard.
The current large system of prefabricated buildings will establish its own standards based on the "core problems" it wants to solve. According to this standard, the "small systems" participating in this large system must form and adjust their own standards to achieve adaptation to the large system and coupling between small systems.
Therefore, the building ceramics industry needs to unify its own industry standards to adapt to the industry standards of the construction industry. This faces the question of "what are the standards for the construction industry?"
From the perspective of end users, users don’t care how the house is built, they only care about the quality and experience of the house. So for developers, the quality and overall effect of the house are core interests. At the same time, because developers need to face the entire consumer market, the overall effect of the house must be both universal and personalized. This requires that the ceramic tiles involved in the entire construction process, that is, the scenarios in which ceramic tiles and rock slabs can be applied, must be unlimited.
However, the ideal is beautiful, but the reality is skinny. In fact, whether it is ceramic tiles or slate, its application scenarios are limited. Although slate has wider application scenarios than ceramic tiles and has the possibility of crossing borders, in essence, slate can only be said to be an industrial upgrade of ceramic tiles, which solves some application problems of ceramic tiles, but does not cross its boundaries.
Stone board is a material that can only solve the problems it can solve, but is powerless to solve problems beyond its performance. At the 2021 Foshan Tanzhou Ceramics Exhibition held not long ago, rock slabs and ceramic tiles were imitating leather, imitating wood grain, etc. What's the use? Wood grain bricks and leather bricks can only be used for decoration. Where wood boards and leather are needed, these two materials should still be used.
Under the prefabricated technology, rock slabs should have more unique features that belong to the product itself, and truly differentiate themselves, rather than being lumped together with other materials.
Products need to adapt to more scenarios, and the materials that make up the product must have more properties. This problem can only be solved through the development of materials. Single materials have their own limitations. Just like pigs can only be pigs no matter how they are cultivated, composite materials are the future of rock slabs.
Prefabricated buildings are essentially just buildings built using prefabricated technology. The industrialization ideas behind them are worthy of consideration by construction and ceramics companies. Facing the rise of prefabricated technology, the establishment of standards for the building ceramics industry is a top priority.
(Author: No)
