2008 Award Winners
Award-winning project: Graphite-modified gypsum plasterboard
Project partners: SGL Technologies GmbH | Saint-Gobain Rigips GmbH | Steinbeis Transfer Center Plastics Technology – Composite Materials Technology/Naila
Worldwide, around 8 billion square metres of plasterboard are currently used annually in building services engineering. For decades, the use of these building components – which are of paramount importance to building services engineering – has been growing steadily. Users value these plasterboards for their high cost-effectiveness in drywall construction, the high surface quality of the structures, and the plasterboards’ ability to regulate indoor climate as a result of their capacity to absorb and release water. However, the low thermal conductivity of these plasterboards and their protection against electromagnetic radiation have not yet been satisfactory.
Through collaboration between the Steinbeis Transfer Centre for Plastics Technology – Composite Materials Technology, based in Naila, and the companies SGL Technologies GmbH and Saint-Gobain Rigips GmbH, a new graphite-modified plasterboard has been developed which has resolved these fundamental drawbacks of conventional plasterboards that have persisted for decades.
This new generation of plasterboard is characterised by significant improvements in thermal conductivity and electromagnetic shielding performance, whilst retaining the fundamental positive properties of plasterboard. The graphite-modified plasterboard is distinguished by a thermal conductivity of 0.52 W / mK, which corresponds to that of water, the most important temperature-control medium. The shielding effect against electromagnetic radiation is in the order of approximately 60 dB; that is, the effective power of existing electromagnetic radiation in the range from 0 to 10 GHz is reduced to almost one millionth.
In view of these novel properties of the graphite-modified plasterboard, a wide range of applications is anticipated in indoor climate control and in the shielding of electromagnetic radiation in both domestic and industrial construction, both nationally and internationally. The first applications are already being seen, particularly in energy-efficient buildings and private homes. An example of its use in a building of public interest is BMW Welt in Munich.