2023-12-04 12:45:57
Scientists have developed a material that can replace the plasterboards used in interior enclosures and ceilings. Compared to them, it has several advantages: lower weight, greater resistance and less moisture absorption.
The new material is the work of specialists from the National University of the Northwest of the Province of Buenos Aires (UNNOBA) in Argentina.
The National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI) of Argentina has approved this UNNOBA development that could be used in the construction industry.
It is one of the first patents presented by UNNOBA, which obtained preliminary approval from INPI and was already published in the Bulletin of Patents for Inventions and Utility Models.
The development arose from the Materials and Structures Testing Laboratory (LEMEJ) of UNNOBA, created in 2014 and located in the city of Junín. María José Castillo, executive director of LEMEJ and deputy secretary of Research, Development and Transfer of UNNOBA, contextualizes: “LEMEJ is a laboratory that since its inception has worked with different materials applied in the construction industry. For example, with wood, steel, concrete. What we usually do is investigate and, at the same time, provide services to third parties, carrying out tests and evaluating each of the materials that reach us.”
The new material developed by LEMEJ originates from expanded polystyrene, also known as “styrofoam”. Alejandro Mateos, who directed the research project, told Argentina Investiga: “The product is based on expandable polystyrene that usually comes in the form of very small beads. What we did was vary the production and dosage process until we reached ultra-high density expanded polystyrene.”
Alejandro Mateos. (Photo: UNNOBA)
Castillo remembers how the idea of the research project arose that resulted in the preliminary approval of the INPI for an invention patent: “From the provision of a service to third parties, to do a test and give an answer, we came up with the idea that by modifying this material through different procedures, a different application could be obtained from the one that had reached LEMEJ. When we saw the characteristics, we hypothesized that if we managed to take it to ultra-high density, we could apply it in this way in the construction industry.”
In addition to being used for packaging and containers, the usual Styrofoam (expanded polystyrene) is used in the construction industry in ceilings, walls and floors due to its insulating capacity (thermal and acoustic), which improves energy efficiency and mitigates noise. of the spaces. By varying the production process and achieving a material with ultra-high density, LEMEJ obtained a product that, in addition to having the thermal and acoustic properties that Styrofoam itself had, also had high resistance. “This makes it susceptible to being used as a construction material, for example, to replace plasterboard for interior enclosures,” explained Mateos, a Materials teacher in the Mechanical Engineering program at UNNOBA.
Regarding the advantages of the new material, Mateos highlights two: high resistance and low weight. “This relationship between strength and weight is very important in the construction industry, because we are thinking that it is a material that adheres or adds to profiles or a steel structure, as gypsum boards usually do. That it is light is very important because it makes assembly easier. And it should also be resistant, because it allows the material to maintain its structural integrity and be more durable.”
To these two central advantages, Mateos adds another: “The moisture absorption of these plates is very low, unlike plasterboards that, when they absorb moisture, swell and change the dimensions for which they were made.” In short, the new product may contribute to the construction of non-load-bearing enclosures (that is, those that do not support loads) or residential ceilings.
María José Castillo emphasizes that the research project, fully funded by the University, emerged in 2019 and continued in the context of the pandemic: “We had to continue working and we set out to develop a product that could meet a demand in the region and the society in general”.
Mateos remembers that, in 2020, when the tests were carried out and the Preventive and Mandatory Social Isolation (ASPO) was still in force, the LEMEJ implemented a communication system using video cameras so that the members of the research team could interpret what was happening in real time. what was happening in the laboratory, from Junín, Pergamino and La Plata.
“We made breadboards with different densities, with small variations in the production process. One thing we analyzed was mechanical resistance, taking into account that they could comply with IRAM standards for construction purposes, just as plasterboard does,” says Mateos.
One of the promoters of the project and a source of inspiration for all the members of LEMEJ was Luis Lima, who died two days after the INPI published the new UNNOBA development in the patent bulletin. Mateos remembers that the former scientific director of LEMEJ “participated for hours and hours in the rehearsals, like another member.” Castillo, meanwhile, is moved to tears when talking about the former rector organizer of UNNOBA: “Luis (Lima) was just another member, he did not want to direct it (the project), because he wanted to put himself in the role of student, to continue learning together with the new generations.”
“He was never a director by name,” says Castillo, “he was always a peer and everything Luis taught he did by example. From the possibility of making mistakes and recognizing it, one learned everything from the example he gave us. I believe that Luis’ enormous value was that his own name was never ahead of the transcendent objective of the Laboratory. And we learned that from his example, not because he ever told us.”
According to Castillo, in all the projects that the LEMEJ undertook, Lima “was the one who faced the situation first, it was the one who started by doing, not saying.” “I think we were very lucky,” Mateos summarizes.
The new UNNOBA development was published in the INPI patent bulletin with the title “Polystyrene-based plates and production process”. The authors who appear on the patent are Luis Julián Lima, María José Castillo, Alejandro Andrés Mateos, María Clara Lima, Renzo Marcelo Meloni, Jonathan Molins and Jesús Jordán Navarro Sánchez. (Source: Argentina Investiga / UNNOBA)
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