GB2414476A

GB2414476A - Refractory material and method

Info

Publication number: GB2414476A
Application number: GB0411681A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Shun-Chi Chang; Chin-Hung Wu
Original assignee: FREEDOM GROUP Ltd
Current assignee: FREEDOM GROUP Ltd
Priority date: 2004-05-25
Filing date: 2004-05-25
Publication date: 2005-11-30
Also published as: GB0411681D0

Abstract

A refractory material made of plant fibres, porous refractory granules and inorganic cement materials for building partitions. The plant fibres, the porous refractory granules and the inorganic cement materials are evenly mixed with water, so that the refractory granules and the inorganic cement can cover the surface of the plant fibres and bind them together. The mixture is poured into a mould and exposed to high-pressure formation and drying processes. The refractory property of the porous refractory granule can effectively strengthen the refractory capability of the inorganic cement material and plant fibres, so that the refractory material can stand a burning temperature higher than traditional partition materials.

Description

REFRACTORY MATERIAL AND METHOD

The present invention relates to a refractory material, and more particularly to a refractory material composed of fibres, granules and inorganic cements in a predetermined portion, and to a method of forming a refractory material.

In recent years, as the population continues to grow, regardless of the design of commercial of residential buildings in cities and towns of different countries in the world, the buildings tend to develop in a vertically upward direction, and expect to create more room for offices and homes. Therefore, skyscrapers and tall buildings are all over the places in cities and towns, not only changing the landscape and the ecological environment, but also changing the habits of our life.

People growing up in a metropolitan not only reside or work in tall buildings, but also spend their leisure time for entertainment in the buildings. Therefore, the safety of buildings has become an eye-catching issue as time has changed, wherein the issues of quake prevention and fire control are the most important ones. TradlElonally, when constructing a building, bricks, steel bars or cement are commonly used as construction materials, and also, steel frames may be used as the main structure. After the main structure is completed, the bricks or plaster of Paris cast are used to partition each floor. Among these partition materials, the brick, featured in the rigid structure, is heavier, resulting in an increase in the overall burden of the building, while the plaster of Paris cast, though its structure is weak, is lighter so that the building is unable to stand large impact or vibration, particularly when there is a fire accident to the building. Such traditional partition materials are unable to stand against burning for a long period of time, and continued burning in high temperature may deteriorate the molecular structure of the material, which cracks into pieces or powder, and thus loses its originally intended applications for the support and partition. After a fire has started, it will be out of control and become irremediable, or even cause serious damages to property and life. With no surprise, such familiar scenes can be seen very often in television news.

There have been numerous studies on the causes of fire and its continuation of burning for a building. The most important and essential reason for the use of traditional partition material is unable to isolate the fire source effectively, which lead to the continuous burning and the spread of fire, and made the fire extinguishing more difficult. Therefore, it is an important subject for the present construction material industry and researchers to find a way of making partition materials strong and light, with refractory and heat insulating features, so that the partition material will not continue to burn at high temperature, or cause deteriorations or powering and cracking phenomenon to the material.

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a refractory material. The structure of the preferred refractory material comprises a plant fibre in a specific length (such as wood wool or coconut shell fibre, and the like), individually mixed with inorganic cement materials (such as cements and the like) and porous refractory granules (such as the high-temperature sistered silicates mineral powder and the like) in a specific percentage by weight, and appropriate quantity of water is added until the inorganic cement materials, refractory granules, and plant fibres are evenly mixed and the inorganic cement materials, and the refractory granules are evenly penetrated between the plant fibres and cover the surface of the plant fibre. Such a mixture is poured into a mould, and then the refractory material of the present invention is produced with high-pressure formation and drying processes.

The preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a refractory material produced by mixing refractory granules evenly with inorganic cement materials and allowing the refractory granules to penetrate between the plant fibre and cover the surface of the plant fibre, such that the refractory and heat-insulating properties of the porous refractory granule can effectively strengthen the refractory and heat- insulating capability of the inorganic cement material and plant fibre and stand a burning temperature higher than traditional partition materials.

The preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a refractory material produced by interlacing the plant fibres evenly in the mixing process to effectively enhance the tenacity of the partition material such that the partition material can stand high-temperature burning for a long time and will not crack into pieces or powder easily.

The preferred embodiment of the present invention provides a refractory material containing plant fibres and porous refractory granules with the features of light- weight and the rough and coarse porous surface. Such a material can be mixed evenly with the inorganic cement material to produce a stronger link between the molecules of the material and a light and tenacious refractory material.

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Fig. 1 is an illustrative diagram of an example of the manufacturing flow of a refractory material of the present invention; Fig. 2 is a diagram of the temperature rise graph of indoor burning test for an example of a refractory material of the present invention according to the national standard

CNS12514 and CNS6532 specifications; and,

Fig. 3 is a diagram of the temperature rise graph of indoor burning test for the external lateral surface of an example of a refractory material of the present invention according to the national standard CNS12514 and CNS6532

specifications.

A refractory material comprises a plant fibre of specific length and mixed with an inorganic cement material and a porous refractory granule in a predetermined proportion (in percentage by weight). Water in a predetermined proportion (in percentage by weight) is added with the mixture until the inorganic cement material, refractory granules, and plant fibres are evenly mixed.

The inorganic cement material and refractory granules subsequently penetrate between the plant fibres evenly, and cover the surface of the plant fibre. The mixture is then poured into a mould to produce a refractory brick by a high-temperature formation and drying processes. In the refractory material, the plant fibre comes from natural botanic fibres, which could be a plant fibre with long striped fibre such as wood wool, coconut shell, straw, or palm, so that these plant fibres can be evenly distributed and interlaced with each other during the mixing process.

The refractory granule comes from natural minerals; porous granules are formed after the crushing process and high- temperature of burning and sistering process at over 1000 C, and typical examples are the materials such as the infusorial earth, silica, or white carbon sold in the market. Since the major constituent of these materials is silicon dioxide, therefore after high- temperature burning and sistering, such materials will have a superior refractory property. The inorganic cement material could be Portland cement, silicate inorganic (also known as water glass), or the combination of the above. The main purpose of using inorganic cement materials is to give an even mixture of plant fibres and refractory granules. After the high-temperature formation and drying processes, the inorganic cement material solidifies with the plant fibres and refractory granules. Since the materials used come from the natural and easily obtainable plant fibres and minerals, therefore the refractory material so produced can meet the requirements of the environmental protection without increasing the production cost.

Figure 1 shows the manufacturing flow of an example of the refractory material in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The plant fibre used is wood wool fibre, and such a fibre is about 0.76 mm long, 0.10.6 mm thick, and substantially in stripes.

After antiseptic treatment, the manufactured wood wool will be at least 3 cm long, preferably 517 cm. The refractory granule used is common silica sold in the market, and the diameter of the sieved granule falls in the range of 4 um 6 mm. The inorganic cement material used is the Portland cement sold in the market. These materials are mixed evenly with the following proportions (in percentages) by weight: plant fibre: 15%30%; (2) refractory granule: 10%35%; and, (3) inorganic cement material: 45%70%.

In the aforementioned mixture, water of 40%60% by weight is added to the mixture. The inorganic cement material, refractory granule, and plant fibre are mixed evenly, and the inorganic cement material and the refractory granule penetrate between the plant fibres, and cover the surface of the plant fibre. Flnally, the aforementioned mixture is poured into a mould with predetermined shape and form. The refractory material can be produced after high-pressure formation and drying processes.

In Figure 1, the preferred embodiment of the present invention intends to expedite the solidification of plant fibres and refractory granules in the high-pressure formation and drying processes of the inorganic cement material by adding appropriate proportion (percentage by weight) of the solidifying agent to shorten the time required for the manufacturing and production.

Referring to Figure 2, when the production of the refractory material is completed, the refractory granules in the structure are mixed evenly with the inorganic cement material, penetrating between the plant fibres and covering the surface of the plant fibre. As previously described, since the porous refractory granule itself has an excellent refractory property, it can effectively improve the refractory and heat insulating capability of the inorganic cement material and the plant fibre, so that they can stand a burning and sistering temperature higher than the traditional partition materials. Further, in the manufacturing process described above, the plant fibres can be interlaced with each other in the mixing process due to the long striped fibres, and evenly mixed in the partition material to effectively increase the tenacity of the partition material. Even in high-temperature burning for a long time, such a partition material will not crack into pieces or powder easily.

In addition, since the plant fibre and porous refractory granule is light in weight and their surface is porous, rough, and coarse, they can be evenly mixed with the inorganic cement material. After the high-pressure formation and drying processes, the refractory material so produced definitely possesses the light but tenacious properties.

In the refractory material produced by the present invention, for example, a refractory brick of 20 cm long, cm wide, and 5 cm thick has a weight of only 0.9 kg with about 1.8! water content. Such a refractory brick is embedded into a sidewall of a close combustion chamber and one side of the brick faces the interior of the combustion chamber and the other side faces the outside of the combustion chamber. A test of the refractory property on the internal side of the brick is performed according to the national standard CNS12514 and CNS6532 specifications.

The combustion chamber uses diesel as fuel, and the temperature after burning for 15 minutes reaches 725 C.

The temperature rise graph of the combustion chamber is shown in Figure 3. After burning for 3 hours, the refractory brick did not crack into pieces and powder or have the passing-through phenomenon. The maximum temperature detected on the external side (that is the backside) of the brick is only 85 C and its temperature rise graph is shown in Figure 3. For a refractory brick of only 5 cm thick, the refractory and heat insulating effect is excellent, and such a brick is considered as an excellent refractory material, which is incomparable by traditional partition materials. What is more, such a refractory brick did not produce any toxic gas during the 3-hour burning process, and its compressive strength tested according to the national standard CNS1010 specification shows a number as high as 151. 75 kg/m2. It shows that the brick still maintains an excellent compressive strength after the burning.

Embodiments of the present invention have been described with particular reference to the example illustrated. However, it will be appreciated that variations and modifications may be made to the examples described within the scope of the present invention. - 9 -

Claims

1. A refractory material, comprising a predetermined percentage by weight of a mixture of the following composites: striped plant fibres with a stripe of at least 3 centimetres long; porous refractory granules, formed by shattering and sintering; and, an inorganic cement material, said composites being mixed with water and poured into a mould, and made as a refractory material by high-pressure formation and drying processes, wherein the inorganic cement material, refractory granules, and plant fibres are evenly distributed inside the refractory material; the inorganic cement material and refractory granules evenly penetrate between the plant fibres and cover the surface of the plant fibres; and the plant fibres are capable of interlacing and coupling with each other in the mixing procedure.

2. A refractory material according to claim 1, wherein said plant fibres form i5%30% of the refractory material by weight.

3. A refractory material according to claim 1 or claim 2, wherein said refractory granules form 10%35% of the refractory material by weight.

4. A refractory material according to claim 3, wherein said refractory granules are a mineral composed primarily of silicon dioxide, forming a porous refractory granule being shattered and sistered.

5. A refractory material according to claim 4, wherein said refractory granules have a diameter falling in the range of 4 micrometers to 6 millimeters.

6. A refractory material according to any of claims 1 to 5, wherein said inorganic cement material forms 45%70% of the refractory material by weight.

7. A method of forming a refractory material, comprising a predetermined percentage by weight of a mixture of the following composites: striped plant fibres with a stripe of at least 3 centimetres long; porous refractory granules, formed by shattering and sinteringi and, an inorganic cement material; the method comprising: mixing said composites with water and pouring into a mould, and making the refractory material by high-pressure formation and drying processes, wherein the inorganic cement material, refractory granules, and plant fibres are evenly distributed inside the refractory material, and the inorganic cement material and refractory granules evenly penetrate between the plant fibres and cover the surface of the plant fibres, and the plant fibres are capable of interlacing and coupling with each other in the mixing procedure.

8. A refractory material, substantially in accordance with any of the examples as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.

9. A method for forming a refractory material, substantially in accordance with any of the examples as hereinbefore described with reference to and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.