Natural stone, aluminum panel, glass are very common materials in application of architectural façade cladding projects. However, terracotta façade panel, debuted in the late 1980s, is just like a rising star in this area. What are the comparable strengths of terracotta panel?
Green and Environment-friendly
Terracotta panels’ raw material is natural clay, and the terracotta panel is colored by making use of the clay’s natural color and luster, with very little or no dyeing chemicals added. “Mono color before, but colorful after the kiln firing”, the terracotta panels are with diverse colors, the color and luster are natural and in rich texture, and it will never fade, which well meets the modern architecture’s design demands for mainstream colors. Meanwhile, the products are without any radiation and can be 100% recycled, which are indeed green construction materials friendly to the environment.
Excellent Building Performance Index
Terracotta panel products are produced through processes of strict raw material processing, high pressure extrusion forming, and 1,200℃ high temperature burning, with very stable and even physicochemical properties. As curtain wall materials, terracotta panels have features of fire safety, acid and alkali resistance, scratch and wear resistance, and high compressive strength. Even placed in environments of ultra-high temperature or of low temperature and frost, the terracotta panels can keep great stability performance.
Open System, Thermal and Sound Insulated
Terracotta panels have a specific open installation method formed by transverse seam lapping, which is good for protecting the building’s main structure from bad weather and air pollution’s erosion, and can prevent the wall space from deposits to maintain the curtain wall’s beauty; meanwhile, an air layer which can “breathe free” between the surface material and the wall, with the addition of the hollow design of the terracotta panel product itself, can effectively cut off heat conduction and improve the building wall’s acoustic performance, and the whole system has thermal insulation, sound insulation, ventilation, and moisture removing functions, which can effectively improve the indoor temperature environment in Summer to eliminate the heat bridge effect and save energy consumption .
Waterproof and Anti-collision Design, Pressure-proof and Anti-seismic
Terracotta panels are with splicing design for installation based on the Rain Screen Principle, and a special design using EPDM gaskets connecting the parting between interfaces on both ends, can effectively reduce rainwater invasion, prevent terracotta panels’ lateral movement, and prevent the collision between adjacent terracotta panels. Meanwhile, it uses flexible insulation spacers to separate terracotta panels from hanging articles, to separate hanging articles from cross beams, to improve the system’s anti-seismic performance, to avoid electrolytic corrosion between different metal materials, and also to eliminate noise and distortion. The improved terracotta panel system can reach 10 degree anti-seismic performance, especially suitable for architectures having demands for wind resistance and aseismic performance.
Easy Installation, Quicker Construction Progress
Terracotta panels do not need slotting on the back during construction, and can be installed directly; meanwhile, the panels can be cut at will, and laid out flexibly, so the terracotta panels can be installed very soon after the curtain wall’s keels are fixed.
Convenient Maintenance
The surface of terracotta panel curtain wall is anti-static, not easy to adsorb dust. If there is dust on the surface, it is easy to be cleaned after rain wash, so the terracotta panel has a certain feature of self-cleaning, which can reduce the terracotta panel curtain wall’s cleaning and maintenance costs, and to high-rise buildings, this cannot be ignored.
For daily maintenance, if a certain terracotta panel needs to be replaced, we just need to physically damage the broken terracotta panel to singly replace it with a new one, without affecting the whole terracotta panel curtain wall.
