How It’s Made : Fiber Cement Board & Wood Plank

“There are many methods of fiber cement material production and with difference method, the final product come with different feature and specification such as durability, surface, flexibility, and usage. “

One of the most popular material which often replace a real wood is a “Fiber cement”. There are varieties of pattern and surface of fiber cement to choose out in a market. It seems to be similar but the way they are produce is different. It is Hatschek and X-TRUSION which give a different specification of product. Both methods use same materials, Portland cement, pure silica, and special cellulose fiber.

The Hatschek will use long fiber while X-TRUSION use a short fiber with an incubation technology of a high-pressure streamer (Autoclave) which reduce a moisture and increase a durability against a weather.

 

About the difference, Hatscheck is formed by a roll layer by layer until it gets a required thickness. It could be formed with a pattern and thickness as required. The maximum thickness is 25 mm. With a long fiber as a material, it could be bent.

 

The product from Hatscheck method will be a big 300×1000 cm square and could be cut as desired such as 120×300 cm, 120×240 cm (smart board), or similar to real wood at 10×300 cm, 15×300 cm (flooring wood). It comes with different thickness, 0.3, 1.2, 1.8, and 2.5 and if the color is required it will be painted in painting production.

 

For “X-TRUSION”, it is a production via a mold to get a profile (A mold is similar to toothpaste tube hold and the material is a toothpaste which come out from the tube) Beside mentioned main material, there are additives which make many kinds of mold and unique patterns possible. Every product will have same consistency quality for width and thickness. The thickness will range from 10-100 mm, however the width could not be very wide (because the mold is needed). With a short fiber, the product is less flexible than product from Hatscheck method.

The example of the products is decoration wood which can do a split-level, and a flooring wood with a hold in a middle to reduce a weight with same durability. If compare flooring wood of both method with the same thickness, both of them can take the same weight. What is need to be consider is that X-TRUSION wood has holes in the middle, therefore a fine decoration at the rim is needed when install it. On contrary, Hatscheck wood rim could left undecorated.

There are methods for produce a fiber cement material, so the product features will be difference according to the method. For the application of the fiber cement product, the appropriate of usage for suitable product need to be consider apart from stylish and preferable of it. The suitable structure also need to be prepare to fit a material in order to get a maximum weight capacity, safety and durability.

*Fiber cement wood is for decoration purpose only. A usage for structure is not recommended

for information/estimate material need of SCG fiber cement from specialists click here