Monday 24 June 2013

10 Top Technology Tiles



Today I'd like to give you the heads up on some truly cutting edge technology in tiles. Humans have been producing ceramics for over ten thousand years, it is one of our most ancient industries, yet today the ceramic tile industry is experiencing a remarkable renaissance by integrating several cutting edge, hi tech innovations. In this post I will review ten extraordinary technologies that are transforming tiles.

These are all real technologies that are available in the market now. While many are hardly standard stock items you will easily imagine their application to specific architectural projects. Of course as the technologies become established prices will drop and these innovations will become more ubiquitous.

Above: LED glow tiles
These tiles are just amazing and I can certainly imagine them installed in a nightclub. The tiles are independently  pressure sensitive and can be programmed to display animated graphics on walls and floors. Available in a special dance floor format they are equipped with various gaming features as well!


Anti-pollutant & antibacterial air-cleaning tiles
In April I wrote about some tiles installed as cladding on a building in Mexico City that actually clean pollutants out of the air. How do they work? Titanium dioxide is fixed at a high temperature into microscopic particles in the glaze. When the tiles are exposed to sunlight or artificial light, the particles act as catalysts, which carry out an anti-polluting, antibacterial action most importantly extracting toxic Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) from the air. In practice, it is as if the floor or wall covering turns into a tree, breaking down polluting agents and bacteria, thanks to the mechanism that works just like chlorophyl photosynthesis. It has been demonstrated that 1000m2 tiles carry out the same function as 20 mature trees, in terms of reduction of NOx, so 50m2 = one mature tree and 25m2 = one medium-sized tree!


Thermally sensitive colour changing tiles
These have been around for a while. Hot water causes the thermally sensitive dye under the glaze to change colour. The base color of the tile can match almost any color, and the temperature change point can be set to the user’s environment and requirements. The dynamic color change begins at the selected activation temperature and shimmers through three phases, one with each 6–10° rise in temperature.


Personalised print-on-demand inkjet tiles
I wrote about inkjet technology in the last couple of weeks so I won't go into detail except to say that the technology means it possible to cost-effectively produce entirely unique custom designs including say the buyers own artwork. This really is the future and will become increasingly common.


Liquid tiles
The Liquifloor is a really innovative concept The tiles consists of layers of durable PVC. The top layer is transparent and below this is a coloured gel-like liquid, which deforms and flows so the design keeps changing with the change of pressure on the tiles.


LED dot tiles
These tiles are made to entertain.Kids will love them! These LED dot tiles are exceptionally beautiful and will completely light up your house even if without power. They glows in various colours when walked upon At night they can be programmed with figures and shapes One delightful feature is that they can be set to display different colours according to the weight of the person who’s walking on them!


Info display tiles
The I-Quad is an awesome concept in tiles which comes with various interactive features. The array is made of LED back lit tiles which are framed and can display date, time, weather, the latest affairs, buzzing news, e-mails, images and plenty more. The array is USB or Bluetooth enabled.


Hydrophilic self-cleaning tiles
The diagram is pretty self explanatory. These work with a combination of the Titanium dioxide anti-pollutant technology plus a nanotech surface texture that reduces water tension allowing rain to wash the down to a submicroscopic level.Self cleaning tiles will be a major boon for bathrooms, commercial catering spaces, other hygiene sensitive industries as well as building exteriors.

Photoluminescence & touch switches
Other glaze technologies include photoluminescence for energy-free safety or informational lighting systems without electricity, and glazes that act as touchscreens for unobtrusive electrical systems like lighting or alarms with no need for switches. The bath pictured here is tiled with 1,7cm mosaic tiles that absorb energy during the day and glow at night.

More next time!

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