Construction
Our minerals are used in a huge range of construction applications, such as solar panels, dry mortars and plasters, adhesives and sealants, to ceramic sanitaryware, flooring, paint, tiles, pipes and window frames.
Sustainable, strong performance aids for the construction industry
Urbanization is growing exponentially and strongly impacting the construction industry. Construction companies must build leaner, smarter, and faster in a context of continually stricter safety and energy efficiency standards. This trend demands easy-to-apply, quick-dry products that are robust, cost-effective, and high-performing.
We are uniquely positioned to help the sector meet these challenges with our broad portfolio of mineral solutions used in everything from solar panels, dry mortars and plasters, adhesives and sealants, to ceramic sanitaryware, flooring, paint, tiles, pipes, and window frames.
Our mineral solutions facilitate fast performance and lean delivery. For example, talc*, kaolin, and calcium carbonate provide opacity in paints so they can be applied in a single coat. Calcium aluminate speeds up strength development and drying in dry-mix mortars. Calcium carbonate and kaolin improve the mechanical properties of sealants at lower weights.
We are also boosting sustainable building through solutions that include fillers for insulation; cool roof technology based on highly reflective white granules; and calcium carbonate alternatives to Portland cement that reduce carbon emissions.
Putting our expertise to work for our customers requires developing solutions that power performance, ensuring ease-of-use, robustness, high aesthetic performance, and lean mix design: products that do more for less.
We have decades of experience in construction markets, meaning that, beyond innovative products, our customers benefit from our unique technical support and bespoke formulation services.
Building and infrastructure
We offer a range of world-class solutions which meet the key-property requirements in terms of rapid drying and aesthetics of a variety of applications in the construction and civil engineering industries.
We tailor our specialty aluminate-based binders, metakaolins, smart fillers and functional additives such as bentonites, perlites and clays to meet the specific performance expectations of end-users. These high-performance products are used in a wide array of applications such as flooring, cement tiles adhesives and grouts, technical mortars, waterproofing, renders, external insulation, sealing liners, pipes and wastewater, as well as heavy-duty concrete, tunnelling and mining.
High-performance building chemistry
Building chemistry requires a combination of innovation and exactly the right mineral properties in terms of consistency, colour and reactivity. To meet the demands of our specialty concrete customers in the civil engineering sector, we have produced a range of calcium aluminate binders, aggregates and technical solutions that are easy to handle and apply, and which provide an aesthetic finish.
These products are designed to meet high-performance specialist concrete requirements in applications such as surfacing/lining, repair and construction where short turnaround times and resistance to harsh environments are key parameters.
*Talc products are not available in the USA and Canada. Contact us for an alternative range.
We’ve been using TERNAL® White in our FMX® range of external renders and cement paints for more than 15 years. Aesthetics are key for us, and TERNAL-based coatings offer extreme durability, withstanding temperature variations from -15°C to 35°C, in sea air or pollution, with no efflorescence whatsoever.
Business success
A flawless finish is important to architects, landlords, and occupants alike. The calcium aluminate specialty binder TERNAL White is free from alkalis and lime hydration products, which prevents efflorescence and enhances colour durability.
TERNAL White offers unequalled aesthetic performance in decorative materials from coloured grouts to adhesives for natural stone and fine mortars for smoothing walls. A liquid version – Exalt® – offers the same remarkable benefits for architectural coatings such as paints and plasters.
Imerys Kaolins de Bretagne in southwest Brittany hosted an open day to commemorate its 120th anniversary, bringing together the general public, site employees and their families, customers, representatives of local associations, local elected officials and other important regional stakeholders. The day also marked another significant milestone for the company's future, since it coincides with the renewal in 2023 of the prefectural order authorizing Imerys to continue its mining activities at Kaolin de Bretagne for a further 28 years.
Imerys has just completed the acquisition of Société de Traitement Industriel des Minéraux (STIM), a French family business based in Monteux, near Avignon. STIM is a historic partner of about 20 years.
A project to test calcined clay as an ingredient in low-carbon concrete has proven its sustainable potential to reduce the cement sector's environmental impact from its current level of 8% of global CO₂ emissions.
As urbanization in India accelerates, so does the country’s construction sector and demand for locally-produced, sustainable construction practices suited to the subcontinent. Inaugurated one year ago, Imerys’ state-of-the-art calcium aluminate plant in Vizag, Andhra Pradesh, in India’s southeastern coastal region, produces new products that answer this precise need. It recently showcased its products and initiatives during a construction workshop for customers on October 16 in Mumbai.
