PITTSFIELD, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 13, 2006--Chinese apartment buildings and other structures are beginning to sport colorful roofs tiled with tiles made from GE - Plastics' Geloy(1) resin co-extruded with polyvinyl chloride (PVC) instead of clay and cement tiles, steel roofing sheet, or asphalt shingles. The tiles, which are fabricated from thermoformed decorative roofing sheet produced by molder FangXing Building Materials, not only offer many color and style options, but also help provide superior performance, lighter weight, and lower system cost vs. traditional roofing materials. These advantages led the Shanghai and other municipal governments to choose the roofing tiles for its "Plain to Pitch" project, which is replacing older flat roofs with pitched roofs that resist leaking.
Fueled by booming construction, the Chinese roofing industry is expected to grow more than 10 percent annually to nearly 40 billion yuan in 2008. Although concrete and clay tiles and asphalt shingles currently account for the majority of demand, plastics are a growing segment of the business. Traditional roofing materials have a number of disadvantages that GE's new co-extruded Geloy resin helps overcome. Cement and clay tiles are economical but exhibit poor weatherability and appearance, and are heavy and difficult to install. Asphalt shingles are fairly lightweight and weatherable, but require a complicated production and installation process. Although steel roofing sheet has good appearance and is easily installed, it is noisy when it rains and the potential for corrosion around the fitting joints can occur.
In contrast, tiles fabricated from Geloy/PVC resin decorative roofing sheet offer light weight, high impact resistance, easy installation, multiple color choices, and design flexibility that enables a variety of shapes. The tiles are also less noisy during a rainstorm than steel roofing, and provide better waterproofing capability than shingles.
These advantages led FangXing to select the co-extruded GE material over polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) - which broke during installation - for its new decorative roofing sheet. FangXing worked closely with GE - Plastics' development team to learn best practices for molding the Geloy/PVC resin material.
As evidence of the successful collaboration, FangXing's roofing sheet was selected by the Shanghai government for the Plain to Pitch re-roofing project. "Our work with GE - Plastics has allowed our company to offer a new type of roofing sheet to the growing construction industry in China and to win an important government project," said Ren Guoyong, president of Fangxing.
One of the most weatherable polymers in GE's portfolio, Geloy ASA resin offers exceptional durability and UV and chemical resistance in outdoor environments. The roofing tiles made with GE's Geloy resin/PVC co-extrusion retain their attractive appearance, waterproofing, and shape even when exposed to sunlight, moisture, temperature extremes, chemicals, and environmental pollutants. Another advantage of the Geloy/PVC resin co-extrusion is high impact resistance.
"GE's new Geloy/PVC co-extruded resin for decorative roofing sheet offers the expanding China construction industry a new alternative to traditional roofing materials," said Glen Zhu, Geloy product manager, Asia-Pacific, GE - Plastics. "With its advantages of light weight, easy installation, color choices, and potentially lower system cost, this roofing sheet is an outstanding alternative to many of the existing choices for residential and commercial roofing applications."
About GE - Plastics
GE - Plastics is a global supplier of plastic resins widely used in automotive, healthcare, consumer electronics, transportation, performance packaging, building & construction, telecommunications, and optical media applications. The company manufactures and compounds polycarbonate, ABS, SAN, ASA, PPE, PC/ABS, PBT and PEI resins, as well as the LNP(1) line of high-performance specialty compounds. GE - Plastics, Specialty Film & Sheet manufactures high-performance Lexan(1) sheet and film products used in thousands of demanding applications worldwide. In addition, GE - Plastics' dedicated Automotive organization is an experienced, world-wide competitor, offering leading plastics solutions for five key automotive segments: body panels and glazing; under the hood applications; component; structures and interiors; and lighting. As a Worldwide Partner of the Olympic Games, GE is the exclusive provider of a wide range of innovative products and services that are integral to a successful Games.
(1) Geloy, LNP, and Lexan are trademarks of General Electric Company.
Contacts
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GE - Plastics, Shanghai, China
Cecilia Siu, +86 21 6288 1088 327
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Agency Contacts
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