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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - LiCrete (LiCrete - Light transmitting composite material for building purposes)

Teaser

Summary

We are addressing the need for illumination of both commercial and residential buildings. The problem is how to get daylight into the offices, rooms and corridors. Currently, there are few materials that offer the combination of bearing capacity and light transmission. Architects have limited options in choosing proper material and they are forced to use some of the standard solutions. LiCrete also addresses the need of large concrete producers, which need to acquire innovative products with good margins in their product portfolio to get a competitive advantage. LiCrete provides a functional alternative solution to the existing building materials.

The combination of concrete and a translucent plastic component was developed as a composite material, which offers new opportunities primarily in architecture and design. This material can transmit so much light that it can be considered as a feature. It can brighten poorly illuminated interiors using natural daylight and artificial light. The LiCrete product portfolio is wide and includes building blocks and panels for the construction of building facade, spatial divider or stair steps that can be illuminated by using LED diodes. It is also available as a customized solution in terms of the colour of concrete and patterns of the plastic components.

There is a small number of light-transmitting materials with sufficient load bearing capacity on the world market. Thanks to LiCrete, it is now possible to work better with natural or artificial light transmission in architectural design, which improves the overall quality of the environment in private or commercial premises and has a demonstrably positive effect on human psyche.

The main goal is to enrich the architectural and design market with a new building material with exceptional properties. Our aim is to build a global licensing system for manufacturing LiCrete material by selling national and regional manufacturing licenses to large concrete producers.

Work performed

The main tasks that we addressed within this project were the preparation of functional prototypes of our material, including technical documentation and the actual implementation of a functional prototype production line for one of LiCrete product lines. We also looked at a detailed analysis of the market environment, verifying of product interest by selected target user groups, and discovering the added value of our material, including the comparison of its properties with alternative solutions. We have also prepared an economic model and business plan that will make it possible to use LiCrete material worldwide.

Final results

In the past six months, we initiated and dealt with three foreign mass producers of concrete elements who showed a strong interest in the acquisition of a production and license for LiCrete elements. However, sufficient experience with the real operation of the production line and the need to invest in sufficient input components for this purpose is still needed. Furthermore, the future trade is bound to a detailed license agreement that will be one of the major tasks and investments for this year. Apart from that we plan to secure funding for the next phase of the project, expand the team, test a semi-automatic production line at its full capacity, specify the production costs associated with mass production, establish the companyâ€™s headquarters including warehouse and space for presentation of a sample production line to buyers, prepare marketing materials and all the necessary documents for the sale of the first licenses for 2020. Based on the above results, the project appears to be feasible in terms of technical feasibility, economic balance and market potential. We therefore plan to proceed actively to implement it and enter it into the second phase of the SME Instrument project.