Only serious specialized media provide serious industry information
Dear Readers,
serious (industry) information is of utmost importance especially in times of crisis. As a survey conducted in August 2020 by colleagues at Deutscher Fachverlag reveals, specialized media are used even more intensively during the coronavirus crisis: For 35 percent of the respondents, the importance of specialized media as a source of information has increased, 26 percent use specialized media more intensively, 40 percent click on digital specialized media channels more frequently than before the coronavirus.
Even and especially in the year of the coronavirus, specialized media like this magazine have proven to be reliable information platforms, independent of external influences. We will continue to work with great pleasure and much energy to ensure that ZI is remaining the platform for the international brick and tile industry, due to excellent trade journalism.
Keyword international: We are pleased to present you with even two dissertations in this issue, one prepared at the University of Sevilla (Spain), the other one at the University of Vienna (Austria). Whereas Dr. Domingo Martin Garcia together with his colleagues carried out research on the mineral carbonation of ceramic bricks (page 6), Dr. Thomas Kiefer developed, with the support of Wienerberger AG, a multi-scale model for the estimation of the thermal and mechanical behavior of masonry (page 10).
Exciting things are also happening at German research institutes: A consortium with the participation of the Brick and Tile Research Institute (IZF) and the Research Institute for Glass/Ceramics – FGK will be working on the development of a new tunnel kiln concept in the next few years, which will work with hydrogen as fuel (page 51). The hydrogen project was initiated in the context of the hydrogen strategy of the German Federal Government and under the pressure of the energy transition by the initiative of Kärlicher Schamottwerke (KTS) together with the Research Institute for Glass/Ceramics – FGK.
We hope that these and many other articles in this issue will provide you with further insights and also enjoyable reading.
With best regards,
Wolfgang Deil (ZI-Redakteur / ZI-Editor)
