The production unit of FACT-RCF Building Products Limited (FRBL), a joint venture between Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT) and Mumbai-based Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertlizers (RCF) is nearing completion at the Ambalamedu campus of FACT. The unit will manufacture gypsum-based wall panels and other building materials. The unit is being installed on 12 acres of FACT land with an investment of Rs 100 crore. Gypsum is a by-product of FACT and is stored at Ambalamedu and Udyogmandal divisions in large quantities.
According to a press release issued by FACT, 97 per cent of the new production unit is complete and machinery had been installed and tested. The unit is expected to be operational by October this year. The company will use Australian technology for producing wall panels and building materials. The wet gypsum handling section has already been commissioned.
Commissioning of the mixing plant is in the final stages and is expected to be completed by the end of this month. "We are expecting an expert team from Rapid Building Systems, Australia, the technology provider, to take up the commissioning of wall panel manufacturing section by this September, said a senior official of FRBL.
The proejct had been concieved around three years ago to utilise the huge piled up stock of about 6 million tones of gypsum which is a byproduct in the production of phosphoric acid.
Huge stocks of gypsum has been piled up at Ambalamedu and Udyogmandal divisions of FACT. The main product of FRBL will be fibre glass re-inforced load bearing panels. These panels can replace brick walls in building construction thereby effecting considerable savings in cement, river sand, water and labour.
Since the panels are in ready-to-erect form, construction time can be reduced by around 80 per cent, according to various studies. Countries like Australia mainly use gypsum walls for constructing buildings.
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The new unit has the capacity to produce 39,000 panels of 36 sq m size per year. Besides wall panels this unit will produce 40,000 tonnes a year of interior wall putty and 24,000 tonnes per year interior wall plaster. The plant requires about 108,000 tonnes of gypsum every year.
At present, a part of the gypsum from FACT is used for production of cement by various cement units in south India. Handling of gypsum had been a big problem to for FACT for the last two-three decades.