In early September this year, the Autoclaved Aerated Concrete (AAC) Industry held its 7th International Conference in Prague, Czech Republic. The theme of the Conference centered around the 100-year anniversary of the invention of AAC. Some 330 attendees from 30 countries attended the 3 day event to listen to some 80 papers and presentations. The Conference was opened by the President of the European AAC Association (EAACA), Robert Turski, who is also CEO of Xella in Poland. In his speech, he explained how the success story had started in Sweden 100 years ago, where Dr Axel Eriksson from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm developed a building material with entirely new properties.
Following a number of presentations by the Sponsors of the Conference, Jos Cox, the honorary President of EAACA, gave a paper outlining the history of AAC over the 100 years and the development of this material in the masonry sector globally.
The papers that followed covered a wide variety of topics, from structural engineering, digitalization, production process, durability, through to sustainability. Many references were made to the recently published EAACA ‘Roadmap to net Zero carbon’, an important aspect to achieve net zero goal for the globe by 2050.
The conference was a forum for scientific information exchange and a great opportunity to talk to numerous international experts from scientific institutes, manufacturers of AAC, raw material suppliers and associations connected with a worldwide interest in AAC. There was also a packed social and networking programme.
At the Gala dinner, both the President and General Secretary (Torsten Schoch) of EAACA gave a speech in recognition of the work and commitment of both Jos Cox and Dr Cliff Fudge (past President of IMS) for their involvement with EAACA. In a response, Cliff explained how and why EAACA was set up 35 years ago and how it had changed from a pure technical organization to one that represents the interest of AAC across Europe.
AAC 7th International Conference. From left to right; Robert Turski, Jos Cox, Cliff Fudge, Torsten Schoch.