Japan lies on the Ring of Fire set of tetonic plates, and as such hosts many live volcanoes – and associated earthquakes. The story of how and why Gravio was developed is very much related to the interplay between these two phenomena.  This Gravio Update will focus on the source and nature of this material, and how the brilliant folks at Daiken have adapted it to create Gravio.

Japan also is also an earthquake-prone country.  2011 brought the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami.  Prior that the 1995 Great Hanshin earthquake brought much death and destruction.  In the rebuilding of the Hanshin region, there was a great need for building materials that offered better structural strength.  

By 1997 Daiken, which is headquartered in the Hanshin region, had introduced Dailite, which combined this volcanic ash, or Shirasu in Japanese, with steel slag.  Dailite is a major component of Gravio.  To produce Dailite, Daiken placed the Shirasu into an oven of over 2000 degrees Celcius, so that the Shirasu expanded like popcorn, trapping much air.  The resulting material offered a structural panel that is earthquake resistant that can support lateral loads across the entire wall surface.  On top of that, featherlight Dailite offers fire resistance, durability and ease of workability.  To date over 1 million units of wall panel systems have been sold in Japan alone.  

This remarkable story of ingenuity, taking the tragedy of an earthquake, and creating material from a volcano – both phenomena caused by Japan’s location on the Ring of Fire, is in part why we are so happy to be representing Daiken’s products to the US market.  

More on Gravio: https://interra-usa.com/wallpanel/

More on Daiken: https://www.daiken-ad.com/