LEVERKUSEN, GERMANY (Nov. 15, 10:15 a.m. ET) — Bayer MaterialScience AG has developed a ‘wallpaper’ that can help protect buildings from earthquakes.
The material – a tear-resistant woven fabric – is applied directly to walls using a flexible adhesive based upon Dispercoll U, a waterborne polyurethane dispersion from Bayer. According to the Leverkusen-based company, the ‘wallpaper’ holds large areas of the masonry together, keeping it stable, giving the occupants time to flee the building to safety.
Development partners were the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and KAST, the manufacturer of the glass fiber fabric based in Sonthofen, Germany.
The system is available from professional distributors under the name MapeWrap EQ System. The exclusive global distributor is Mapei, one of the world’s largest suppliers of building chemistry products with headquarters in Milan.
