ecosphere researcher nominated for "Deutscher Zukunftspreis"

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The maxit Group - known throughout the industry as a hotbed of innovation not only since the "Mörtelpad" - can be pleased about the nomination of its head of research Friedbert Scharfe: The 67-year-old graduate engineer was significantly involved in the development of the spray-on façade insulation based on micro hollow glass spheres - as were Prof. Dr. Thorsten Gerdes (55) from the University of Bayreuth and Dr. Klaus Hintzer (66) from the company Dyneon (3M). "The development of ecosphere makes a real contribution to climate protection and incidentally solves many problems of previous insulation systems for façades. We consider the nomination a great honour and see it as public recognition of our joint research work," says Scharfe. Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier personally awards the prize, which stands for technology and innovation "made in Germany": Outstanding technical, engineering or scientific innovations as well as those from the IT sector are honoured in the national performance­comparison. The award ceremony will take place on 25 November and will be broadcast on ZDF.

Background

At the world's leading trade fair "BAU 2019" in Munich, maxit presented its new "ecosphere" insulation technology to the trade public for the first time. This is a purely mineral and particularly resource-saving building material whose insulating effect is based on microscopically small, partially vacuumed hollow glass spheres. These can be produced from various types of sand and thus counteract the global shortage of building sand. The non-combustible (A1) mortar-based insulating material can be easily applied by plastering machine to any substrate - inside or outside. The material can be sprayed directly from the building material silo and is therefore not only completely jointless, but also easy to work with. With a thermal conductivity value of 0.04 W/(mK) in the dry mass, ecosphere has since been convincing as an ecological and affordable alternative to conventional insulation materials.

On 9 September, the Office of the Federal President announced this year's nominees for the Deutscher Zukunftspreis 2020. The Federal President himself presents the award, which stands for outstanding technology and innovation "made in Germany". The Deutscher Zukunftspreis has been awarded annually since 1997.