Technology in the construction industry is stable and mature; new materials and techniques can take a long time to be adopted. New buildings and structures have been built with concrete, copper, aluminum and steel for generations. Galaxy Build has some alternatives to steel, aluminum and classic Portland cement that can help architects, engineers and construction companies realize significant productivity gains, through tough, lightweight magnesium.
Galaxy Build is implementing magnesium in structural materials, including both vertical and horizontal steel beams used as primary structural support. Standard steel reinforcing bars embedded in concrete (rebar) can be replaced with more lightweight, corrosion-resistant magnesium.
Reducing the gross weight a building supports can increase the life cycle and durability of the entire structure, the cost of construction, and the useful height, dimensions and overall mass of a building.
Roofing, internal walls, ceilings, heating and cooling equipment, interior ducting, internal features such as rails, shelving and stairs are all candidates for a critical design review, given the greater weight of steel (50% or more) and aluminum (20% or more) compared to their magnesium counterparts.
Water piping, made today with copper or variants of plastic PVC (polyvinyl chloride) can be made more efficiently, with environmental, energy and cost advantages, when fashioned with magnesium.
Lighter, more durable, corrosion-resistant magnesium maintains a stable form over time compared to steel. Even the forms used to pour concrete — made today from wood, plastic or cardboard — can be made more durable with magnesium.
Magnesium supplied by Galaxy Build can be comparable in cost to steel and aluminum, because the alloys are sourced, refined and produced right at the mine and provided direct to manufacturers. Long, inefficient supply chains of buyers, dealers, brokers, wholesalers, agents and distributors are being replaced with Galaxy’s simplified, streamlined model.
Portland Cement is made primarily of limestone, chalk, sand, clay and iron ore, all of which are resource-constrained. Galaxy Build has access to plentiful supplies of magnesium that are economically available. Substituting a magnesium compound for some of the elements in cement gives you Galaxy Cement – a new, denser cement that works more smoothly in conjunction with magnesium rebar. This approach produces a stable concrete surface with less embedded rebar and the same degree of stability.