As a part of the “Innovation support voucher program” SKONTO Concrete Cladding Ltd. entered into an agreement No. VP-L-2019/41 with the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia in order to fulfil European Regional Development Fund’s “Technology transfer program” (project ID number: 1.2.1.2/16/I/001) project.

As a part of the project, SKONTO Concrete Cladding Ltd. received the de minimis support in order to proceed with two international patent submissions to protect the company’s intellectual property in the Republic of Latvia and the rest of the European union. The funding was also meant to conduct testing.

Impact testing in accordance with the CWCT TN76 standard was conducted for two products. Firstly, a glassfibre reinforced concrete (GRC) panel, and secondly, a GRC panel with ceramic Brick Slips mechanically fixed to the facade side of the panel.

Additionally, accelerated weather testing was conducted in UV/climate chamber in accordance with the NE ISO 4892-3:2016 standard. 16 pigmented GRC samples were involved in the testing (eight different colours, two samples of each colour) – 8 samples were placed into the chamber and exposed to the testing conditions; 8 were kept unaffected by external influence, to have reference samples for comparison.

The general goal of the project is to contribute to the accomplishment of the Latvian Smart Specialization Strategy goals by promoting innovation activity within the company and obtaining support for a significantly improved product to be used in further economic activity – commercialization of the researched product.

The total cost of the project is EUR 11’682.98, of which EUR 9’162.98 was financed by the European Regional Development Fund.

The final stage of the 10’000 hour accelerated weather testing has now concluded.