Conventional tiles must be fired in a kiln, which means upfront investment in building the kiln and ongoing fuel costs to keep it running. LIMIX needs neither. Calcium oxide powder is vacuum-compressed under 4,000 tons of pressure. What hardens it is not heat, but carbon dioxide from the air.
Slaked lime, the main ingredient of shikkui, reacts with carbon dioxide in the air and turns back into stone. LIMIX uses this very property to harden. Compared with fired tiles, total CO₂ emissions during manufacturing are reduced by approximately 80%. Tagawa Shikkui Labs has also established a circular process: CO₂ emitted at our own lime plant is captured through ducts and sent to the LIMIX factory, where it is absorbed by newly pressed LIMIX tiles.
Materials that would burn or discolor in a kiln, such as straw, keep their original appearance when press-molded without firing. Because the look changes with whatever is mixed in, this process makes it possible to create interior tiles and other products with designs that were never possible before.
Because LIMIX is press-molded, a wide range of other materials can be combined into it. Beyond plants and fabrics, we are currently testing the use of war rubble as a raw material in Ukraine. Our R&D team can also work with you to turn the materials you want to use into ceramics with the optimal formulation.
Since 1924, we have produced calcium carbonate and shikkui from local limestone in Tagawa, Fukuoka. This long experience in shikkui manufacturing is what makes LIMIX possible. Rooted in a traditional Japanese building material, LIMIX offers originality through its design freedom, along with a story that brings a distinctly Japanese character to your project.
Its hardened, porous structure absorbs and releases moisture from the air, helping to regulate humidity.
While regulating humidity, it also takes in odor molecules and breaks them down through its alkalinity, helping to reduce unwanted odors.
It adsorbs and breaks down harmful substances such as formaldehyde released from substrates and other building materials.
The alkalinity of slaked lime, its main ingredient, makes it difficult for bacteria to grow on the surface.
As an air-hardening material, it reacts with CO₂ and hardens to a strength comparable to marble, making it suitable for floors as well as walls. See the data below for strength by aggregate type.
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Samples of LIMIX tiles are available. Please contact us via the product inquiry form below. You can also see LIMIX tiles installed on actual walls and floors at Shikkui Sodanshitsu, our showroom in Tagawa, Fukuoka (by appointment only).
