July 29 laboratory centerQuangong Machinery Co., Ltd.received another batch of samples from a foreign customer: concrete formed during the demolition of buildings, steelmaking dust and mining waste - only three types with a total weight of 60 kg. The team recorded, dried, sifted and tested for potency as usual in preparation for the next step of testing the mixture.
This scenario plays out daily at the Quangong Laboratory Center. Since the entry into force of the revised "Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Environmental Pollution by Solid Waste" in September 2020, Quangong has incorporated "solid waste reduction and resource utilization" into its daily research and development processes. Over the past three years, the company has continuously accumulated experimental data on brick production using solid waste from different regions and different compositions, providing customized brick/block formulations for domestic and foreign customers.
• More than 300 types of solid waste samples were collected, covering typical categories such as construction waste, steel smelting slag, mining slag, ceramic waste and incineration ash.
• Each type of solid waste undergoes an average of 30-40 gradient tests, recording properties such as compressive strength, frost resistance, water absorption and permeability.
• Laboratory Center can issue “Solid Waste Brick Manufacturing Technology Report” to directly meet customer's raw material requirements, product standards and production capacity.
Clients are interested in what the laboratory center tests.
Compressive strength: adjustable MU10–MU40;
Freeze-thaw cycles: F25–F100, adapted to regional climate;
Water permeability: brick permeability coefficient ≥ 1.0×10⁻² cm/s;
Environmental performance: heavy metal leaching and radioactivity meet the requirements of GB 6566 and HJ 557.
In 2024, a customer from Shandong Province used local iron ore tailings and produced MU15 standard bricks using Quangong mortar. The tailings content reached 45%, which reduced the cost of one brick by 18%.
In early 2025, a Qatari customer mixed combustion ash with fine desert sand. The laboratory adjusted the dosage of the active activator, achieving a stable strength of more than 12 MPa after 28 days, which meets local requirements for load-bearing stone blocks.
The head of the Quanzhou Engineering and Experimental Center noted: “We do not make preliminary conclusions, we only record data. Customers send us their solid waste and we turn it into usable bricks.”
Now the laboratory continues to work non-stop - the next batch of steel-smelting slag samples has just entered the grinder. With the roar of machinery, solid waste is transformed into a resource.
