Compare Alabaster and gypsum

Alabaster and gyp­sum — these con­cepts are often con­fused, which can lead to incor­rect use of gyp­sum mate­ri­als, as they have dif­fer­ent prop­er­ties from each oth­er and are used for dif­fer­ent pur­pos­es. Our build­ing experts under­stand the ter­mi­nol­o­gy and fea­tures of these mate­ri­als to pro­vide clar­i­ty and help you choose the right one for your spe­cif­ic pur­pose.

What is gypsum

Ini­tial­ly, it is a nat­ur­al min­er­al rock of sed­i­men­ta­ry ori­gin (cal­ci­um sul­fate, water). After the extrac­tion of nat­ur­al gyp­sum stone, it is processed in a cer­tain way — it is sep­a­rat­ed from clay, lime­stone, sand and oth­er impu­ri­ties, ground into a fine pow­der and thus a bulk mate­r­i­al is obtained, which is used in many areas:

1. in con­struc­tion and repair;

2. in med­i­cine as a mate­r­i­al for fix­ing limbs after frac­tures;

3. in den­tistry — to obtain casts;

4. in cos­me­tol­ogy — as a com­po­nent of anti-aging masks;

5. in agri­cul­ture — as a fer­til­iz­er to nor­mal­ize soil acid­i­ty;

6. in the chem­i­cal indus­try — for the pro­duc­tion of sul­fu­ric acid, the pro­duc­tion of paints and var­nish­es;

7. in indus­try — to obtain forms of com­plex prod­ucts;

8. sculp­tur­al — used for the man­u­fac­ture of sculp­tur­al com­po­si­tions.

Building plaster

In the field of con­struc­tion and repair, gyp­sum is used, which is obtained by fir­ing nat­ur­al gyp­sum stone in spe­cial ovens or by auto­clav­ing with hot steam under pres­sure. At the same time, the tech­nolo­gies for man­u­fac­tur­ing this mate­r­i­al by fir­ing dif­fer in the order of grind­ing and fir­ing, that is, nat­ur­al stone can first be ground and then fired, on the con­trary, fired first and then grind­ed, or com­bine these two oper­a­tions. As a result, sev­er­al types of mate­r­i­al are obtained:

1. actu­al­ly build­ing;

2. high strength;

3. gyp­sum anhy­drite binder.

Con­struc­tion is pro­duced by grind­ing and fir­ing at a tem­per­a­ture of not more than 200 ° C. At the same time, using dif­fer­ent tech­nolo­gies, mate­ri­als are obtained that dif­fer in strength and are marked for 24 grades accord­ing to this indi­ca­tor: from G‑2 to grade G‑25. This mate­r­i­al is also divid­ed into three types accord­ing to the set­ting speed of the solu­tion:

1. fast-hard­en­ing — with a set­ting speed of the solu­tion from 2 to 15 min­utes;

2. nor­mal­ly hard­en­ing — with a set­ting speed with­in 6–30 min­utes;

3. slow-hard­en­ing — with a set­ting speed of at least 20 min­utes.

Depend­ing on the brand in terms of strength and set­ting speed, the mate­r­i­al is used for dif­fer­ent pur­pos­es: for fin­ish­ing, plas­ter­ing, grout­ing, man­u­fac­tur­ing archi­tec­tur­al inte­ri­or details, var­i­ous piece build­ing prod­ucts. At the same time, we men­tion that alabaster is just one of the types of build­ing gyp­sum.

Bringing clarity to terminology

Gyp­sum — it is a nat­ur­al min­er­al, which, after being puri­fied from impu­ri­ties and milled, is used in many areas, includ­ing as a raw mate­r­i­al for the pro­duc­tion of build­ing gyp­sum.

Build­ing plas­ter — a mate­r­i­al made from nat­ur­al gyp­sum stone by spe­cial pro­cess­ing, after which many types are obtained used in con­struc­tion and repair.

Alabaster is one of the types of build­ing gyp­sumchar­ac­ter­ized by a short set­ting time and used main­ly for fin­ish­ing work and cre­at­ing archi­tec­tur­al inte­ri­or details.

High-strength gypsum

It is obtained by pro­cess­ing nat­ur­al raw mate­ri­als with hot steam at a tem­per­a­ture of up to 120 ° C under pres­sure, while obtain­ing a mate­r­i­al whose prod­ucts can have a com­pres­sive strength grade from M100 to M500 (kg / cm2). This type of gyp­sum mate­r­i­al has the fol­low­ing uses:

1. for the man­u­fac­ture of struc­tur­al prod­ucts: wall blocks, par­ti­tion pan­els, dec­o­ra­tive pan­els, heat and sound absorb­ing plates;

2. obtain­ing molds for cast­ings of var­i­ous prod­ucts in the indus­try — porce­lain-faience, machine-build­ing, foundry, auto­mo­tive and oth­ers;

3. in med­i­cine — den­tistry and ortho­pe­dics.

Gypsum anhydrite binder

Gyp­sum anhy­drite binder or anhy­drite cement is obtained by fir­ing nat­ur­al stone at a high tem­per­a­ture — up to 700 ° C and sub­se­quent grind­ing. Anhy­drite cement can have a strength grade from M50 to M200. Used for the fol­low­ing pur­pos­es:

1. for the prepa­ra­tion of fin­ish­ing and mason­ry mor­tars;

2. pro­duc­tion of heat-insu­lat­ing pan­els;

3. pro­duc­tion of arti­fi­cial mar­ble;

4. for mosa­ic floors.

Building plaster products

They pro­duce a vari­ety of prod­ucts used in the con­struc­tion of build­ings and repairs:

1. par­ti­tion gyp­sum con­crete pan­els and slabs;

2. pan­els for the device of the sub­floor;

3. dry­wall sheets;

4. dec­o­ra­tive fac­ing plates;

5. gyp­sum fiber prod­ucts man­u­fac­tured by extru­sion;

6. acoustic gyp­sum boards.