light transmitting concrete

Litracon™ presents the phenomenon of light transmitting concrete in the form of a widely applicable new building material. Litracon™ is a combination of optical fibres and fine concrete.  It can be produced as prefabricated building blocks and panels.  Due to the small size of the fibres, they blend into concrete becoming a component of the material like small pieces of aggregate.  In this manner, the result is not only two materials - glass in concrete - mixed, but a third, new material, which is homogeneous in its inner structure and on its main surfaces as well. Thousands of optical glass fibres form a matrix and run parallel to each other between the two main surfaces of each block.  The proportion of the fibres is very small (4%) compared to the total volume of the blocks. Moreover, these fibres mingle in the concrete because of their insignificant size, and they become a structural component as a kind of modest aggregate. Therefore, the surface of the blocks remains homogeneous concrete.  In theory, a wall structure built from light-transmitting concrete can be several meters thick, because the fibres work without almost any loss in light up until 20 meters.