(A) the basic situation of building ceramics industry
The domestic production of modern wall and floor tiles began in Zhejiang Wenzhou Xishan Brick Factory 1939, which promoted the development of wall and floor tile enterprises in Tangshan, Jingdezhen, Foshan and Shenyang. Until 1978, the production of wall and floor tiles in China was still very backward, with small scale, low output and poor quality. The main products are 152× 152mm white porcelain tiles and 108× 108mm tiles. Mosaic was an important product at that time, and the products of building ceramics were far from forming a climate.
During the more than 20 years of reform and opening up from 65438 to 0978, the domestic ceramic construction industry developed rapidly, ranking first in the world in terms of enterprise scale, employees and product output. Not only domestic ceramic construction enterprises are thriving, but also foreign-funded enterprises have gained good development opportunities in China. The ceramic industry in this period can be described as blooming everywhere. For a long time, the situation of "three mountains stand in the balance" has been broken, forming the industrial layout structure of "three mountains, one sea and two rivers" in China. "Three Mountains" refers to Foshan in Guangdong, Boshan in Shandong and Tangshan in Hebei; "One Sea" refers to Shanghai, including Jiangsu and Zhejiang;
"Two Rivers" refers to Jiajiang in Sichuan, including Sichuan and Chongqing, and Jinjiang in Fujian, generally referring to Fujian Province. This is the most important producing area of building ceramics. For example, Foshan, the largest producer of wall and floor tiles in China, has more than 300 enterprises and 1000 modern wall and floor tile production lines, with an annual output greater than that of the whole Italy. Shandong has more than 0/00 ceramic enterprises in Zibo and Linyi, with an annual output of about 250 million square meters. There are more than 250 ceramic enterprises in Sichuan, the new ceramic base, with an annual production capacity of about 400 million square meters. There are more than 20 ceramic enterprises10 in Jiajiang county alone, with more than 3 production lines and a production capacity of 300 million square meters. Due to the implementation of the western development, these western regions have become the highlights and hot spots of structural adjustment and new round development of building ceramics industry.
(2) Basic conditions of building ceramic products
1, maximizing product yield. According to incomplete statistics, the annual output of glazed tiles in China in 1997 was 726 million square meters, and the annual output of wall and floor tiles was11500,000 square meters. As early as 1993, the output of ceramics reached the first place in the world, accounting for two fifths of the world's output.
At the same time, the variety of products has increased and the quality has been continuously improved. 10 years ago, there were only a few varieties of ceramic products in China, such as glazed tiles for interior walls, ceramic mosaic tiles and red floor tiles, with monotonous colors and single specifications. With the progress of science and technology and the improvement of industry management level, the quality and grade of building ceramics products in China have made a qualitative leap. Enterprises actively develop new products in various colors, and have owned and can produce ceramic products with different varieties, specifications, functions and decorative effects. If divided by material:
Fine ceramic glazed tiles, stoneware glazed tiles, porcelain tiles and brocade tiles. According to the use function, there are:
Interior wall brick, exterior wall brick, floor tile, square brick, step brick. New varieties such as imitation granite brick, infiltration polished brick, large-size special-shaped polished brick and antibacterial ceramics have been developed.
Product specifications and sizes are complete, with the maximum of 1 1,000×1000 mm and 800× 1 1,600 mm. Colored waist-line bricks and various special-shaped bricks can also be produced, and a number of well-known enterprises and brands are on the rise.
2. The product specifications are getting bigger and bigger. At present, most enterprises are willing to produce large-scale wall and floor tiles, but no one cares about small-scale tiles. Many enterprises can develop 500×500, 600×600 tiles, a few enterprises can produce 800×800, 600×900 tiles, and a few enterprises can develop 1 000× 1 000 and above super-large tiles, which not only increase the floor tiles, but also increase the traditional 200×.
3. Tile decoration is graded. In order to meet the requirements of individualization and richness of ceramic tile decoration, the decoration technology and technology have been greatly improved and developed to high-grade and high-grade. For example, in the aspect of ceramic tile printing technology, new technologies such as inkjet color technology and roller printing are applied, which makes the decorative styles of ceramic tiles diversified and the decorative techniques colorful. For example, exterior wall tiles are replaced by three-color mixed stickers, kitchen and bathroom tiles are decorated with waist lines and tiles, and underground climbing walls are decorated with integrated tiles. At the same time, the concept of "three bricks" has become blurred. For example, floor tiles can be used for exterior wall decoration, and exterior wall tiles can be used for interior decoration. This mixed use reflects the diversity and novelty of tile decoration style.
4. Product quality polarization. A number of high-quality and high-grade enterprises have emerged in the domestic ceramic construction industry, which are represented in various porcelain producing areas and become the main brands in the industry. However, the overall quality is very low, and the quality level between regions and enterprises is uneven, especially the contrast between domestic and foreign-funded enterprises. Take Taiwan-funded enterprises as an example. Although the number and output of foreign-funded enterprises in Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places are small, they are of excellent quality, good quality and famous brands. Products with high positioning and high added value, such as Asian ceramics, Smick polished tiles, Nobel and champion tiles, are difficult for domestic enterprises to match.
Second, several characteristics of building ceramic products
Domestic ceramic products are rich and colorful. Groups of products with good quality, high grade and high added value emerge one after another, groups of well-known brands with credibility, popularity and reputation are born, and groups of enterprises with scale and strength emerge one after another. All these constitute the colorful colors of the domestic building ceramics industry. However, in the current market, the opposite of this color is a rather dull phenomenon, and ceramic products show three characteristics.
L, homogeneity. With the progress of science and technology and the improvement of production level, ceramic products tend to be "homogeneous", that is, the quality difference of ceramic products is gradually narrowing, and they are very close in variety, quality, specification, model and color. Brand has become an important symbol to distinguish products, and counterfeit products, especially famous products, are easily counterfeited. In addition, the product innovation ability of enterprises is poor. Except for a few enterprises that can continuously develop new products, many enterprises do not have the development ability, and they all squeeze into the same level, the same grade and the same market cake for vicious competition.
Undoubtedly, the era of homogenization of building ceramic products has arrived. Under the background of the quality convergence of building ceramics products, in order to compete for the limited market, price wars are everywhere, and bidding sales are becoming more and more fierce. In order to improve market competitiveness, many enterprises have taken a new path in maintaining brand image and strengthening marketing services.
2. follow the trend. The building ceramics industry also loves to follow the fashion. Many enterprises are oriented to what is good to sell in the market. This is a normal business behavior, but it has changed in the implementation process and evolved into a "follow-the-wind behavior"; Follow the trend of the market, frequently follow the footsteps of others, boo after others, not or never subdivide the market, and look for market differences and gaps. As a result, a large number of similar products went on the market. In order to reduce inventory and speed up turnover, we have to choose bidding and jumping off the building to sell, which leads enterprises to fall into a vicious circle of competition.
Step 3 imitate. There is a very abnormal phenomenon in the building ceramics industry. Some enterprises don't work hard on scientific research, but focus on others. They are good at borrowing ideas, are used to imitating, save trouble and scientific research funds, and have the best of both worlds, but the result is that they have less things, more things, less things to innovate, more things to clone, and no independent intellectual property rights and products. And form two imitation chains: mainland enterprises → coastal enterprises → foreign enterprises, that is, mainland enterprises imitate the products of coastal enterprises, and coastal enterprises imitate the products of foreign enterprises. The other chain is small enterprises → large enterprises → famous brand enterprises, that is, small enterprises imitate the products of large enterprises, large enterprises imitate the products of famous enterprises, and some simply make counterfeit products. The new products that an enterprise has made great efforts to develop will be copied one after another within three months, which will not only dampen the enthusiasm of scientific research and development, but also disrupt the market economic order.
Third, the characteristics of the current development of building ceramic products
Now the ceramic products on the market are dazzling and colorful, showing unprecedented diversity and complexity. It is difficult to make an accurate qualitative analysis of the current products, but overall, ceramic products show the following characteristics:
1, high-grade interior wall. Modern human settlement concept has changed the past "emphasizing the hall but neglecting the kitchen"
Consciousness, kitchen and bathroom as the focus of home decoration, decoration and design of the most exciting place, all kinds of ceramics have become exquisite clothes for kitchen and bathroom decoration. The glazed tiles with high gloss, sub-gloss and sub-gloss, as well as the overall collocation of waist lines and flower pieces, make the interior wall decoration beautiful and increasingly high-grade. High-grade interior wall now has the following aspects: first, improve the internal and external quality of ceramic tiles; Second, the improvement of decorative style and effect; Third, the scientific and technological content has been greatly improved, and new materials and technologies have been widely used in interior wall tiles.
2. Exterior wall porcelain. Decorative bricks for exterior walls have gone through the process from pottery to stoneware and then to porcelain. Long bricks and small bricks are declining. Exterior wall tiles with a high degree of porcelain will be popular and gradually replace pottery and stoneware tiles.
3. Stone floor tiles. It is no exaggeration to say that the whole ceramic construction industry is doing stone articles, taking natural stone (mainly granite and marble at present) as the blueprint for development. For example, Baita Wangshi series developed by Baita Group, Shi Yuhua series developed by Oushennuo, and amber stone series developed by Xinzhongyuan.
Such enterprises push the development concept of stone tiles to a climax. Driven by large enterprises, the development trend of "stone" appeared in the ceramic construction industry.
Fourth, the emergence and development of schools.
In the fields of ceramics, sculpture and ceramics, the concept of genre is not uncommon.
For example, Liu Chuan, a famous ceramist, formed his own unique artistic style and genre. Shiwan doll, Chaozhou arts and crafts porcelain and Jingdezhen industrial porcelain all formed their own ideas and styles and formed their own factions. There is no objection to the widespread use of genres. As for ceramic tile products, it seems that the concept of genre has never been used. The concept of "genre" has never been put forward in the design, development and production of ceramic products. It is necessary to put it forward for the first time here, because the genre phenomenon of ceramic tile development and design exists objectively, and the designers and producers of ceramic tiles consciously or unconsciously integrate themselves into various genres. By grasping and analyzing several schools and their products, the market context and development trend are clear, which has important guiding significance. Recognizing the difference of consumption concepts, the diversity of consumption levels and the richness of the market is the premise of the faction of creative design of ceramic tile products. From the current design and development of ceramic tile products, the following four schools have been formed:
1, classicism school. Nostalgia will also become a fashion, and retro as a phenomenon provides inspiration for the design and creation of ceramic tiles. The appearance of antique bricks just caters to people's retro psychology and nostalgia. This kind of brick has great potential and has a positive amplification effect with the development of social economy. Major domestic enterprises can produce all kinds of antique brick products. Such as Eagle, Dong Peng and Baita; Foreign antique bricks are better. For example, ASTER MADE Company in Sasoro, Italy, produces things from mosaics to precious snowflakes, from soft plastic reliefs to various medieval decorations and portraits of Rome, which are very simple and elegant.
2. Naturalism school. Returning to nature has become a common psychological demand of modern people, and imitation natural products obviously satisfy people's desire. Imitation brick has become an outstanding representative of naturalistic works, and domestic and foreign manufacturers take stone as their development direction. Imitation of nature, imitation of granite and imitation of marble are two main products. In foreign countries, it is not only limited to two mainstream products, but also set the goal further and wider, such as works imitating volcanic rock texture and works imitating coral reefs with reef effect.
3. Realism school. Fashion has become the mainstream of realism, and this kind of works is vast, with high attainments and high level. For example, large-particle series floor tiles, Jinhua beige series polished tiles, spar, rain flower stone, sun stone, amber stone, Tian Yunshi and so on.
4. Surrealism school. It embodies a trend and avant-garde consumption concept, and has the characteristics of guidance, avant-garde and forward-looking. The emergence of "concept brick" is the result of the quiet rise of surrealism. Although the number of such works is small, most of them appear as high-quality products with high technology content and high ornamental value.
The emergence of styles and the formation of schools reflect the diversity of people's aesthetic tastes and the extensiveness of market demand. It should be pointed out that it seems difficult to explain the connotation of ceramic tile only as a product. Ceramic tile is not only a product, but also a "work" more often. This is a conceptual change and promotion. Only by positioning the development and design of ceramic tiles at the level of "works" will its influence be far-reaching and lasting. When people look at the development, production and consumption of ceramic tile products from the perspective of works, they can bring many new feelings and inspirations.
Five, the development trend of building ceramic products
The rapid development of science and technology and the continuous application of new materials, new technologies, new equipment and new processes have promoted the development of ceramic products, which are developing in a higher, faster and better direction. At the same time, influenced by the concept of design and decoration, its process design development will present the following "six major trends".
1, fashion. Affected by the market, the product update speed is very fast, the product life cycle is greatly shortened, and new products emerge one after another. It is more appropriate to use "bricks are similar year after year, and bricks are different year after year". Small-batch, multi-variety and fast-changing production has become a new feature of industrial production. Ceramic products, like fashion, are popular in several styles or even many styles a year. There are two biggest characteristics, one is quick response and quick upgrading, and the other is keeping up with the trend, fashion and popular colors.
The concept of "ceramic fashion design" comes from two factors. On the one hand, the introduction of modern high-tech means and the fully computerized design platform provide a guarantee for its development.
On the other hand, the intensification of market competition forces enterprises to continuously develop new products and accelerate the storage of product solutions. "Ceramic fashion design" has a very important influence on the ceramic industry. It will be unique in product design and decoration style, creating selling points, creating fashion and leading the trend.
2. Personalization. In order to get rid of the influence of product homogeneity, some enterprises pay attention to developing personalized products. What is certain is that the "personalized era" of architectural ceramic products has arrived, and the enemy of personalization is imitation. Under the domination of emphasizing characteristics, publicizing individuality, striving for perfection and highlighting different ideas, there is no way out to imitate others. Ceramic construction enterprises will have a hard time if they take the popular product route, and those who do not pay attention to personalized product development will eventually be eliminated. Therefore, many enterprises raise the banner of "personalization", carry out targeted product development according to market changes and consumer demand, provide more personalized products, find and open up market space by embodying product differentiation, and promote new consumption concepts and behaviors through product differentiation to activate the market. A typical example is Oseno enterprises in Guangdong. In order to avoid low-level competition among peers, it has implemented the strategy of "specialization", positioned its products as "a model of personalized decorative art", and carried out product research and development and marketing activities with the goal of meeting the personalized needs of a certain group of consumers through market segmentation and consumers, which has achieved great success.
3. Humanization. Ceramic tiles are no longer cold and heartless things, but sentient things full of affinity. An ordinary tile is full of humanistic care.
Among them, many cultural connotations and humanistic care are injected, which embodies the communication between "people and bricks". It can be said that it is a humanized product, and its cultural connotation is rich and colorful. For example, in terms of product naming, taking porcelain bricks as an example, it used to be simply called porcelain bricks, monolithic bricks and vitrified bricks, which was called "rational naming method", which was simple, boring and unsightly. It's different now. The same porcelain bricks are called Lishi, Yuhua Stone, Magic Colored Stone, rainbow stone and Amber Stone, which are beautiful, pleasant and natural. It is called "perceptual naming", which is both mysterious and attractive. This naming method extends from a single product to the whole product series, such as the series of interior wall tiles developed by Baita Group, which advocates the concept of "humanity, technology and environmental protection". Dong Peng Group, which advocates the concept of "creating spiritual space", has developed Sun Stone and Yinhe series floor tiles, which is a great progress.
4. artistic Ceramic tiles will become more and more exquisite, the production level will be improved, the design concept will be updated, and cultural connotation will be injected, so that ceramic tiles are no longer a simple product, or even a work of art that embodies the efforts of creators. The concept of "famous teacher and chef" will be accepted by consumers, especially famous architects, designers and artists will be involved in the ceramic construction industry in large numbers, which will make the design and decoration of ceramic tiles more colorful and achieve artistic effects in design techniques and decoration skills. For example, with the maturity and wide application of three-time firing technology and even multiple firing technology, many spiritual ceramic tile artworks have entered thousands of households.
5. naturalization. Influenced by the tendency of naturalization, beauty is natural to the extreme, which makes antique and imitation natural products popular. With the advancement of industrialization and urbanization and the improvement of aesthetic taste, returning to simplicity, being close to nature and returning to nature will become an important consumption concept. Antique bricks are gradually becoming fashionable. Although modern fashion colors occupy the dominant position in the market, elegant and natural ceramic products will be very popular, and this trend has already appeared. For example, cultural stones show the wonderful effects of nature, and reflect modern people's boredom with urban life and their desire to return to nature. Naturalization is not a simple copy of natural things, but a creative thing full of inspiration for designers, not arbitrary, but rigorous and scientific. Naturalization not only embodies the perfect combination of man and nature, but also embodies the harmonious unity of art and nature, that is, the idea of "harmony between man and nature" contained in the design. There is no doubt that ceramic products full of natural charm will have great market potential.
6. Multifunctional. This is the new direction of new product development of many large enterprises. Ceramic tile products are breaking through the range of durability and decoration in the past and developing towards functional diversification. With the concept of multi-functional development injected into new product development, new multi-functional ceramics are constantly emerging, and structural ceramics, functional ceramics and nano-ceramics have a good development momentum. Multifunctional ceramic products are also emerging, such as ceramic tiles with special sound function of attracting and reflecting sound; Anti-static ceramic tile with anti-static performance; Antibacterial ceramic tile with antibacterial and cleaning functions.
Many enterprises have set an example in this respect, such as the nano-easy-to-clean ceramics recently launched by Dong Peng Group, the antibacterial ceramics launched by Baita Group, and the ceramic sofa developed by Huaguang Group, which not only broke the traditional modeling of ceramics, but also expanded the new functions of ceramics. These products are highly competitive in the market.
What is discussed above is the design and development trend of ceramic tiles. The production of a good idea and a good product needs necessary technical support and depends on the support of related supporting industries. For example, Italy, a powerful ceramic country, has strong technical support because its design, development concept and innovative products can lead the world trend. The newly developed new products in this country, the technology of "realizing ceramic tile decoration in the process of pressing" and the new varieties of ceramic tiles developed by this technology all need the support of presses, kilns and various new ceramic machinery and equipment, and these all depend on the development of ceramic machinery supporting industries, and technological progress can support the improvement of technology. For example, the natural stone series, wet granulation series and large particle series produced by Italy Ferro Company with high technology have extraordinary artistic effects. Another example is "glazed glazed glazed tile composite pressing decoration technology" and its products. Glaze pressing technology needs the support of new colored glaze and new powder filling system (linear distributor, continuous secondary powder filling system, staged secondary powder filling system and intelligent painting system).
Technological progress is also changing the traditional ceramic tile products, including the thickness, specifications and molding technology of ceramic tiles. For example, the system company adopts the latest patented technology of forming plate, and the ceramic tile plate produced is not only large in size, but also easy to bend. The largest size can reach 3 square meters, and the thickness is only 3 millimeters. SYSYTEM Company recently exhibited this latest product at the 200 1 Sichuan Building Ceramics Annual Meeting held in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan Province. It has a large size of 900×2700 (mm), good elasticity (easy to bend) and light weight (1 square meter only weighs 6 kilograms). System company initiated a new concept of ceramic tile, and its application is more extensive. Other technologies, including computer inkjet technology, will soon be applied to ceramic tile production lines, replacing glazing and color glazing, thus appearing in the decoration and application of concave-convex bricks.
Technological progress and breakthrough, as well as the promotion of design concept, have changed the specifications and development trend of ceramic tile products, while changes in style and fashion trends have also promoted technological innovation. The result of interaction is the simultaneous promotion and improvement of development concept and consumption fashion. The interaction and perfection of the two also strongly promoted the development of building ceramics industry and ceramic tile products.
Facing the new century, the building ceramics industry will have greater development, ceramic tile products will be continuously enriched and improved, and the ceramic tile market and consumption will increase substantially.
The design and development of ceramic tiles will be carried out and extended along the two main lines of "fashion" and "avant-garde", which not only reflects the change of ceramic tile consumption fashion, but also reflects the avant-garde concept and development trend of bold innovation. Generally speaking, the design, development and consumption of ceramic tiles will be a pluralistic pattern of coexistence of fashion and trendy, blending of East and West, and docking of modernity and retro. Only by grasping this pattern and combining product development with market demand can we be in an invincible position in the market competition, and the domestic ceramic construction industry can achieve the goal of sustainable development and becoming stronger from big to strong.