MOCA Newsletter – December 2019

Magnesium Oxide Cement Association Foreign Exchange to China Trip Report December 1-14, 2019 December 19, 2019 Introduction In an effort to further the Magnesium Oxide Cement Association (MOCA) partnership with the China Magnesite Material Association (CMMA) and factories within the many provinces of China, several MOCA members visited China in December 2019. The following members of MOCA were participants on the trip: Peter Francis (MOCA President), Mike Van Geyn (MOCA Technical Director), Jarrett Davis (MaxLife Industries) and Linjing Zhao (MOCA, CMMA and Shandong Lanchuang Trade & Economy Co. Ltd.). The goal of the trip was for MOCA to continue its partnership with the CMMA in attendance of their annual conference, development of the Chinese production standards, visit CMMA member factories, develop a trade agreement, inspect export-ready MOCA member production groups and raise awareness for the work that MOCA and other organizations are doing within the ASTM work groups to develop an international standard for Magnesium Oxide ceramic cement products and their use. China Magnesite Material Association (CMMA) Annual General Meeting – Dec. 2-4, Haikou China. MOCA members attended their 5th CMMA Annual General Meeting in as many years, further bolstering our connection to the officially recognized industry association within China. This participation allows MOCA to keep abreast of current events and push requirements for consistently made, good-quality products while also building support for our standards development work at ASTM International. As has become custom, MOCA participated in and was invited to speak at the break-out session specific to MgO board products joined by approximately twenty (20) export ready companies and industry experts, which included presentations by Professor Tu, Professor...

MOCA Newsletter – November 2019

November 2019 Newsletter 2019 is turning out to be a significant year for MOCA on several fronts.  Mike VanGeyn has returned to his position as Technical Director after a multi year absence working on a chemical fire retardant treatment for wood products. Since returning to the fold Mike has met with CCMC in Ottawa to hold discussions on appropriate testing and supply chain management requirements for mago boards.  Mike was provided with a copy of the current CCMC Tech Guide requirements which mirror those of MOCA in many respects.  CCMC concurs with MOCA’s strategy to use multiple accredited factories who have ISO9001 compliant QA systems in place and to have regular batch testing conducted at ILAC accredited labs to the Chinese National Standard in order to determine consistency and completeness of the reaction between MgO and MgCl2 or MgSO4.  Having multiple factories producing equivalent products will allow us to increase testing by sharing the costs which will increase code official confidence and acceptance.  In time MOCA will have a CCMC Tech Guide registered, which can then be sub-licensed to members. In October we attended ASTM committee week in Houston following the attendance of several members at committee week in March in Denver.  The progression of new standards under ASTM has been a slow and laborious process so far, however a significant advancement was made in Houston by breaking the work into 3 separate task groups. E06.21.23A – MGO Standards – Task Group Chair Mr. Ken Krantz – Task Group for developing test methods and specifications for MGO including other test methods for raw materials, such as MgCl2, MgSO4, glass...

MOCA newsletter – October 2016

Hello MOCA members and almost members. It has now been a full year since we held our first AGM as part of the MOCA conference in Vancouver and quite a bit has happened over the last 12 months although not nearly enough for us to consider our nascent industry as mature or even on solid footing yet. This newsletter will provide the high points of what we have done, our hopes, aspirations and plans for things on the short list to do and a call for action for us to maintain the momentum. The next official meeting for MOCA will be held in Rugao Jiangsu China this November 12th to 14th as part of the 50th anniversary of the China Magnesia Materials Association (CMMA). You are all invited and CMMA has generously offered to provide local transportation, hotel and food during the conference along with factory visits, I hope to see more than a few of us there as there are important issues to discuss and decide upon including: • Advancing the MOCA standard as a precursor for a revised ASTM standard. We now have copies of the historic ASTM standards and have translated several of the Chinese JC688 standard test procedures. • Formalizing the MOCA QA manual for manufacturers to follow when making MOCA stamped boards • Cooperating with the manufacturers to develop a formal best practices manual for how the boards should be installed for various end uses. • Deciding on a formula and method for MOCA to thrive and grow as the voice of MOC. This could be dues based, as a fee on orders placed...

The MOCA Standard for MgO Cement boards takes off.

The Magnesium Oxide Cement Association in partnership with China Magnesite Materials Association and in conjunction with American Wall and Ceiling Institute Conference recently held in New Orleans held the first meeting of the MOCA Standard Committee. The MOCA Standard is an initiative to develop the ASTM Standard for MgO cement products and in the process develop Acceptance Criteria and Technical Guides for use in US and Canada and revised standards for use in China making this potentially the first building material standard harmonized over 3 jurisdictions. A group of 15 delegates including 9 from China, representing researchers, association executives, raw material suppliers, board manufacturers, distributors, contractors and testing agencies were joined by 8 teleconference attendees including Government Code officials a Certification and Listing Agency and OEM users while Wang Zifu joined us on video WeChat from Jinan China where it was very early in the morning. The meeting used the full 3 hours allotted to discuss and agree to the existing framework, agree on and delegate tasks, get to know each other quite well and have a plan of action for moving things forwards which includes adding environmental testing to the Standard. This meeting was held in English and Chinese with excellent technical translations provided by Wendy Ying of BCIT’s Building Science Center of Excellence and Linjing Zhou our Chief Representative in China and Director of CMMA’s Foreign Exchange Program. Previously MOCA, CMMA and AWCI met to discuss the relationship between the associations and to see MagO boards become part of the AWCI Technical Committee’s mandate. AWCI is a 100 year old association with over 2000 members of wall...