The Evolution of Fiber Cement Board: A Century of Innovation in Building Materials
The Formative Years (1900-1950)The story of fiber cement board begins in 1900 when Austrian engineers pioneered asbestos-reinforced cement sheets, marking the first industrialized use of fibrous materials in cement matrices28. By 1905, Belgian industrialist Alphonse Emsens established the world’s first dedicated fiber cement factory in Brussels, leveraging the Hatschek process (a "wet felt" production method) to manufacture roofing and [...]