With the continuous improvement of consumers' pursuit of a better life, their demand for ceramic tile products has shown a diversified trend. Recently, an Italian tile manufacturer produced the first innovative smart tile, which can monitor the brick itself and the building condition, and can be connected to the latest smart home system.

Although the product is not yet widely used in the market, its emergence or will open up more imaginative space for the innovation and development of functional tiles.

Functional tiles have always been a hot topic in the industry, and a few years ago, the fire of negative ion tiles led to the boom of domestic attention to functional tiles. In recent years, many domestic ceramic enterprises have been exploring and developing functional ceramic tiles, focusing on the wear resistance, dirt resistance, anti-slip, antibacterial, deodorant, light transmission and other functions of ceramic tiles, trying to seize the industry's subdivision track by increasing the added value of products.

Different types of functional tiles have emerged in the market with increased differentiated demand.

At present, the Z era has become the main consumer force in the home improvement market, this part of the consumer group has put forward higher requirements for the living environment, they focus on the quality of life, but also pay more attention to product differentiation and personalized design. According to the "2023 Home new market consumption trend data", functional products with intelligent, healthy, green, appearance level and other characteristics are popular in the market.

In fact, functional tiles are not a new term. Only the ceramic enterprises focu on the decoration of ceramic tiles for a long time, but pay less attention to its functional aspects.

In 2017, the trend of functional ceramic tiles at the CeramBath began to appear, and many ceramic enterprises showed the functionality of ceramic tiles, mainly focused on non-slip, negative ion, anti-static and other aspects; In 2018, the functional ceramic tile market presented a the Amalgamation of Ice and Fire, among which, the negative ion ceramic tile was eye-catching and triggered a discussion on product safety; In 2019, functional ceramic tiles are more hot, some well-known brands have launched functional ceramic tile products, and the trend is becoming more fierce.

In 2019, KITO Ceramics launched KITO Sunshine health brick, adding XT material with patented technology, and fired at 1230℃ for 20 years to release far infrared with a wavelength of 8-16μm. Like sunlight, it can catalyze and react with substances to produce negative oxygen ions, which can improve human microcirculation, enhance immunity, sterilize mites, purify air, prevent radiation and other health effects.

Functional ceramic tiles will continue to be the direction of many ceramic enterprises in the future. Over time, the decorative properties such as tile color and texture will be constantly updated and iterated due to changes in consumer aesthetic standards, but the functional properties of tile based on health and safety will continue to run through them, and may also be given more functions that fit the intelligent life of the home.

The emergence of functional tiles for the ceramic industry has brought unlimited new blue ocean, to be recognized by consumers and promote the further development of functional tiles, in addition to the development of industry unified standards, enterprises need to be strict with themselves, jointly abide by norms, and impress consumers with innovative brand vitality.