Manufacturing Process Using Bretonstone Technology

The Stone Italiana product range is the result of a leading-edge controlled manufacturing process that is aimed to achieve products suitable for special applications in the building industry.

These products consist of an engineered material, mostly quartz- based.

The manufacturing process begins by mixing a combination of raw materials (quartz) in various grain sizes (from fine dust up to 5 to 6 mm grit), organic dyes and structural polyester resin (7% approximately). Besides acting as a binder, the latter allows for a finished product that displays excellent characteristics in terms of flexural strength, impact strength and low absorption coefficient and that features physical properties and performance levels well above those of the raw materials.

The polyester resin is heat cured and, through a computerized industrial process of vibro compression under vacuum at high pressure, it permits the manufacture of large format slabs (120 x 120 cm and 140 x 305 cm) in various thicknesses (1-, 1.3-, 2- and 3-cm thick), suited for a wide range of applications.

The processing cycle envisages the production of individual slabs, thereby eliminating the need for difficult and costly block cutting operations, which are typical of all natural stones.

The raw materials are first mixed and homogenized via computerized control units. The resulting mix is then poured – in the amount needed to get the desired thickness – between two paper sheets placed on a conveyor belt that delivers the product to the compaction area, where the mix is pressed into slabs. Each slab is then cured in a curing chamber that consists of a tower-like structure with a number of heating trays, which are kept at a temperature in the region of 80 to 85°C. Through heat treatment, the mixture pressed into a slab will solidify in approximately 30 to 40 minutes, that is, half of the time required by an entire slab production cycle.

Finally, each slab is processed to the desired finish through a number of steps including surface smoothing, calibrating, polishing, trimming, bevelling and edge work, depending on the intended use.

Stone Italiana finished quartz slabs can be supplied in very large quantities with controlled, quality-assured features, such as consistency in weight, thickness and compactness and uniform design and colour of the exposed surface. Our line of quartz products include quartz sinks, quartz kitchen countertops, quartz bathroom countertops, quartz tiles and quartz sinks.