Stones

STONES

1. Artificail stone

Artificial stone is a name for various kinds of synthetic stone products used from the 18th century onward. They have been used in building construction, civil engineering work, and industrial uses such as grindstones. They are made from crushed natural stones bonded together using Portland cement with very low water/cement ratio of less than 0.32.

Types of artificial stone

1. Micro-Crystallized stone

Micro crystal stone, also named as micro crystal glass compound slab.The finish product slab is flat and clean, uniform color, elegant vein, crystal and brilliant, colorful, hard and high density. These characters make it different and better than natural stone. It has all kind of specification, different colors, flat panel, radius panel could used for outside and inside wall of construction, could be used for floor, round column, table top and furniture decoration. It is quite popular.

2. Artificial Marble

Artificial Marble Combining the functionality and durability of solid stone.Artificial marble is mainly comprised of natural marble,Granite,Quartzite, stone meal, shell, glass, and so on. Produced from advanced manufacturing systems, radiation elements are almost completely removed from raw stone materials into artificial marble and Quartz during the production process. The result is a class of truly avant-garde and environmentally friendly stones.

3. Quartz

Quartz stone is comprised of 94% quartz, and 6% resin and little pigment. It is polymerized from the aforementioned materials by a vacuum process, and then formed through the high temperature, high pressure, grinding, polishing, and other processes. 94% quartz makes our quartz stone have unparalleled harness, wear resistance, pressure resistance, anti-abrasion, high temperature resistance, anti-corrosion and anti-infiltration, with a bright and smooth surface.

    

How to make Artificial Stone? A video can tell a thousand words =D

 

2. Natural Stone

The most common natural stones are marble, granite, travertine, limestone, slate, sandstone and quartzite. One of the best qualities of natural stones is that no two stones are alike. Because stone is made in nature, its colors vary, making it more beautiful.

 Mechanical Properties

o       One of the important properties of natural stone is its place on the Mohs hardness scale. The Mohs hardness ranks natural stones on a scale from 1 to 10. If a stone is a 1, it is one of the softest; 10 is the hardest. According to the Granite Land website, the harder the stone is, the less likely it is to be scratched. Limestone measures 3 on the Mohs scale; granite, 6.5; and quartzite, 7. Young's modulus is another important property of natural stone, because it measures the elasticity of the stones. It measures the amount of stress that can be put on the stone before it deforms. It is measured in gigapascals (GPa). According to the Granite Land website, the majority of natural stones measures about 50 GPa.

Thermal Properties

o      One thermal property of natural stones is the co-efficient of thermal expansion. When a natural stone is exposed to a distinct temperature increase, it causes the stone to expand at a specific rate. The co-efficient of thermal expansion for natural stones varies. For example, the co-efficient of thermal expansion for quartzite is 1.3, while granite has 7.9 and limestone, 8.0.Specific heat capacity is another thermal property that tends to be important for natural stones. The specific heat capacity is the amount of thermal energy required to raise the temperature by 1 degree C per unit mass.

Chemical Properties

o      Acid resistance is important for natural stones. It imparts how much weight of the natural stone will be lost when the stone sits in an acid for a specific amount of time at certain temperatures. Granite is hard and brittle. It can easily withstand acids. On the other hand, marble can be easily corroded by acids. Natural stones do absorb liquid, but each stone has different chemical water absorption properties. The water absorption of different natural stones is measured by a percentage point. It measures how much weight is increased after the stone was submerged in water at a defined temperature for a specific amount of time. The typical water absorption of granite is .3 percent, while the absorption of marble is .1 to .2 percent.