One、What are the types of artificial stone?
1、Resin-based artificial stone
Resin-based artificial stone is manufactured by combining unsaturated resin as a binder with natural marble chips, quartz sand, calcite, stone powder, or other inorganic fillers in specific proportions, followed by adding catalysts, curing agents, pigments, and other additives. The mixture is then mixed, cured, molded, demolded, dried, and polished to create the final product. Resin-based artificial stone offers advantages such as good gloss, vibrant and diverse colors, high processability, and excellent decorative effects. Currently, resin-based artificial stone is the most commonly used type in interior decoration projects.
2、Composite Artificial Stone
The manufacturing process for composite artificial stone involves first creating a cement mortar body using materials such as cement and stone powder, followed by immersing the body in organic monomers to allow polymerization under specific conditions. While composite artificial stone products are relatively inexpensive, they are susceptible to detachment or cracking on the polymer surface due to temperature variations.
3、Cement-based artificial stone
Concrete cast stone is manufactured using various types of cement as the bonding agent, sand and natural aggregate as the coarse and fine materials, and is produced through mixing, pressing, steam curing, grinding, and polishing. During the mixing process, color pigments can be added to create colored concrete cast stone. Concrete cast stone is easy to source and has a low cost, but its decorative value is limited. Materials such as water-based stone and various types of mosaic tiles fall into this category.
4、Sintered Artificial Stone
The production method for sintered artificial stone is similar to ceramic processes. It involves mixing raw materials such as feldspar, quartz, diopside, calcite, and iron ore powder, along with a certain amount of clay, typically with a composition of 60% stone powder and 40% clay. The mixture is prepared using a wet mixing method, and then molded using a semi-dry pressing method. Finally, the resulting material is sintered at a temperature of approximately 1000°C in a kiln. Sintered artificial stone offers good decorative properties and stable performance, but requires high-temperature sintering, which results in high energy consumption and cost.
Two. Is microcrystalline stone a synthetic stone?
Microcrystal stone is a type of artificial stone.
However, there is a broad and narrow definition of "artificial stone." People often think that "artificial stone" refers to resin boards or granite, but in reality, the term "artificial stone" is very broad. Any stone other than natural stone can be considered artificial stone. Microcrystalline stone is a high-end type of artificial stone.