Porcelain stoneware today is one of the most beautiful and sought -after building materials in its class. Excellent characteristics, aesthetic appearance and unique properties make people around the world include the choice of this material. In this article, we will talk about what porcelain stoneware is and where it is used.
Content
Characteristics
Porcelain stoneware was invented recently, in the 70s of the last century, in one of the Italian towns. Literally from the Italian, the word "porcelain" is translated as ceramics made of stone and porcelain, which more than accurately reflects its essence.
Porcelain stoneware is a harmonious combination of the best qualities of natural granite, ceramics and porcelain. This is a beautiful durable material with magnificent consumer characteristics.
Composition and production
Porcelain stoneware is made from a mixture of white clay varieties, quartz sand, spar and various dyes.
The production process consists of the following stages:
- Stage one is the formation of tiles from the prepared mass and subsequent pressing using hydraulic presses under a pressure of 5 centners per 1 square centimeter.
- Stage second - firing at a temperature of 1300C. At this stage, raw materials are sintering, forming solid durable material.
A special production technology allows you to make material, several times higher than the strength of ceramic tiles. Also, the process almost completely recreates the natural conditions for the formation of a natural breed. The main difficulty is to comply with the proportions of raw materials as accurately as possible and monitor the temperature regime, especially when the amount of raw materials is measured in tens of tons. The error of only 1-2 degrees can disrupt the geometric parameters of the tile.
Properties
To list all the advantages of porcelain tiles, you will need a lot of time and space, but this material is certainly worth it. We will highlight and consider only the most obvious and the main advantages of porcelain tiles.
Advantages of porcelain tiles:
- high strength - gradual heating to high temperatures and strong pressing eliminates the smallest voids and pores, allowing to obtain phenomenally hard material;
- resistance to abrasion;
- low water absorption - more precisely, the water absorption of porcelain tile is practically absent (only 0.05%);
- high frost resistance -withstands temperatures up to -50C;
- long life;
- pleasant appearance.
Features of operation
The structure of porcelain stoneware is by nature resembles glass and one cannot but mention that porcelain stoneware can break, like glass. This does not mean at all that it is fragile. On the contrary, you have to try hard to find him a competitor in strength! Fragility and hardness are different concepts. A porcelain stove can be crashed only during transportation or inaccurate installation. But as soon as the plate is laid, you can ride it even on an armored personnel carrier - nothing will happen.
Porcelain stoves are produced with a thickness of 4 to 30 mm. The most popular plates with a thickness of 10 to 14 mm. They are perfect for facing floors in production facilities, although they are very expensive. The cost of a porcelain slab directly depends on its thickness, texture and colors.
The most expensive, 3-hesantimeter slabs are made only to order. However, the strength of the plate for the most part does not depend on the thickness, but on the quality of the styling. So, a well-laid plate of 7 mm can well compete with a hastily glued with a 30-type heavyweight.
Appearance
By adding various dyes and the use of special processing technologies allows you to produce completely different “varieties” of porcelain tile.
Classification by surface texture:
- polished - from the surface of the slab cut the front rough part and polish it. Such plates are used mainly for decorative decoration, since the beautiful surface is very “capricious” and impractical - it is easily scratched and glides strongly when getting wet;
- unprecedented or “matte” - plates do not undergo mechanical treatment after temperature treatment in the furnace. This is the cheapest type of porcelain border;
- an anti -slip - slabs with a relief pattern are used for floor cladding.
Coloring
For staining porcelain tiles, special coloring compositions are used, which are the initial pigment mixtures that are found in a natural environment. So, in order to give a porcelain stove a bright green juicy shade, it is necessary to add a mixture of zirconium. Cobalt compounds are used to obtain blue porcelain tiles. But, as you can immediately notice, color porcelain stoneware costs an order of magnitude more expensive than a regular gray-pier-pepper, since the cost of pigments is quite high.
One of the ways to reduce the cost of porcelain stoves is partial painting. The material is covered with a pigment, which stains only a few millimeters from the entire thickness of the plate. In this way, plates painted under marble, granite and basalt are made. This method saves expensive pigments, thereby reducing the cost of the final product.
There are porcelain plates with interspersed shells, pebbles and attractive embossed texture. Their manufacture takes a little more time. After the creation of the granite slab, it is covered with a layer with the necessary “ingredients” or ordered by a relief pattern, and then again sent under the press. The manufacture of such original design ceramics requires large costs, therefore its cost is appropriate.
But, despite all the efforts of designers, porcelain stoneware is just an imitation of natural stone. Everyone or poorly solves this well for himself, but it will be useful to mention another fact. Unlike natural rocks, porcelain stoneware does not have a radioactive field at all, while the stones in any case will have a radiation background.
"Wooden ceramics"
This technology for processing porcelain stoves was created to mitigate the "cold" of the stone and create a "wooden" analogue, taking into account all the smallest details, textures and color shades. Just imagine how amazing a stone parquet will look amazing, which is outwardly not distinguished from wooden! And how many generations it will last! This is later easy to care for the wooden. The only minus of porcelain stoneware for the floor is the cold. The stone does not warm, and therefore the installation of such a coating will be a great reason for buying a beautiful carpet or installation of heating.
Application
Having examined the characteristics of porcelain stoneware, it becomes clear that such exceptional material is useful in many industries. The range of use of porcelain tiles is incredibly wide. It is suitable for both the interior decoration of the premises and for external work.
Spheres of use of porcelain tiles:
- finishing in places with a large human stream (metro, stations, airports). The coverage of porcelain tiles is almost forever, therefore it significantly saves the state budget, without requiring frequent repairs;
- floors, sidewalks and steps from porcelain tile are not inferior in quality to expensive bulk floors;
- facades made of porcelain tiles - for decoration of facades, large plates of 14 mm thick and 60x60 cm in size are used. As a rule, the porcelain tile “flaunts” at state institutions, giving them a strict and official appearance;
- interior decoration - if you use porcelain tiles for the street is profitable, then using it inside the house, you can create noble and unusual interiors. The material does not require practically any care and does not absorb liquids, so it makes magnificent kitchen countertops, coatings and interior elements for bathrooms;
- application in industrial premises - porcelain stoneware perfectly tolerates the effects of aggressive chemicals, so it is great for the decoration of workshops and industrial premises. High heat resistance allows it to be used in boiler rooms. A porcelain stove with a thickness of only 8.5 mm can withstand a load of 200 kg per 1 square centimeter, so you can safely put such plates on the floor in a garage.
Useful recommendation: to distinguish real porcelain stoneware from a fake or ceramic tile, look at the cut of the material - the pattern on the cut of the porcelain stove completely duplicates the pattern of the front side.
