Cefficers today is one of the most beautiful and demanded building materials in its class. Excellent features, aesthetic appearance and unique properties make people all over the world tend to choose this material. In this article we will talk about what porcelain stonewares is and where it is used.
Content
Specifications
Porcelain stoneware was invented quite recently, in the 70s of the last century, in one of the Italian towns. Literally from the Italian word "porcelain stoneware" is translated as ceramics from stone and porcelain, which more than exactly displays 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
Gres is made from a mixture of grades of white clay, silica sand, feldspar, and various dyes.
The production process consists of the following steps:
- First Stage - Formation of the prepared tile mass and subsequent pressing using hydraulic press under a pressure of 5 tons per 1 square centimeter.
- Step two - calcining at a temperature of 1300C. At this stage the raw materials is sintered to form a hard durable material.
Special production technology makes it possible to produce the material, at times exceeding the strength of the ceramic tiles. Also, the process is almost completely recreates the natural conditions of formation of natural rock. The main difficulty in making the most accurate proportioning of raw materials and monitor the temperature conditions, especially when the amount of raw materials measured in tens of tonnes. The error only 1-2 degrees can disrupt the geometric parameters of tiles.
Properties
To list all the advantages of porcelain tiles, it will take a lot of time and place, but this stuff is definitely worth it. We stand out and look at just the most obvious and the main advantages of stoneware tiles.
The advantages of porcelain stoneware:
- high strength - gradual heating to high temperatures and strong compact eliminate minute voids and pores, allowing a phenomenally solid material;
- abrasion resistance;
- low water absorption - more precisely, the water absorption porcelain practically absent (total 0.05%);
- high frost - resistant up to -50 ° C;
- long-term operation;
- pleasant appearance.
Features of operation
granite structure in nature resembles glass, not to mention that the granite would shatter like glass. This does not mean that he is fragile. On the contrary, we must work hard to find him a rival in strength! Brittleness and hardness - different concepts. Porcelain plate can only be broken during transport or careless installation. But as soon as the plate is stacked, it is possible to go on at least an armored personnel carrier - nothing will happen.
Porcelain plates produced with thickness from 4 to 30 mm. Most popular plate thickness of 10 to 14mm. They are great for lining floors in industrial premises, even though they are quite expensive. The cost of granite slabs depends on its thickness, texture and color.
The most expensive 3-hsantimetrovye plates are only made to order. However, the strength of the board for the most part does not depend on the thickness and the quality of stacking. Thus, a well laid plate 7 mm may well compete with the adhered hastily 30 timillimetrovym heavyweight.
Appearance
By adding various dyes and the use of special processing techniques allows very different "class" porcelain.
Classification on the surface texture:
- polished - from the surface of the plate is cut off the face rough part and polish it. Such plates are used mainly for decorative finishes, since a beautiful surface is very "capricious" and is impractical - it is easy to scratch and greatly slides during wetting;
- intended or "matte" - plates do not pass mechanical processing after temperature processing in the furnace. This is the cheapest view of the porcelain stoneware;
- anti-slip - plates with embossed pattern are used for floor cladding.
Staining
For staining of porcelain stoneware, special coloring compositions are used, which are the original pigment mixtures, which are found in a natural environment. So, to give a porcelain plate a bright green juicy shade, you need to add a mixture of zirconium. Cobalt compounds are used to obtain blue porcelain stoneware. But, as you can immediately notice, color porcelain is an order of magnitude more expensive than the usual gray plate of "salt-pepper" color, since the cost of pigments is quite high.
One of the ways of cheapening of porcelain stoves is a partial blasting. The material is covered with pigment, which color only a few millimeters from the entire thickness of the plate. In this way, plates painted under marble, granite and basalt. This method saves expensive pigments, thereby reducing the cost of the final product.
There are porcelain stoves with inclusions of seashells, pebbles and an attractive embossed texture. Their manufacturing takes a little longer. After creating a porrong stoneware base, it is covered with a layer with the necessary "ingredients" or ordered relief pattern, and then send again under the press. The manufacture of such original design ceramics requires high costs, therefore the cost of it is appropriate.
But, despite all the efforts of designers, porcelain stoneware is just a simulation of natural stone. It's good or badly solves each for myself, but it will be worth mentioning another fact. Unlike natural rocks, the porcelain is completely not posted by the radioactive field, while the stones will have a radiation background in any case.
"Wooden ceramics"
This technology of processing porcelain plate was created to mitigate the "coldness" of stone and creating a "wooden" analogue, taking into account all the smallest details, textures and color shades. Just imagine how stunningly the stone parquet will look like, which is not evidenced by wooden! And how many generations it will last! For this then, it is easy to care for the sole of the wooden. The only minus floor stoneware is cold. Stone does not heat, and therefore the installation of such a coating will become an excellent reason to buy a beautiful carpet or installation of heating.
Application
Having considered the characteristics of the porcelain stoneware, it becomes clear that such an 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 premises and external work.
Porcelain stoneware applications:
- finishing in places with a large human stream (subway, train stations, airports). Porcelain stoneware coating is almost forever, so the state budget saves significantly, without requiring frequent repairs;
- floors, sidewalks and steps from porcelain stoneware are not inferior in quality of costly bulk floors;
- facades from porcelain stoneware - For finishing of facades, large plates are used by 14 mm thick and 60x60 sizes. As a rule, the praises "bustle" in government agencies, giving them a strict and official appearance;
- interior decoration - if the use of porcelain stoneware is beneficial, then applying it inside the house, you can create noble and unusual interiors. The material does not require almost no care and does not absorb liquids, so it turns out magnificent kitchen countertops, coatings and interior elements for bathrooms;
- application in industrial premises - porcelain stoneware perfectly transfers the effects of aggressive chemicals, so it is great for finishing workshops and industrial premises. High heatpower allows you to use it in boiler rooms. The porcelain stoneward plate thickness is only 8.5 mm can withstand the load of 200 kg per square centimeter, so you can safely put such plates on the floor in the garage.
Useful recommendation: To distinguish real porcelain stonework from fake or ceramic tile, look at the material cutting - the pattern on the cutting cutting plate completely duplicates the face pattern.
