Artificial stone and quartz stone are widely used in kitchen countertops and so on. However, due to industry control issues and other reasons, various manufacturers on the market now have mixed good and bad, and the quality of artificial stone and quartz stone cannot be guaranteed.
It is understood that the scientific name of artificial stone is solid surface material, which is based on organic polymer materials such as methyl methacrylate (common name acrylic) and unsaturated polyester resin and uses natural mineral powder and particles as fillers. Pigments and other auxiliary agents are polymer composite materials that are vacuum cast or molded. Under normal circumstances, artificial stone is roughly divided into two categories: artificial acrylic (usually called artificial stone) and artificial quartz stone (usually called quartz stone).
Grey Carrara breeze quartz
“Every industry has good companies and bad companies. The current development of China’s artificial stone industry is no exception. Due to a large number of small workshop-style production enterprises in the entire industry, the quality of artificial stone products produced by small enterprises is relatively poor. For some, some large companies, especially brand companies in the high-end market, the quality of artificial stone products is not too problematic.” said Li Bowie, secretary-general of the artificial stone committee of the Furniture and Decoration Chamber of Commerce of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce.
“The wide range of applications of artificial stone are countertops such as cabinets and service desks, and a few are used for decorative parts, such as background walls. Because of its high material density and high toughness, if the pollution resistance items fail to meet the requirements, the surface stains will not be treated. If it is good, it is easy to penetrate stains. This is also the place that consumers are more concerned about an artificial stone in the market. Unqualified impact toughness may occur, for example, consumers cut and chop items on the cabinet by gravity, which may cause the product to break. But this situation is unlikely to happen.” An expert from the Kitchen and Bathroom Engineering Committee of the China Building Decoration Association said that the building material industry-standard “solid surface material” is the main quality standard for artificial stone.
China’s artificial stone industry is unevenly distributed. Most of the artificial stone products come from Guangdong, Fujian, Shanghai, Jiangsu, and other places. According to incomplete statistics, there are nearly 1,000 large and small artificial stone manufacturers in the country, which has become an industry that cannot be ignored in the field of new decorative materials and has made important contributions to the prosperity of China’s decorative materials market and the improvement of consumers’ home life quality. In recent years, with the rapid development of the building decoration industry, the artificial stone industry has also been showing a prosperous situation. However, the rapid development has also exposed some problems: For example, there are many small-scale enterprises, and product quality is uneven; product price competition is intensified, and the phenomenon of shoddy products frequently occurs; information asymmetry leads to blind consumers in purchasing and harms consumers The interests of the country misled consumption and so on.
Sandblasted surface Windermere quartz slabs
Li Bowie said that in some areas in the south, the output of artificial stone is very large and concentrated, and there are even regions dedicated to export. As far as the whole country is concerned, the artificial stone industry in various places has developed rapidly over the years, which has caused the entire industry to have different scales. The huge market demand has led to the existence of many small workshop-style enterprises, and to a certain extent, it has also caused the artificial stone industry in the current market. The quality of stone products varies from good to bad.
Industry insiders pointed out that under the influence of real estate regulation and other factors, with the development of the building materials industry becoming more and more standardized, the artificial stone industry has gradually entered a period of adjustment. Importance, while the market share is gradually increasing, the quality of the company’s products is also steadily improving.
According to reports, after the establishment of the Artificial Stone Special Committee of the Furniture and Decoration Chamber of Commerce of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce, the special committee also specially launched the “Pure Aluminum Powder Logo” for the Chinese artificial stone industry. Guide the market. “Price has always been an important factor affecting the development of the artificial stone industry. We hope that the development of the industry will go out of the “price only theory” misunderstanding and pay more attention to quality.” Li Bowie said.
Song Zhisheng, general manager of Beijing Jiuxing Jianguo Furniture Factory, said that after the traditional artificial stone (acrylic stone) countertops are infinitely beautiful, in recent years, the countertops of cabinet products, quartz stone has become the mainstream and become the new favorite of consumers and manufacturers. This is due to the intensified price war in the artificial stone industry, lower and lower profits, and uneven quality; on the other hand, quartz stone has its own advantages. Although the price is relatively expensive, it is still welcomed by the market.
According to reports, as cabinet countertops, acrylic and quartz have their own strengths. The advantages of acrylic stone are seamless splicing, good toughness, changeable shapes, diverse colors, soft colors, and easy repair when problems occur. After using it for too long, it can be bright as new after re-polishing. The advantages of quartz stone are higher temperature resistance, scratch resistance, deformation resistance, and higher gloss than acrylic stone.
Marmi quartz big slabs
“In terms of development momentum, quartz stone has been faster in recent years, but the overall situation in the future should be a situation where the two coexist.” Li Bowie said that traditional artificial stone started earlier and the standard was introduced earlier. The judgment is relatively standard. Quartz has only become popular in the past few years. There is no corresponding quality standard at present, but the formulation of relevant industry standards has been initiated.
It is reported that as early as September 2011, the establishment of industry standards for quartz stone has been officially launched. Once the standard is officially issued, it will play an important role in regulating and promoting the development of China’s quartz stone and the entire artificial stone industry.
