Quartz

Quartz is the name commonly used for Engineered Stone and its origin comes from the prime material used to compose it. The process of making this stone is to get crushed Quartz minerals and bond them together with an adhesive, most commonly polymer resin. Quantities of these two “ingredients” vary from factory to factory, but generally a good Engineered Stone has to be formed at least 90% of the prime material by weight (Quartz in this case, but it could also be Marble in the case of Marmo Glass). The actual Quartz to resin ratio, in volume, is approx 66% of Quartz to 34% of resin, meaning that more than a third of  Engineered Quartz Stone is made of plastic. Chemicals, such as UV absorbers and stabilisers, are also added to the mixture, which will then be pressed into machinery through a vibration and vacuum process for about 100 seconds with a pressure of about 100 tonnes to obtain the stone that, once cured in a kiln at approximately 85 Celsius degrees for 30 minutes, will be used to realise slabs or tiles.

There is few benefits using a Quartz stone as a work surface, but not as much as many people claim. This stone is made from natural Quartz, so it’s scratch resistant (although use of chopping boards is always recommended), and although quartz itself as a mineral is heat resistant, the resin component of an engineered quartz stone doesn’t make the material resistant to high temperatures, as it might burn in contact of a hot pan and exhale toxic fumes if it does. The hardness is comparable to a Granite, but it won’t crack easily, as its components are bonded together well and can’t have any internal fractures. Being man made, Quartz has a vast range of colours to choose from, basically any colour you can think of, and eventually some more sophisticated factories can replicate the natural stone look, adding veins and multiple colours. Because of this artificial addition, the stone is not resistant to UV light, meaning that the colour within the surface will fade over a period of time. Maintaining Quartz is easy, its surface is non-porous, this means it has high stain resistance properties, and can be cleaned simply with normal or soapy water, because it’s also resistant to acid (to an extent obviously)

Basically, the only reason why you wouldn’t choose Quartz for your kitchen would be because of your preference for natural stone and all its characteristics, like colour variation, vein randomness, or movement, or simply the beauty of having a piece of art given to us by Mother Nature, which I couldn’t agree more with !

It is important to underline that, up to today’s date, there is no existent facilities which would be able to recycle Engineered Quartz Stone, so any old worktop that gets dismantled from a kitchen or a block of apartments will have to end up in landfill, as there is no other way to get rid of it. With all the sensible themes in discussion nowadays, such as the misuse and excess of utilisation of plastic bags as a prime example, this should make you think twice about the eco-friendly credentials of such product.

The patent and machinery to manufacture quartz surfaces and resins is owned by the Italian company Breton, and all other companies use that patent for their own brand of quartz stone, including the most famous companies Cosentino (Silestone), DuPont (Zodiaq), Cambria and CaesarStone.

In modern days, technologies and machinery have developed further, allowing to create materials which are made up purely of natural minerals, or even from re-cycled products. One of these technologically advanced materials is Sintered Stone