Tuesday 21 December 2010

Silestone colors the World

Silestone colors the World of quartz. Truth is that Silestone colors are a well establish marketing machine. No doubt that in all the solid surface industry Silestone stands out from the rest, it has accomplished several marks that distinguish it from it's direct competitors.
Silestone is the biggest manufacturer when we take into account the quartz agglomerate sector by itself. It's main production facility is located in a small town called Macael, located in the South of Spain. Silestone is one of the most successful trademarks of the Cosentino Group. Cosentino is one of the biggest natural stone manufacturers in Spain, and one of the most important in the World.
Silestone since it's appearance on National Television with a commercial during a Superbowl, has leaped ahead as the most successful company in the agglomerate stone industry. They use several marketing strategies to their advantage and today they are seen as a milestone in the industry, in some countries silestone is more than just a brand, people refer to quartz agglomerate as silestone, that's how important of a reference it is to the industry.
They keep investing millions in advertisement, in the last few years they've used Fernando Alonso the Formula 1 driver as their flag. They even created a product to which Alonso is the public image.

They have about 12 production lines, some of which are designated to specific colours, this as you can imagine increases output and quality tremendously. Normally, when color change is needed, and when the factory has only one or two production lines, they have high set-up costs, so with 12 lines, it's actually pretty efficient, although they really need a lot of volume to keep the whole plant working at full capacity.
Silestone has also created parallel spin-off businesses, namely MURO, which is a mosaic type material, used for backsplashes and other applications, this product is a good use for wastage, it is thin due to the slicing of the common material. They have also created a quartz sink unit, which supplies sinks to the kitchen industry in Silestone colors.
Besides these spin-offs, they have a kitchen countertop manufacturing unit, very sophisticated, mainly uses 2nd choice slabs, which are photographed and stored, the order of the countertops are then optimizes to the slabs useful size ... they have a special automated warehouse to manage the whole system.
It wasn't always this way in the 1990s Silestone and the Cosentino Group went through a tough crisis. The Silestone brand and product was new to the market, the trust in Silestone products was very low ... difficult times, and they took difficult measures ... and survived with great success. Silestone was the first to offer a 10 year warranty on their products, many manufacturers today don't give you this type of warranty. Silestone is also known to solve quality problems ... no questions asked ... they have managed their image in a correct way, and they have their success founded on solid ground.
By http://granitequartz.blogspot.com/2010/12/silestone-colors-world.html 

Monday 13 December 2010

Focus on the Countertop: Corian versus Silestone

...or Zodiaq, Cesarstone, Granyte, Granirex, Zylstone, Hi-Macs, Volcanics...


So what is the difference between Corian and Silestone? Well, very little -- or quite a bit -- depends on who you ask. We'll just give you the facts, and let you decide.

Backgrounder: Solid Resin Countertops

In the 1960s the E.I. du Pont de Nemours company -- commonly called Dupont -- was attempting to find a solid surface countertop material to market to hospitals and homeowners. It needed to resemble marble, be damage and stain resistant, and moldable in a few basic colors. Something that would "out-marble" marble. They introduced "synthetic marble" made of polymethyl methacrylate in 1967. It was offered in three basic shades of white and beige, and Dupont called it Corian.

So what is Polymethyl methacrylate? (You may want to skip to the next paragraph unless you are a bonafide egghead) "PMMA" is an acrylic based thermoplastic. A chemical reaction between acetone and hydrogen cyanide results in acetone cyanohydrin. This is heated with methanol and sulfuric acid and becomes a monomer called methyl methacrylate monomer or "MMA." It becomes a polymer via free radical process using peroxides. It may be modified with things like butadiene, vinyl, and whatnot, but Dupont ain't about to give away the recipe for a cash cow like Corian.

The resulting resin -- resin is simply what the trade calls unprocessed plastic -- is in the form of small beads or pellets. It then must be processed; either cast, extruded, or injection molded. As the raw plastic is processed, colorants are added, and DuPont states that "minerals" are added to Corian as well. Most solid surface countertops are cast in sheet form, a process in which the MMA is polymerized with peroxide between two glass forms under heat and pressure.

In short, solid surface countertops like Corian® are plastic -- as plastic as that keyboard in front of you, or the shampoo bottle you use, or your cel phone. Other solid surfaces, such as Hi-Mac, Volcanic, etc. are similar. Virtually anything called a "resin" countertop is based on polymethyl methacrylate; each manufacturer varies the recipe, heating and reaction times, and additives to achieve whatever their blend happens to be. It is a difficult process to do correctly; too much heat creates air pockets in the casting process and ruins color.

In the early days, Dupont used a two-step process to form Corian. Technological advances now enable it to be made in a single casting, which is why the pricing has actually decreased when compared to the rate of inflation. Color availability has increased through the years; what started as 3 became 18 and is now over 80. According to the company, white remains the most popular. Competitors have entered the field as well, and that probably has something to do with the pricing. The fact that neither granite nor engineered stone are available in a true "white" color partially explains why white Corian sells so well. If you want a white, solid, stone-like countertop, you need to look to the acrylic type.

Regardless of the manufacturer, solid resin countertops require precise chemical processing and tightly controlled casting. It is not something you'll see on every street corner. Oddly enough, many of the large plastics processors who produce solid resin countertops also produce the laminates for laminated "Formica" type countertops.

Backgrounder: Engineered Stone Countertops

The increased popularity and availability of solid stone countertops has put a bit of a dent into the business that was virtually monopolized by giant plastics companies for decades. It only makes sense that the plastics companies would want to fight back, and indeed they are: Engineered Stone. Almost every company that sells solid resin countertops now offers engineered stone countertops as well. Dupont's Zodiaq (once known as Granirex) is offered as an alternative to Corian for consumers who want a "real" stone surface.

But engineered stone wasn't created by the plastics people. Imagine if you owned a quarry full of quartz. Nice looking stuff, but you can't cut it in slabs like you can cut other rocks, such as granite or gneiss or marble. Or perhaps you have a quarry full of very brittle granite. You try to mine it, but you just wind up with crumbly bits of feldspar, quartz, mica, or whatever happens to be in your local version of granite.

Your quarry just won't produce slab, but over the years you've found creative ways to sell your grit and chips just the same. Surely you can figure out a way to make it solid...

A man named Marcello Toncelli of Treviso, Italy did just that in 1977. His company, Breton Spa, developed a way to make solid block out of the crumbly rock found throughout Italy's Dolomite Mountain region. By mixing 94% stone particulate and 6% plastic (usually polyester) to hold it together -- plus some undisclosed additives -- then using a patented “vacuum vibrocompression process,“ Toncelli successfully developed plastic rock. Or, more appropriately, rock plastic. The resulting product was offered as a kitchen countertop material under the brand name Bretonstone.

The technology was quickly embraced by Grupo Cosentino, a large minerals firm in Spain. They too had a lot of semi-useless crumbly rock in some of their operations, and began aggressively marketing their Silestone product around the world. A host of other brands have popped up; Cesarstone, Granyte, Avanza, and so on. Zodiaq is the engineered stone countertop Dupont offers as an alternative to Corian.

Breton Spa's process is not nearly as complex as the chemical processing required to make Corian, and they'll sell their vacuum vibro whatever-it-is to any interested quarry or mineral processor. So virtually all of the engineered stone countertops are made the same way, except for the German brand Cristalite, which is granite chips cast in acrylic.

The idea of mixing semi-useless material with plastic to make a useful surface isn't limited to stone. If you do a little more shopping, you'll find kitchen countertops made of recycled aluminum chips bonded with plastic, and who knows what else. Whether it's granite chips, quartz chips (a component of many granites), dolomite, gneiss (a lot of granite countertops are actually gneiss, but it really doesn't matter), feldspar (a component of many granites), marble, silicates, igneous stone, or recycled aluminum, Engineered Stone is particulate matter held together with resin.

Plastics -- The Common Thread

"Resin"...that magic word that sounds so wonderful...remember that it simply means "plastic." Ask anyone in the plastics industry to explain the difference between resin and plastic and they'll probably look at you a little strangely, and say something like, "resin is plastic, it's the plastic pellets we put in the molding machine." And whether you zero in on Corian or Silestone or some derivative thereof, plastics are the key.

Plastics are so pervasive in our lives, yet most of us are unaware of it. Whether molded as a solid, foam, sheet, fabric, or elastomer, you live in a plastic world. By volume, most of your car is plastics. Your computer, your desk at work, digital camera, television, telephone, pen, hair dryer, clothing, pen, furniture cushions, electrical sockets, billiard balls, the vinyl on a loose-leaf binder, contact lenses, boats, even the Teflon (Dupont) coating on your cookware, all plastics. Yet for some reason, we balk at the concept of plastic kitchen countertops. Your sales representative may not even know that the material in Corian or the binder in Silestone is plastic. Ask, and you'll likely be told, "no, it's resin," or "it's engineered acrylic." You can safely assume that they aren't intentionally trying to mislead you -- just that they are unaware of precisely how their product is made. On the other hand, your salesman may openly agree that it is indeed plastic, which indicates that their overall product knowledge is probably fairly reliable.

The point is, both types of materials derive their formability, strength, ease of cutting and fabricating, stain resistance, and other mechanical properties from the "plastic" aspect of the mix. So when you boil it all down, even though the primary component of Silestone is indeed stone, the fact is that Corian and Silestone are very similar solid surface materials.

A Few Differences

Solid resin like Corian has a bit more versatility in terms of how it can be formed, the sorts of inlays that can easily be added, etc. It is also supposedly easier to repair. And although both can be fabricated easily, at the end of the day it is likely that solid resin materials will be more "seamless."

Engineered stone like Silestone is obviously more "stone-like," simply because it is 94% stone or mineral product. It is possibly more heat resistant, and somewhat more scratch-resistant.

Understand that in whatever areas one material offers superior performance, it is not by a wide margin. And in every case, you can find experienced installers who will disagree with these statements. So the differences, whatever they may be, are largely ones of perception.

When you get to the bottom of it all, the primary difference is visual...

Visual Differences

Visually, both materials have their proponents. Probably the best way to "contrast" the two is to say that, by nature of how it is made, engineered stone looks more like granite and solid resin looks more like marble.

Why engineered stone looks like granite: Natural granite is a few types of stone (usually quartz, feldspar, maybe mica) and a stone binder, all "glued" together by pressure and heat. Engineered stone simply uses smaller bits of rock, and replaces the stone binder with plastic. Granite is made by heat and pressure deep in the earth; engineered stone is made by heat and pressure via the "vacuum vibrocompression process." Thus engineered stone resembles the natural granite it emulates.

Why solid resins look like marble: Marble begins as limestone that "recrystallizes" due to heat and pressure. Other minerals present in the limestone during recrystallization affects the appearance and color of the marble that forms. Solid surface begins as a monomer that melts and "recrystallizes" due to heat and pressure. Other materials present in the plastic during recystallization affects the appearance and color of the acrylic that forms. Marble is made by heat and pressure deep in the earth; acrylic is made by heat and pressure via the plastic casting process. Thus solid surface resembles the natural marble it emulates.

Environment First: CaesarStone Introduces Spring Blossom

Environment First: CaesarStone Introduces Spring Blossom

VAN NUYS, CA--(Marketwire - October 27, 2010) -  CaesarStone is pleased to announce the newest color in the Environment First collection: Spring Blossom. This light and airy hue is made of recycled remnants from fabrication facilities. Spring Blossom consists of worldwide best selling colors Blizzard, Concrete, Absolute Noir and Sandalwood. At CaesarStone, minimizing our impact on the environment is a top priority. Guarding the wellbeing of our customers and our employees goes hand in hand with preserving the environment and ensuring a brighter future for the next generation. Between producing the highest quality Recycled Collection with the lowest environmental impact and manufacturing in the least detrimental way, we always keep the Environment First.
At CaesarStone we have a clear-cut agenda when it comes to the environment. It consists of the following: Commit to production processes that minimize environmental impact. Develop products that support healthier environments and better use of resources. And finally, comply with voluntary safety and environmental standards and criteria. In order to achieve these results we set clear objectives to maintain safety standards and minimize the environmental impact of our production.

CaesarStone recycles 97% of water used in the production process. 80% of industrial waste produced through the manufacturing process is recycled, diverting waste from the landfill and reducing soil pollution. 100% of the polymers that CaesarStone uses are delivered in reusable iso tanks. 100% of the boxes used to pack CaesarStone samples are made of recycled content. CaesarStone uses an RTO (Regeneration Thermal Oxydizer) system to dispose of harmful gasses.
Aside from what we do, who we are is a big aid to the environment. Our non-porous, surfaces inhibit the growth of mildew and bacteria thus creating a hygienic surface and less harm to the environment. Our surfaces require minimal maintenance and significantly reduce the need for toxins such as harmful sealants and cleaning products. Our quartz surfaces are long-lasting and durable, delivering both an improved lifecycle cost and additional investment value. CaesarStone products are supported by a Residential Lifetime Warranty meaning you won't need to replace them and add to landfills. CaesarStone quartz surfaces meet stringent product emission standards and have very little impact on indoor air quality. All CaesarStone quartz products are independently certified by Greenguard Environmental Institute as low emitting surfaces.

CaesarStone at its very core is an environmental company with an environmentally conscious structure in place. We believe that helping this planet starts with what you are producing and ends with what you are wasting. We try to produce the best and reduce waste by giving products the strength to last a lifetime.
About CaesarStone
CaesarStone is the original quartz countertops & surfaces manufacturer. The company is headquartered in Southern California with offices in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle Miami, New York, Atlanta, St. Louis and Dallas. CaesarStone produces premium quartz countertops & surfaces, complementing any design application, from traditional to contemporary, for both home and commercial applications. CaesarStone products are available through kitchen and bath retailers, fabricators, architects, designers, builders and distributors nationwide.

Offering a Residential Lifetime Warranty, CaesarStone countertops and surfaces are nonporous, stain, scratch and heat resistant. CaesarStone has earned the respected Good Housekeeping Seal from the Good Housekeeping Research Institute and is in compliance with stringent international environmental standards including ISO 14001 (environmental management system), ISO 9002 (quality management standard), and NSF (public health and safety). A sustainable material, CaesarStone is GREENGUARD certified and is a member of the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC).
For more information about CaesarStone and its products, please visit the company's website at http://www.CaesarStoneUS.com, or call toll-free 877-9QUARTZ (877-978-2789).

Concetto by CaesarStone Launches New Furniture Pieces With Architect Daniel Germani

Concetto by CaesarStone is pleased to announce a new limited edition line of custom furniture with architect Daniel Germani. CaesarStone's inspirational new masterpiece collection, the unique Concetto anthology, is an unmatchable compilation of extraordinary surfaces handmade from individually cut and set semi-precious stones. A harmonious blend of art and technology, Concetto fuses nature's hues and designs with individually cut semi-precious stones to form the ultimate luxury stone surface -- a dream for designers and architects alike. Concetto Sirena is the chosen surface for Daniel Germani's exquisite line of credenzas and tables.
"Each and every one of CaesarStone's Concetto surfaces is unique and tells a story -- a story thousands of years in the making. It's always a great experience to incorporate this incredible and versatile gift from nature in my furniture." Daniel Germani
A dedicated CaesarStone team constantly scours the globe in search of the highest quality semi-precious stones. This ensures a unique visual effect in every piece produced in the Concetto Collection. Each piece carries with it a history and meaning. Sirena is comprised of the semi-precious stone Tiger Eye whose meaning is especially powerful. The stone is said to bring calm and serenity. When used in your home this surface attracts good luck and protects you from the evil eye. It is also known to bring clarity of thought and to stimulate wealth and abundance.
"I was in awe when I first laid eyes upon Concetto. Nature provided CaesarStone with an infinite array of semi-precious stone and with Concetto they captured its essence, showcasing the unique beauty of each stone and its splendor. Sirena is the perfect fit for the elegance and sophistication of my pieces." Daniel Germani continues...
Daniel Germani grew up in Buenos Aires, Argentina. During his formative years as an Architect, his aesthetic was shaped by the Bauhaus, Oscar Neimeyer, Le Corbusier, Mies and Frank Lloyd Wright. He left Argentina after completing his MA in 1988 to work in Rome and Madrid and travel through Europe for several years. He has resided in Phoenix, Arizona since 1998. In 2006 he co-founded DB Woodworks with the simple commitment to create furniture with timeless and uncompromising design. These norms are the foundation from which he explores and creates studio furniture, as well as custom cabinetry and interiors.
"Concetto is pleased to be working with Daniel Germani. The pairing of his gorgeous pieces with the mystical semi-precious stones creates masterpieces we hope you will all enjoy!" Maggie Amir, Concetto Brand Manager
For more information about Daniel Germani or to purchase his custom furniture with Concetto, please visit: http://www.caesarstoneus.com/catalog/Media_Designers_DG.html.

Monday 29 November 2010

Decorative Textured Surfaces by CaesarStone - Motivo Lace and Motivo Crocodile

If experimenting with color isn’t your thing, splash up your home with some sleek texture! These contemporary decorative textured surfaces by CaesarStone transform boring walls and countertops into trendy visual and touchable features.

The Motivo Lace surface is a delicate design inspired by classical floral lace. In its matte-white finish, the look is elegant and refined, ideal for the bedroom, bathroom, living room or front foyer. At the other end of the style spectrum you’ll find Motivo Crocodile, a dramatic surface with its exotic croc-skin look and luxurious feel.

Finished in glossy black, Motivo Crocodile adds drama to the kitchen, dining room, den, home theater or powder room. To learn more about these modern, decorative textured surfaces, visit CaesarStone.