Engineered Stone

Engineered stone (also known as reconstituted, quantum quartz, re-composed agglomerated and synthetic stone) is manufactured from a mix of stone aggregate chips (most commonly quartz or marble, but also igneous rocks such as granite and basalt); mineral fillers (generally the ground aggregate); a resin binder (typically an unsaturated polyester); pigments and additives. Tiles are typically formed using a vibrocompaction process, where applied vacuum minimises any porosity, usually reducing the water absorption to much less than 0.4%. There are many different kinds of polyester resins, with different viscosity, colour and hardening time. Tile curing may be accelerated by using ovens or steam. Some tiles are given post-curing heating treatments to increase the degree of cure.