Knowing everything about the product you’re selling is essential. It helps deal with the problems that occur daily with the material.
I have compiled an article that tells you everything you need to know about granite composite sinks‘ raw material.
Let’s get right to it.
The Main Raw Materials Used
The primary raw materials that are used in this type of sink are quartz sand and acrylic resin. These are also the main factors that affect the price of the sink.
Except for these two, there are some other materials used in small proportions as well. These are color paste, a coupling agent, curing agent, etc.
The material of quartz sand contains at least 70 percent. If the content does not reach this percentage, then it’s not a truly quart composite sink.
What Is Quartz Sand?
Quartz sand is a sort of mineral that has extremely stable physical and chemical properties. It’s a non-metallic mineral, a hard, wear-resistant, and chemically durable silicate mineral.
It has a cluster of glass with higher stability than glass. Customers love it due to the color ranges it offers.
Since mining technology has been continuously improving, quartz sand is now commonly used by us. It is also environmentally friendly, and you can recycle it. It’s widely used as a building material in hotels, exhibition halls, banks, etc.
What’s The Difference Between Quartz Stone And Quartz Composite Material?
Quartz is a mineral that can become a liquid if it undergoes higher pressure or temperatures. It is a diagenetic material present in three types of rocks. It is the latest crystal to be crystallized in igneous rocks. For this reason, it usually does not have a complete crystal face. It’s filled with other diagenetic minerals that crystallize before it does.
Quartz composite material is a new type of artificially synthesized material. It consists of 90% quartz crystal along with resin and other trace elements. It is a filler material that is pressed with resin by a machine under specific physical and chemical conditions. It’s widely used in the countertop and kitchen sink.
The Main Raw Material
Quartz sand
As the primary filler material of artificial quartz stone or quartz sink, it has many categories. According to the particle size, there are two categories: Quartz sand and quartz powder.
Quartz sand consists of uniform particles with no impurities. There is no foreign matter and no weathered stone.
For quartz powder, the fineness requires to be 325 to 400 mesh. The content of SiO2 in high purity quartz sand is needed to be over 95%. Among these two, quartz powder is divided into ordinary quartz powder and modified quartz powder. Modified quartz powder improves the compatibility with the resin and is the better choice.
Generally, as long as the toughness is enough, we can use any color, appearance, or particle size. High-purity quartz can produce a pure color kitchen sink, such as a pure black sink, pure white sink, etc.
Resin
Another primary material used in a quartz sink is resin, which has a scientific name as PMMA. It’s also called acrylic. It is a material commonly used as a glass substitute.
It plays the role of bonding agent in the quartz sink and provides toughness to the quartz sand.
It has a significant effect on adhesion.
In addition to adhesion, it also has a buffering effect. Without it, the quartz sink will easily crack. You can imagine that if you put a boiling pot into the sink, the sink’s bottom will crack if without the resin.
Because of the thermal expansion phenomenon, the quartz sand will oppress each other, which will lead to a crack gradually.
Best Material Composition Proportion
It is worth mentioning that the quality of quartz stone is directly related to resin content. The best component proportion of the quartz sand and resin is 80:20.
Too much resin is not suitable because if it contains too much resin, the quartz sink’s hardness is insufficient. It is easy to deform, foam, and yellow and change color under hot water.
Resin is not as stable and high in hardness as quartz sand.
Too much quartz sand content is not feasible as the resin plays a vital role as a bonding agent and buffering.
Quartz sink has rigorous requirements on the quality of raw materials. For this reason, We need to know how to identify good material.
The Price Of The Raw Materials
Quartz sand is a non-metallic mineral. It is a rigid and chemically stable silicate material. The color of quartz sand is milky white. It can also be colorless or translucent.
Due to the natural control over mineral development, the price of quartz sand has been increasing. The output of the grade A sand is decreasing, which is pushing prices further up. Since the beginning of this year, its price has risen by 30%.
Different types of resins have also increased in price, which includes acrylic resin. These have increased by around 25%.
That means the quartz composite sink price will soar up; otherwise, the manufacturers will not have enough profit.
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Conclusion
A big challenge for quartz sink manufacturers is the continuously increasing demand. To quickly occupy the market, some manufacturers have already achieved small profits but with a quick turnover.
In the face of the current sharp rise in raw materials, it isn’t easy to increase quartz sink prices. To reduce the cost, some manufacturers make inferior quality products. That way, they will be soon eliminated by the market.
Although the future quartz sink will stage a price war, Chica dragon, as a conscientious manufacturer, will keep the belief “Quality is our culture” will not sacrifice quality to pursue high profits.
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