"Involution" is a very popular term recently. It originated from the "inward evolution" proposed by the American anthropologist Geertz, and is now widely used to describe "involuntary excessive competition" in a certain field.
Looking at the development history of rock slabs, this new material was regarded as a weapon for "cross-border robbery" in the ceramics industry at the beginning of its rise. To this day, there are still countless rock slab manufacturers competing for cross-border robbery. The home market piece of cake.
Picture source: General·Sandboard
In the process of crossing borders, rock slab manufacturers have encountered various difficulties and challenges. However, this has prompted them to continue to make breakthroughs in production technology. For example, home slate needs to have good processing performance, so manufacturers will find ways to eliminate the internal stress of the slate and improve the toughness of the material; home slate needs various specifications that are easy to process, so manufacturers will find ways to solve the problem of flexible customization of sizes. ; Home slate needs richer decorative surfaces, so manufacturers find ways to introduce foreign designs and integrate them into product research and development...
This can’t help but make people sigh, “In order to make a living in the big home furnishings, the manufacturers are working too hard!”, “Is this the slate manufacturers getting involved?”. However, domestic slate manufacturers have proved with actions: everything has just begun.
Countertop Applications
The rock slab should not only be full-body, but also thicker
Because slate has excellent properties such as scratch resistance, high temperature resistance, and easy cleaning, it is very suitable for home countertops such as stoves, islands, dining tables, and even many TV cabinets, bedside tables, and entrance cabinets in furniture stores. Use rock slabs as countertops. In the field of countertop applications, slate has replaced most of the market share of stone and artificial quartz.
The countertop is the most conspicuous part of the finished home, so the processing accuracy of the slate is very high. This means that after the rock slabs undergo processing processes such as infrared water saw cutting, water jet programming drilling, water grinding polishing machine polishing, edge grinding machine chamfering, special glue pasting and joints, the shape must still remain exquisite and high-end. The appearance and materials should still remain the same. This is equivalent to putting forward a basic requirement for rock slabs - throughbody.
Image source: Nobel Slate
In July last year, the Nobel slate 5.0 all-in-one series made its debut at the Tanzhou Exhibition, realizing the "three-in-one" of color, material, and texture, and the decorative effect is almost the same as that of real stone. In December last year, Delifeng Home Furnishing's 20mm full-body slate was officially mass-produced, breaking the barriers between slate and natural stone in countertop applications. In January this year, Guangdong Zhongyan 6.0 era fully digital true full-body spray-glazed rock slabs were launched. The texture effect is as fine as 0.05mm. Whether it is "one stone with one side" or "one stone with multiple sides", it can be easily realized.
It is understood that the whole-body rock slabs of the above brands all adopt digital alignment full-body technology, which is a key process to control the stable penetration of the rock slab texture into the entire body and accurate texture presentation. In addition, during production, it is also necessary to use glazes with good color development properties and inks with good penetrating capabilities. Only through multi-faceted cooperation can the whole body of the rock slab be achieved, so that the slab can be side-cut, chamfered, or arc-grinded. Edges, grooves or finished accessories can all be used to achieve the application effects of natural stone.
Picture source: Delifeng Home
In addition to meeting the requirements of not compromising the effect after processing, the load-bearing function of the countertop must also be taken into consideration when applying rock slabs, so there are also higher requirements for the flexural strength of the material. According to the relevant staff of Zhibang Home Furnishing, the customization of slate slabs in the kitchen and bathroom involves a lot of openings and materials. It must be ensured that the cutting side of the countertop has sufficient support and will not crack or deform after long-term use. Currently, most custom-made home stoves and islands use 15mm thick slate as the countertop, and some high-end products use imported 20mm thick slate.
It is worth mentioning that before the mass production of Delifeng Home Furnishing's 20mm slate slabs, most of the ultra-thick full-body slate slabs on the market came from imported slate brands such as Desais. With the introduction of equipment and technological breakthroughs, companies such as Gold Medal, New Pearl, Dongpeng, Shenghua, and Swiss Franc can all produce 20mm high-strength and ultra-thick rock slabs.
Door panel application
Rock slabs must not only be ultra-thin, but also lighter
Compared with materials such as wood, blister, baking paint, UV, acrylic, and glass, rock slabs have multiple excellent properties such as larger specifications, greater hardness, small expansion coefficient, fire retardancy, high stability, and non-fading. They are very Suitable for door panels of wardrobes, cabinets, and bathroom cabinets in home customization.
At last year's Guangzhou Construction Expo, a large number of custom merchants launched customized slate cabinets. According to these merchants, slate has a realistic texture and high-end texture, which is very suitable for the popular light luxury style. Combining this new material with hardware and profiles to make cabinet doors can be said to have opened up a new world of customized home cabinets. However, considering that cabinet doors require thinner plates, 3mm thick ultra-thin rock plates are more suitable than 6mm and 9mm ones.
In December 2019, China’s first 3 mm ultra-thin and ultra-large specification slate production line was put into mass production at the production base of Hubei Meihao Group. Subsequently, ultra-thin rock slabs, which can be widely used in home door panels/panels such as cabinets and wardrobes, began to become the target of major rock slab manufacturers.
In August last year, Shuncheng mass-produced 3mm ultra-thin rock slabs, Gold Medal successfully developed 3mm and 2.5mm ultra-thin rock slabs, and Xinmingzhu released a new product of 3mm thin rock slabs. In April this year, Emeishan Jintao released 3.0mm digital glazed large-size ultra-thin rock slab products. In June this year, Marco Polo’s 9th rock slab production line was completed and put into operation, mainly producing 3mm ultra-thin rock slabs...
In addition, slate brands such as Jinpeng, Mona Lisa, Xinyansu, Lingbiao Technology, Jiangjun, and Zhongyan have all launched 3mm ultra-thin slates.
Picture source: Xinyansu Home
If rock slab manufacturers want to open up the market for door panels and decorative panels in home customization, in addition to having the ability to produce 3mm ultra-thin rock slab products, breakthroughs in the field of lightweight materials are also critical. The weight of the board is related to the convenience of transportation and installation of home furnishing products, as well as the safety and durability during use.
Take the Mona Lisa as an example. In addition to its 3mm ultra-thin rock slab, which has a destruction strength of 461N, a modulus of rupture of 80Mpa, a fracture toughness of 2.26, and can withstand collisions in daily use, its 7kg/㎡ lightweight is also a highlight. . The weight of Xinmingzhu’s 3mm thin rock slab is also as light as 7kg/㎡, with an elastic limit of 15-20°, lightweight and high strength. In addition to ensuring safe daily use, this type of lightweight slate can also reduce the hidden dangers of pressure deformation of hardware and profiles.
Wall applications
Rock slabs should not only have fewer seams, but also be tougher
“Using slate slabs can make the space more integrated, thus demonstrating the high taste of the owner of the space.” A dealer explained the reason why slate slabs are so popular in homes. As a new type of decorative board, slate can be used in large-area wall decorations such as background walls and wainscoting, bringing users an integrated visual effect while enhancing the design and style of the entire space.
Picture source: KMY International Light Luxury Tiles
In large-area wall applications, oversized slate is very popular because it can reduce gaps and make the texture more stretched. Among them, the most popular specifications are 800×2600㎜, 900×2700㎜, etc. There are two reasons for this: First, the floor height of family residences is generally between 2.8-3 meters, and the remaining wall decoration height after the suspended ceiling is average. They are all about 2.6 meters. This type of rock slab can reach the top in one piece. Secondly, in terms of transportation, most domestic elevators currently have a load capacity of about 1,000 kilograms. Rock slabs of this size can just be carried upstairs with the help of elevators, and there is no need to use large-scale hoisting. equipment.
In the wall application of rock slabs, super large sizes can only be called segment 1.0 for the time being, while segment 2.0 is undoubtedly the continuous slate slab. This is easy to explain, because large-area paving cannot rely solely on large specifications. In order to make the texture of the rock slab more coherent and integrated, continuous patterns are the key. Since this year, brands such as Hongtao, Wells, KMY, Oceano, Elizabeth, and Zhongyan have launched new products with continuous pattern slates, which can achieve continuous patterns on 4 sides or even unlimited patterns on the left and right.
Image source: Wells Ceramics
Rank 3.0 is a tightrope. Some people in the industry believe that the tight joint construction of rock slab products can be compared with that of porcelain.The dense joint construction of bricks is closer to seamless, restoring the beauty of natural stone at a 1:1 ratio. For example, the slate precision delivery system, technology and standards developed by Nobel include three process delivery standards with different precisions: F0 (0mm precision stitching), F035 (0.35mm precision stitching) and F05 (0.5mm precision stitching). To meet the ultimate requirements of different user groups for dense seam paving.
From large specifications to continuous patterns to tight joints, the rock slab manufacturers have "rolled" it to this extent. It should be almost the same, right?
Don't worry, it's not over yet.
Picture source: New Pearl Slate
In order to enrich the application possibilities of rock slab walls, rock slab manufacturers have focused on arc and special-shaped walls, which means that rock slabs need to achieve breakthroughs in toughness. When it comes to the "concave shape" of rock slabs, the beautiful ultra-thin rock slabs take the cake. The slabs can be bent into an arc with a radius of 5 meters at room temperature. Xinmingzhu 3.5mm rock slab can bend 20° under normal non-heating conditions. If hot bending technology is used, the bending degree can be even higher. Marco Polo's curved rock slabs can achieve a high curvature of 120°, and only 3 pieces can form a round column...
As long as the rock slab wants to be "rolled", it can even be rolled into a streamer for you.
Image source: Marco Polo Slate< /p>
The competition among these rock slab manufacturers around rock slabs is better described as a "fight between gods" than "involution".
(Author: Hong Xiaochun)
