Natural stone is the earliest building material in the history of human architecture, plays an important role in daily life. Natural Stone products are widely used in airports, high-speed rail, high-end hotels and other large public buildings, commercial office buildings, residential, tombstones, monuments, and so on. Now in the home decoration process, stone products get more and more attention, but in recent years, the price of stone raw materials rises every year, both terminal customers and manufacturers are complaining about the rising costs.
Nowdays, with the development of the economy, green building, energy-saving building materials are widely accepted by most customers in the world. Will artificial stones make an impact on the natural stones industry in the future? Or is it only the supplement of natural stones? Will artificial stone replace natural stone? This article will help you find out the answer.
Correct Understanding of Natural Stone and Artificial Stone
What Is Natural Stone?
Natural stone refers to sedimentary or metamorphic carbonate rocks such as marble, dolomite, limestone, sandstone, shale and slate. Modern natural stone is mined from natural rock, and then after a series of processing, As referring to the material used in home decoration, general building decorative natural stone mainly granite and marble two kinds.
Granite is an igneous rock, also called acid crystalline plutonic rock. It is the most widely distributed igneous rock, by feldspar, quartz and mica composition, rock hard dense. Granite is composed mainly of silicon dioxide, about 65%-75% of so-called igneous rock is the underground magma or volcanic eruption of the lava crystallization of the rock.
Marble is a metamorphic rock formed by high temperature and pressure in the crust of the Central Plain. The internal force of the Earth’s crust causes the qualitative changes of the original rocks, i. e. the structure, structure and mineral composition of the original rocks are changed. New Rocks formed by metamorphism are called metamorphic rocks.
What Is Artificial Stone?
The artificial stone is made of unsaturated polyester resin as binder, natural marble or calcite, dolomite, silica sand, glass powder and other inorganic materials, as well as a suitable amount of flame retardant, color, etc., it is made by mixing ingredients, ceramic casting, vibration compression, extrusion and other methods.
Although artificial stone is synthetic, but it has the characteristics of ordinary stone. For example, it has the characteristics of flame-retardant, wear-resisting, impact-resisting, and is not radioactive. This is also one of the differences between natural stone and artificial stone. As mentioned above, artificial stone is a new type of home decoration material. Still, its sales are outstanding because it has the color and texture of natural stone. Still, the price is lower than ordinary natural stone, this is one of the differences between natural stone and artificial stone.
Advantages and Disadvantages Between Natural Stone and Artificial Stone
Advantages of Natural Stone:
Natural Stone has high strength, good wear resistance, corrosion resistance, low water absorption, and beautiful texture. Marble is mainly used for interior decoration, and granite is mainly used for outdoor decoration, marble due to excellent high-temperature resistance, suitable for kitchen countertop.
Disadvantages of Natural Stone:
Natural stone has pores, easy to accumulate grease. Generally, it needs strong cabinet support due to the high density;
Although the texture is hard, but the elasticity is insufficient.
Besides, it is also difficult to repair if there are some invisible natural cracks.
It will rupture easily when the temperature changes rapidly.
Advantages of the Artificial Stone:
Artificial stone has the advantages of bright color, high finish, uniform color, resistance to pressure and abrasion, good toughness, compact structure, strong and durable, light specific gravity, non-absorbent, erosion and weathering resistance, small color difference, non-fading, low radioactivity and so on. The stone material is easy to process into the mesa’s geometry, mesa, and so on.
Disadvantages of the Artificial Stone:
The general naturalness of artificial stone is obviously insufficient, its texture is relatively false. Moreover, because the artificial stone manufacture craft difference is huge, the characteristic is not completely consistent. Due to the internal part of the resin material, if in direct contact with overheating containers, easy to heat deformation.
3 Misunderstandings About Natural Stone and Artificial Stone
Does The Natural Stone Have Radiation, and Will It Endanger The Human Body Being?
Natural Stone has radiation, carcinogenic rumors one after another, many consumers worry about the natural stone in the presence of radiation. Does natural stone really contain excessive radioactive material to endanger human health?
There is a mandatory standard for quantifying the radiation of building materials, which is classified into four categories: A, B, C and D, of which Class A is the building materials that can be safely used in any situation. All marble on the market is a class, only a few granite is a class B, class B must be installed in the ventilation used, class C and Class D has not yet been found in the market.
Is Natural Stone A Better Choice Than Artificial Stone?
After millions of years of qualitative changes, the natural stone formed a different color and texture. Natural stone has a very high decorative texture and decorative grade. It has high ornamental value and always gives people beautiful feelings.
Artificial stone can be divided into organic artificial stone and inorganic artificial stone, the two differences lie in the use of different adhesives. In fact, after years of technological improvements, the entire industry now has the technology to ensure that both types of stone are healthy for the human body.
Natural Stone and artificial stone are two different fields, while they have a good complementarity, consumers could make a choic according to their actual needs, such as application areas, price range, environmental requirements to choose.
The Higher The Price, The Better The Quality?
No matter natural stone or artificial stone, the price level relies on many factors: stone material supply, mining difficulty, processing cost, transportation distance, labor cost, marketing cost, etc., so it doesn’t mean the higher the price the better the quality. Usually, consumers make their choices based on their actual needs to choose some medium-priced products.
Top 5 Driving Factors That Distinguish Between Natural And Artificial Stone
Appearance
Natural Stone is a natural material, is transparent or translucent particles, very beautiful. So the natural stone feels brighter. Artificial stones are made from common natural stone powders or opaque acrylic materials, but they are also made by adding glue to the stone and pressing it. Its surface brightness is not as beautiful as that of quartz and can be said to be close to dull.
Handfeel
The other easiest way to tell a natural stone from an artificial stone is to touch it with your hand and then distinguish the two different stones by the feel of your hand. Natural stone material, the feeling that our hand touches above gives a person is the cold feeling. It’s like touching a natural stone. Artificial stones are different. Because the artificial stone material used inside the plastic material, so we do not touch the feeling of ice-cold, give the most obvious feeling is warm and delicate. This feeling is basically the same as when we touch other plastic materials.
Hardness
Hardness is an important mark to distinguish natural stones and artificial stones. According to shore hardness, granite is defined as not less than 70(HSD ≥70) and marble is defined as less than 70(HSD < 70). Natural Stone is natural and relatively hard, so it is still not as flexible as artificial stone, while artificial stone is relatively soft so that it can do radian, splices are usually invisible at the seams.
PH Tolerance
There is a very simple method is to use hydrochloric acid test, a few drops of dilute hydrochloric acid on the stone surface, granite no obvious reaction, natural marble surface will appear rich foam, artificial marble foam weak, there is no bubble at all.
Permeability
The permeability of natural stone is stronger than that of artificial stone. Drop colored liquid on the surface of natural stone, the color will penetrate into the stone, not easy to remove the traces left: and artificial stone permeability is worse, color penetration is slow if cleaned in time will not leave traces.
Bottom of Line
Today, natural stone mining is rampant, and it becomes scarce. Compared with natural stone, the characteristics of artificial stone also make it become the most important type of decorative material in landscape decoration today. They have many types and different uses, and the use method is very different according to their properties. No matter what kind of material, each has its own advantages and disadvantages. We should choose the material that suits us best according to our own needs and prices. Artificial stone has existed a long time in society and occupies a place in the stone market, it’s clearly impossible to replace the natural stone.
