Just look at the two pictures above, can you guess which one is slate and which one is stone?
Both pictures were taken by reporters at the booths of exhibitors at the 2020 Guangzhou Design Week. One of them is a new product of a certain slate brand with continuous patterns, and the other one is a stone imported from Italy by a certain stone dealer. I wonder if you have noticed that from marble tiles to rock slabs, and then to the popular continuous slate slabs, the restoration and fidelity of imitation stone products of construction and ceramics companies have reached a superb level, and are even said to be "more like stone than stone." Isn’t that an exaggeration?
In 2020, sintered slabs seized the C position in major exhibitions with a high-profile attitude, and instantly defeated all types of boards with their practicality and decorative properties. Until a large number of stone dealers joined Guangzhou Design Week, slate finally met its strongest opponent so far.
▲Guangzhou Design Week Hall 7
Judging from the distribution of the exhibition halls, Halls 1 and 2 on the first floor of the Poly World Trade Expo Center are dominated by ceramic construction companies, among which no less than 30 companies display slate products. In addition to some stone companies located in Halls 1 and 2, most of them are concentrated in Hall 7 on the first floor of the Poly World Trade Expo Center. Slate and stone were exhibited in the same place, subject to scrutiny and comparison by designers from all over the country. It can be said to be the first head-to-head confrontation between the two.
I believe that people who eat melons are particularly curious, who is better, slate or stone?
From the perspective of thickness, with the entry of SACMI CONTINUA+ series presses into China, they have been used in many ceramic construction companies. After successful trial production, the currently achievable thickness of rock slab production in the building ceramics industry is between 3mm and 30mm. There are also individual companies (such as Gold Medal) that have successfully produced 2.5mm ultra-thin rock slabs. In contrast, stone can be customized to a thicker thickness, and of course there are also thinner ultra-thin stones. Ultra-thin stone is also called stone skin, with a thickness of only 1-2mm. The designer of Golden Mantis once mentioned ultra-thin stone when explaining the case. The famous wave-shaped lobby of Shanghai World Trade Center Hotel used this material.
Ultra-thin stone
So, Although rock slabs have been flexibly customized, they still cannot compare with stone, which has the natural advantage of breaking through the thickness limit.
From a decorative perspective, the appearance of rock slabs is indeed very high, but the design drawings of most products are still from For 1:1 restoration of precious stones. This does not mean that it is difficult to distinguish between the two in terms of appearance. For example, the light-transmitting stone has a great advantage. Since rock slabs are fired at high temperatures, the remaining glass phase after leaving the kiln determines its light transmittance, and the light transmittance weakens as its thickness increases. Therefore, the current production of rock slabs in the ceramics industry can Translucent rock slabs are generally ultra-thin rock slabs. Stone is different. Light transmission is a built-in property of most stones.
▲Translucent stone">
I have to admit that the various dazzling translucent stones are indeed very beautiful. It is precisely because of the properties of the material that stone has a special decorative effect that cannot be copied.
From a price point of view, if you compare the decorative effect of natural stone with that of rock slabs, it is "not a moral act." , so the price of rock slabs is no match for precious marble. During the visit, the reporter learned that the current marketHigh-end rock slabs can be sold for more than 1,000 yuan per square meter, while low-end special price rock slabs can even cost less than 100 yuan per square meter. The price of truly natural precious stones such as fish belly white, Calacatta, and royal blue exceeds 10,000 yuan per square meter. The rarer and more expensive the textures, the higher the price.
▲Stone—"Four Seasons Green"
A stone dealer told reporters at the exhibition: "Although there are marble tile brands that have made highly restored products with the four-season green texture stone in front of us, each piece of real stone is unique, and its price is the highest. Sometimes it can even be compared to a piece of art. Only those who truly understand and love stone can understand its value. ”
One is a product of industrialization, and the other is a natural material mined from a mine. The cost of the two is almost incomparable.
From an application perspective, stone seems to be mostly used for wall decoration, as well as in some passes, window sills, and steps. In a place like this, the stone used for the floor is considered to be at the rich level. The same application areas as stone are standard for slate. In terms of home furnishings, slate is more popular than stone. Because slate itself has excellent properties such as fireproof and waterproof, pressure and wear resistance, high temperature resistance, acid and alkali resistance, and easy cleaning and care, it can be used in various home spaces such as dining tables, coffee tables, cabinet door panels, kitchen stoves, islands, and bathroom sinks. To the rock slab.
▲Application of rock slabs
To put it in one sentence: Stone slabs have good performance and are more resistant to corrosion, and can be used in the living room and in the kitchen.
From the perspective of special-shaped processing, rock slabs can meet various requirements such as arc cutting, cutting, chamfering, splicing, etc. Processing, including the bendable rock slabs launched by several brands of Marco Polo Slate, Summit Slate, and Shunxing Slate, seems to be the limit of the current special-shaped processing of rock slabs.
▲Bendable slate
Looking at stone, it is not a problem to process all kinds of special shapes, from making grooves, making acid-etched relief surfaces, processing into small stools, hollowing out to make boxes... On the one hand, stone has the advantage of having a full-texture pattern, and it has the same texture no matter how it is processed; on the other hand, the thickness of the stone raw material allows it to be processed into various three-dimensional shapes.
▲Special-shaped processing of stone
So, the identity of rock slab is ultimately a plate, and it cannot be used to make a Roman column.
▲Rome made of stoneColumn
Speaking of which, did Yanban finally lose?
Lanban did not lose. Because no matter how good the stone is, as natural resources become increasingly scarce, Stone is ultimately just a niche product and cannot be used in thousands of households like slate< /span>. Stone didn’t lose either. No matter how good the slate is, there are always limits that it cannot break through, so it is impossible for slate to completely replace the position of stone.
If you have other opinions about the "Century War between Slate and Stone", please feel free to discuss it in the comment area.
Author: Hong Xiaochun
