CHANNGING TASTES AND TECHNOLOGICAL PROGRESS

Changes in taste perception together with the evolution of high performing and sophisticated production technologies, have led to the assertion on the markets of ceramic surface that aesthetically reproduce a wide range of natural materials.

If digital technology has allowed producers to reach astonishing graphical results, some finishing treatments such as polishing and lapping processes have on the other side provided ceramic surface with features able of imitate the most important characteristics of the reference materials.

Marbles and stones above all.

POLISHING AND LAPPING PROCESSES

As we know, polishing processes abrade and remove a few microns of glaze superficial layer, bringing out roughly spherical micro-porosity normally located within the matter.

If these porosities are not properly protected, they can be easily attacked by dirt and chemicals and therefore compromising the final product.

PROTECTIVE SURFACE TREAMENTS AND CERAMIC SURFACES

All the products for protective surface treatments available to date have proven their effectiveness on  glazed porcelain tiles, being less successful when applied on other kind of ceramic surfaces such as technical porcelain stoneware (full body or double-charging products), both atomized or micronized.

WHY?

The reason is that glazed porcelain stoneware and technical porcelain stoneware have a different chemical and physical nature.

PORCELAIN STONEWARE 

Glazed porcelain stoneware is characterized by the presence of a very thin melted glass layer on the top of the tile that is about 100/200 micron.

This layer acts in every way as glass, providing the material with a very high resistance to stain and chemicals attack.

TECHNICAL PORCELAIN STONEWARE 

Technical porcelain stoneware is a sintered product.

Unlike the fusion process, the sintering process, although it takes places at very high temperatures, does not produce a complete melting result. 

Through sintering process it is possible to reach a vitrification rate that is about 70%, therefore the final product shows localized melted micro areas instead of a complete molten mass.

This chemical behaviour provides the material with a different morphology and molecular structure.

The surface is more permeable and it is characterized by the presence of non-spherical pores and heterogeneous gaps such as cracks, edges, engravings, etc.

The lack of superficial glaze together with the different structural morphology, makes the technical porcelain stoneware a delicate material hardly to be protected by all that products that have been available in the market until now.

TECHNOLOGICAL EVOLUTION AND NEW SCENARIOS

“Traditional” products for surface protection, in fact, close and seal the open porosities by a mechanical process that is inappropriate for technical surfaces.

However, new types of products has been recently developed able to chemically interact with the ceramic surface that has to be treated.

Instead of filling the pores they create a uniform and vitrified coating that modify the chemical and physical features of the polished technical porcelain stoneware.

Broadly speaking we could call it a sort of “nano-glazing cold process” able to fix on the superficial layer and to cover any single crack, hole or slot.

The chemical nature of this process seems to extend the options in terms of surface treatment protections, effectively expanding the process to other kind of materials and opening new technical and aesthetical scenarios.

Scroll through the images at the top and see the differences.