Countertops/vanity tops (hereinafter collectively referred to as countertops) mainly include quartz stone countertops, granite countertops, marble countertops, sandstone countertops, slate countertops, and limestone countertops.
The mainstream is quartz and granite countertops.
In terms of production quantity and application range, granite countertops are the most extensive, followed by quartz countertops. Candidate stone has been widely used in home decoration, especially cabinet countertops, and is currently the mainstream cabinet countertop material on the market.
The main processing flow of countertop:
Material selection→large cutting→polishing→trimming→edge processing→digging hole drilling→polishing repair→trial inspection→packaging→shipping
1. Selection of materials (need to pay attention to the tangential problem of block materials)
According to customer samples or production order requirements, select the appropriate rough stone.
(Note: Quartz stone is artificial stone, there is no shortage of materials, in order to directly press the plate into a large plate, skip the material selection-large cutting-polishing link, directly from the large plate to enter the custom size cutting and other processing.)
Common methods for selecting block materials are wet water method, sample polishing method.
It is worth mentioning that the tangential problem of block material: the gloss of the stone and the pattern of the board surface are different.
Such as Indian red, maple leaf red, purple dot golden hemp, etc. have a difference in the size of flowers. The tangential directions of blue pearl, black sand, and British brown are different, and the surface effect is also different.
Blue pearl, black sand, purple dot golden hemp, tiger skin yellow as representative of the stone can not be reverse-cut, otherwise, the reflection effect of the blue pearl board surface is difficult to see, and the gold dot of the black sand is not visible. There is no such problem for Shanxi black stones because there are no requirements for reflectivity, size, and gold dots.
Golden brilliance and gold thread beige also come from the same block through different tangents.
This difference is particularly reflected in the foreign imported stone. In the actual production process, it can be seen by experience.
In the layout process, we should arrange the layout according to the order quantity as much as possible, for example, according to the size and quantity of the customer to buy the appropriate size of block material, so as to achieve the optimal use.
Then how to calculate the price of the sheet based on the quotation of the block material?
For block material, generally measure the length, width, and height in volume (cubic meters) to express the size. When the block material is cut, the width of the gap between the board and the board is generally: 6/7/8mm, according to the order The required size requirements can be used to calculate the number of wool boards that a block can be cut according to the required size requirements, and the price of the board can be roughly calculated.
2. Large cut thickness (generally it takes four or five days to cut a granite block)
According to the customer’s order processing requirements, a circular saw or hand saw is used to cut the raw material into wool.
If there are cracks, lines, color bladder, color difference and other defects on the surface of the board, you can consider how to cut it so that the defect can be cut off as much as possible in the subsequent pot digging process, so that it can be fully utilized.
After the cutting, an inspection shall be carried out first, the qualified wool board shall be retained, and the unqualified shall be removed. For the ultra-thick wool board for fixed thickness treatment. (If you are buying a large board, you can skip this stage.)
The thickness tolerance of European and American standards allows the tolerance value to be plus or minus 1MM.
3. Brushing and polishing
The polishing stage has two parts: rough grinding and fine grinding.
The main processing equipment is an automatic multi-head continuous grinding machine, diamond leveling machine, bridge grinding machine, disc grinding machine, reversing rough grinding machine, walking grinder.
Coarse grinding: The products qualified in the previous process and the thick-set wool board are first coarsely ground with a grinder. At present, the grinders are mainly hand-held grinders and multi-head continuous grinding and polishing machines.
After waiting for the wool board to dry, check the board surface, the board surface is good, you can directly grind, if you find that the quality of the board surface is not ideal, you can brush the surface of the wool board, and apply a layer of resin glue Small holes and cracks on the wool board, chicken claws, and other defects are repaired, and at the same time, the board surface of the wool board is better and the gloss is higher.
In good weather conditions, natural drying, resin glue generally can be dried in more than half an hour, if the weather is bad, it takes about 1-2 hours to dry, you can also use a dryer to dry, it is best to wait Fine dry after dry. Many factories will use AB glue to brush glue, the effect is better, but the cost is higher.
Some factories also clean and inspect the wool board without rough grinding, and then directly apply glue on the wool board (the problem). Generally, granite is brushed less and marble is brushed more.
Fine grinding: Use a polishing machine to polish the qualified wool board or the repaired wool board piece by piece into a smooth board. Remember to use the red crayon for the flaws that cannot be repaired in the smooth board, such as cracks, color lines, stone gallbladder, and flower sweeping. Mark it on the board so that the next process can be found in time, and can avoid these defects for processing small-sized components, such as water baffles or thickened edges. Generally, the gloss requirements of European and American orders must be above 90° (or processed according to customer requirements, if some stone types cannot meet the requirements, please consult with the customer).
At the same time, the flatness limit tolerance of European and American standard matte board is 0.8MM.
(Note: Generally, black stones need to be coated to prevent scratches in the subsequent processes and transportation, so they can be coated after large grinding, torn off during quality inspection, and pasted after acceptance.)
4, trimming (reasonable cutting according to order requirements)
The qualified matte board is cut and discharged according to the requirements of the production order, and the various parts of the table board are cut out-the main table, the backstop, the side stop, and the surrounding edge, etc.
When cutting, pay attention to check the surface before, pay attention to the stone defects marked before, avoid cracks, black spots, color lines, stains, flower sweeps, etc., and do not have yin and yang surfaces.
At the same time, it is necessary to ensure that the geometric dimensions, angle dimensions, and diagonal dimensions of the finished product are accurate, and there is no phenomenon of edge collapse and corner drop. If the back of the countertop needs to be bonded, the edges, edges, and corners of the back should be intact and convenient for later processing.
5. Edge processing
Edge processing is to process the edge of the tabletop using the profiling machine according to the order requirements.
Common are straight edge, rounded edge, duckbill edge, thickened straight edge, thickened rounded edge, thickened duckbill edge, etc. The main processing equipment includes automatic edging chamfering machine, copy milling machine, and so on.
The specific method of thickening the edge is to smooth it with a small cutting machine at the place where it is to be thickened, and then the roughened surface is roughened into a rough surface to bond more firmly. Then, it is glued and then fixed with a clip.
(Note: When bonding, pay attention to the gap between the two plates on the bonding surface as small as possible, preferably 0.1 to 0.2 mm.)
After the glue is dry, it can be processed on the side of the car. The advanced factory uses a special profiling edger with manual polishing assistance, and the general factory uses manual cutting.
6, digging holes
That is to open basin holes, tap holes, positioning holes, paper towel holes, facial tissue holes, etc. on the countertop.
Opening holes are generally made by machines, and the basin holes are usually manually opened, or the four corners of the washbasin are opened by the opening machine and then manually cut.
General process: first use a cutting machine to open the port on the back of the countertop, cut about half of the thickness, do not open it, then turn the countertop over, and then use a size sheet on the front to mark the position of the pot with correction fluid and red pen And the size and the opening position of the faucet, and then manually use the cutting machine to open the pot process.
Faucet holes are drilled on the front side, and positioning holes are drilled on the backside. The hole depth is generally less than 1cm.
Generally, if the basin hole of the washbasin is only 7 or 8 cm away from the side, especially fragile stones, it needs to be reinforced (quartz stone is artificial and contains resin and has good toughness, so no reinforcement is needed).
Even if this distance is exceeded, the steel bar must be reinforced on the back if the customer has a requirement. The diameter of the added steel bar is generally 6/8/10mm, the length is 48 inches, 36 inches, 24 inches, and the depth of the buried steel groove is about 10mm.
When the hole is too large, even if the reinforcement is not safe enough, you can consider that the hole is not opened, only cut to the normal thickness, or the four corners of the hole are opened, and the customer will cut it after receiving it. Greatly reduce the possibility of damage and breakage of the board during transportation.
The process of adding reinforcement is generally carried out after opening the basin hole, such as a gold drill, green star, etc., but if it is some fragile stone, you need to add the reinforcement bar before opening the hole.
7. Polishing and repairing
Repair is to repair the damage caused by careless processing (slight unevenness or missing corners, etc.) or other natural defects. Pay attention to repair and polish with glue close to the color of the stone.
Polishing is to polish the smooth surface of the entire countertop. Similarly, the gloss after polishing needs to be more than 90° (different granite, the polished brightness will also be different, some may even reach more than 100 degrees, quartz stone polishing Only about 50 degrees).
At the same time, the surface has a mirror gloss, no unevenness, no wave pattern, the straightness of the junction is kept on a straight line, and the gloss of the edge of the board and the edge of the opening should also be consistent with the board.
is usually ground with a hand-held grinder. If you want good results, you can use a large grinder. The countertops that are composed of multiple components should be repaired and polished together to avoid problems when they are tried.
(Note: When the quartz stone has scratches or other problems during the finished product processing when it needs to be re-polished, the entire surface must be polished from the bottom number to the polishing, and not only the scratched areas, otherwise It will cause wavy marks in some positions and inconsistent luminosity. Because the quartz stone slab uses an automatic polishing production line, the pressure and abrasive are different from our manual hand-held grinding, so the effect of re-grinding cannot be unified. Noodles and grind them by hand.)
8. Trial spell inspection (problems that should be paid attention to in inspection and pre-composition)
Carry out block-by-block inspection of the panel, and find or replace the unqualified products in time. Pay attention to the combination table during the inspection process: in addition to the smoothness of the edges, the feel and the flatness of the board, etc., it must be pre-assembled. During the pre-assembly, it is necessary to pay attention to the uniformity of the colors between the combination tables, the combination of the joint, the thickness The order of the difference and the left and right of the combination must be accurate according to the drawing.
Quartz stone is an artificial stone, and it is not that there is no color difference. Due to the quantity of production, the ratio and frequency of each stirring, the heat curing temperature, and the difference in raw materials of each batch may directly affect the color difference of the same batch of boards.
Remarks: After the inspection, if the customer has requirements for protection (waterproof treatment, etc.), then protection can be done. For waterproof treatment, it is necessary to make the board surface clean and dry and then apply the waterproof agent. The water repellent used in marble and granite is different.
Conventional we use Sikang brand waterproofing agent, KY40 for marble, and KY10 for granite. (Quartzite has waterproof function due to its properties, so it is not waterproof.)
For the tabletops of the project list, after the quality inspection and pre-assembly, the back or side of each plate should be clearly marked with the room number, item number, etc., so that the customer can easily classify and install on-site.
9, packaging (table board placement direction and anti-scratch soft film between the smooth surface)
Package the product in fumigated wooden boxes according to customer requirements or stone quality. The blunt surface is opposite to the blunt surface, and a scratch-resistant soft film is sandwiched between the smooth surfaces.
As for some stone materials that are afraid of scratches, like the darker stone materials (such as Shanxi black), they will be coated to prevent scratches from affecting the visual appearance.
The countertops should be placed vertically so that the stone is stressed longitudinally. Do not lay them horizontally. All countertops should be bundled into a whole without loosening. Then wrap the film and fix it with wooden strips. Then fix the whole again with a baler. When a customer requests that the washbasin be packed in a separate carton, special attention should be paid to its dimensions and packaging precautions.
Note:
According to some special packaging requirements: such as conventional wooden box packaging for pre-installed washbasins, independent carton packaging for pre-installed basins, independent carton packaging, etc., according to the specific requirements of customers.
