HEMEROTECA
12 marzo, 2014
The Cosentino Group is delighted to announce that its new ultra-compact surface, Dekton, has won the KBB 2014 Innovation Award for Kitchens.
The result of a 128 million Euro investment and 22,000 hours of research and development, Dekton by Cosentino is a completely new and innovative category of surfaces. The perfect material for designers, architects, house builders and developers it can be used both indoors and outdoors thanks to its resistance to UV rays and large formats, which make it easy and quick to install.
Offering huge capacity for decorative solutions of large areas and infinite design possibilities, Dekton allows designs to flow indoors and outdoors and at all levels both horizontally and vertically without any limits or interruptions to the design and with colours and textures that move freely. The unique surfaces can be used for a variety of applications, including kitchen worktops, floorings and coverings; bathroom floorings and coverings; furnishings; exterior facades where Dekton covers the walls of any building like a layer of skin; floors and swimming pools. Dekton offers superior technical characteristics; it is highly resistant to scratches, fire, heat and UV rays and is resistant to ice and thaw, stains, abrasion, impact and compression. It also has a low water absorption and dimensional and colour stability.
Dekton by Cosentino is manufactured with advanced TSP (Technology of Sintered Particles), which has been developed exclusively by the Group’s research and development team. TSP uses an accelerated version of the processes of high pressures and high temperatures that Mother Nature applied for thousands of years to produce natural stone. This process sinters mineral particles so that they link up and change their internal structure. Dekton is manufactured with a sophisticated blend of raw materials that are used to produce glass, porcelain materials and natural quartz worktops. These materials are mixed with several aggregates and water to create the new Dekton material.
The ultra-compaction process consists of the raw materials being pressed to remove the air from the mass to achieve the ultra compact surface. The press has a capacity of 25,000 tons, six times more than what has been regarded as the world’s largest press up to now. The slab is then baked at high temperatures where a chemical reaction converts the mass particles into crystals. As the temperatures increase a glass mesh is formed. At the point of maximum temperature – 1,200 degrees Celsius – the entire slab is liquefied just like the magma found hundreds of kilometers below the earth’s surface. As the temperature drops at the end of firing, the slab solidifies.
Dekton by Cosentino is manufactured in a large slab format (320x144cm) with four thicknesses of 0.8 cm, 1.2 cm, 2 cm and 3 cm at a new factory located in the Cosentino Group Industrial Park in (Cantoria) Almeria where 1500 slabs can be manufactured per day. The initial range is available in 14 different references grouped into three collections: Solid Collection, Natural Collection and Tech Collection, which fully identify with the natural references of the material.
* For further information: www.cosentinogroup.net
