Cosentino Debuts New Material Line, Massive Expansion
CANTORIA, Spain – Cosentino Group announced an ambitious business plan this week to grow corporate revenues worldwide by 17 percent annually through 2014, with a doubling of its manufacturing facilities here and Dekton®, a radically new product line.
Click photo to enlargeThe plan depends on the new glass/ceramic-based surface to enter the market next spring and account for nearly half of Cosentino sales within five years – even as new manufacturing facilities and the inaugural production line itself are still under construction.
In a company-hosted event for international industry press on Oct. 2, Cosentino officials detailed its efforts in the next two years, including the expansion of its current complex at its Cantoria headquarters to a 1-million m² (10.76 million ft²) area for new facilities, including a computerized distribution center to hold up more than 100,000 slabs.
Click photo to enlargeThe centerpiece involved the public announcement of Dekton, a material distinctly different from the company’s current line of Silestone® quartz surfaces and natural-stone products. Set to hit the market by next May, the UV- and stain-resistant hard surface will be available in 320cm X 144cm (approximately 10 1/2’ X 4 3/4’) slabs in a limited number of colors and finishes.
While the manufacturing holds some similarity with Silestone by using heat and pressure, the ingredients and procedure for Dekton production – developed in six years of research at a cost of €91 million ($117 million) – are completely different.
The process – which the company calls Particle Sintering Technology – involves the combinations of ground ceramic, glass and agglomerate (such as quartz) materials, molding them under pressure, and then curing the slabs while treating them for color, texture and other visual/tactile effects. The key to the four-hour production of a slab is in sintering, or holding the materials to just below the boiling point to fuse all materials together.
The still-to-be-completed production line will include a 25,000-ton press and a process for decoration that’s much like flowed-glass production, said José Luis Ramón, Cosentino’s chief operating officer. The last step is a final finishing through the length of a 180-meter (590’) oven.
“We’re using 16 different technologies to produce the product,” Ramón said. “It’s the creation of an intermediate compound; the trick is to keep it from melting.”
All parts of the process have been tested, Ramón said. Cosentino has produced a small amount of Dekton, with samples presented to the press emulating the look of marble, granite, polished tile and even the grain of wood-plank paneling.
