KR20210051634A - Composition for artificial marble including thermoplastic polymer powder and artificial marble comprising the same - Google Patents

Abstract

The present application relates to a composition for artificial marble including thermoplastic polymer powder and artificial marble including the same and, more specifically, to a composition for artificial marble and artificial marble including the same which include thermoplastic polymer powder instead of a liquid binder to simplify production processes and realize a variety of patterns.

Description

Composition for artificial marble containing thermoplastic polymer powder, and artificial marble containing the same {COMPOSITION FOR ARTIFICIAL MARBLE INCLUDING THERMOPLASTIC POLYMER POWDER AND ARTIFICIAL MARBLE COMPRISING THE SAME}

The present application relates to a composition for artificial marble including a thermoplastic polymer powder and an artificial marble including the same.In more detail, an artificial marble capable of simplifying the production process and implementing various patterns, including a thermoplastic polymer powder instead of a liquid binder It relates to a dragon composition and an artificial marble comprising the same.

Artificial marble is a synthetic resin such as acrylic resin, unsaturated polyester resin, and epoxy resin, or natural stone powder, minerals in the form of particles or chips, and additives such as resin chips are added to a base such as cement, and additives such as pigments, if necessary. It is an artificial composite that embodies the texture of natural stone by adding.

Representative types of artificial marble include acrylic-based artificial marble, polyester-based artificial marble, epoxy-based artificial marble, melamine-based artificial marble, and engineered stone-based artificial marble.

Such artificial marble has a growing interest in implementing not only functional elements but also luxurious patterns of design.

Recently, as the market entry of porcelain slab having various natural stone designs in the kitchen top plate field has begun, there is a demand for a technology capable of diversifying the design of existing engineered stones.

In particular, in the case of engineered stones, a recipe needs to be newly designed to implement a new design, and a lot of cost and time is consumed, such as having to change the process or install an additional process line according to the design.

It is time to study on a method that can solve these problems, increase design freedom, and improve process productivity.

According to an embodiment of the present application, it is intended to provide a composition for artificial marble including a thermoplastic polymer powder capable of applying a digital printing method, and an artificial marble including the same, by replacing a conventional liquid thermoplastic resin with a powder thermoplastic polymer resin. .

One aspect of the present application relates to a composition for artificial marble.

In one example, as a powder, 10 to 50 parts by weight of a thermoplastic resin and 90 to 50 parts by weight of an aggregate may be included.

In one example, the average particle diameter of the thermoplastic resin powder may be 4 μm to 400 μm.

In one example, the thermoplastic resin is one selected from the group consisting of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), and polyamide (PA). Can include.

In one example, the aggregate may include quartz.

In one example, the quartz may include 10 to 40 parts by weight of quartz powder having a diameter of 100 μm or less, 20 to 75 parts by weight of quartz sand having a diameter of 100 μm to 1 mm, and a quartz chip having a diameter of 1 mm or more of 40 parts by weight or less. have.

One aspect of the present application relates to an artificial marble.

In one example, as an artificial marble made of the above-described composition for artificial marble, the artificial marble may include a pattern portion forming a pattern shape of the artificial marble and a base portion forming the base of the artificial marble.

In one example, the pattern portion may be made of a composition for a first artificial marble, and the base portion may be made of a composition for a second artificial marble having different brightness and saturation from the composition for the first artificial marble.

In one example, the artificial marble is bendable by heat treatment at a temperature of 120 ℃ to 180 ℃.

According to an embodiment of the present application, a composition for artificial marble in which a liquid thermoplastic resin binder is replaced with a powder thermoplastic resin binder may be provided.

According to an embodiment of the present application, an artificial marble manufactured using a digital printing method may be provided.

According to the exemplary embodiment of the present application, since various patterns can be formed, an artificial marble having a high degree of design freedom can be provided.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present application, an artificial marble having a simple process and excellent productivity may be provided.

According to the exemplary embodiment of the present application, it is possible to provide an artificial marble capable of greatly improving a working environment by not using volatile substances, which are harmful substances.

According to an embodiment of the present application, an artificial marble capable of solving the hassle of cleaning caused by the use of a viscous liquid resin or the production of defective products caused by changing the viscosity of the resin due to volatilization of styrene during the process may be provided.

According to an exemplary embodiment of the present application, since a thermoplastic resin is used, an artificial marble is manufactured and then heat treated to perform bending processing.

According to the exemplary embodiment of the present application, it is possible to provide an artificial marble that is applicable not only to the conventional kitchen top plate, but also to various fields such as walls and flooring.

1 is a schematic diagram for explaining a method of manufacturing an artificial marble according to an embodiment of the present application.
2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a method of manufacturing an artificial marble according to an embodiment of the present application.
3 is an image showing various patterns (patterns) of artificial marble according to an exemplary embodiment of the present application.
4 is an image showing that the artificial marble according to an embodiment of the present application can be bent.

The terms used in the present application are only used to describe specific embodiments, and are not intended to limit the present invention. Singular expressions include plural expressions unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. In the present application, terms such as "include" or "have" are intended to designate that features, elements, etc. described in the specification exist, but one or more other features or elements may not exist or be added. It doesn't mean none.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms used herein including technical or scientific terms have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention belongs. Terms such as those defined in a commonly used dictionary should be interpreted as having a meaning consistent with the meaning in the context of the related technology, and should not be interpreted as an ideal or excessively formal meaning unless explicitly defined in the present application. Does not.

Here, the weight part is generally defined as one reference substance and the contents of the other components can be converted into a relative ratio based on one component even if the description method for expressing the contents of the other component accordingly or the reference substance is not specified. The composition ratio should be interpreted as clearly stated.

Hereinafter, a composition for an artificial marble of the present application and an artificial marble including the same will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the accompanying drawings are exemplary, and the composition for artificial marble of the present application and the scope of the artificial marble including the same are not limited by the accompanying drawings.

In order to provide a composition for artificial marble, a method of mixing quartz or silica with a thermoplastic liquid resin and then curing it has a limitation in pattern realization due to the use of a thermoplastic liquid resin, and production efficiency decreases due to changes in the composition of each pattern. In addition, the stability of the work due to the solvent is poor, the productivity is considerably poor due to the batch-type process using vacuum-vibration-compression press, and since the thermoplastic liquid resin uses styrene as a solvent, the safety level during the process It falls considerably.

In order to solve these problems, the present applicant intends to use a liquid resin dash powder thermoplastic resin. Through this, it is possible to simplify the process, implement various patterns, and improve productivity.

The composition for artificial marble of the present application includes a thermoplastic resin and an aggregate in powder form.

In particular, it is preferable to include 10 to 50 parts by weight of thermoplastic resin powder and 90 to 50 parts by weight of aggregate.

The content of the powdered polymer resin is relatively higher than that of the liquid resin for manufacturing the conventional artificial marble.

Here, the average particle diameter of the thermoplastic resin powder is preferably 4 µm to 400 µm, and 10 µm to 380 µm, 20 µm to 360 µm, 30 µm to 340 µm, 40 µm to 320 µm, 50 µm to 300 µm, 60 It may be µm to 280 µm, 70 µm to 260 µm, 80 µm to 240 µm, 90 µm to 220 µm, or 100 µm to 200 µm.

One of the main features of the present application is a thermoplastic polymer powder resin, and by replacing the conventional liquid resin with a powder resin, the mixture is agglomerated due to the viscosity of the liquid resin, thus solving the difficulty of applying to the powder phase of the digital printing method.

Here, the average particle diameter of the powder may be 4 μm to 400 μm, and an appropriate size of the powder may be determined according to the type of resin and basic physical properties of the resin.

In other words, it is possible to apply all ranges from the size similar to the quartz powder to the small size of the quartz sand, and since the physical properties of the final product vary depending on the size of the powder, it is important to select a powder having an appropriate particle size.

If the size of the powder is smaller than 4 μm, it has good mixing with the quartz aggregate, so it is easy to control the pores of the final product and it is advantageous to manufacture a product with uniform physical properties. There is a problem in that high cost is required in the process of pulverizing. On the other hand, when the size of the powder exceeds 400 µm, it cannot be uniformly mixed with the aggregate, so that products with partially different physical properties may be produced, and above all, there is a high probability of large pores.

Here, the thermoplastic resin is not particularly limited, but various thermoplastic resins may be applied, and in particular, polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (PE), and polyamide It may contain one selected from the group consisting of (polyamide, PA).

In addition, the aggregate is not particularly limited, and any material that can be used for artificial marble may be applied, and when additional additives are required, it may be meant to include them.

The aggregate according to the present application is capable of showing the appearance and texture of natural stone, and an inorganic aggregate used for a known engineered stone (resin-based reinforced natural stone) can be used without limitation. In an embodiment, the aggregate is a silica-based natural mineral, for example, silica, specifically crystalline silica, quartz, fumed silica, and amorphous fused silica. It includes, and also includes all forms obtained by crushing silica-based glass or waste glass. The form of silica and glass may be powder within 100 μm in size, sand of 100 μm or more, or chips with a size of several mm, and the inorganic aggregate included in the present application may include a combination thereof. have.

The aggregate may be quartz, and specifically, may include quartz powder, sand, and chips.

In particular, the quartz may include 10 to 40 parts by weight of quartz powder having a diameter of 100 µm or less, 20 to 75 parts by weight of quartz sand having a diameter of 100 µm to 1 mm, and a quartz chip having a diameter of 40 parts by weight or less of 1 mm or more.

In the above range, it is possible to obtain a resin composition for engineered stone that can realize an appearance and texture closer to that of natural stone.

In a specific embodiment, the quartz powder may have an average particle diameter of 5 to 50 µm, for example, 10 to 45 µm, measured by a sieving method (device). The quartz sand may have an average particle diameter of 0.1 to 1.5 mm, for example, 0.1 to 1.2 mm, measured by a sieving method (device). The quartz chip may have an average particle diameter (based on a long diameter) measured by a sieving method (device) of 0.5 to 10 mm, for example, 1.3 to 9 mm.

Within the above range, it is possible to easily mix with the matrix resin, prevent the occurrence of voids when mixed with the matrix resin, and obtain a resin composition for engineered stone that can implement an appearance and texture close to natural stone.

In embodiments, the aggregate may have a Mohs hardness greater than 3 and 9 or less, for example 6 to 8. Within the above range, the engineered stone may have excellent surface hardness, workability, and crack resistance.

In addition, the composition for artificial marble may further include a pigment.

The pigment is not particularly limited, for example, (Ni,Sb,Cr,Ti)O ₂ , TiO ₂ , CrO ₂ , Co(Al,Cr) ₂ O ₄ , (Co,Ni,Zn) ₂ (TiAl )O ₄ , (Fe,Cr) ₂ O ₃ and Cu(Cr,Fe) ₂ O ₄ It may include one or more inorganic pigments selected from the group consisting of.

A pigment may be added to have an appropriate content according to the user's intention, and the pigment may be included in an amount of 1 to 10 parts by weight based on 100 parts by weight of the total thermoplastic powder resin and aggregate.

However, as will be described later, it is preferable to appropriately control it to match the color combination of the pattern portion and the base portion of the artificial marble.

The above-described composition may be mixed in an ingredient ratio suitable for the user's intention to prepare a composition for artificial marble.

Here, the mixing is preferably performed with a dry mixer applied in the ceramic powder mixing process.

And, the composition for artificial marble is provided into the hopper.

When a plurality of pigments are used, a composition for artificial marble for each color of the pigment may be provided to a plurality of hoppers, respectively. As described later, in order to express various patterns, a plurality of pigments may be used, and in this case, it is preferable to inject a raw material having each color into each apparatus for supplying a composition for artificial marble.

1 is a schematic diagram for explaining a method of manufacturing an artificial marble according to an embodiment of the present application.

As shown in FIG. 1, as a composition supply device for artificial marble, the composition for artificial marble can be injected into a plurality of hoppers 11 controlled by a digital powder separator 13, and powdered in the mold 15. .

The hopper may include an inlet and an outlet. The hopper may be a container in which the size of the outlet port is larger than the size of the outlet port. The specific shape of the hopper is not particularly limited. For example, the shape of the hopper may be conical or pyramidal. In addition, the hopper may store the artificial marble composition in the hopper by blocking the outlet with a stopper or the like before discharging the artificial marble composition from the hopper.

Then, the artificial marble composition provided in the hopper is injected into a mold using a digital powder separator according to a set pattern.

The digital pulverizer (digital printer) is not particularly limited, but the pulverization pattern is stored and may be controlled to inject the artificial marble composition from the hopper into the mold according to the stored pattern.

The mold may be a container having a predetermined shape so that the artificial marble composition discharged from the hopper can be contained in a predetermined shape. For example, when the artificial stone is manufactured in a plate shape, the artificial marble introduced from the hopper may be filled in a plate shape.

After filling the mold with the composition for artificial marble, it is possible to manufacture artificial marble by using a high temperature and high pressure press. Here, as the compression method, a uniaxial molding method using a general press may be applied, and a continuous press such as a double belt press may also be applied.

A schematic diagram of such a double belt press is shown in FIG. 2.

As shown in FIG. 2, after charging the mixed composition for artificial marble into the mixing device 21, after appropriately dry mixing and injecting the composition into the artificial marble composition supply device 23, the powder provided from the supply device is added. After injecting into the mold, it can be heated in a continuous heating device 25 and then compressed in a double belt press device 27 to manufacture artificial marble.

After mixing the composition for artificial marble, a thermoplastic powder resin is placed between the aggregates, and at this time, many pores are formed between the powders.

Since thermoplastic resin powder is used, a process of minimizing pores by melting the thermoplastic resin powder by compressing it in a high temperature environment is important. Therefore, there is a need for a process of heating the composition for artificial marble to minimize porosity.

The heating may be applied in various temperature ranges depending on the type or size of the thermoplastic resin powder, but is preferably performed at 120°C to 250°C.

The heating may be applied in various time ranges depending on the type or size of the thermoplastic resin powder, but is preferably performed for 5 minutes to 20 minutes.

And, as described above, it can be compressed by a double belt press. The double belt press is not particularly limited, but the double belt press is a device that is disposed above and below a material continuously supplied, rotates in opposite directions, and conveys the material while pressing it from the top and bottom.

Compression is preferably carried out in the range of 20000 ton or more, based on the production of a slab having a size of 3000 x 1400 mm.

The thermoplastic resin powder is liquefied by heating, and the liquid thermoplastic resin can be solidified by compression and cooling.

In particular, when the temperature is below the glass transition temperature of the thermoplastic resin, it can be demolded to produce artificial marble.

Through this, it is possible to compress and form within a short time compared to the conventional vacuum vibration press method. In addition, since compression and molding are possible for a short time, production efficiency in the process can also be increased.

The artificial marble manufactured by the above-described method may include a pattern portion forming a pattern shape of the artificial marble and a base portion forming the base of the artificial marble.

In particular, the artificial marble includes the above-described composition for artificial marble. That is, it is prepared from the above-described composition for artificial marble. However, the pattern of the pattern portion is not particularly limited.

Here, the pattern portion may be made of a composition for a first artificial marble, and the base portion may be made of a composition for a second artificial marble having different brightness and saturation from the composition for the first artificial marble.

In addition, in the present application, the pattern part can be controlled to be darker than the base part. Here, the term "dark" means that the brightness and saturation of colors are different, and those with low brightness and saturation are referred to as dark.

In order to control the pattern part to be darker than the base part, the component content of the composition for artificial marble forming the pattern part and the composition for artificial marble forming the base part are different.

In particular, it is preferable that the pigment of the first composition for artificial marble is darker than the pigment of the second composition for artificial marble so that the color of the pattern portion is darker than that of the base portion.

However, when the same type of pigment is used, a darker color may be provided through a difference in the content of the pigment.

The shape of the artificial marble is not particularly limited, but may be a slab having a predetermined size by compression.

These artificial marbles are not only excellent in color, but also excellent in mechanical properties. In particular, it has excellent stain resistance evaluation scores, and has excellent water absorption and flexural strength.

In addition, the artificial marble may be bent by heat treatment in a predetermined temperature range. Since the thermoplastic resin powder is used as a binder, the produced artificial marble is heated to a predetermined temperature range, and pressure is applied in a predetermined manner, so that bending processing is possible. The temperature range may be 120 ℃ to 180 ℃, more preferably 130 ℃ to 140 ℃. If the upper limit of the temperature range is exceeded, the resin component may flow down, and if it is less than the lower limit of the temperature range, the bending process cannot be easily performed.

Hereinafter, the present application will be described in more detail through experimental examples.

[ Experimental example One]

After dry mixing 36 g of polymethyl methacrylate powder and 144 g of aggregate, it was charged into a mold, heated, compressed, and cooled to prepare Example 1 in the form of a slab. In addition, 36 g of liquid polymethyl methacrylate and 144 g of aggregate were mixed, and then, using a vacuum-vibration-compression press, Comparative Example 1 in the form of a slab was prepared.

For Example 1 and Comparative Example 1, stain resistance, water absorption, and flexural strength were measured.

The fouling resistance evaluation follows the ANSI Z124.6-2007 standard, and the lower the number from 20 to 100, the better the fouling resistance.

In addition, the water absorption rate was dried at 105°C (error 5°C) for 24 hours and then immersed in a water bath filled with deionized water for 48 hours to completely immerse the sample, and the weights of each were compared.

In addition, the flexural strength was measured according to ASTMD790 standards.

Each result is shown in Table 1 below.

Properties Example 1 Comparative Example 1 Stain resistance 48 40 Water absorption (%) 0.05 0.05 Flexural strength (MPa) 53 41

As shown in Table 1, in Example 1, the stain resistance value was 48, which was higher than 40 in Comparative Example 1, and it was confirmed that the stain resistance was poor. In addition, it was confirmed that Example 1 had an absorption rate of 0.05%, which was lower than that of Comparative Example 1 and had a similar absorption rate.

In addition, it was confirmed that Example 1 had a flexural strength of 53 MPa, which was higher than 41 MPa of Comparative Example 1 and had excellent flexural strength.

Since it is possible to efficiently pack by using a high-pressure press, a lower absorption rate and improved contamination resistance can be expected.

Through this, it was confirmed that the mechanical properties of the artificial marble using the thermoplastic resin powder are superior to that of the artificial marble using the conventional liquid resin.

[ Experimental example 2]

A first composition was formed after dry mixing 25.2 g of polymethylmethacrylate powder, 100.8 g of aggregate, and 1.3 g of pigment. In addition, 10.8 g of polymethyl methacrylate powder, 46.2 g of aggregate, and 0.54 g of pigment were dry-mixed to form a second composition.

The first composition was used to form the pattern part of the artificial marble, and the second composition was used to form the base part of the artificial marble, respectively, and charged into the apparatus for supplying the composition for artificial marble.

According to the set pattern, the composition was charged into the mold using a digital separation method similar to that of an inkjet printer. After charging, heating, compression, and cooling were performed to prepare Example 2 in the form of a slab.

In addition, 25.2 g of polymethyl methacrylate powder, 100.8 g of aggregate, and 1.3 g of pigment were dry-mixed to form a first composition. In addition, 10.8 g of polymethyl methacrylate powder, 46.2 g of aggregate, and 0.54 g of pigment were dry-mixed to form a second composition.

The first composition was used to form the pattern part of the artificial marble, and the second composition was used to form the base part of the artificial marble, respectively, and charged into the apparatus for supplying the composition for artificial marble.

According to the set pattern, the composition was charged into the mold using a digital separation method similar to that of an inkjet printer. After charging, heating, compression, and cooling were performed to prepare Example 3 in the form of a slab.

After photographing using a camera for Examples 2 and 3, each image is shown in FIG. 3.

As shown in FIG. 3, it was confirmed that various patterns can be implemented without changing the composition of the mixture by using a method of spraying a powder mixture having two or more colors.

In addition, it is possible to impart various textures of the slab surface according to the surface of the mold.

[ Experimental example 3]

The slab of Example 2 was heated in an oven to a temperature between 150 and 170°C, and then put into a bending mold and subjected to bending by applying pressure.

For Example 2, an image after photographing using a camera is shown in FIG. 4.

As shown in FIG. 4, it was confirmed that the slab was bent based on the center.

Although the above has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments of the present application, those skilled in the art will be able to variously modify and change the present application within the scope not departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention described in the following claims. You will understand that you can.

11: Hopper
13: digital phase breaker
15: mold
21: artificial marble composition mixing device
23: artificial marble composition supply device
25: continuous heating device
27: double belt press device

Claims (8)

As a powder, a composition for artificial marble comprising 10 to 50 parts by weight of a thermoplastic resin and 90 to 50 parts by weight of an aggregate.
The method of claim 1,
The composition for artificial marble having an average particle diameter of 4 µm to 400 µm of the thermoplastic resin powder.
The method of claim 1,
The thermoplastic resin is an artificial marble containing one selected from the group consisting of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA), polypropylene (PP), polyethylene (polyethylene, PE), and polyamide (PA). Dragon composition.
The method of claim 1,
The aggregate is a composition for artificial marble comprising quartz.
The method of claim 4,
The quartz is a composition for artificial marble comprising 10 to 40 parts by weight of quartz powder having a diameter of 100 µm or less, 20 to 75 parts by weight of quartz sand having a diameter of 100 µm to 1 mm, and a quartz chip having a diameter of 1 mm or more of 40 parts by weight or less.
As an artificial marble made of the composition for artificial marble of any one of claims 1 to 5,
The artificial marble is an artificial marble comprising a pattern portion forming a pattern shape of the artificial marble and a base portion forming a base of the artificial marble.
The method of claim 6,
The pattern part is made of a composition for a first artificial marble,
The base portion is an artificial marble made of a composition for a second artificial marble different in brightness and saturation from the first composition for artificial marble.
The method of claim 6,
The artificial marble is an artificial marble capable of bending processing by heat treatment at a temperature of 120°C to 180°C.

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