Study of Mechanical and Sanitary Properties of Artificial Cast Stone Products

Abstract

This paper aimed to analyse the mechanical and sanitary properties of artificial cast stone. To create an artificial stone product of the desired shape and design, a thermoforming process is used, during which heavy presses shape the artificial stone parts at a certain temperature. According to experimental studies, the most suitable temperature for monochromatic and patterned cast stone thermoforming is 160 °C when the material has the least bending resistance and does not react strongly to heat. It is observed that the cast stone bends more easily as the distance increases. The bending test of the glued samples made it possible to find out which of the three gluing methods is the most resistant to the forces acting on the samples during bending. The sanitary properties of the artificial stone were compared with the properties of other commonly used surfaces. In the microbiological study, suspensions of three different bacteria were spread on stainless steel, laminated particleboard and artificial cast stone, and washes were taken from 100 cm2 after 25 min. The results showed that the artificial stone after washing had the lowest number of colonies forming units per cm2, which supports the claim of excellent sanitary properties of the product.