Characteristics of Artificial Granite

Characteristics of Artificial Granite

▲ Material Composition and Preparation
Artificial granite, also known as resin concrete or resin-based composite material, is primarily made from natural granite as aggregate, combined with epoxy resin as a binder, and supplemented with appropriate fillers and diluents. Through curing, these raw materials polymerize to form a new type of material. This material is currently highly regarded in the international machinery industry, as its performance is comparable to traditional cast iron. Therefore, it is often used to replace traditional cast iron in the manufacture of key components such as machine tool beds, bases, beams, and columns.
Artificial granite, also known as resin concrete or mineral casting, is an innovative composite material. Its key components include modified epoxy resin and a curing agent as binders, while granite and quartz sand particles serve as aggregates. Through scientific gradation and the addition of various additives, and a refined processing procedure, this high-performance material is ultimately synthesized.
▲ Physical Properties and Advantages
Compared to steel, artificial granite exhibits superior vibration damping properties, with a damping effect six times that of metals. It also possesses excellent corrosion resistance, a low coefficient of thermal expansion (only one-twentieth that of metals), and good electrical insulation. In its manufacturing process, artificial granite demonstrates design and manufacturing flexibility, short processing cycles, high demolding precision, and low-carbon environmental friendliness, enabling it to be perfectly integrated with any material.
Vibration damping capacity tests were conducted on 1.5-inch × 1.5-inch × 9-inch casting material samples at 70 degrees Fahrenheit. The results showed that resin concrete had a significant damping effect, with its vibration damping capacity being 45 times that of alumina, 10 times that of cast iron and steel, and 4 times that of granite.
▲ Application scenarios and history
Replacing cast iron, resin concrete is applied in the machine tool's bed, base, beam, column etc., showing excellent shock absorption, reaching 10 times the level of cast iron. Meanwhile, its high precision characteristics make it possible to achieve straightness, flatness, parallelism within 3-5um/m. Due to the use of room temperature casting process, there is no need for tempering treatment and stress relief, so the stability excellent and it is not easy to deform. In addition, resin concrete also has the advantage of energy saving and environmental protection, with almost no pollution in the entire production process, and materials can be recycled. This scientific research achievement not only has the potential to reduce the use of metal materials in machine tools by 80%, but is also likely to trigger changes in the machine tool industry, thereby reducing environmental problems caused by metal smelting. As early as 1917, Schleicher in Germany proposed the idea manufacturing the bed of a lathe with reinforced concrete. Subsequently, in the 1940s, the German Beringer Company began mass-producing practical concretehes in order to save steel. Its cast iron spindle box, tailstock and other components are connected to the concrete base through bolts.

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The Application Advantages of Mineral Casting

▲ Excellent molding and integration capability
Mineral casting, a futureoriented and environmentally friendly material, has shown significant advantages in the field of machine structural parts. Its core characteristics include: the ability to cast complex shapes that traditional cast iron cannot achieve under temperature conditions, thanks to its unique process flow and material properties. With special bonding technology, even more complex and variable shape designs can be created. In addition, its powerful integration capability pipelines for delivering cutting fluid, molds, guide rails, cables, oil pipes, air pipes, and connecting parts to be directly cast into the mineral casting. For instance, during production of machine tool bases, the guide rail mounting plate can be formed integrally with the mineral casting, eliminating cumbersome assembly steps. Subsequently, by machining the guide rail plate, the required installation surface accuracy can be achieved. In some high-precision mineral casting processes, certain surfaces of the casting can even directly serve as the installation surface for the guide, further simplifying the production process.
▲ High precision performance
The thermal contraction rate of mineral castings is extremely low, and there is no local contraction phenomenon, which makes precision far exceed traditional cast iron. In many application occasions, mineral castings can often be formed at one time without additional machining. Even if higher precision is required, it is necessary to easily achieve the required standards through simple milling and grinding operations, thus improving the precision of the overall machined parts.

▲ Excellent shock absorption and thermal stabilityMineral castings perform exceptionally well in terms of shock absorption, with a shock absorption capacity more than 10 times that of traditional cast iron. For large vibrations, mineral cast can effectively absorb them, ensuring the high precision of the machine. For example, in machine tool manufacturing, mineral castings are used as machine beds, which can effectively reduce motor vibration the impact of the carriage on the machine bed during transportation, thereby ensuring the precision of the machine tool. Mineral castings show excellent stability in the face of temperature changes. Its conductivity is much lower than that of metal, which makes the geometric size error of the machine tool due to heat absorption effectively controlled within the smallest range, thereby ensuring the high precision the machine tool.

▲ Corrosion resistance
Mineral castings have excellent corrosion resistance to cutting fluid, coolant and other liquids. Because of this, a cavity mineral castings can be designed in the machine bed of the machine tool to directly store these liquids, which simplifies the steps of cavity assembly and significantly improves production efficiency and economic benefits