When we think of shelves, countertops and floorings we usually think of Granite or marble. These are two of the most widely used and abundant raw materials we use for our furniture. Abundance of these naturally occurring stones is such that even after being one of the biggest producer and The biggest exporter of granite, India is yet to explore 96% of its granite reserves. Abundance though, isn't always the mark for quality. Quartz is an alternative that we rarely hear about, it’s not porous which makes it really durable, more than even Granite. It’s strong and denser too, in fact it’s nearly indestructible.

India is among the biggest quartz exporting nations in the world, with an export of about 25 million US Dollars, in the financial year of 2020-21. Excavated from the states of Rajasthan, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, Quartz in it’s crystalline form travels across the country and around the globe. The raw material itself isn't among the best of choices for manufacturing. So in it a few other components are added to deliver to you the best possible product. Palash Exports has the largest Quartz Fabrication in India.

Quartz fabrication and its multiple steps:

• Extraction:- Unlike other stones, extraction of quartz is a pretty tedious task. Instead of the slabs we got from the get go in Granite extraction, we receive veins during Quartz extraction stuck between rocks. We’re required to remove them not using huge equipments but picks and chisels and other small hand tools.
• Cleaning and powdering:- The raw material we extract would go through a cleaning process initially, so that only the purest of it all remains. The cleaned product is screened afterwards for it’s qualities and if it contains any structural or chemical flaws, if it does, it’s either processed again or rejected. The best possible product goes ahead to be powdered and them to be used in various items.
• Binding and Mixing:-Powdered quarts, resin binders, Pigments and a few other materials are all bound together to form engineered quartz, which is the alternative for naturally occurring stones such as granite and marble. With 90-92% crushed quartz bonded together, we add color components giving the resultant Engineered Quartz it’s strength, Shine and texture.
• Spreading and pressuring:- Distributing the material into various containers of different design patterns in the form of a slab. Once we have the material ready in their particular shape, it is subjected to a high degree of mechanical pressure and compaction, under vacuum. This makes the slab denser and ends up with being better binded with the other components.
• Hardening and Cooling:- In the presence of a catalyst, the slab is kept for about an hour or so. This is an exothermic process, which releases a lot of heat after which the slab is required to cool down. This cooling process doesn't happen at room temperature but in a cooling chamber.
• Trimming and cutting:- The slab is trimmed to the required sections and in these sections cutouts are marked and removed, using trimming techniques such as Water jet or Italian bridge Saw.
• Polishing and Dispatching:- The edges are smoothen out and the product is polished form all sides. It is packed and sent to various locations around the world.

Quartz has started to become more and more mainstream these past couple of decades because of its availability and better qualities. It offers us better solutions to so many of our current demands and thus with Quartz we can look towards the future.