The European Union has officially announced the category of Sintered Stone, and Lapitec becomes its first authoritative exponent. The company has obtained CE marking after the EC (European Commission) and EOTA (European Organization for Technical Assessment) enacted a new “European Assessment Document” that defines a new merchandise category, Sintered Stone. This project has not previously been recognized in its own right, and has therefore been subject to different regulations on the part of the various nations of the Union. Lapitec thus becomes the only material currently capable of responding to all the parameters stipulated in this document.
The CE marking is a fundamental acknowledgment for the Treviso-based company, after over 30 years of research and experimentation. The first Lapitec slab reached the market in 2012, but the material’s origins date back to 1989, with a technical and entrepreneurial idea of Cavalier Marcello Toncelli. Since then Lapitec has obtained as many as 25 international patents, with exports to over 70 countries around the world.
Its exceptional quality is the result of its 100% mineral ecological spirit, requiring no use of petroleum-based substances, in a special formula free of crystalline silica. Hence the difference from ceramics, natural stones and composite stones. “The credit goes to the technology – the company explains – which refines the minerals at 1500°C, and thanks to a vacuum vibro-compression process compacts the material and then sinters it at 1200°C, generating full-body slabs in large formats.”
The result is a surface for multiple applications, indoors and outdoors, to be used for cladding, floors and pavements, spas, swimming pools, kitchen worktops, yachts and bathrooms; it is strong and durable (resistant to scratching, UV rays, heat and frost, and chemicals), as well as being sustainable, natural and recyclable.
“Today we are celebrating a major achievement – says Francesco Giannini, sales executive of Lapitec. – While on the one hand the CE marking certifies the truth of the performance statements of Lapitec which we have always shared, on the other it determines, once and for all, how a surface can qualify for the name of sintered stone. All too often, other materials are erroneously promoted as sintered stone, and this new step will shed light on a long-term issue that compromises the market niche we have filled for over ten years.”
