Recently, Monalisa Tiles, Nabel Ceramics, Goldmedal Ceramics, Zhongsheng Ceramics, etc. launched health products of sintered stones, featuring antibacterial and formaldehyde removal technology.

Regarding health ceramic tiles, “anion ceramic tiles” once emerged in the market two years ago. But they were not popular in the Chinese market due to the lack of standards and the uneven performance.   

As the number of sintered stone production lines is increasing in China, there appeared the problems of overcapacity and serious product homogeneity. "Health products" can be regarded as an important direction for ceramic enterprises to try.

“Covid-19 accelerated the upgrade of health industry, and it will be the next trillion-dollar industry,” said Gao Yao, head of IBR Indoor Environment and Health Innovation Studio. Chinese construction industry has experienced three phases of development called “basic construction”, “energy-saving construction”, and “green construction”. It is now entering the age of “health construction”.

Antibacterial products become a hit among lots of ceramic enterprises

In the post pandemic period, the demand of health products is increasing in the market. According to a survey of Sina.com, interviewees gave priority to health, styles, and product functions when purchasing household products. In the selection of ceramic tiles, nearly 80% of those surveyed showed a demand for non-slip and anti-bacterial ceramic tiles, and more than 50% respondents would choose ceramic tiles applied eliminating formaldehyde technology.

The antibacterial and formaldehyde removal techniques are also applied to the manufacturing of health sintered stones released by Monalisa Tiles, Nabel Ceramics, Goldmedal Ceramics, and Zhongsheng Ceramics, ect,.

Monalisa Tiles

On August 4, Monalisa Tiles launched new series products including far-infrared antibacterial ceramic tiles, far-infrared translucent ceramic tiles, high heat reflection energy-saving ceramic slabs (tiles), and non-slip ceramic tiles.  

Monalisa Tiles adopts a new material “Wulan Smoky Quartz” as the raw material for its antibacterial tiles. “Wulan Smoky Quartz” contains 15 rare earth elements, with a whiteness of 65 degrees, the internal exposure index of 0.05, and external exposure index of 0.41. With this material and the full digital glazing technology, the ceramic slabs can realize the effect of translucency.   

The tile specifications include: 760×2550mm, 900×1800mm, 1200×2400mm, 300×1800mm, etc., and thicknesses include: 3.5mm, 5.5mm, 10.5mm, 12.5mm, 13.5mm, etc.

Nabel Ceramics

Nabel Ceramics’ full-body antibacterial sintered stones are made of environmentally friendly raw materials and adopt nano-inorganic antibacterial agents. The antibacterial ions are solidified in the sintered stones by high-temperature firing, so as to maintain the stability and durability of antibacterial performance. According to the test of national authority, the antibacterial rate of common bacteria such as escherichia coli and staphylococcus aureus of the product reaches over 99% in 24 hours .  

Zhongsheng Ceramics

On August 4th, the launching ceremony of Zhongsheng Ceramics’ health sintered slab production line was held. The production line produces antibacterial and formaldehyde removal sintered stones with the size of 750×1500(mm). The slabs, which contain light rare-earth mineral powder with lanthanum and its isotope, can release electromagnetic waves at a wavelength of 0.1 to 10 THz, in order to degrade formaldehyde and eliminate bacteria.

Goldmedal Ceramics

Goldmedal Ceramics’ antibacterial sintered slabs can eliminate 99.77% of staphylococcus aureus ASI.89 and 98.39% of escherichia coli. Made of a semiconductor composite material, the slabs can release ions through a strong redox reaction, so as to eliminate bacteria.

Breakthrough: the ink with antibacterial effect of over 5 years is about to be mass produced

Nowadays, antibacterial and formaldehyde removal technology become the focus of research and development of health products. During the 2020 Uniceramics, lots of pigment & glaze companies showcased antibacterial products. Common antibacterial inks mainly adopt metal ions, which are prone to be ineffective in a short period. For example, silver ion is likely to be ineffective at high temperature. However, some companies have developed products with a durability of over 5 years.

"Our antibacterial ink has been tested more than 10 times in a microbiology laboratory, and all the test indexes have been certified. The ink will be mass produced very soon,” said Zhao Yanyan of Foshan Angtai Ceramic Pigment. She believes a successful new product is based on indexes up to standard. At present, Nabel Ceramics, Bode Ceramics, etc. have adopted Angtai’s health products.

"Monalisa Tiles has been exploring the product of sintered slabs for nearly 14 years. The specifications and thicknesses of sintered slab have been constantly changing over the years. As we can see, the sintered stone market is very large, but It's difficult to tell whether it will face the problem of saturation in the future. But for Monalisa Tiles,  I think there is still a huge market for the sintered slabs in the future by constant innovations and efforts to explore different application scenarios, as well as meeting various demands of customers” said Xiao Libiao, president of Monsalisa TIles.

This is the 404th issue. 

Editor: Sara, Erica