Wallpaper and carpets are not the only things that can be rolled up – stones can, too.
To prove it, Holger Bienerth takes a wafer-thin natural stone tile and rolls it from the edges. Bienerth, global market manager for natural-fiber composites at WACKER, is holding a genuine innovation in his hands: a stone floor covering that is warm underfoot and has the look, feel and quality of a solid stone floor, among other benefits. The layer is made out of Indian slate – a mere 0.8 millimeters thick – bonded to a thin layer of cork, which has been formulated with a WACKER binder. “The cork layer on the underside of the slate makes for a nice warm feeling when you walk on it,” says Bienerth. In addition, the natural fibers feel more pleasant underfoot.
The new type of flooring is the outcome of extensive inter-company development. From quarrying the slate to the snap-together system, the development of this unique material has involved five partners. To begin with, wafer-thin sheets of slate are cut in a special process and affixed to a thin, warming layer of cork. This layer also serves to smooth out any imperfections on the reverse side of the stone sheet. On their own, however, natural cork fibers do not bond well to stone. Cork pellets made from production waste and scrap are therefore blended with VINNEX® powder binder from WACKER to produce a cork polymer composite (CPC). VINNEX® combines excellently with natural fibers such as cork, and at the same time bonds very well to slate and other materials. The next step is to process the homogeneous cork-polymer matrix into long cork-polymer webs that are simultaneously sandwiched within the sheets of slate. Finally, this cork-slate composite is bonded to wood- fiber board. “And because it snaps together so easily, the warm stone floor is also very easy to lay – without any joins – just like parquet flooring,” adds Edwin Lingg, co-owner and managing director of Lico AG in Switzerland, which manufactures this innovative stone flooring and markets it around the world.
WACKER is closely following the trend toward achieving sustainability by recycling renewable resources. Key components are ease of recycling, valueadded marketing of waste materials, and energy efficiency. WACKER has established a project platform – known as NFC (natural fiber composites) – dealing with aspects of natural fiber processing. The NFC project is based on WACKER’s special proprietary VINNEX® binder technology. WACKER experts involved in NFC are mainly studying cork polymer composites (CPC), wood polymer composites (WPC), leather polymer composites (LPC) as well as natural fibers such as sisal, coconut and rice husks. Collaborative ventures exist with numerous partners whose technology leads the field
VINNEX® powder binders offer the possibility of taking scraps from leather processing and converting them into materials for the furniture and automotive industries. This regenerated leather can also be transformed into durable flooring. To this end, the cutting waste from the leather industry is compressed to pellets and processed along with VINNEX® powder binder to yield leather sheeting. A specially adapted calendering process creates leather-polymer sheeting just one millimeter thick, in rolls roughly 1.70 meters wide. This has potential applications in car interiors, such as center consoles and side trims. Current tests on flooring are looking very promising for the product concept. If the leather polymer composite (LPC) passes the industry’s rigorous chair-roller and high-heel tests, a good market opportunity beckons for free-of-chrome (FOC) leather flooring.