Engineered stone is a composite material made of crushed stone bound together by an adhesive, (most commonly polymer resin, with some newer versions using cement mix). The two common stones used in producing these products are marbles and quartz. The application of these products depends on the original stone used. For engineered marbles the most common application is indoor flooring and walls, while the quartz based product is used primarily for kitchen countertops.
Quartz is the most abundant mineral on Earth and one of the hardest, so it is "hardly" surprising that manufacturers saw its great potential for a surface material more than 50 years ago. Since that time, quartz countertops have grown in popularity as homeowners discovered what the earliest quartz pioneers knew - when the natural mineral quartz is improved upon by man's ingenuity, quartz countertops can compete with other natural stone countertops in every way.
Engineered quartz (not to be confused with Quartzite, another appealing natural stone used as counters) is a manmade product created mostly from natural materials. It’s made of 90 to 94 percent ground quartz and 6 to 10 percent resins and pigments that are combined into durable and nonporous slabs. The strength of quartz, even in a manufactured form, makes it naturally resistant to abrasion, scratches, dents, and even acids without the need for sealants. And the environmental impact of manufactured quartz is low: Quartz is an abundant material and the finished product is nontoxic and nonallergenic, and will last a lifetime, reducing the need for replacement.
Quartz countertops quickly became popular in Italy, and have been featured in European kitchens for decades to follow. It took longer for the trend to catch on in the United States - this may be explained in various ways: trends and fashions that originate abroad often take time to trickle to the U.S., or, more likely, American homeowners were satisfied with our current options at the time (laminate was the predominant surface in the 60s and 70s) and were not inclined to embrace a material that looked so similar to widely available natural stone options like granite, marble and limestone. Any entrepreneur venture into this field will be successful.
Few Indian Major Players are as under
• Aakash Universal Ltd.
• Associated Marmo & Granites Ltd.
• Elegant Marbles & Grani Inds. Ltd.
• Inani Marbles & Inds. Ltd.
• Madhav Marbles & Granites Ltd.
• Mahak Marbles Pvt. Ltd.
• Mira Textiles & Inds. (India) Ltd.
• N C L Marbles & Granites Ltd.
• Neelmani Mines & Marbles Ltd.
• Pokarna Engineered Stone Ltd.
• Polar Marmo Agglomerates Ltd.
• Priceless Overseas Ltd.
• Rose Marbles Pvt. Ltd.
• S V I L Mines Ltd.
• Shreeji Industries Ltd.
• Shrenik Marbles Ltd.
• Sukher Marbles Ltd.
• Tamil Nadu Minerals Ltd.
• Vineet Udyog Ltd.