| Cultured or synthetic marble is a cheaper alternative for real marble. It is a composite of resins like acrylate, polyester and fillers. Fillers can be silica, calcium carbonate etc. Fillers and resin are mixed, followed by curing and molding to yield marble. Various techniques like slip casting, isostatic pressing, dry casting are also used to cast marble. The real marble look is simulated using pigments, chips etc. Onyx is another compound similar to marble but with more transparency containing aluminium trihydroxide, glass frits as fillers. A detailed description of the works carried out on the various processing techniques, fillers, polymers used and the resulting properties such as mechanical behaviour, appearance such as color and pattern is presented here. |
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