S-Tiles - prodotti

INNOVATIVE PRODUCTS

Style and living design, technological innovation and globalisation of Italian companies, environmental impact and production processes: these are the innovation issues that led to a number of projects and innovative products.

To quote only some examples:

• Ventilated walls (conferring improved thermal insulation and reducing the cost of building maintenance);

• Raised floors allow maintenance interventions and result useful in industrial applications, in sanitary buildings or in large head-office complexes (where the need for updating and maintenance of technical equipment is constant);

• Tiles for the visually impaired have extended access to buildings and infrastructures and increased the autonomy of disabled persons.

In general, research has been decisive in making ceramic tiles more competitive with respect to other competing materials (such as natural stones, conglomerates, wood, etc.). Here we analyse in greater detail some of the innovative products that characterise the ceramic sector:

Porcelain tile (grès porcellanato) can be considered a special case within the innovation development of the sector. In fact recent research on mixes, on coloured granules and relevant technology, on press, polish and treatments are linked to this highly innovative product. Several companies together with universities and research centres such as the Centro Ceramico of Bologna are carrying out numerous studies in these fields. More than one hundred Italian companies have introduced the different varieties of porcelain tile in their range of products: ‘full body’ or ‘glazed’, rough, polished, shining. Production volumes have grown sensationally: from 127 million square meters in 1997 to 177 million in 1998 and 218 million in 1999 and there continue to be new market development opportunities today. At the core of this success lies the fact of having created a product that combines the highest technology content with an incredible flexibility in terms of aesthetics of surfaces, able to mimic more and more precisely every other material that exists in nature.