Saint-Gobain, Grenite® Ramp Up E-Stone Slab Production (May 23)
Representatives from Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics and Grenite Sustainable Solutions (GSS) of Metuchen, N.J., formally announced their new partnership today in Ravenna.
“Up until now, Grenite has been available only as a molded product,” says Patrice Lallement, marketing manager for Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics. “However, with the opening of the new Ravenna facility and the partnership between Saint-Gobain and GSS, Grenite will be available in slabs, ready to be custom-finished by fabricators with engineered-stone equipment and expertise.”
Grenite first appeared in the mid-2000s, with a marketing thrust into the solid-surface market with custom production. With original manufacturing in Southern California, the material offered a high level of surface hardness (greater than 7 on the Mohs scale, versus 2-3 for solid-surface products such as DuPont’s Corian®) and high recycled-product content.
“Grenite engineered stone products are made with up to 85-percent recycled, post-consumer materials, most often ceramic waste or copper mine slag that would normally have ended up in landfills or waste sites,” says Erik Johnson, a GSS partner.
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The material also offers properties akin to other varieties of engineered stone/quartz surfaces, including non-porosity and high-temperature (500°F) resistance.
Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics offers Grenite slabs of 60″ X 120″ X 5/8″ in three standard colors – Birch Prada, Anaconda Black and Anaconda White – and five custom colors available upon request. The company currently sells to fabricators and is also in the process of setting up a distribution network.
Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics is part of Saint-Gobain’s Innovative Materials Sector. Parent company Saint-Gobain SA, based in Courbevoie, France, is one of the largest building-materials companies worldwide, with 2010 sales of $53.2 billion and approximately 190,000 employees in 64 countries.