Quartz is one of the most widespread minerals in the Earth’s crust and with a volume equal to 12% of the total rocks that make up this layer of the Earth it occupies the second place among the most common, just after feldspars.
The mineral has a trigonal crystalline structure based on silicon-oxygen tetrahedra that join in the four vertices giving rise to spirals with right or left course. If two right or left spirals coexist, we speak of geminates.
As for its hardness, quartz is to be considered a hard mineral: on the Mohs scale its hardness is equal to seven. Speaking of form or habitus, we can say that the mineral has the structure of a hexagonal prism which has at its vertices the faces of two rhombohedrons, arranged in such a way that the structure as a whole looks like a hexagonal bipyramid.
Given its massive presence in the Earth’s crust, it is not difficult to imagine that there are numerous varieties of quartz. The simplest differentiation in categories that exists is that which sees the quartz divided into varieties with macro-crystalline, micro-crystalline or crypto-crystalline structures.
The mineral is extremely appreciated for its physical-mechanical properties by all those who work in the furnishing field. Thanks to its properties, in fact, is perfectly suited to be used for the construction of worktops and floors of varying thickness.
Quartz worktops generally obtained by compacting the mineral ground into slabs, an operation that generally is cause of expensive waste of raw material and energy. One of the main problems faced by the industries involved in this type of processing is, in fact, the enormous loss of resources and energy that occurs during the process of grinding quartz.
To overcome this inconvenience, ROMIchem has developed ad hoc additives for grinding quartz that help to reduce waste and increase production by 5-15% by eliminating the pack-set. The grinding aids manufactured by ROMIchem, an Italian company that works in close contact with industries specializing in the sector, are tailored to the needs of the customer, so as to offer high-performance customized products that can fully meet the needs of each industry.
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