TXTR-LITE presents flexible stone veneers available in a wide range of thickness, colour and texture.
Flexible stone veneers such as slate veneers are manufactured using a process that strips or peals each micro thin layer of a metamorphic stone slab instead of cutting from a solid stone or precast composite material.
Thin veneers ranging from 0.5mm to 2mm thickness of slate, schist or sandstone are pulled away from the original thicker stone slabs by applying a thin layer of fiberglass/ polyester resin composite backing. Once the resins are cured completely, the composite is pulled or stripped away taking with it the thin layer of stone.
The veneer manufacturing process only works with layered rock and not granite or marble.
Flexible stone veneers were accidentally created in 1995 when a slate furniture designer, Gernot Ehrlich of Germany found the stone skin or veneer of the original stone attached to the resin used to bond slate tiles that were removed from a broken table top.
Veneer products are used worldwide for flooring, cabinet fronts, door skins, wall covering, columns and furniture as well as any flexible surface that requires a real stone finish.
Flexible stone veneers are sustainable building materials because they are made by stripping away only the top layer of stone. A single thick slab of slate can for instance, reveal hundreds of layers of stone while leaving much of the stone for future generations.
Scrap is also reduced in this process because there is no need for tons of stone to be quarried, transported, mined or processed.
Processing stone veneers involves very little use of fuel and their light weight reduces transportation costs as hundreds of square metres of material can be transported in a single crate unlike traditional stone products that would require larger trucks and equipment to move and handle the raw slabs.
Flexible stone veneers vary in thickness, colour and texture, and the appearance depends on the original stone used to create them. Similar to the original slab, the processed stone sheets can vary widely in material characteristics from a similar stone of the same type.
Flexible stone veneers find application in splashbacks, window sills, residential flooring, ceilings, walls, columns, curved surfaces, furniture, lightweight signage, lighting, shower and bath remodelling or new installations.
