People are skeptical of \”revolutionary\” products. So skeptical, that we have to put the word revolutionary in quotes because so many products make the claim these days that there are \”revolutionary\” products and then there are revolutionary products. Consider our StoneLite® product revolutionary, sans quotation marks. How do you earn having the word revolutionary in front of your product without some sort of qualifier or disclaimer? You test. Again and again.
We can\’t blame you for being skeptical, but what we can do is alleviate your skepticism by proving the revolutionary nature of our product beyond a reasonable doubt. And if the stone panels that can be found standing the test of time on hundreds of buildings around the world isn\’t enough, let us throw some numbers your way.
Acid Freeze-Thaw Testing
If you want to sleep well at night, knowing that your building can handle not only harsh temperatures, but going from one extreme to another (and an ability to withstand levels of acid rain to boot), ask us to see our acid freeze-thaw test results. In addition to granite and limestone panels, we tested both new and 19-year-old versions of our Roman Classic Travertine lightweight stone panels.
Among the many tests conducted, one was an accelerated weathering test which exposed our stone panels to a cyclic temperature range of -10 degrees to 170 degrees Fahrenheit for 100 cycles while partially submerged in a 4-pH sulfuric acid solution to simulate acid rain. The new travertine lost 4.7 percent of ultimate load flexural strength while the old travertine lost 3.7 percent. For a complete summary of acid freeze-thaw testing, please visit [insert testing page on new or old website here].
Air and Water Infiltration
You want to know that your building materials are as impervious to the elements as possible. With that in mind, StoneLite® underwent air and water infiltration testing where both travertine and marble panels (respectively) were attached to steel stud framed assemblies. These assemblies both successfully passed air infiltration and water penetration tests before and after thermal cycling temperatures (from -20 degrees to 180 degrees Fahrenheit for travertine and from -10 degrees to 210 degrees Fahrenheit for marble) .
As for the simulated negative wind load test, after passing the first two tests, the simulated load was cranked to 180 psf (which is the equivalent of 265 miles per hour) for the travertine. When it came to the marble stone panels, testing ended at 88 psf simulated negative wind load. But it wasn\’t because of panel failure. A clip connecting the assembly to the test chamber twisted and failed!
To show you just how much testing our StoneLite® product has been through, we couldn\’t even fit summaries into a single blog post! Stay tuned for part two of this blog post where we\’ll cover some of the structural and impact load tests and fire testing that our stone panels have endured.