Glossary of technical terms from A to Z

  • A - B

    • Abrasion

      Abrasion means the removal of surface material through friction. It can be referred to the erosion caused by the mechanical action of sea water on the rocks or when something is deleted by scraping. 

    • Abrasive

      Abrasive materials are used to remove and delete by means of friction. Abrasive substances are very hard and are used to hone, finish and polish surfaces. Abrasives are classified in "natural" (emery, corundum, silica and quartz) and "artificial" abrasives (silicon carbon or carborundum, aluminium oxide, glass powder, steel and cast iron grains).
      For more invasive roughing-off processes, coarse grain abrasives are used while increasingly finer grain abrasives are used for finishing and polishing processes.

    • Block

      Large compact mass of any material.
  • C - D

    • Carborundum

      A chemical compound, nearly as hard as diamond, used as abrasive and as refractory material in radio engineering. Silicon carbon is obtained by heating a mix of carbon and quartz sand in an electric kiln at approximately 2000 °C .

    • Covering

      This is the material used to cover, protect, decorate and line a structure or a surface. Coverings are widely used in road constructions, in the building trade and in mining. A variety of coverings are used in the building trade. 
  • E - F

    • Effusive

      Specific term used to define the consolidation process of magma, on the surface or areas near it and of deriving rocks. The characteristic structure of effusive rock is called porphyritic.

    • Eruptive

      Produced from an eruption in relation to a volcanic eruption. After the magma has cooled in depth (intrusive) or on the surface (effusive) the eruptive magmatic or endogenous rocks are formed.

    • Feldspar

      A mix of monoclinic and triclinic minerals, aluminium and potassium silicates, calcium, sodium and barium. The major types are the orthoclase and the isomorphic series of sodium calcium plagioclases: albinite and anorthite. 

    • Flooring

      Covering structure of a road or a room performed to obtain a flat and smooth surface, suitable for vehicle or foot traffic. In beaten earth it was the simplest flooring used in the old days. Venetian floorings were made up of fragments of coloured marble arranged randomly in a layer of cement. The Palladian floorings presently used in modern building combined with new materials such as linoleum and rubber are also of Venetian origin. Floorings can be classified into three categories: in elements, in sheets and monolithic.
      Flooring in elements includes stoneware tiles, tiles of marble or honed stone, in marble chips, of porcelain glass or tesserae of porcelain stoneware. Sheet floorings are those made of rubber, plastic material or linoleum. Unlike these two types of floorings which are installed on a concrete base, monolithic flooring is installed using cement-based mortar.
  • G - L

    • High-Tech Porphyry

      Manufactured stone produced in slabs of various sizes with high technical characteristics (see High-Tech Stone); the colour is brown grey with shades of ochre and brown.

    • High-Tech Quarzite

      Highly performing slabs of various sizes, characterised by various grain sizes and full-body veins.

    • High-Tech Stone

      Slabs of various sizes with high performances and technical characteristics. 

    • High-Tech marble

      Slabs of various sizes manufactured in the factory exploiting modern technologies to offer a valid alternative to quarry marble. Manufactured slabs look like quarried marble slabs, but are superior thanks to their technical characteristics, such as their resistance to abrasion, flexion, frost, chemicals, stains and water absorption.

    • Holocrystalline

      Characteristic structure of eruptive intrusive rocks, all the constituents of which are crystalline. 

    • Intrusive

      The intrusive process involves phenomena that occur when magma consolidates in various and more or less deep zones of the lithosphere.
      In the first stage, called orthomagnetic, mineralising agents reduce the viscosity of the magma forming crystals thanks to the gradual cooling of the molten mass. The other two phases, pegmatitic and pneumatolithic, are both characterised by a considerable action of volatile agents that, by increasing the concentration, fluidify the residual mass, which moves and forms streams of different rock with crystals of considerable dimensions .

    • Limestone

      Sedimentary rock mostly made up of calcite and a smaller percentage of dolomite, clay and bitumen. Its origin may be: chemical, organic or clastic.
      - Limestone as a chemical deposit is obtained from soluble calcium bicarbonate that precipitates in spheroidal aggregates in the form of calcium carbonate.
      - Organic limestone is made up of animal and vegetable calcareous layers.
      - Clastic limestone comes from rocks that are defined as breccia, conglomerates, pudding-stones. It is used as ornamental stone and in the building sector to manufacture lime and cement.
      - Metamorphic limestone is known as marble, the saccharoid structure of which is obtained through the crystallisation of organic limestone. Metamorphism causes a sheet erosion on the rock and cancels any fossil traces.
  • M - Q

    • Magma

      In geology this term indicates a mass of molten and incandescent rock originating from the earth’s interior. Magma presents a variable chemical composition, while some elements in the form of oxides are fixed. Magmas are defined as "acid" or "basic" magmas depending on the percentage of silica. The same magma may give rise to two types of rock depending on whether they solidify within the lithosphere (intrusive rock) or outside it (effusive rock). Magmas may take the name of the intrusive rock that they originate: "basaltic" magma, "granite" magma.
      Mixed magmas are magmas that have been contaminated. 

    • Magmatic

      Made up of magma.

    • Marble

      Name generally used to define compact calcareous rocks and non-calcareous rocks that are easy to process. Thanks to the metamorphic effect, these rocks have acquired a more or less fine crystalline structure. Marble is said to be monochrome if the colour is uniform and polychrome in the presence of veins and speckles. The different nature and various distribution of the accessory components such as quartz, graphite and pyrites gives the marble various colours, from red to yellow and from grey to green; the arrangement of these minerals around the veins creates ornamental patterns. Marble is used for floors, walls, ornamental applications but is not highly resistant to atmospheric agents. Marble has a compression strength that ranges between 900 and 1200 kg/m³ and a specific weight between 2400 and 2700 kg/m. Marble is generally extracted in open air quarries with auger wire that enables the extraction of large blocks. These blocks are transported by sliding them over a bed of rubble to the saw mill where they are cut into slabs according to their colour, body and defects, using blades sprayed with water and quartz sand. They are honed using carborundum discs and are polished by means of abrasive powders that get finer and finer, with damp felt fitted on the turning disc.
      Artificial marble is prepared with chalk, zinc sulphate, ferrous sulphate, alum, calcium chloride and other substances that make it more resistant and easy to clean. The mixture is then coloured, hardened, honed and polished.

    • Mineral

      Homogenous body in which two identically directed portions have the same physical and chemical properties. They are classified in inorganic, organic, solid, liquid and gaseous. According to their origin, they are defined as "primary" minerals (syngeneic or epigeneic) if they are found in the place where they formed and "secondary" minerals if they have been moved, generally transported by water, from their place of origin to that where they are found.
      From an industrial point of view, a mineral is said to be "rich" or "poor" according to the useful mineral percentage it contains. A "raw" mineral is any mineral extracted from the ground.
      Mineral is also a raw material used in the production process of manufactured slabs.

    • Orthoclase

      A mineral whose colour ranges from white-pink to grey; this trisilicate of potassium and monoclinic aluminium mineral belongs structurally to the tectosilicates. Its prismatic crystals are easily flaked in two directions at right angles and are found in geminated crystals that are characteristic in granites of Baveno and Montorfano.

    • Porcelain stoneware

      A special mix of raw materials (feldspars, kaolins, quartzes and clays) that are processed with a specific technology to obtain a completely vitrified product which is totally non-absorbent and has high technical performances in terms of resistance to wear and tear maintaining the product unchanged in time. Porcelain stoneware is particularly interesting for slip proof applications. It also presents a considerable density that is obtained through firing at high temperatures making the product resistant to scratching and cracking.

    • Porphyric

      The structure of eruptive effusive rocks or even of some dyke rocks is said to be porphyric. It features the presence of larger crystals (phenocrysts) immersed in a paste mainly made up of a thick weft of very small crystalline units, creating a mass that appears compact to the naked eye.

    • Porphyry

      Eruptive rock that may be dyke rock or paleovolcanic effusive rock, made up of large crystals immersed in a vitreous paste or paste made up of micro-crystals. Depending on the nature of the rock you may have granite porphyry made up of quartz, orthoclase and mica; quartz porphyry and syenitic porphyry.

    • Production lot

      The quantity of raw materials necessary to produce a certain number of slabs in the factory.

    • Quarry

      Open air quarries for the extraction (excavation) of rocks and minerals. Mining laws distinguish quarries and mines, according to the type of material extracted There are quarries of inert materials for cement-based conglomerates, building materials (clay) or cement (limestone), marble and ornamental stones and quarries for road construction materials (chippings, earth and rubble).

    • Quartz

      Made up of silicic anhydride it is commonly found in nature. In its pure state it is colourless, (see hyaline quartz or rock crystal), while the coloured varieties are the purple amethyst, yellow topaz, pink quartz or pinkish Bohemian ruby or smoky black quartz. Due to some inclusions, quartz may appear with particular reflections, in which case it is called cat’s eye or tiger’s eye or falcon’s eye. Main constituent of granite, of quartz porphyry, of gneiss or of trachyte. 

    • Quartzite

      Metamorphic rock rich in quartz and poor in or lacking of mica.
  • R - S

    • Raw material

      A raw substance found in nature or a partially processed substance.

    • Raw materials

      Raw materials are used in the production cycle of manufactured slabs, sought after and selected around the world. They can be clay, kaolin, feldspar and quartz.

    • Rock

      Name used to indicate minerals and aggregate materials obtained from these, that make up most of the earth’s crust. According to their chemical composition, they are split into: "simple" rocks when they are made up of just one mineral and "composite" rocks when they are made up of a combination of minerals. According to their origin they are classified as "eruptive" or "igneous", "sedimentary" and "metamorphic".
      "Eruptive" rock derives from the consolidation of magmas and "sedimentary" rock derives from chemical, clastic, pyroclastic and organic deposits. "Metamorphic" rock originates from the transformation of the previous types.
      "Eruptive" rocks are divided into two categories depending if the magma has cooled in depth (intrusive or abyssal) or on the surface (effusive or volcanic). According to the silicon content they are classified as "acid", if silicon oxide is more than 65%, "neutral", if the percentage is between 65% and 52%, and "basic" if it is lower than 52% . Sedimentary rocks are divided into: "clastic" formed by the debris of existing rocks, "pyroclastic" formed by volcanic fragments, "chemical deposits" generated by chemical reactions such as solvent evaporation and finally "organogenic" obtained by the accumulation of organic animal and vegetal residues. Metamorphic rocks undergo deep transformations and their main characteristic is schistosity. Marble is considered a metamorphic rock that does not split.

    • Schistosity

      Characteristic of some metamorphic rocks that split according to parallel or almost parallel layers due to the constant action of pressures that always act in the same direction. 

    • Silica

      It exists in various crystalline (quartz, tridimite, crystobalite) criptocrystalline and amorphous forms. It is the most abundant chemical compound in the earth’s crust. Its most widespread crystalline form in nature is quartz, which is used to produce cement, glass, refractory materials and some abrasives.

    • Siliceous

      Material made up of silica.

    • Speckling

      Presence on the same solid colour base of a group of multi-colour marks. Speckling is the point where these marks appear.

    • Stone

      Term used to define some types of compact rocks used mainly as building material.
  • T - Z

    • Trachyte

      Neovolcanic, effusive, magmatic rock formed from syenitic magma. Trachyte is made up of feldspar, sanidine and plagioclase. Trachyte is light coloured, yellowish grey, or reddish and is found in abundance in the Euganean hills and in the Cimini mountains. Some types of trachyte have a vacuolar structure and are rough to the touch, others have a predominant vitreous paste; for this reason they are called vitrophiric or obsidian.

    • Vein

      Line or mark of different colour compared to the base; in marble this is called veining.

    • Veined

      A material presenting veins, lines of different colour. 

    • Veining

      Present on some marble and wooden surfaces: natural or artificial lines of different colour compared to the base.

    • Veining in high-tech marble

      Marks of different colour that cross right through the manufactured slabs, thanks to the full-body material.
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