Premier Custom Baths - Chemistry Information

A LITTLE INFORMATION ON THE CHEMISTRY

January, '10

63% of The Onyx Collection products are a hydrate crystal--Al2O3+3H2O. Alumina is also the main ingredient in Corian© and all "solid surface" products. The main ingredient in the product (alumina trihydrate) is in roofing materials and the plastics inside automobiles to slow flame spread and as a smoke retardant. It is in the plastic coating on the wiring in your home (in a much smaller percentage).

The other 37% is a special polyester resin developed over the past 22 years (and continues to be improved) to get the properties which allow us to say "Yes, Guaranteed Forever".

The Onyx Collection tries to get these properties that make the products work best for our applications. Our application is the bathroom. We believe the resin serves this purpose well. Corian© uses acrylic resin, others use various blends of polyesters or modified acrylics. We prefer this resin for our products and it serves us well.

Onyx uses cultured marble type molds to cast their products. The solid surface industry casts sheet goods that fabricates their products. The cultured marble industry uses calcium carbonate as their main ingredient.

Onyx Gloss finish does have a gelcoat on the surface (about 15 mils) similar to cultured marble. The Gelcoat is ISO-NPG.

ISO-NPG gelcoat is a tight molecule -- very resistant to water penetration.

The Matte finish does not have gelcoat on the surface. It uses a different blend of resin for Matte.

These products are real hybrids. The resin in the matte finish -- 30% is substituted of the normal ortho resin with ISO-NPG resin. This increases the ability of the product to resist moisture penetration. This is necessary without the ISO-NPG gelcoat coat which is on the gloss products.