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How Shackerley's façade panels are made

There are many different manufacturing and prefabrication processes involved in the creation of a SureClad® engineered stone ventilated façade panel.

Step 1 - Raw Materials

Engineered stone is classed as a composite material but it is primarily made of natural stone, sourced from various quarries.

Step 2 - Arrival at factory

Large rocks are delivered from the quarries to the factory ready for sorting and processing.

Step 3 - Sorting, crushing and cleaning

The rocks are sorted and crushed into smaller more manageable-sized pieces and cleaned to remove impurities.

Step 4 - Grinding and storage

The smaller rock pieces are then ground to a very fine power aggregate and stored in large silos, ready for mixing.

Step 5 - Mixing and moulding

The fine powder aggregrate is mixed with a minimum quantity of highly specialised bonding agent. The composite material is then fed into block moulds, compacted under vacuum and cured in ovens.

Step 6 - Storage of uncut blocks

The blocks are stored in the open air where the curing process is completed.

Step 7 - Cutting blocks into slabs

Once fully cured, the large slabs can be cut into slabs of the required thickness. Because each slab is being cut from a solid block, it is possible to cut curved pieces as well as flat slabs.

Step 8 - Surface finishes

At this stage each slab is processed further to deliver the required surface finish, which could be polished, honed or sand textured.

Step 9 - Final inspection

Before the finished engineered stone slabs leave the factory they are subjected to a final visual inspection.