News

Members already include the main companies in the sector
A.St.A Europe makes its debut - the new European association of Agglomerate producers
And as of 1st January, CE Marking: can be applied to many types of aggregate

A.St.A Europe is the new European association of agglomerate producers launched at the start of this year. The main companies in the sector have already joined the initiative: Agglonord srl, Breton Spa, Cimstone as (Turkey), Cosentino sa (Spain), Diresco nv (Belgium), Marmi Scala srl, Privilege sa (Spain), Quarella spa, Santa Margherita Spa and Stone Italiana Spa. A group of companies that together cover between 80% and 85% of the European market. On a continental scale, the sector includes about thirty companies producing around 20 million sq.m. per year of agglomerates.
"Our association is rather special," said Director Pierpaolo Tassone, "since it directly groups the companies and is not a federation of national associations. In any case, only Italy had set up a specific association for companies producing agglomerates.”
It is interesting to take a step back to understand how the decision to create a European association came about;
"The Italian association was set up more than 10 years ago, in 1996, and was called Anpla," Tassone explains, "and the objective was essentially to support the definition of standards on a European scale. This activity saw the definition of around fifteen technical standards that, as of 1st January 2010, allow the application of CE Marking to certain types of aggregate material. At this stage and in order to provide a more effective and complete response to the various requirements of the European directive for construction products, it became necessary to develop from a merely national organisation and expand participation to European agglomerate producers .
For this reason, the national association was converted into A.St.A Europe to extend the possibility of membership to all producers, not only European but also those with offices in CEN area countries (European Standardisation Committee) - countries which are interested in having technical standards that allow the application of CE marking for free trade on the European Union market."
While certainly representing a niche field, agglomerates are extremely important in the construction world.
"These are materials such as marble, granite and quartz having various granulometries that may have binders such as polyester resin - the preferred solution today on the market - or Portland cement," said the Director of A.St.A Europe. There are two main fields of application: constructions and furnishing. The former typically involves works requiring large quantities in square metres but also uniformity in the supply of materials. An example is the flooring of Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport in London, where more than 110 thousand sq.m. of agglomerate were laid. For furnishing, on the other hand, a typical application is for kitchen tops, produced in agglomerate rather than wood or natural stone."
There are even technical reasons for such success. "These products have superior performance characteristics compared to natural stone, such as mechanical strength, and this alows for application in small thicknesses. A characteristic that also comes to the fore because it helps reduce weight. They can also be developed in design stages and made-to-measure to meet client requirements."
Lastly, agglomerates are also ecological products.
"It may seem difficult, but in reality it has to be borne in mind that even with the most modern quarrying techniques, the quantity of natural stone removed from a quarry is such that, at the end, the final product is more or less only 40% of effectively quarried material. Companies specialising in agglomerates recover, with a high added value product, the 60% of waste that otherwise would be largely unused."
The sustainability aspect of agglomerate products in relation to the environment also has practical implications: "One of the reasons why the European association was set up is precisely to present ourselves at a European Union level with effective and precise responses concerning the environmental compatibility of these materials, since - in the future - CE Marking will not only ensure the safety requirements already in great demand but also provide information about the compatibility and sustainability of these materials in relation to the environment."


Verona, 19 / 3 / 2010