Production of Synthetic Ornamental Marble as a Marble Waste Added Polyester Composite

The worldwide demand for ornamental stones in building construction is motivating the use of their wastes, generated during fabrication, to produce synthetic stones. This work has as its objective to investigate the production of a synthetic ornamental marble (SOM) under vacuum and vibro-compression processing of a polyester matrix composite with addition of marble waste as a filler. Rectangular SOM composite plates were subjected to compression and flexural mechanical tests. Samples were analyzed to obtain the density, water absorption, and microstructure. The SOM composites presented properties within the expected range of an artificial stone, which indicates that the applied process is suitable for production of this type of material.