AU2013202049A1 - Tileable shower base and its method of preparation - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention refers to a kind of tileable shower base which includes the base body and side-lips surrounding the base body. The outlet is set on the base body. Side-lip is vertical to or nearly vertical to the base body. The base body and side-lip are made of resin-based artificial stone composite material. The base body is made of artificial stone with a simple structure that is highly watertight. The surface is easy to use, ready to tile and greatly reduces leakage risks. Its preparation method is also published in the invention. This shower base is moulded as an integrated whole which solves the problems of cracking and difficulties caused by material shrinkage when moulded of artificial stone composite material. The shower base is simple to install and the product success rate can reach 100%. Figure 1 Figue 2 Figure 3 1/1i

Description

Tileable Sbower Base and Its Method of Preparation Technical Field [000 1] The invention involves a tileable shower base and its method of preparation and belongs to the technical feld of construction building materials, Bakground Introduction [0002] The shower stall generally consists of a shower box and shower base; the shower stall can be a separate small space. To form the shower stall as a small room can prevent water from overflowing and keep other places dry. The shower stall is generally attached to the wail when installed; the shower box, base and wall are combined into a separate room. [0003] Currently, wood-frame buildings are common in most Western countries including Australia and New Zealand. The walls of these buildings consist of a wooden load-bearing frame; interior wall panels are installed on the internal surface of the wail; the interior wall is generally made of 10 mm-thick plasterboard; and wooden multilayer plywood is generally used as the upstairs and downstairs floors. Because the wals and Doors of this kind of building are all made of timber and the wall cavity is filled with insulation materials which must be kept dry, it is necessary to prevent water from penetrating into walls and floors. As water is frequently used in wet shower areas, it is particularly important for the shower base to be waterproof [0004] The shower base can anchor the shower box and also make sure that the shower water does not leak outside and can flow into the outlet smoothly. The shower base shapes currently acceptable within construction building markets including square, fan-shaped, diamond and other shapes; the shower base has multiple styles and can be made of various materials. One of the shower bases commonly on the market has a beautiful appearance, smooth surface and is watertight, so it can be used directly. This type of base cannot be tiled, and tiling is unnecessary due to its smooth surface. The other kinds of shower bases must be tiled on site before use. They are not beautiful in appearance and they are water-perneable so they cannot be directly used and must be used after being waterproofed and tiled, [0005] Common materials used to make tileable shower bases include: cement products made on site, prefabricated foam plastic products, fibre-glass reinforced plastic products and stainless steel products. Shower bases made of these materials have following disadvantages: 1. Cement products: The cement products must be made on site. As they have long curing and drying times, more than 7 days is normally needed according to the drying requirements of waterproof construction. In addition, the cement materials are penetrable by water. As the wooden wall is easily out of shape and shaken under the external force and the cement products are rigid, relative displacement often occurs to the joints between these products and walls The waterproof membrane coating on the substrate is easily damaged and causes leakage. [0006] 2. Prefabricated foam plastic products: These materials can be directly made into products in factories and on-site manufacturing is unnecessary, which saves time. However, the thin foam plastics are easily fractured. Because the side-lip of the foam plastic base against the wall is thinner than the 10 mm thickness of the plasterboard, it cannot be kept intact during manufacturing, transportation and installation. As there is no thin side-lip on the position against the wall of this kind of foam plastic base, the gap between the base and wall is only protected by waterproofing membranes. Tius, it has great risk of leakage at this point. The thick side-lip and

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the base are not cured in an integrated seamless fashion, but bonded together later with seams, which also increases the leakage risks. [0007] 3. Fibre-glass reinforced plastic products: The shower base made of this kind of materials is made thin due to process limitations and weight factors. Therefore, all side-lips are less than 10 mm in thickness and the side-lips not against the wail do not form a horizontal surface that can bear the weight of the shower stall. As the side-lip is too thin, the horizontal tiles bonded above cannot be secured easily, which may cause loosening of the shower stall and increase water leakage risks. In addition, the bottom of the base made of fiberglass reinforced plastic materials is flat, and has no slope to encourage water flow. Thus, long-term standing water may occur under the tiles, which decreases the lifetime of waterproofing membranes at the outlets. [0008] 4. Stainless steel products: Their disadvantages are similar to those of fibre-glass reinforced products. They cannot bond horizontal tiles tightly and steadily support shower stalls due to their thinness. The smooth surface means adhering of waterproof membranes is greatly reduced, which may cause falling of files and waterproofing membranes together. [0009] Artificial stone (also known as "artificial marble") is a new type of composite material that has gradually become a new favourite in the decoration and building materials market due to its non-toxicity, non-radioactivity, fire-resistance, and ease of cleaning; its impermeable, anti-bacterial and non-mildewing surface; and its wear resistance, resistance to damage, seamless integration, customizable shape and other advantages. As one of the artificial stone materials, resin-based artificial stone is a new building and decoration material which uses resin as a base material that can be mixed with aggregates of different fineness, colour pastes with different colours, additives and other materials in certain proportion and then injected into a mould. Subsequent steps may include bubble removal, curing, etc. The resin-based artificial stone is strong, flexible and watertight. It is a very hard solid with thickness of about 10 mm, which is a great advantage in making shower bases. However, the resin-based artificial stone inevitably shrinks during moulding. Side-lips surrounding the base are vertical to or nearly vertical to the base. The shaper mould is located at the internal side-lips. Because the materials shrink inwards and the shaper mould does not shrink, the connection between the side-lips and the base body may tear and there can be difficulty removing the products due to material shrinkage. Therefore, currently, there is no manufacturing technology for tileable shower base products made of resin-based artificial stone, and therefore there are no shower base products available that are made of this material. Contents of the Invention [0010] The purpose of the invention is that to provide a kind of tileable shower base made of artificial stones with a simple structure that is highly watertight and ready to waterproof and tiling. [0011] The other purpose of the invention is that to provide the method of preparation of a tileable shower base. The shower base is moulded as an integrated whole which solves problems of cracking and difficulties caused by material shrinkage when moulded of artificial stone composite material. The shower base is simple to install and the product success rate can reach 100%. [0012] The invention refers to a kind of base made of resin-based artificial stone composite materials with special structure; the specific technical proposal is as follows: It is a kind of tileable shower base which includes base body and surrounding side-lips. The outlet is set on the base body. Its characteristics include: side-lips that are vertical to or nearly vertical to the base body. The base body and side-lips are made of resin-based artifiial stone composite materials. [0013] Furthermore, the resin-based artificial stone composite materials have rough surface with bubbles inside, i.e. vacuum or vibration bubbles removal processing is not adopted during preparation; the bubbles account for 3-50% of total volume of resin-based artificial stone composite materials. Such structure of artificial stone material can greatly reduce weight of finished base and is easy for transportation and installation. Surface of shower base, i.e. surface of base and side-lip is rough, which enhances waterproof and bonding strength of tiles. [0014] Furthermore, the invention, i.e. shower bases are moulded as a single piece from resin-based artificial stone composite materials. The base body and side-lip are connected seamless, which completely avoids leakage risk. Side-lip of the invention, i.e. shower base is vertical to or nearly vertical to base; coordination of intemal mould and external mould is required during manufacturing; as the artificial stone materials shrink during curing, the side-lip is easily cracked from base body, generates seam and becomes difficult to demould due to limitation of internal mould. The inventor finds during research that the resin mixture does not shrink immediately after being added into the mould but shrinks after basic curing is completed. Therefore, corresponding integrated moulding and demoulding process in advanced time proposed in the invention has solved problems of product cracking and difficulty in demoulding caused by S%-7% shrinkage rate during solidification of resin mixture. [0015] During preparation., raw materials of resin artificial composite materials are resin, aggregates, accelerant and curing agent The preparation steps are as follows: () Mix resin, aggregates and accelerant evenly; (2) Add curing agents into mixture fi-om Step (3) and mix them evenly; (3) Add the mixture from Step (2) into shower base mould which is coated with demoulding wax for initial curing; (4) Pull the product out before the shower base shrinks with initial curing in Step (3); (5) Place the shower base on a horizontal workbench for continual curing and finally obtain finished shower base product. [0016] Furthermore, as the products should continue to shrink during subsequent curing, which may cause slight upward and out of shape in center of the base body, it is a better option to put weight in center of base body for molding. 0017] Key points to solve above problems by integrated moulding preparation method include: Demoulding should be completed after initial curing and before shrinkage of resin mixture. Then, further cure the product without mould. Thus, problems of product crack and difficulty in demoulding shall be solved. Industrial manufacturing of large-scale shower base products which the side-lip is vertical to or nearly vertical to base body can be realized through the special process preparation method. [0018] The artificial stones used by the invention might be available of all artificial stone formulas existing in current marketing with main raw materials of resin, aggregates, accelerant and curing agent. All available resins are unsaturated polyester resin including orthophthalic type, isophthaiic type, neopentyl glycol type, isophthalic / neopentyl glycol type, vinyl ester type, acrylic type etc.. These types of unsaturated polyester resins can be used in the invention. The aggregates may be commonly adopted aluminum hydroxide powder or calcium carbonate powder. Some stone powder with large particle size can also be added. The curing agent and accelerant should be selected according to selected resin type. [00191 Bubbles removal is not conducted in above preparation method. Thus, bubbles are included in finished products, which thereby reduce weight of products. In addition, the artificial stone raw materials formula in the invention can be the follows: 100 parts by weight of resin, 100-250 parts by weight of aggregates, 1-3 parts by weight of accelerant and 1-4 parts by weight of curing agent; In order to improve various performances of artificial stone products when making resin-based artificial stone composite materials, additive amount of accelerant and curing agent should be as small as possible. Generally 1-1,5 parts by weight of accelerant and curing agent should be added into 100 parts by weight of resin. Under this condition, the materials are slowly gelled with long curing time and have vacuum or vibration bubbles removal effects, which makes for comprehensive performance after curing. However, artificial stone composite materials prepared by this method have high density and the shower base product is very heavy about 40 kg or even more. It is difficult for one person to transport and install. In addition, as it requires long gelling and curing time, even several hours, it is difficult to know the exact demoulding time. Therefore, vacuumizing and vibration bubbles removal are not conducted during preparation of the invention and it is a better option for additive amount of accelerant and curing agent should be increased based on general additive amount, which shortens gelling and curing time of resin mixture, generates larger amount of bubbles and effectively reduces product weight. The following artificial stone raw materials formula can be a better option: 100 parts by weight of resin, 100-250 parts by weight of aggregates, 2-3 parts by weight of accelerant and 1.8-2.5 parts by weight of curing agent; The optimal formula of the invention increases additive amount of accelerant and curing agent; gelling and curing time is shortened from several hours to tens of minutes, which is easy for accurately knowing demoulding time and improves manufacturing efficiency. In addition, although there are bubbles in base, solidity and toughness of base body and side-lip can still meet requirements of shower base. [0020] Furthermore, in raw materials of resin-based artificial stone composite materials, light weight materials can be adopted to replace a part of aggregates, which farther reduce weight of shower base. Additive amount of lightweight materials is 10-50 parts by weight; additive amount of aggregates after the lightweight materials are added is 50--150 parts by weight; try best to select lightweight materials lighter than calcium carbonate or aluminium hydroxide aggregates such as glass beads and crushed crude perlite etc. More optimal artificial stone raw materials formula is as follows: 100 parts by weight of resin, 50-150 parts by weight of aggregates, 10-50 parts by weight of lightweight materials, 2-3 parts by weight of accelerant and 1.8-2.5 parts by weight of curing agent. [0021] in order to prolong demoulding time after initial curing and before shrinkage of materials, a certain amount of low shrinkage agent can be added into the raw materials. The low shrinkage agent can effectively reduce shrinkage rate of materials and prolong demoulding time from several minutes to tens of minutes, which is convenient for batch production. Type of low shrinkage agent and its additive amount shall be determined by resin type; the general additive amount is 10-40 parts by weight. [0022] The shower base preparation method after adding low shrinkage agent and/or lightweight materials is as follows: (1) The raw materials include: 100 parts by weight of resin, 50-150 parts by weight of aggregates, 10-50 parts by weight of light weight materials, 10-40 parts by weight of low shrinkage agent, 1-3

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parts by weight of accelerant and 1-4 parts by weight of curing agent; optimally, 100 parts by weight of resin, 50-150 parts by weight of aggregates, 10-50 parts by weight of light weight materials, 10-40 parts by weight of low shrinkage agent , 2-3 parts by weight of accelerant and .8-2.5 parts by weight of curing agent: (2) Mix resin, aggregates,accelerantjow shrinkage agent and/or lightweight material evenly; (3) Add curing agents into mixture from Step (2) and mix them evenly; (4) Add the mixture from Step (3) into shower base mould which was coated with demoulding wax for initial curing; (5) Pull the product out before the shower base shrinks with initial curing in Step (4); (6) Place the shower base on a horizontal workbench for continual curing and finally obtain finished shower base product. [0023] Furthermore, structure of shower base is improved in following aspects: 1. Optimally, the said side-lip includes thin side-irp and thick side-lip; the thin side--lip is embedded and connected in the wall; the thick side-lip is not embedded in the wall and bear shower body weight; the thick side-lip is wide in design and easy for bonding horizontal tiles, which is convenient for fixing shower body; the thin side-lip is designed to have same thickness with the interior wall boards in order both can be connected into one fiat. [0024] The walls of wood-frame buildings are composed of main wooden wails and interior wail boards located at surface of walls body; the interior wall board is generally plaster bords. The invention, i.e. shower base is not simply to bond surtaes of side-lip and interior wail board but install the thin side-lip into interior wall as follows: When installing, cut a piece of interior wai board according to height and width of thin side-lip of shower base and then embed the thin side-lip into the gap formed by cutting. The thin side-lip embedded in the interior wail body forms a plane with wall and become part of the wall Finally, after waterproofing for surface of interior wail board and thin side-I ip, then tiling; the water leakage risk is nearly to zero. [0025] 2.Optimaly, sloping from the side-iips towards the outlet. The slope forms a slope where the water from side-lips to outlet which is encourages water flow and ready to tile. The outlet can be at any position on the base body; it is a better option in the center of base body. 0026] 3. Optimally, The thin side-lip is less than or equal to 12mm thickness, the better option is that thickness of thin side-lip is close to or consistent with that of interior wail board, i.e. about 5-12mm thickness, which is easy for close connection of thin side-lip and interior wal board into one plane and greatly reduces water leakage rate of the seam between them; The thick side-lip is more than 12mm thickness, the more preferential selection is 30-75mm thickness, which is easy for tightly bonding tiles on upper surface of thick side-ip to ensure long-term stability of shower body. [0027] 4 Optimally, the tin sidelip must be higher than thick side-lip to prevent water from being into wall from connection part of thin side-lip and thick side-lip and further reduce leakage risks. Generally, the thin side-lip is 20mm higher than thick side-lip; 20-50mm is a better option. [0028] 5. Optimally, basic shapes of shower base include fan-shaped, square or diamond etc. [0029] The invention has the following advantages: 1. The base is made of artificial stone materials which are waterproof sturdy and durable as well as tough and tensile to a certain degree. [00301 2. This shower base is moulded as an integrated whole with artificial stone composite materials; which solves the problems of cracking and difficulty of demoulding.

[0031] 3. Bubbles within artificial stone composite materials can greatly reduce weight of base and is easy for transportation and installation. [0032] 4 The side-lip of resin-based artificial stone base can be vertical to or nearly vertical to base body, which is easier for tiling than the base where the side-ip and base body formed a curve. [0033] 5. The base body of shower bases has a certain slope and will not form standing water ia shower bases . [0034] 6. The side-lip and base body are cured in an integrated seamless style, higher than base and no water leakage occurs. [0035] ~ The side-lip is divided into thick side-lip and thin side-lip; the thick side-lip is easy to bond horizontal tiles on its source and fix the shower stall; the thin sided-ip is embedded in interior wall and frms a plane with interior wall board, which is easy for waterproofing and tiling in vertical tiles. Description of the Attached Figures [0036] Figure 1 is the structure diagram of shower base made of cement and foam plastic materials currently; Figure 2 is the structure diagram of shower base made of fibre-glass reinforcement plastic and stainless steel materials currently; Figure 3 is the structure diagram ofthe invention, i.e artificial stone shower base; Where: 1 Base body 2 Outlet; 3. Thin side-ip; 4. Thick side-lip; 5. Interior waiboard; 6. Main wall body;7Waterproof membrane; 8. Tiles. The Special Mode of Execution [0037] The following is the further description of the invention through specific embodiment; It should be noted that the following description only aims to explain the invention and shall not limit its contents. [0038] Embodinent lI Figure I is the structure diagram of shower base made of cement and foam plastics materials; It can be seen from the figure that there is no thin side-lip on this kind of base and the base body of shower base directly bonds with wall body when installing; water leakage easily occurs. [0039] Figure 2 is the structure diagram of shower base made of fibre-glass reinforced plastics and stainless steel materials; it can be seen from the figure that base body is a horizontal plane and there is no slope between the base body and outlet, which is difficult to discharge water; the side-lip is too thin and is unsuitable to bear the shower body. 0040] According to disadvantages of above products. the invention provides new shower base, which is easy for taking waterproof measures and tiling, Its optimal structure is as shown in Figure 3 including base body and side-lip on base body; there is an outlet set on the base body; sloping from the side-lips towards the outlet and the slope from surroundings of base body to the outlet is formed, which is encourage water flowing toward the outlet. There is no curve on such tapered plane. which is easy for tiling. There are two kinds of side-lips. One is the thin side-lip that is embedded into and connected with the wal body, and the other is the thick side-lip that is not embedded into wall body and bears the weight of shower body; the side-lips are vertical to or nearly vertical to the base body, which is easy for embedding into wall body and good connection with interior wall board. As shown in the figure 3, remove part of the interior wall boards when installing and clear out the space that can hold the thin side-lips of base; then, thin side-lips can be embedded into the wail body and taken as part of the interior wall board so that the connection between base and wail body is more stable and water leakage cannot occur. The thick side-lips are not connected with wall body and are required to bear weight of shower body and anchored it; the thick side-lips rust be thicker than glass frame and sliding door track of shower box so as to anchor shower stall; and only when the side-lips achieve a certain thickness it can be easy for tiling. Generally, the interior wal! boards and glass frames of the shower stall have a certain thickness; the thickness of thin side-lip shall not be more than 12mm; in actual operation, it must be ensured generally that the thin side-lip has the same or basically same thickness with interior wal boards. i.e. about 5-12mm, which is easy for coating waterproof membranes covering the gap; the side-lip forms a plane with the interior wall board, which is easy for tiling of the seam; theoretically, if the thick side-lip is thicker than thin side-lip, it belongs to protective scope of the invention. Le. the thick side-lip is more than 12mm thickness; however, in actual application, the thickness of thick side-lip is generally 30-75mm, which can be adjusted according to the requirements. [0041] 4. Optimally, the thin side-lip must be higher than thick sidelip to prevent water from being into wall from connection part of thin side-lip and thick side-lip and further reduce leakage rate. Generally, the thin side-lip is 20mm higher than thick side-lip; 20~50mm is a better option. [0042] Available shapes of base should be the ones that can be used against the wall such as fan-shaped, square or gem (diamond) shapes. [0043J The base of the invention is made of artificial stone composite materials; all artificial stone materials published in current technology can be adopted for making base of the invention. Mould is required to make base body; there is two types of moulds, ie. internal and external moulds; the internal and external moulds are made based on internal and external structure of the base; wood is the commonly used mould materials with low cost. The preparation shall be completed after adding the mixed artificial stone composite materials into internal and external moulds for shaping. However, as the side-lip of the base is vertical to or nearly vertical to the base body and the artificial stones may cause overall shrinkage during curing while the mould cannot shrink, the side-ip during shrinking is easily separated from the base body when the mould is adopted to prepare the base, the gap is easily generated and it is difficult to mold in one time; and the artificial stones is tightly attached on the internal mould due to shrinkage and is difficult to demould. [0044i1 The invention makes detailed research on the phenomenon and solves problems of easy cracking of side-ip of artificial stone base, difficulty in one-time molding and difficulty in demoulding; the specific measures include: Demouid before the artificial materials start to shrink; put the demoulded product on horizontal workbench for continual curing. The products should continue to shrink during subsequent curing, which may cause slight upward and deformation in center of base body, therefore, it is a better option to put weight in center of base body for molding to prevent slight deformation. [0045] The method of preparation of the invention is explained through several optimal embodiments as below. Additive amount of accelerant and curing agent is increased in these embodiments to make curing time shorten from several hours under common additive amount to 20-60 minutes (related to the environment temperature) so that it is easy to know demoulding time; the more practical method where the bubbles are not removed and lightweight materials are added properly to reduce the weight is adopted in these embodiments. [0046] In the following embodiments, the environment temperature is t0-20'C, phthalic neopenlyl glycol unsaturated polyester resin is adopted; 325-mesh calcium carbonate powder is adopted as aggregates; I 50-mesh perlite powder is adopted as lightweight materials; methyl ethyl ketone peroxide dimethyl solution is adopted as curing agent; cobalt naphthenate styrene solution is adopted as accelerant; polyvinyl benzene styrene solution is adopted as low shrinkage agent. The technicians in the field can select other resins, aggregates, lightweight materials, curing agents, accelerants and low shrinkage agents according to current technologies. 0047] Embodiment 2: Make square shower base of 900mmx900mm with total weight of 22,42kg. The steps are as follows: Step : Add 10kg of unsaturated polyester resin, 10kg of calcium carbonate powder and 220g of accelerant agent into the container; the motor machine is adopted to mix for 5 minutes to make them evenly mixed. [0048] Step 2: Add 2kg of crushed crude perlite and mix 3-5 minutes to make them evenly mixed. [0049] Step 3: Add 200g of curing agent and mix 2-5 minutes to make them evenly mixed. [0050] Step 4: Add mixture in Step 3 into mould of shower base coated with mould release wax for molding, [0051] Step 5: After curing for 20-60 minutes. the materials enter initial curing phase and begin heating; at this time, the materials have cured into shape but do not shrink; then, demould immediately before it begins to shrink. [0052] Step 6: Put the demoulded products on the horizontal workbench; place weight in center of product base body for molding; continue to cure for more than 24 hours and make it cured and molded; the cured and molded product has the structure described in embodiment 1; As there is no bubble removal step during preparation of artificial stones and additive amount of accelerant and curing agent is increased, there is a large amount of bubbles within artificial base products; the bubbles accounts for 3%-50% of total volume of resin-based artificial stone composite materials which have rough surface. [0053] Step 7: Pack the products into storage. [0054] Embodiment 3: Make diamond-shaped shower base of 900mmx900mm with total weight of6 2642kg. The steps are as follows: Step : Add 10kg of unsaturated polyester resin, 15kg of calcium carbonate powder and 220g of accelerant agent into the contained; the motor machine is adopted to mix for 5 minutes to make them evenly mixed. [0055] Step 2: Add 1 kg of crushed crude perite and mix 3-5minutes to make them evenly mixKed. [0056] Step 3: Add 200g of curing agent and mix 2-5 minutes to make them evenly mixed. [0057] Step 4: Add mixture in Step 3 into mould of shower base coated with mould release wax for moling. [0058] Step 5: After curing for 20460 minutes, the materials enter initial curing phase and begin heating; at this time, the materials have cured into shape but do not shrink; then, demould 0 immediately before it begins to shrink. [0059] Step 6: Put the demoulded products on the horizontal workbench; place weight in center of product base body for molding; continue to cure for more than 24 hours and make it cured and molded; the cured and molded product has the structure described in embodiment 1; As there is no bubble removal step during preparation of artificial stones and additive amount of accelerant and curing agent is increased, there is a large amount of bubbles within artificial base products; the bubbles accounts for 3%-50% of total volume of resin-based artificial stone composite materials which have rough surface. [0060] Step 7: Pack the products into storage. [0061] Embodirment 4: Make square shower base of l00mmx1000mm with total weight of 26.02kg. The steps are as follows: Step I: Add 10kg of unsaturated polyester resin, 10kg of calcium carbonate powder, 220g of accelerant agent and 3kg of low shrinkage agent into the container; the motor machine is adopted to mix for 5 minutes to make them evenly mixed. [0062] Step 2: Add 2.6kg of crushed crude perlite and mix 3-5 minutes to make them evenly mixed. Step 3: Add 200g of curing agent and mix 2-5 minutes to make them evenly mixed. [00633] Step 4: Add mixture in Step 3 into mould of shower base coated with mould release wax for molding. [00643 Step 5: After solidifying for 20-60 minutes, the materials enter initial curing phase and begin heating; at this time, the materials have cured into shape. As the low shrinkage agent is added, the shrinkage rate of the materials is greatly reduced so that it is unnecessary to worry about the demoulding time and it shall be able to demould within 30 minutes. [0065] Step 6: Put the demoulded products on the horizontal workbench; place weight in center of product base body for molding; continue to cure for more than 24 hours and make it cured and molded; the cured and molded product has the structure described in embodiment I; As there is no bubble removal step during preparation of artificial stones and additive amount of accelerant and curing agent is increased, there is a large amout of bubbles within artificial base products; the bubbles accounts for 3%-50% of total volume of resin-based artificial stone composite materials which have rough surface. [0066] Step 7: Pack the products into storage. [0067] Embodiment 5: Make square shower base of 900mm 900mm with total weight of 2238kg. The steps are as follows: Step 1: Add 10kg of unsaturated polyester resin, 10kg of calcium carbonate powder and 200g of accelerant agent into the container; the motor machine is adopted to mix for 5 minutes to make them evenly mixed. [0068] Step 2: Add 2kg of crushed crude perlite and mix 3-5 minutes to make them evenly mixed. [0069] Step 3: Add 380g of during agent and mix 2-5 minutes to make them evenly mixed. Step 4: Add mixture in Step 3 into mould of shower base coated with mould relase wax for molding. [0071] Step 5: After solidifying for 20-60 minutes, the materials enter initial curing phase and begin heating; at this time, the materials have cured into shape but do not shrink; then, demould immediately before it begins to shrink. [0072] Step 6: Put the demoulded products on the horizontal workbench; place weight in center of product base body for molding; continue to cure for more than 24 hours and make it cured and molded; the cured and molded product has the structure described in embodiment 1; As there is no bubble removal step during preparation of artificial stones and additive amount of accelerant and curing agent is increased, there is a large amount of bubbles in artificial base tire products; the bubbles accounts for 3%-5 0% of total volume of resin-based artificial stone composite materials which have rough surface. [0073] Step 7: Pack and warehouse the products. [0074] Embodiment 6: Make square shower base of 900mmx900mrn with total weight of 22.55kg, The steps are as follows: Step I: Add 10kg of unsaturated polyester resin, 10kg of calcium carbonate powder and 300g of accelerant agent into the container; the motor machine is adopted to mix for 5 minutes to make them evenly mixed. [0075] Step 2: Add 2kg of crushed crude pearlite and mix 3-5 minutes to make them evenly mixed [0076] Step 3: Add 250g of curing agent and mix 2-5 minutes to make them evenly mixed. [0077] Step 4: Add mixture in Step 3 into mould of shower base coated with mould release wax for molding. [0078] Step 5: After curing for 20-60 minutes, the materials enter initial curing phase and begin heating; at this time, the materials have cured into shape but do not shrink; then, demould immediately before it begins to shrink. [0079] Step 6: Put the demoulded products on the horizontal workbench; place weight in center of product base body for molding; continue to cure for more than 24 hours and make it cured and molded; the cured and molded product has the structure described in embodiment 1; as there is no bubble removal step during preparation of artificial stones and additive amount of accelerant and curing agent is increased, there is a large amount of bubbles within artificial base products; the bubbles accounts for 3%-50% of total volume of resin-based artificial stone composite materials which have rough surface. [0080] Step 7: Pack the products into storage. [0081] Embodiment 7: Make diamond-shaped shower base of 900mm x900mm. The steps are as follows: Step I: Add 10kg of unsaturated polyester resin, 20-30kg of calcium carbonate powder, 100-150g of accelerant agent and I-4kg of low shrinkage agent into the container; the motor machine is adopted to mix for 5 minutes to make them evenly mixed. [0082] Step 2: Add 100-I50g of curing agent and mix 2-5 minutes to make them evenly mixed. [0083] Step 3: Add mixture in Step 2 into mould of shower base coated with mould release wax for molding. [0084] Step 4: After curing for 1-10 hours, the materials enter initial curing phase and begin heating; at this time, the materials have cured into shape. As the low shrinkage agent is added, the shrinkage rate of the materials is greatly reduced so that it is unnecessary to worry about the demoulding time and it shal be able to demould with about 30 minutes. 1 n 0-085] Step 5: Put the demoulded products on the horizontal workbench; place weight in center of product base body for molding; continue to cure for more than 24 hours and make it cured and molded; the cured and molded product has the structure described in embodiment 1; as there is not so much bubble removal step during preparation of arificial stones and additive amount of accelerant and curing agent is increased; the bubbles accounts for 3%-10% of total volume of resin-based artificial stone composite materials which have rough surface. [0086] Step 6: Pack the products into storage. [0087] As only a small amount of accelerant is used, the amount of bubbles generated is also reduced and density of products is greatly increased; the obtained base is 30-40kg. [0088] The invention makes weight of artificial stone materials reduced through adding a larger amount of accelerant to produce more bubbles, using lightweight materials to replace some aggregates and not conducing vacuum bubbles removal etc. The raw materials required for products of same volume are greatly reduced due to the bubbles generated so that the base is lighter than base made by adding common amount of accelerant and is easy for transportation and installation; and the curing and waterproof, etc. of the artificial stone base can still meet requirements of shower room. Conduct load test and waterproof test for products obtained from above embodiment 2-7: The product does not crack after being put object of 2:50kg for one month; after plugging up the outlet of the products, filling the base with water and putting it for one month, no water leakage occurs. [0089] The above embodiment is a part of optimal embodiments of the invention and is not the limitation on protection scope. Based on the above ideas, the technicians in this field can conduct equivalent replacement or change for the above program, such as changing formulas of artificial stone materials etc. The changes are within the protection scope of the invention. 1 1

Claims (11)

1. The invention is a kind of tileable shower base which includes base body and side-lips surrounding the base body. The outlet is set on the base body. Its characteristics include: side-lips that are vertical to or nearly vertical to the base body. The base body and side-lips are made of resin-based artificial stone composite materials.

2. The characteristics of the tileable shower base according to the description in Claim 1 include: The resin-based artificial stone composite materials have rough surfaces with bubbles inside.

3. The characteristics of the tileable shower base according to the description in Claim 2 include: bubbles in the resin-based artificial stone composite materials account for 3/-50% of its total volume.

4. The characteristics of the tileable shower base according to the description in Claim 1 include: the base body and side-lips are moulded as a single piece from resin-based artificial stone composite materials which are composed of resin, aggregates, accelerant and curing agent The preparation method includes the following steps: (1) Mix resin, aggregates and accelerant evenly; (2) Add curing agents into the mixture from Step (1) and mix them evenly; (3) Add the mixture from Step (2) into the shower base mould which is coated with demoulding wax for the initial curing; (4) Pull the product out before the shower base shrinks during initial curing in Step (3); (5) Place the shower base on a horizontal workbench for continual curing and finally obtain the finished shower base product.

5. The characteristics of tileable shower base according to the description in Claim 4 include: Raw materials of resin-based artificial stone which include low shrinkage agent and/or lightweight materials. Add low shrinkage agent and/or lightweight materials into the mixture in Step (1) and then mix evenly with resin, aggregates and accelerants.

6. The characteristics of the tileable shower base according to the description in Claim 4 or 5 include: Amount of resin-based artificial stone raw materials to be used is: 100 parts by weight of resin, 100-250 parts by weight of aggregates, 1-3 parts by weight of accelerant and 1-4 parts by weight of curing agent; The amount of low shrinkage agent to be used is 10-40 parts by weight; the amount of lightweight materials to be used is 10-50 parts by weight; after adding lightweight materials, the amount of aggregates to be used is 50-150 parts by weight.

7. The characteristics of the tileable shower base according to the description in any item of Claims 1-5 include: The side-lips of the shower base are divided into thin and thick width lips; sloping from the side-lips towards the outlet.

8. The characteristics of tileable shower base according to the description in Claim 7 include: The thin side-lip is less than or equal to 12 mm thickness; the thick side-lip is more than or equal to 12 mm thickness; the specific thin side-lip is higher than the thick side-lip.

9. The characteristics of the tileable shower base according to the description in Claim 8 include: The thin side-lip is 5-12 mm thick, the thick side-lip is 30-75 mm thick; the specific thin side-lip is 20-50 mm higher than the thick side-lip.

10. A kind of tileable shower base preparation method is specified. The characteristic is the shower base which is by integrated moulding of resin-based artificial composite materials. The resin-based artificial stone composite materials are composed of: 100 parts by weight of resin,

50-150 parts by weight of aggregates, 10-50 parts by weight of lightweight materials, 10-40 parts by weight of low shrinkage agent, 1-3 parts by weight of accelerant and 1-4 parts by weight of curing agent; the method includes the following steps: (1) Mix resin, aggregates, lightweight materials, low shrinkage agent and accelerant agent evenly; (2) Add curing agents into mixture from Step (1) and mix them evenly; (3) Add the mixture from Step (2) into the shower base mould coated with demoulding wax for initial curing; (4) Pull the product out of the mould before the shower base shrinks during initial curing in Step (3); (5) Place the shower base on a horizontal workbench for continued curing and finally obtain the finished shower base product.