BERGAMO, ITALY — Mr. Luigi Pedrini, who founded the Pedrini company as a manufacturer ofstoneworkingequipment, has died. Mr. Pedrini founded his business in 1962. At that time, he dealt with repairs of marble block cutting machines. In 1967, this business led the idea for the manufacturing of his own first complete marble block cutter equipped with, for that period, state-of-the-art technical solutions.LUIGI PEDRINI

Great accuracy in quality and honesty towards customers, established right from this first machine, contributed to the great success of the company. Shortly thereafter, Pedrini became a leader in the manufacturing of this type of machine and delivered several units, both in Italy and abroad. In 1971 Mr. Pedrini decided to implement a production diversification by manufacturing the first marble polishing machine in a continuous cycle. His deep knowledge of the stone field, together with his well-established experience, led Mr. Pedrini to think about the first “revolution” in the marble field: the industrialization of marble processing, which until then was an exclusively hand-made process. Indeed, the first automatic line (in 1975) for the production of marble tiles with ceramic standard sizes, beveled upper edges and 10 mm calibrated thickness, owes its manufacturing to Pedrini.

His innovative spirit, not satisfied enough with this achievement, decided to undertake an even harder challenge: the industrialization of the granite modular processing. Until then, this had been considered impossible, due to the hardness of this material which, for centuries, has been cut with iron blades, water, lime and steel shot. In 1978 the first multidisc block cutter, with diamond tools for fast cutting granite, was manufactured, and consequently, led to the automatic line for standard granite tile production named “Modulgranito.” Mr. Pedrini was convinced that competitiveness should be maintained through the constant technological development and, faithful to this belief, started up a Testing Research Center, which, under the direction of Pedrini technicians and in cooperation with some university researchers, is devoted to the development of “tomorrow” technologies. Special attention is paid to the use of “eco-friendly” systems for the restoration of heterogeneous stones which are unemployable in their natural state. In full respect of his territory, highlighting its resources and exporting the Pedrini brand and its products worldwide, Mr. Pedrini has managed to implement a business model which perfectly matches with the current concept of globalization.