In response to the increased demand for more edge profiles, Northwood Machine Manufacturing Co. has developed an innovative solution for stone fabricators. The Smart Tool System (STS) was unveiled at the Coverings show in Chicago, IL. STS is a modular, automatic tool carousel and software program that provides a scalable, autonomous system for the storage and delivery of tools to a machine tool spindle on a Northwood CNC machine tool or router.
Invented by F. Barkow President John Weise, the Backsplash Caddy is designed to hold three backsplash sections, each up to 8 inches long. When bolted to the bed of a cargo van or pickup truck, the Backsplash Caddy was designed to be a safe, simple low-profile way to store and transport backsplashes.
VIC International, with its engineering and manufacturing associate, RYE Corp., set out to create a machine that would cut bowl holes faster and cheaper. The result was the Scorpion, a multifunctional machine that is gaining the attention of shops of all sizes, from start up to established countertop production shops, with its ability to produce a bowl hole in 3-cm granite in under 15 minutes.
Earlier this year, I made my annual trip to Brazil for the Vitória Stone Fair, which has very quickly developed into one of the most important international stone fairs in the world. As I walked the show floor and met with the exhibitors on hand, the overall feeling was a bit different than the past few years. Although the pace in the exhibit hall was brisk, and containers of slabs were certainly being purchased at a solid rate, many owners of Brazilian stoneworking plants cautioned me that the rapid growth they enjoyed over the past few years has slowed down a bit in recent months. It hasn’t exactly plateaued, but the 20 to 30% growth rates seem to be less common than before.
I was thumbing through an issue of The New York Daily News the other day, and my heart sank when I saw a headline that read “KILLED BY MARBLE SLABS.” I went on to read that Xavier Minchala-Cardenas, a 19-year-old immigrant from Ecuador, was stacking slabs in a Queens, NY, stone shop when several of the slabs toppled over, pinning him underneath. Although six New York firefighters and several shop workers were able to pull him from the rubble, he died from his injuries a few days afterward.
Every spring, Major League Baseball heads to Arizona and Florida for Spring Training. And while much of the talk there is obviously about baseball, the ritual also gives rise to “human interest” stories about the ballplayers - particularly the non-superstars, who get enough press during the regular season.
Cedar Hill Cream limestone Country of origin U.S. Flexural strength 837 psi Compressive strength 2,142 psi Density 128.98 pounds/cubic foot Water absorption by weight 7.24% This Stone of the Month
The Storm+ from Regent Machine Corp. was specifically designed to provide rapid and accurate processing of slabs in the most demanding of stone fabrication shops.
Back in January, I traveled to Austin, TX, to visit a friend of mine (and to get a little work done). When I got off the plane, the business portion of my trip started pretty much as usual. I visited a granite countertop fabricator in the area and talked about the CNC machinery, bridge saws, edging machines, etc. they use in their day-to-day operations. I took some photos of their equipment in action, looked at some finished countertops and called it a day. It was the continuation of our magazine’s goal and mission to provide our readers with “real life” examples of the stone fabrication sector, providing practical information on countertop production in the field.
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