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Stone and design: a ''marriage'' hallmarked by new technologies
New robot-controlled CNC machines mean that virtually any design idea can be turned into real objects
From callused hands to the console of a numerical control machine: this is the approach taken in processing stone materials, especially in the production of architecture and design elements. The natural stone processing machinery and equipment sector sees Italian companies enjoy leadership all over the world. The field is certainly affected by the overall economic crisis but it is precisely the need for all processing companies to find new competitiveness in quality and innovation that encourages good hopes for the future. In the meantime, official analysis by the Confindustria Marmomacchine Study Centre indicate, for the first three months of 2009, a drop in exports of 29.38% in value compared to the same period in the previous year. Exports towards North America (-43.7%), the European market (-38.5%) and Asia (-28.5%) were especially affected, while countries in Africa and especially Central-South America are holding up and even improved.
As regards, the Italian market, it is important to mention that machines and equipment for processing marble are included among those benefitting from the so-called "Tremonti-Ter" that de-taxes profits invested in such purchases. This incentive helps companies achieve the cultural and technological improvement essential for competitiveness on markets all over the world.
"This is exactly the situation," said Marco Cavalleri, managing director of Omag Spa, one of the main companies building machines and equipment for stone processing; "until a few years ago, architectural design and the decision to use stone materials by designers was significantly affected by feasibility in handling unfinished material. It was often only with the support of true craftsmen that one could even think of the application of complex elements in interior and exterior architecture. Architects proposed solutions that satisfied their artistic inventiveness but geometric complexity made them particularly expensive and difficult to develop by marble workers, who were faced by elements that were qualitatively and economically very hard to produce."
The revolution came with information technology applied to industry, initially in other sectors starting with engineering but now also in the stone industry.
"Robot control of operations increases productivity, ensures production diversification and improvement of quality," Cavalleri went on, "but also as regards more appropriate utilisation of resources and better management methods. With the advent of CNC machines, even natural stone processing workshops can interact with a language shared with the designer and, through the latter, with the end user: The design idea can be analysed, costs can be estimated and the project implemented without geometric limits."
The potential of these machines at times exceeds the skills of their operators. "These robotised machines can reproduce the same manual movements as the artist but at the same time can ensure production quantity and quality on an industrial scale. In recent years, manual skills have declined but there has been an exponential growth in the technological professionalism of operators. Using five-axis machines means being able to reproduce the movement of an artist's arm; by combining this capacity with handling software and laser technologies for scanning, production diversification is assured at maximum levels."
However, account must be taken of the investment in machinery and companies must also train their personnel continually. And it is precisely in the contact that efforts must also be focused by constructors: machines have eliminated callused hands but still need the human mind to guide them.
Verona, 11 / 9 / 2009
