Speed and longevity in association with accuracy and a fine finish. These are the criteria for diamond tools and the areas the manufacturers of them have improved with their latest ranges. NSS looks at some of the developments.

Stonegate, who sell the Nicolai Diamant range of tools in the UK, say their M3 Pro range can work up to three times faster than conventional tools, thanks to developments in both the bond and the diamonds.

The bond is important to be able to withstand that sort of workload, but it has now reached the point where it is the stone that could be the limiting factor. Peter Hazell, who heads Stonegate, says not every granite could be worked at full speed, but the M3 Pro should at least double the normal working speed. And that speed is achieved without compromising the life of the tool or its accuracy. In fact, says Peter, the range is more accurately calibrated than ever.

Other developments include an upgrading of Joylight to what is now being called Ultraglo, which has an extended life span that means fewer replacements.

Ultraglo has a similar price to Joylight, although they come from Italy and just at the moment are looking more expensive as a result of the exchange rate.

Peter says even at the end of last year his sales were comfortably ahead of the previous year and sounds positively optimistic compared with most now when he says: “I don’t foresee a lot of market growth this year and I think it will be, to a certain degree, the survival of the fittest and best managed. We’re conservatively optimistic. We have a rolling programme of new product launches during the year that will be time saving and will improve the quality of finished product.”

He says Stonegate will be aiming to improve their service by listening closely to customer needs. Orders placed before 4pm should be with the customer the following day, as long as the product is in stock, he says. And if it’s a real rush, they will even provide a same day service. Although the extra cost will have to be covered by the customer, Peter says it is quantifiable and customers will know where they stand.

Stonegate do not have a website to date, but they are considering it. They can be contacted on the ’phone number below.

Tel: 01482 620007

There is a new saw blade from D Zambelis – they call it the Red Blade – that, like many of the tools they offer, has been developed specifically by them to solve a particular problem faced by their customers.
The problem was granite coming from India that for the past two years customers had been saying was particularly abrasive and was wearing out their blades too quickly.
So last summer Dimitri Zambelis, a former mason himself who understands the problems faced by masons, spent three months working with a European manufacturer perfecting a blade that would cut the Indian granite efficiently. The result is the Red Blade (pictured above).
A lot of their customers, who are all masons, have also been diversifying into porcelain tiles, so Zambelis have now also added a blade for cutting porcelain to their range.
www.dzambelis.co.uk

Latest from Ghines, sold in the UK by Accurite, is the vibration combating Dokoyoh flexible diamond disc, with a diamond-coated steel spiral creating a patented flexible tool for hand honing.
Available in three different diamond grits and three different diameters (115, 125 and 165mm), Ghines say Dokoyoh can successfully replace every abrasive product for electric tools.
At recommended speeds of 4-6,000rpm, Dokoyoh Green is the coarsest for rapid stock removal, Red is medium for grinding and honing limestone, marble, granite and engineered stone and Yellow is for finishing.
At around £100 a disc, not helped by the exchange rate with the Euro, the Dokoyoh is not cheap, but Ghines believe it is cost effective because of its longevity and the speed at which it removes stock.
Accurite sell the whole Ghines range in the UK now, which includes the machines and dust extraction products as well as the diamond tools.
www.accurite.co.uk

DK Holdings are celebrating 50 years of diamond tool-making this year. Back in 1959, when the company were established, only electroformed diamond drills, grinding wheels and routers were made for the UK market and DK Holdings employed just a handful of people. Now they employ more than 100 people, export to more than 48 countries and manufacture an extensive range.
They make tools for cutting, drilling, profiling, grinding and polishing.
With four field sales engineers in the UK and 12 internal sales / technical support personnel providing customer service for the UK and export markets, they aim to offer a high level of service.
Product development has been a vital element of DK’s growth, and continues with the new DK Arix Silent Centre Blades that have a specially formulated, even distribution of diamond particles within 15mm high segments that ensure a clean, improved speed of cut and longer life.
www.dk-holdings.co.uk

Last year Belgian-based manufacturers Diamant Boart introduced a range of CNC workcentre tools to the UK market (see NSS July 2008) that Duncan McLean, the UK Sales Manager, says have been well received in initial trials up and down the country.
There are 600 tools in the CNC range offering a wide choice for just about every kind of workcentre and Diamant Boart have introduced a separate catalogue for the CNC tools. It will be mailed to customers shortly and is available from the company. There will also be promotions throughout the year. “It’s a new product for us so we have to market it,” says Duncan.
The most commonly used tools will be stocked at Diamant Boart’s depot in Leeds and the whole range is only a short delivery across the Channel away.
All the tools are supplied with recommended speeds and feed rates “to give customers peace of mind”, says Duncan. “There are also performance parameters for the tools so you can see what you should be achieving. If you’re not, you should get back to us.
“Diamant Boart have succeeded in the UK purely on the performance of the tools – it’s a consistent, high quality product – and we provide the highest of service and back-up. That has to be the same on the CNC tools to maintain our reputation.”
Anticipating a fall in their traditional market for saw blades and segments in a difficult year ahead, Diamant Boart believe the new CNC range could hardly have come at a better time. “It’s a high end, quality product,” says Duncan, “but it will compete on price as well.”
In addition to the CNC range, Diamant Boart also have further developments in their ranges for cutting marble, granite and sandstone for their traditional market in those areas.
www.diamant-boart.com

Granite Tool Supplies, set up in 2006 and making a major push with a stand at the Natural Stone Show at ExCeL last year, are this month (January) introducing a new range of high speed CNC workcentre diamond tooling as well as 100 other new products among a range they buy from 36 suppliers from Europe and the Far East. They can all be seen in their new catalogue just published for 2009.
Jason Barnard, one of the founders of the company, says if you have been getting
1-1.2m a minute from your existing CNC tools you should be able to achieve 6m a minute with his new CNC range.
He says he wants Granite Tool Supplies to become more of a specialist supplier of CNC tooling and help users of workcentres to get better results.
“Tooling costs are important, but most companies’ biggest expenditure is labour, so if you can make a significant improvement on cycle times you get a better throughput of work,” he says.
He accepts people don’t always have the confidence to change feed rates and pressure settings, so Granite Tool Supplies will assist them in setting up their machines for their tools. “It takes the fear factor away and gives them complete peace of mind.”
Another service he is offering is the re-dressing of worn tools. For £20-25 the life of the tool can be doubled, he says.
For electroplated tools he is offering a stripping and replating service, which can represent a 20-25% saving on buying a new tool.
He believes the tightening of the economy can only help him as companies start to question how much their tools are costing and start to look around to make comparisons.
“Now things are becoming tighter people are reviewing what they’re paying. If they can save £200-£300 a month, that makes a difference.” He says Granite Tool Supplies opened 51 new accounts between Septem-ber and November.
www.granitetools.co.uk

Floor cleaning equipment suppliers HTC in Sweden have, in association with industrial diamond suppliers Element Six, developed a flexible floor cleaning pad that uses billions of micron-sized synthetic diamonds to maintain and re-polish a stone floor without using crystallisation agents, applied polishes or waxes.
Called Twister, it requires only water for daily cleaning as well as periodic maintenance, which means it is also environmentally friendly.
The microscopic diamond particles are impregnated into soft discs that can be mounted on to existing conventional floor cleaning machinery, so no investment in new machinery is necessary.
The combination of the soft backing material and tiny diamond particles creates a mechanical cleaning action that follows the contours of the floor surface to remove dirt while also polishing.
It means daily cleaning regimes can maintain a constant high gloss on a floor without using the sort of chemicals that can lead to gradual deterioration of the surface shine.
HTC have also now added Hybrid to remove stains, scratches and ground in dirt from heavily worn natural stone and terrazzo floors, again using existing cleaning machines and water.
HTC’s products are currently being used on a daily basis to clean the well-trodden floors of the Houses of Parliament, Harrods, and Tesco and Sainsbury’s stores.
www.htc-sweden.com
www.e6.com

One of the problems with the machinery used in the stone industry is that it has no sophisticated way of measuring how much work the tools used on it carry out, which encourages users to look at the purchase price of their tools rather than the overall cost.
So says Barry Whorrall of Encore Diamonds. He was early into the market with his ‘Space’ range of tools that have the diamonds in a pattern rather than randomly distributed. He says patterned diamond can be 50% faster than standard tools and last 30% longer. Although they are a little more expensive, that is more than offset by the improved performance and longer life, he says.
Encore pride themselves on developing solutions for specific applications and their bespoke tooling has helped S McConnells & Sons in Northern Ireland gain a reputation as one of the most advanced users of CNC machinery in Britain.
It was Encore who made the tools for enscribing the 16,000 names in the Portland limestone of the Armed Forces Memorial that won the Stone Award for Design & Technology Innovation in November.
Encore also developed the Polycrystalline Diamond (PCD) tools used by McConnells to make the DeLank granite Diana Memorial in Hyde Park (see NSS July 2004). Lately they have made another special PCD tool for McConnells, this time to engrave a hand print of a young girl on to a privately commissioned memorial.
PCD tools are expensive and brittle, although Barry says the tools he designed for the Diana Memorial went on to be used by McConnells on sandstone. “They couldn’t believe how long they lasted,” he says. “PCD is a very adaptable material. You just can’t beat it for precise shaping and engraving.”
www.encoreproducts.co.uk

Pisani have now also introduced a saw blade with the diamonds forming a pattern in the segments. It is called Matrix.
Conventional segment manufacture involves dry mixing diamond particles with metal powders, pressing them and then heating them to produce the finished segment that is brazed or laser welded on to a saw blade or drill bit.
The diamond particles are randomly distributed throughout the segment so that where particles are too closely clustered the leading particles do most of the work. This leads to premature pull-out. Where there are large gaps between particles the bond is being exposed to the work piece are wears quickly.
When diamond particles are evenly distributed throughout the bond they are all subjected to the same cutting forces and the segment is operating at its optimum efficiency. This is what Matrix offers.
www.pisanisps.co.uk

Latest from Marmoelettro Mecannica diamond tooling from the Waters Group is the SHS range of profiling wheels and routers for granite and engineered quartz. SHS stands for Super High Speed.
Although the range adds an extra position, the tools work so quickly that the time taken to produce the finished piece is virtually halved with, they say, no compromise on the quality of finish.
Feed rates quoted range from 5m a minute for position one to 1500mm for the final position. All the tools are supplied with the parameters for their speed and feed rate and if you need any help, Waters are happy to provide the back up.
If you want to try it out for yourself before you part with your money you can do so because currently there is a ‘try before you buy’ promotion running.
Of course, extra performance comes at a price and the SHS range carries a premium of around 20%, although Waters say the extra productivity more than compensates.
There are savings in set-up times with the Marmoelettro Mecannica tools as well, because they are all pre-aligned in the ‘Z’ axis, so if you zero position one, all the other stations will also be zeroed.
For those who prefer it, Waters also sell the ADI range of CNC workcentre tools and have added Pentax saw blades with laser welded segments to their range, with blades up to 600mm readily available from stock.
www.watersgroupltd.co.uk

As well as making workcentres, Glaston Bavelloni also make the tools to use with their own and other makes of machine. The combination, they say, has allowed them to develop fast, long-life tools with a wide range of standard profiles always available, although special tools for particular jobs and materials can also be supplied.
Their basic set consists of four diamond wheels with a metal bond, and two alternative polishing sets. The first and the second position is segmented for fast stock removal and the third and the fourth are continuous crown.
The second position is also available in continuous crown in order to give a longer life, although at a slightly reduced speed. It is recommended that the third and fourth positions be continuous crown for better finishing by the subsequent polishing wheels.
They say that if you are working softer stones you can make a considerable saving by using a new generation high performance electroplated wheel in the fourth position, thanks to new plating technology developed by them in Bregnano, Italy. The electroplated wheel allows optimal pre-finishing before moving on the polishing wheels.
For finishing, Bavelloni have developed a polishing wheel set called Bright. It consists of an elastic die and diamond abrasive. It is made for three positions and has been specifically developed with engineered quartz in mind, although its higher performance is also suitable for natural stones. Bavelloni say this set up gives “sensational results” even on awkward black granite.
For softer stones, Bright will work on the first two positions only. Alternatively, you can use a couple of rigid wheels with a non-diamond abrasive. Bavelloni suggest their Polistone in 400 and 1000 grits.
Since the beginning of last year, Glaston Bavelloni have preset all their tools to reduce set-up time and have supplied them with information about the best parameters for using them.
www.glaston.net/stone

MFT Stone have been designing their own special diamond form tools for many years now using 20 years of engineering knowledge and the past six in the stone industry.
This not only involves the shape of the tool but the size of the tool dependant on the amount of meters required by the customer but also other more subtle design intricacies affecting stock removal, tool life and secondary operation requirements.
They have made tools ranging from 2mm fine pin routers up to 170mm demi spheres for fashioning the profile of a church altar. A full depth, single pass cut was achieved with a 9in angle grinder.
MFT have two suppliers of vacuum brazed technology and both of them have worked with MFT to produce aggressive tools also for granite. One of the latest can create a drainer groove 5mm deep in two passes using an angle grinder, says John Harland, who founded MFT.
The same design methodology is also applied to electroplated products which MFT Stone supply for the working marbles, where vacuum brazed technology does not always work well. Both vacuum brazed and electroplated tools can be made to suit all kinds of machines, from small, hand-held routers to CNC machines.
Later this year MFT hope to introduce a number of resin-based diamond tools and say they will start trials with some of their customers shortly. “These tools will fill gaps we currently have in our portfolio and improve on quality or price of products we have supplied historically,” says John.
MFT’s new brochure will be published shortly. When it is produced it will be possible to download it from the MFT website. Later this year John intends to have modified the website so his tools can be bought directly from it.
www.mftstone.co.uk