Waters Group is having such a successful year that it decided not to have its usual week’s shut-down in August but to remain open ahead of its busiest period, which starts in September. The feeling is that some customers will be busy right through the summer and Waters Group want to be available to support them.
To make sure the extra demand does not impact on the current level of service offered by Waters, the Group has employed an office manager, Claire Daniel. It is also seeking a salesperson to join its team and is intending to continue to expand as the year progresses.
One of Claire Daniel’s projects is to help with the development of the company’s new website. When it is launched, it will include a facility to buy smaller items online, which will make ordering ADI, Integra, Deltaracks and the rest of the large range sold by Waters Group easier.
While waiting for the new website to be launched, copies of the Group’s catalogue can be downloaded from the website’s holding page (www.watersgroupltd.co.uk). Nicola Waters, the Managing Director of Waters Group, says the catalogue has been particularly successful and that “there hasn’t been a single piece of negative feedback” about it.
Machinery sales so far this year include a Montresor Lola 400 for Coleraine Fireplaces in Ireland and a Lola 600 for Landford Stone near Salisbury; a Thibaut TC600 saw for Bath Marble & Granite and a Thibaut 812 three-axes multi-purpose CNC to Eaton Stone Masonry. In Scotland, Waters Group continues to supply Granite Systems, which bought its first Thibaut from Waters 20 years ago. Its latest acquisition is a T812 workcentre.
Since Flow teamed up with Waters Group and exhibited at Natural Stone Show in London last year, it has supplied four waterjets to the stone industry via Waters. “If we did that every year in the UK stone sector we would be delighted,” says Gary Davis, Flow’s Regional Sales Manager.
Flow waterjets really started to attract interest from the stone industry with the introduction of Dynamic XD technology, which means a mitre can be cut with the same unswerving precision as a waterjet’s 90º cut – although only two of the four Flow’s sold to stone companies have included the Dynamic XD technology, which inevitably increases the price.
Even without the ability to make mitres, waterjets are ideal for companies processing a mixture of natural stone and the new generation of sintered engineered stones, ceramics and glass, which require their own tools and understanding to work on CNC workcentres and saws. A waterjet cutter, which requires no change of tools between the different materials, suddenly starts to look like an attractive proposition.
“The waterjet is solving a problem,” says Gary. “Before, there wasn’t really a problem to be solved. And once people have got a waterjet they will find umpteen different uses for it.”
Flow will be exhibiting at Marmomacc in Verona through its Italian company (Flow Italia) and Waters Group will be there to talk to customers from the British Isles.
Sales of waterjets to the stone industry in the UK and Ireland are small fry to Flow internationally, but the stone industry in other parts of Europe and the Middle East is a significant sector for the company. There are individual factories, particularly in the Middle East, with more waterjets than the whole of the UK stone industry has.
While Waters Group is clearly enjoying some success with waterjet cutters, it is better known as the supplier of Thibaut machines from France.
Thibaut will once again be exhibiting in Verona and Waters Group personnel will be on the stand to talk to visitors to the show from the UK and Ireland.
Thibaut will be exhibiting a T858 workcentre; a TC600, which it calls a CNC cutting centre because it feels calling it a bridge saw does not begin to cover its abilities; a T818 workcentre and polisher; and the Transformer robot arm.
None of the machines are new this year, although this is the first time the big 818 has been shown in Verona. Previously Thibaut has shown the 812, but this time decided to bring the 818 to emphasise its face polishing, brushing and honing capability using five or six Thibaut-patented B3 heads.
Although the five-axes T858 has been seen at Marmomacc before, it continues to evolve. The latest innovations on show in Verona include a 1200mm vertical stroke (Z axis) and a more powerful, 22kW spindle motor, offering greater productivity and versatility.
The changes are particularly good for the memorial trade. On mainland Europe, companies are starting to move away from Far Eastern imports and are looking for technological solutions to producing distinct designs to customer requirements. Prices of memorials from China and India are increasing, which starts to make home production more competitive as well as more environmentally friendly if local stone is used.
Thibaut has also developed software for the 858 especially for the memorial market that uses a scanning device on the table to simplify edge and face polishing so it can be carried out in a single operation. Thibaut believes this development in itself has contributed to the return of more memorial production to Europe.
Both the 858 and the 818 offer pneumatic pressure in all directions for consistent performance. On the five axes 858 the pneumatics use a particularly clever (and patented) system.
The TC600 has been around a while now. It is notable for including the Thibaut-patented Angled Cutting System (ACS) that incorporates a jig saw on the cutting head for making right-angled inside corners with no radius and for cutting up to an edge without having to go beyond it (which, of course, you have to with a disc).
It is a feature that is now included on more than half the saws Thibaut sells. Yann Salaün, Thibaut’s Export Manager, says customers who use it say they can achieve as much as 25% more finished product from a slab by using the system.
Thibaut’s Transformer robot has also been shown before, although the software continues to evolve, making life easier for the operator.
The Transformer uses the familiar Kuka arm but has the advantage of one software package to control the whole process (most robots are supplied with their own operating system that is separate from the CAD/CAM software).
The Transformer software is the same T’Cad T’Cam software developed by Thibaut that is already familiar to anyone who has used the company’s 3-5 axes CNC machines. It includes touch-and-drag design elements that are second nature to most people these days.
Despite not yet selling a robot in the UK, Yann Salaün says Thibaut remains convinced the robot is well adapted for sculptural work, although he adds that if a company is producing worktops only, three-axes CNC saws and workcentres are a more efficient solution.
Bryan Waters, the founder of the Waters Group, will be joining the contingent from the Group in Verona this year and says he is looking forward to seeing lots of familiar faces and meeting some new ones as well.