Report from the September 2008 issue of Natural Stone Specialist

Two years ago we said there were not going to be many better times to invest in machinery and last year certainly saw a lot of masonry companies taking advantage of the good times to further automate their workshops. Then came the credit crunch and since last September the value of sterling has fallen by about 20% against the Euro, which on its own should have seen a corresponding rise in the price of machinery from Italy, France, Spain, Germany and anywhere else in the Eurozone. But that has been compounded by a 40% rise in the price of steel, a doubling of oil prices to add to the cost of transport, utility bills up and demand down. But with margins increasingly under pressure, it will be the efficient who prosper and here NSS takes a look at the latest developments in machinery to deliver those improvements in efficiency

Machinery is cheap. With the rise in the price of machinery there has been this year most people would argue about that. But it is cheap because the price increases there have been in this country have not reflected the full effect of the fall in the value of sterling or the increased costs of production and distribution.

Instead, manufacturers and their agents have absorbed as much of the increases as they possibly can in reduced margins. That can’t last for ever, so if trading conditions remain as they are, prices will rise further. That means machinery at the moment is cheap.

The weakness of Sterling, especially against the Euro (about 20% down on last year) raises the price of imports, which should be good news for British manufacturers – although it is too late for ASM, who are in administration (but read on, because former director Mick Howarth plans to keep the marque alive).

But the exchange rate is only part of the picture. British manufacturers are facing the same inflationary pressures on raw materials and energy prices as their counterparts everywhere else in the world.

Steel prices vary a lot depending on the kind of steel being used, but with iron ore prices up 60% this year and coking coal, also used in steel production, up 200%, it is not surprising steel prices are up by about 40%.

Luke Wells of Wells Wellcut says the 15 tonnes of steel he bought a few weeks ago cost him £650, up from £450 previously. And his scrap that a few years ago was worth £10 a tonne can now fetch £180 a tonne or more. Steel companies say scrap prices have increased by 75% since March alone.

Luke says the electricity for the three-phase welders he and his team have in use eight hours a day now costs twice as much. Yet his prices have remained steady. “It’s getting increasingly difficult to make money from manufacturing,” he told NSS.

And it is worse for importers. They not only have the exchange rate to contend with, they also have the additional costs of transport resulting from the doubling of crude oil prices from $67 a barrel in August last year to a high of $137 in July this year. Prices have fallen since July, but who’s going to bet on no more increases?

With commodity and utility inflation well into double figures, which increases the price of just about everything else eventually, while income increases have so far remained in the low single figures, demand in the economy in general will be seriously curtailed. That will squeeze margins and profits of stone processors as much as any other sector.

Under these conditions, banks and other financial institutions, already smarting from sub-prime mortgage losses that have reduced the amount of money they have available to lend, are much more cautious about who they will lend it to. That not only makes it harder to borrow, it also makes it more expensive. And as financial institutions tend not to understand the stone industry, they do not look on it as one of the safer options. Difficulty in obtaining finance has already ended some companies’ plans for investment in machinery this year.

Of course, one thing that is not increasing in price (with the exception of some of the most up-market parts of London) is housing. With demand for housing reduced by the reluctance of banks and building societies to provide mortgages and those they will provide being more expensive, fewer people are moving, especially as buyers believe prices will continue to fall and are consequently putting off purchases.

Some people believe that is good news because people who don’t move might decide to spend on home improvements and extensions to their existing homes instead. Experience from the post-war recessions suggests otherwise. When people move they tend to factor home improvements into the cost of the move if they are buying an older property. It is then they are most likely to buy new kitchens with granite worktops and limestone floors, or put marble and limestone in their bathrooms. A slow-down in the exchange of homes is unlikely to benefit the home improvement market.

New house building that might have included stone walling, worktops, vanity units, floors and fireplaces, has been severely cut back. Private enterprise housing starts were 21% lower in the first quarter of this year than last and 27% lower in the second quarter. For the first time in 15 years there are now fewer housing starts than completions.

While stone companies supplying the new-build housing market have already been hit, those concentrating on the higher end of the domestic market and commercial property, and those in the more traditional, limestone and sandstone end of masonry carrying out repairs, alterations and extensions are still busy. But they are split between optimists and pessimists. Some believe the wealthier end of society will continue to spend and that there are plenty of projects to track into next year, while others have found some of the projects they have been tracking have already been put on hold.

The machinery market tends to act as a barometer for the stone industry in general and currently it is heading towards ‘storm’.

Earlier in the year optimism prevailed and certainly there was plenty of interest from masonry companies in the machinery on show at the Natural Stone Show in ExCeL London in March. Since then the continuing flow of bad news is turning more people into pessimists.

Some of both the optimists and the pessimists think they need to invest in new machinery to improve their competitive position, while others think it is more prudent to wait and see how this downturn will develop. The price increases of machinery has tended to move people towards the second category, although the fall in demand is leading to some bargains that are worth looking out for.

A third group are considering it prudent to invest in used, rather than new, machinery to satisfy their needs. While new machinery is facing inflationary pressure the prices of used machinery are just beginning to show signs of falling as more of it becomes available.

That is in complete contrast with last year when those dealing in used machinery found it difficult to find enough of it. Perhaps an increase in demand will firm the prices, but at the moment the uncertain residual value of machinery is another reason for finance houses to be reluctant to lend money to companies wanting to invest in it.

One other development in the machinery market has been that of smaller computer-controlled equipment to bring the smaller workshop into the computer age.

Following the usual pattern of the development of any product, CNC machinery started at the top of the market and has moved out from there. As the computer technology has developed it has become better and cheaper, making it possible to include in smaller and less expensive machines.

Enthusiasm for CNC workcentres has become more tempered with the tightening of money. Even the suppliers believe there has been an element of keeping up with the Joneses involved in CNC sales of the past few years. Now some processors are looking for less sophisticated machines.

Cesare Lopez of London machinery suppliers A J Lopez & Co has said for a long time that most masonry companies would be better off deciding what they want a machine to do and buying one that does it, rather than an all-singing-all-dancing answer to everything that only a limited number of operators can use and is only ever required to use a fraction of its functions.

“I think if you buy a machine you buy a machine to do the job you do every day,” says Cesare. “At the moment we are going the opposite way, including some of my machines, and missing the main point. I’m not trying to be a Flintstone, CNCs are the thing of the future, but you have to be realistic – do you want to run the business or let an engineer run the business?”

Stella Zambelis of Essex company D Zambelis, one of the newcomers to the machinery market, says: “We had a customer producing four kitchens a week. What’s he need a CNC machine for? He wanted one, but he didn’t need it.”

Dave Beckett, a director of machinery suppliers Ebor in Rochdale, believes that under the current conditions there will be a clearer separation of the worktop supply market than ever, with the major companies capable of continuing to mechanise, often without even suffering from currency fluctuations because they have their own Euro accounts, while smaller businesses find life hard.

Ebor were instrumental in developing the stone CNC workcentre market with the introduction of Intermacs in 1996. They now sell the top-of-the-market Breton CNC workcentres and saws.

Dave says: “I think the market for CNCs… I wouldn’t say it’s saturated, but it’s reached a much more stable level. There are less new people coming into this market and more kitchen shops are going bankrupt. Something’s got to give.

“Sophisticated businesses will weather the storm but it’s going to be hard for the guys who came in and put their houses on the line.”

He says with exchange rates and commodity and utility prices stacked up against machinery sellers, he’s glad to be in the top end of the market supplying the sort of companies that can still get credit. “We feel safe with them. They’re not struggling along from day to day. We’re entering a new era.”

For the past four months he has been quoting prices in Euros and only converting to sterling when an order is placed. “Touch wood, we’re still quite busy,” he says, attributing that to larger companies still investing in order to be able to fill the gaps left as competitors tumble out of the market.

Mark Brownley at Accurite in Cumbria, who have introduced own brand budget saws and jenny linds and are agents for Italians Denver, who make CNC workcentres and bridge saws, also thinks the peak of the CNC sales curve has passed, at least for now.

“I think at the moment the market’s saturated,” he says. He believes that with major housing projects coming to an end the larger companies will turn their attention to the domestic market and squeeze smaller companies.

John Watt, the Stone Division Manager at CNC machine company CMS Brembana, whose base in the UK is in Nottingham, says: “It’s a tough, tough game out there at the moment.”

He says that as a result of the Natural Stone Show at ExCeL London he had a lot of enquiries. “I had more enquiries than for years, then all of a sudden this credit crunch hit. We’re still talking to a lot of people but everyone’s holding fire.”

At Pisani, Arran Langford concedes that times are harder for machinery sales but does not believe the demand for CNC workcentres is over. “Far from coming to an end, it’s almost a prerequisite for a modern fabricator,” he says.

James Turton, Managing Director of New Stone Age in Keighley, West Yorkshire, says: “We’re still receiving enquires for new machinery and many clients remain positive about the future long term.”

And if it’s bad in Britain, it’s worse in the Irish Republic. Over the past few years the British machinery suppliers have found a good market in Ireland as processing companies there have geared up to compete in Europe. Being in the Eurozone they are not suffering the price increases seen in the UK as the result of the exchange rate. However, a lot of the European aid they were receiving has come to an end and the Celtic Tiger has stopped roaring.

On the following pages, we review developments in the stone machinery market, including some of the latest bells and whistles that will be seen at the Marmomacc exhibition in Verona, Italy, next month (2-5 October).

And please note: prices are those quoted at the time of writing. As they depend to a large extent on exchange rates that are even more volatile than usual at the moment, they can fluctuate.

ONE OF the most impressive developments in stone processing is the HTM Robostone robotic arm, sold in the UK by Harbro in Bishop Auckland, Durham. The first company to buy one is J Rotherham in Yorkshire (who are featured in this issue of NSS). Five more have since been ordered by five other companies.

The Robostone, which will be on display once again in Verona, is a highly sophisticated robotic arm controlled by even more sophisticated processing power. Rotherham, who are one of the biggest kitchen worktop producers in the country (although they also have major fireplace and memorial businesses and deal in other areas of masonry), were particularly attracted to the versatility of the machine that would allow it to work on all aspects of their business and take them into new areas.

They wanted it to be able to switch from worktop production to carving garden ornaments, gravestones and fireplaces and take them into areas such as conservation work on churches and cathedrals.

“Along with Harbro, we’re very interested in pioneering this within the UK,” Rotherham’s Operations Director, Richard Huntington, told NSS last year before the machine had been installed.

There has, however, been rather more pioneering than they had bargained for and Geoff Bowles, Harbro’s Managing Director, says there have been teething troubles, although he adds: “I think we’re getting there.”

Rotherham’s have not been shy about leading the UK stone processing market over the years – they were one of the first stone companies to invest in a CNC workcentre – and have maintained their position in the market with significant investment in machinery.

Their version of the Robostone has three work tables, two fixed and one rotary, and a 48 station tool bank. Robostones can start at about £150,000, but the Rotherham three-table configuration is about £250,000. It is fully contained in its own enclosed work area so there is no danger of anyone walking into the path of the moving arm. A health & safety consultant has been involved at Rotherham and has sent a report back to HTM on guarding the work area.

The teething troubles have largely involved worktop production and getting the robot to work quickly enough.

Robostones sold on the Continent and in the USA have tended to be put to use to carve complex 3D structures such as sculptures and the capitals of columns, which they can do efficiently.

But keeping the tool and the workpiece in the right place in relation to each other when both are being moved requires a lot of processing and even with the speed of processors today, that can be relatively slow, which has been a problem with the Robostone on worktops.

“As with all new things, there’s been teething problems,” says Geoff, but then Rotherham’s always knew there would be. As Richard Huntingdon said: “Every machine we’ve put in so far – regardless of what we’ve put in – we’ve had teething problems with.”

The Robostone has now replaced the CMS Brembana CNC workcentre in the Harbro range. Harbro started selling Brembanas in 2006 in an agreement with CMS parent company SCI, whose UK base is in Nottingham. The idea was that Harbro would sell the machines and CMS would install and service them.

However, CMS wanted to maintain their own sales operation in the UK alongside Harbro and Geoff Bowles says: “You can’t have a distributor and a direct sales force.” John Watt, the Stone Division Manager for Brembana, says: “We all saw that that situation wasn’t going to work.”

At the same time as Harbro had taken on Brembana, stone and machinery wholesalers Pisani started selling Intermac CNC workcentres, dropping the agency with fellow Italian CNC workcentre manufacturers Helios. Now, having parted with Brembana, Harbro are selling the Helios range in the UK.

It includes the 4-5 axes Zeus and 3-5 axes Kompact CNC workcentres for workshops with confined space. There is also the Millennium machine for ‘V’ cut lettering of headstones that Keith Rackham of memorial masons H L Perfitt in Norfolk has been involved in the development of and, also for the memorial side, is the Photograb machine that pecks images from photographs into granite.

Geoff Bowles says the Helios machines are more at the entry level of CNC machines that are currently popular and do not compete with the robot arm, whereas Brembanas were closer to the same ball park.

For those who do not have the level of production to make the investment in CNC technology worthwhile, Harbro offer the BRM 2000 jenny lind, with a starting price of around £20,000.

The wide range of products that Harbro offer through their association with German wholesalers Weha includes the Bravo bridge saws that range from semi-automatic to full CNC control.

In bench saws there is the SAD range from Harbro and the Enzo 401S that was designed specifically for the UK market to cut 3m slabs.

Introduced at the Natural Stone Show at ExCeL London in March, this £20-25,000 top-of-the-range bench saw immediately proved popular, with two being sold off the stand and three more sales concluded afterwards. What makes it particularly attractive is its solidity. It is constructed with an extra half-tonne of steel for rigidity, while with dimensions of 4.5m long, 1.25m high and 2m deep it can fit into most workshops.

The full range of Harbro machinery, as well as all the associated consumables, can be seen on the Harbro website.

Tel: 01388 605363 www.harbrosupplies.com

A major success in CNC machinery has come from newcomers ScandInvent from Sweden. The company produce two versions of a CNC workcentre, an edge polisher and now a cantilevered bridge saw. They were all designed specifically for the granite worktop market by ScandInvent.

Robert Jacobsson used to run his own granite worktop company before establishing ScandInvent and some of the people working for him have also worked in the granite worktop industry. They have used that experience to design machines that solve the problems they felt existing machinery for worktop manufacture had – namely that it was too big, too complicated and too expensive.

The ScandInvent designs have gone back to first principles, starting with the computers. In ScandInvent machines they are PCs that can be bought anywhere. They run on Windows XP with programs that are simple and straight forward, so the machines can be used by anyone with basic computer literacy and not only one person with special training.

There is touch screen operation on the edge polisher and for all the machines there are hundreds of commonly used shapes already prepared and downloadable from the website, while also allowing bespoke designs to be added.

Even the manuals are particularly helpful, including a brief and simple operator’s aide memoir that can be pinned on a wall next to the machine as well as complete, but still straight forward, user and maintenance instructions.

The design of the C3 and C4 workcentres has been influenced by a paper hole punch. Why does a machine that only works an area of a couple of square metres need to be 3.5m (or more) long just because the granite being worked is 3m long? ScandInvent concluded it doesn’t and that the slab could stick out the ends of the machine.

With the edge polisher they have addressed the problem of getting an even chamfer when the stone is not calibrated. The granite is put on the machine upsidedown (ie polished side down) and held by suction pads.

A single head with a variety of tools that are automatically changed, shapes and polishes the edge. An optional extra device for clamping thin strips of granite allows strips and borders to be worked.

The machine, labelled the e3500, is run by a single, low energy 3HP (2.2kW) motor that powers hydraulics for operating the head rather than having a line of hefty electric motors on the heads themselves. The oil for the hydraulics is in the beam at the bottom of the machine, rather than in a separate tank, to keep it all compact and enclosed within the 4.5m length of the polisher, which can work slabs up to 3.5m long

And because the granite does not have to be fed into one end and removed from the other, 4.5m is the whole length required to accommodate the e3500 in the workshop.

The latest edition to the ScandInvent range is the SX5 cantilevered bridge saw, a concept version of which was shown at Marmomacc last year to gauge reaction and a final version of which will be launch in Verona this year. It is also 4.5m long to accommodate slabs up to 3.5m long. It is 2.8m high and weighs 4.5tonnes.

A bridge supported from just one end raises questions of flexing and vibration at the saw (the blade can be up to 600mm), but ScandInvent say it has a robot gear box to make it completely stable and vibration free. The arm is moved along the bridge by a maintenance free belt.

The SX5 has been on trial in three factories making granite worktops in Sweden and has performed perfectly. It can cut 35mm granite at a rate of 3.5m a minute with a standard 400mm blade.

The saw is powered by a 25HP (18.6kW) inverter motor with both electric and water swivel on the head so it can go round in the same direction for ever without having to unwind. It is fully automatic with electronic feedback from the motor to the control to modify its own performance. It has hydraulic tilt on the table, changed from pneumatic on the prototype because hydraulics are stronger and cheaper.

Since ScandInvent were established in 2002 they have sold hundreds of machines to 24 countries, including 25 C3 workcentres and e3500 edge polishers to the UK. There are also four C4 workcentres now in the UK following their launch at the Natural Stone Show at ExCeL London in March this year.

And ScandInvent have grown so much, winning awards in Sweden both for their growth and export activity, that after the London exhibition they moved to a new, 1,900m2 factory to give them the room to accommodate that growth. They now also have an office in the UK headed by Glenn Groom, whose background is in fast moving consumer goods with Gillette and with Farrabyrne, a company making primary suspension units for railway trucks.

Glenn can be contacted on his mobile, 07876 463906, or on the number below.

Tel: 01323 520001 www.scandinvent.com

Another new name in the UK stone machinery market that has been making quite an impact since it was given its first public exposure at the Natural Stone Show in London this year is Gisbert. This Spanish machinery has been introduced into Britain by D Zambelis in Latchingdon, Essex, who have expanded out into machinery from their base in tools and consumables.

The Gisbert CNC range includes workcentres, bridge saws and mono blocks, and edge polishers. They have clearly impressed customers because Zambelis have now sold 12 of the various machines. “We’re trying to find where is this decline,” Stella Zambelis told NSS. “It hasn’t stopped.”

Zambelis had been planning to launch into the machinery market with an Italian brand when they went to Marmomacc in Verona last year with the intention of signing a deal. But in the end Dimitri Zambelis and Stella, his wife, felt more comfortable with Gisbert and came to an agreement to supply the Spanish machines. Neither party has been unhappy about the decision.

Gisbert will be back in Verona in October to launch a new automatic mono block saw, the CP35MBA, with a turning table. It was developed for the American market but Zambelis hope it will prove popular for masons cutting limestone and sandstone in the UK. It bridges the gap between the basic CP35 mono block and the CP35 bridge saw, giving the mono block some of the automation of the bridge saw.

There is also a new CNC workcentre coming in above the semi automatic FG150 that was shown in London in March. Stella says they told Gisbert they wanted a big CNC machine but smaller – in other words all the features of a larger machine but in a package the size of the FG150. The result is the FG200, which has a price tag of £58,000, including installation and training – or as Stella likes to say, £254 a week (over four years with a 10% deposit). That’s a premium of about 30% on the FG150.

For edge polishing there is the BC2000, which can have a calibrator at the front end to avoid any problems with producing bevels and a profiler, although the standard configuration seven heads at £36,000 has proved to be what most people want.

Tel: 01621 742577 www.dzambelis.co.uk

So far, the Far East has not made much of an impression on the stone machinery market in the UK. Not directly, anyway, although some European machinery manufacturers are sourcing various parts of their machines from countries such as China and Korea. Mark Brownlee from Cumbrian machinery suppliers Accurite, however, is sourcing his own brand bridge saws from China – at least, the metalwork comes from China. He strips out the Chinese control box and electrics, which are dangerous, and puts his own in. He says he has asked the Chinese to supply the saws without electrics but they won’t.

“It came about,” says Mark, “because I had a feeling that saws being sold in the UK were, in a lot of respects, over valued and probably over specified for what the UK would require. Every other industry was going the Far East route, so 21/2 years ago I went out there.”

He had as his guide a woman he had met at the 2004 Natural Stone Show in London (from whom he bought the mooning golfer pictured above that visitors to the exhibition might remember). He visited a dozen manufacturers in China and reached a deal with one of them to make a bridge saw and a jenny lind to his specification. From initial agreement through months of testing to make sure the machines are up to the job to the position where they are now available has taken three years.

In order for it to be worth their while gearing up to make the machines Mark had to commit to buying 25 saws and 25 jenny linds in the first year.

Since October last year when the first machines arrived in this country, 12 bridge saws have been sold and installed and another four are on order. It’s a similar story with the jenny linds. Mark says that has more than met his expectations and that he had anticipated the initial 50 to run into a second year of supply.

Accurite are still in their first year agreement with the Chinese suppliers and the prices have been held for the year. Mark cannot predict what will happen when the price is renegotiated at the end of the year.

There are different saws in the range (Premier, Jumbo, Swift) with prices ranging from £19,000 to £40,000. They are intended for the limestone/sandstone market. The jenny lind is less than £5,000. Mark describes the machines as “limited, with a value for money price”. He says: “I think they will enable us to attract the type of client we couldn’t previously attract because we didn’t have the right kind of product or the right price for them.”

He says his own-brand Accurite saws complement rather than compete with the Italian Pedrini saws he also sells, although while the Euro price of Pedrinis has remained stable, Mark has had to pass on some of the results of the exchange rate fluctuations.

Another of Accurite’s established brands is Denver, the Italian makers of CNC workcentres and bridge saws. Accurite have represented Denver in the UK since 1998 and have sold about 50 of their machines, most of them in the past three years.

Accurite have also now taken on all the products in the Ghines range, which includes the Systhema and Systar manual multifunctional workcentres. The Systhema is a table saw, router and edge polisher all in one. Ghines also make diamond tools, which Accurite have always sold for their Denver range. In fact, when Accurite first introduced the Denver brand to the UK in 1994 it was under the Ghines name.

And Ghines make dust control equipment that Accurite were particularly interested in as masonry workshops all over the country try to improve the atmosphere in their workshops to meet the new respirable silica dust exposure limits.

Ghines have been represented in the UK and Ireland by several of the machinery agents over the years, which has left customers not quite sure who to approach for the Ghines machines or after-sales service. Accurite, who pride themselves on their after-sales service, aim to put that right.

Machinery from Accurite, including a good selection of used machines, can be seen on their website.

Tel: 01229 480800 www.accurite.co.uk

There is a new range of CNC workcentres being launched by Bavelloni at Marmomacc in Verona this year designed to offer multifunctional answers to all machining requirements in a compact space. The range is called StoneNRG and will complement the existing Bavelloni Egar series rather than replace it.

The new Stone NRG series machines are three and four axes models available in a wide range of configurations and options to be tailored to the specific requirements of customers. They can work to depths of 300-600mm and can be set up for countertop, furniture, architectural and memorial applications.

The machines can drill, mill, edge, add inscriptions and engravings, produce shaped pockets, sloped kitchen worktops, surface polish, polish inside and outside edges, produce sinks and shower trays from solid blocks and saw.

The compact design incorporates an integrated safety fence with a sliding door. The overall dimensions of the StoneNRG 330-3, for example, are 6.3m x 3.1m. Slabs up to 3.3m x 1.7m can be worked and the machine can handle stone thicknesses from 20mm to 550mm.

Programming is carried out using a familiar Microsoft XP integrated graphic interface.

The Bavelloni brand is also getting a makeover that will be unveiled in Verona. Since 2003 Bavelloni have been part of the Glaston group and in future will incorporate the Glaston slogan of ‘seeing it through’.

The slogan might seem to make a bit more sense on the glass side of the business than it does on the stone side, although Glaston say it has multiple meanings and can bring to mind clarity and persistence. They say it also communicates the group’s lifecycle philosophy for its products and its intention to have long-term co-operation with customers.

Tel:01773