Buoyed by an improvement in the latest trade figures there was a cautious optimism in Italy.
The Marmomacc stone exhibition in Verona opened on 21 September against a background of improved stone trade statistics in Italy. It gave a note of optimism to the exhibition that was justified by the number of visitors it attracted.
According to the organisers, there were more visitors this year than last at 56,000 and half of them came from 130 countries other than Italy (up 8% on last time). There were 1,500 exhibitors from 60 countries.
The Italians were once again exhibiting their flair for design innovation, exemplified in the Marmomacc Meets Design feature where architects work with stone processors to develop new ways of using stone. Some of the results might prove prohibitively expensive in the commercial world but they are, nonetheless, inspirational and illustrate the Italians’ realisation that to compete on the international market against low cost producers they have to add value.
As Massimo Serni of Tuscan company Henraux said: “We believe that Italian quality and creativity pay off in the end. Slabs alone do not take you very far – you need a brand.”
And Tomas Brolin, general manager of Testi Fratelli, added: “International clients seek ‘Made in Italy’ in this sector as a kind of compulsory route – we can no longer think in terms of mass products but high quality, niche output.”
Machinery manufacturers have had just as hard a time as stone producers, but there are bright spots. Marco Balotti of Pedrini said markets showing signs of vitality are Brazil, India and countries in the Arab world. He didn’t mention China.
Sergio Saronni, Sales Director at Breton, who have just taken over wire saw makers Bidese Impianti, said: “In recent years we saw the need to look abroad, faced by a stagnant domestic market, but this should not necessarily be seen as something negative. Breton always seeks to improve its products and took over Bidese Impianti to add the wire cutting sector, which we did not cover before.”
Metella Iacovello of chemical treatment company Mapei said: “In general, our group has grown in recent months and this means that the building industry is providing some signs of vitality.”
Beniamino Pettenon, President of the Fila chemical company, commented: “We work a great deal in France, Germany and Great Britain and are very attentive as regards a number of emerging markets in Eastern Europe. Moving further east, India also offers very important opportunities. The Middle East is significant for us. China is a major opportunity but we are still currently analysing our initial approach to this immense market.”
There were plenty of new lines to be seen at Marmomacc this year and among them was a polished version of a new kind of engineered stone. It is called Echotect and the new version is the result of a partnership between Echotect and MBD, the Italian makers of polishing machines.
Echotect combines marble and quartz with recycled PET (polyethylene terephthalate) from used plastic bottles. It can be made into floor and wall tiles, countertops and internal and external cladding. It is itself 100% recyclable.
NSS reported in February last year that the new material had been perfected after nine years of development by Shell Research. It was being brought to market by Echotect, a company headed by Stephen Eastwood, once MD of Rugby Cement. Echotect was shown at Ecobuild this year.
Now the Italian polishing machinery manufacturers of MBD have joined with Echotect to perfect a 4-10mm thick, gloss finish surface, suitable for kitchen and bathroom work surfaces and internal and external cladding.
The Echotect materials were shown at Marmomacc on the MBD stand. It was the first chance to see the Echotect material finished with the MBD machinery, which is specially designed to work with extremely thin products.
Echotect want to sell their plant for others to use in the same way as Breton have done with engineered quartz.
Ecological issues have been occupying the corporate minds of many stone companies across Europe. It is not only in the UK that sustainability is of increasing importance and the Spanish company Levantina, one of the world’s largest stone companies with UK depots in Rotherham and Basingstoke, were promoting the ‘Eco-Stone’ project during Marmomacc.
They have minimised waste and water consumption and cut CO2 emissions by, for example, returning to rail to transport stone from their processing centre at Novelda to the Port of Alicante. Where they use resin, they use plant resins rather than the more polluting products of the petrochemical industry. Combined, these Eco-Stone efforts achieve more energy efficient final products to the benefit of the producers themselves, the final users and the environment.
Levantina were founded in 1959 and today operate 63 quarries, nine factories and 35 distribution warehouses. They have a portfolio of more than 250 different materials. During 2010, they extracted more than 350,000m3 of natural stone, including the Crema Marfil for which they are particularly famous – used recently in the UK for interiors at One Hyde Park and The Lancasters in London, along with Marron and Light Emperador.
Levantina bring granite from all over the world to be processed at their two granite factories in Spain. They also have a factory in Brazil, opened in 2003, processing the more decorative materials from South America.
One of the latest projects in the British Isles for which Levantina supplied granite was the facade of the Trinity Long Room Hub in Dublin, where the granite chosen was Silvestre from Spain.
Latest innovations being shown by Laventina at Marmomacc included nanotechnology finishes to the stones to produce antibacterial granite countertops, anti-graffiti and self-cleaning stone for exteriors, and stain-resistant stone for interiors, to add to the anti-slip treatment they offer on polished surfaces.
Italian stone company Antolini Luigi presented their Natura Collection of marble and granite with a variety of finishes. As at other exhibitions, they attracted attention to their stand by having almost naked women painted to match the stone.
The features of the stones had inspired the designer Domenico De Palo to create new textures, employing modular bas-reliefs, plays of empty and filled spaces, shadows and light to create four new effects – Geisha, Avata, Spizzo and Verano. De Palo said: “With these new textures stone becomes dynamic. It is not a formal abstraction any more but a vital reality.”
Campolonghi showed a marble book by the artist Marco Nereo Rotelli engraved with the words “Patria vena dei tanti nomi incisi”, a line by the poet Loretto Rafanelli.
This book was an addition to the 28 of ‘Lo Stato Poetico’ that Rotelli has created, each with different lines from poems, for an exhibition at the 54th Biennale d’Arte di Venezia in the Italian Pavillion and in Spazio Thetis Garden. They celebrate 150 years of Italian Unity. The exhibition runs until 27 November.
There were a number of developments to be seen at Marmomacc on the machinery side, many of which were mentioned in the NSS machinery report last month. One or two more to be seen at the show included the latest addition to an increasing range of bridge saws by MarmoMeccanica, best known for their edge polishers. Called the HTO, the new saw comes in three versions: the HTO-M+, with basic functions and price, the MB+, with a higher level performance, and the MB-XALOC, a monolithic version of the HTO-XALOC-R, which has independent drives and controls for each of the four axes.
CNC machine makers Helios introduced a ‘Virtual Stone Gallery’ of showers, sinks, statues, capitals and other masonry that can be loaded into the controls of their workcentres to reproduce them.
Each of the items can be manipulated to change its size. The software calculates production costs and prints high quality technical sheets that include a photo-quality picture of what the finished piece will look like.
Helios also introduced Spaceline, a four-axes portable templating device for easy transfer of measurments to their CNC workcentres. And they showed a digital gritblasting machine called Power. Its thin jet of abrasive adds decoration without having to make a mask – a boon to memorial masons and sign-makers.
Ghines showed their new Dokoyoh universal flexible diamond grinding wheel. Dokoyoh can be used to replace any diamond cup wheel and standard fibre disc, improving performance and durability, according to Ghines. And, they say, thanks to its flexible support, the user can work many hours a day without feeling the affects of vibration.
And digital templating company Prodim introduced a new compact version of the
Proliner 8, the L-series, that they say is more than 25% lighter than the standard
Proliner 8 and has a bigger screen – 250mm instead of 200mm.