Flow waterjet cutters are represented in the UK stone sector by the Waters Group, the suppliers of machinery, tools and consumables to the industry, and this month Flow hosted an open day at the company’s premises in Hinckley, near Leicester, for Waters Group customers, so they could see a Flow waterjet cutter in action.
Flow make waterjet cutters up to the size of a 747 (because the machines are used in the manufacture of the aeroplanes) but masons might find the Mach2 with a 3.1m x 2m table (pictured on the left) more to their liking – especially now the price has fallen below £100,000.
The fall in price has encouraged some masonry companies to take a second look at waterjet cutting. Among them is Stone System of London, the winners of the Business Initiative Award BIA 2011 (see last month’s NSS). Mark Mills, the Managing Director of Stone Systems, is pictured here (second left) with his Production Manager, Adam Paulik, during the Flow open day, with Nicola Waters, Managing Director of the Waters Group, and (on the right) Paul Castle, Flow’s Business Manager for the UK.
Flow waterjets can cut intricate shapes (such as in the granite pictured below) to an accuracy of 0.1mm, which makes them ideal for producing inlays but also for making fast and accurate cut-outs – and any number of shapes can be produced without any tools to be changed. Although it is called waterjet cutting, garnet is mixed with the water and the Mach2 uses 0.5kg of garnet a minute. Flow says total running costs of the Mach2 are £16 an hour.