Marble Mining and Slab Processing

Marble mining and slab processing are essential procedures well-known in stone industry. The mining, processing and use of natural stone, particularly marble, is a mammoth modern day industrial enterprise. The demand for marble and its different forms is exemplified by the number of dedicated trade shows worldwide: EXPOSTONE Moscow, the UK Natural Stone Show, Carrara Marmotec, Qatar Stone Tech, Xiamen Stone Fair, Brazil Vitória Stone Fair and India Stona are just a number of examples.

Invoking notions of high-end living and affluence, marble speaks to refined taste and discernment. Yet it would appear that in recent times marble has worked diligently to alter its affiliation with ideas of ostentation and excess. Instead, it gained favor with a cohort of contemporary designers and design-conscious consumers.

Marble in 2014

As a material, marble is tactile and strong, imbued with both emotion and cultural relevance. It has a valuable and versatile quality, finding application in luxury interiors and modern settings, in combination with natural materials such as copper, leather and wood, and in faux decoration and ornamentation.

In 2014, there was a continuation of the trend for marble’s use in design. This was accompanied with numerous designers and studios applying this natural material, and variations thereof, to their work. The trend was conspicuous at many design trade shows, including the Stockholm Furniture Fair, Milan design week and London Design Festival. New and advanced technologies have augmented the number of ways in which designers can create and apply shapes using marble, thereby increasing productivity of and accessibility to marble-based products. 

Marble in Previous Years

In previous years, we have seen many examples of marble’s versatility in furnishings, lighting, storage, accessories, tableware, interiors and fashion. With the (slow) shift in consumer attitudes towards the merits of buying design that is long-lasting, environmentally friendly and sustainable, it is hoped that marble will be one trend that escapes the ravages of our throwaway society.

Marble Slabs

Among different types of marble, slabs are very popular nowadays. Slab, in architecture, is considered as a flat, monolithic piece of stone or concrete used for a floor or roof. There are various forms of reinforced-concrete slabs: one-way slabs cast with supporting beams, ribbed slabs cast with series of joists, two-way ribbed slabs known as waffle slabs, flat plates reinforced in two or more directions without beams or girders, and flat slabs thickened at column supports with drop panels and/or column capitals. A waffle slab supports loads equally well along both axes and is thus most efficiently used to cover square modules.

Process for Creating Slabs

Whether a fabricator is importing directly or buying through their local distributors, they should understand the process that was used for creating the slabs. Slabs that they will be cutting. Some terrific developments have taken place in terms of slab processing. But it is not only the level of technology in place, but also the overall process. Here is just a sample of questions that fabricators and manufacturers need to ask. They need the answer to these questions to understand what is happening in slab-processing.

How is the plant cutting their blocks into slabs? Are they using gang-saws? Have they upgraded to multi-wire saws? Either one is fine, but a plant with multi-wire saws might have some expanded product selections in terms of slab thickness.

Are the blocks being trimmed before processing?

In addition to applying resin products automatically, do they have a system in place for applying resin by hand for certain exotics that may require it? Are they using resin products from a proven manufacturer of these products? 

How much block inventory do they have? Do they have a good inventory of their “exclusive” materials?

What level of polishing technology is in place? What type of abrasives are they using?

Final Conclusion

Contractors and buyers should know the answer to the above mentioned questions. They should be able to find out. They might not need to be asking these questions for every material they buy, but it might be a good idea when working with certain materials. It is very important to point out here that there is not a single model that defines the best slab producers, because plants have different machinery and methods for different levels of materials.

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Sources

www.yatzer.com/a-marbleous-trend

www.stoneworld.com/articles/87178-know-the-process-of-slab-manufacturing

https://www.britannica.com/technology/slab-building-material