Aro Granites of Tamil Nadu, India, recently expanded its production capacity with the addition of tile-processing machinery from Pedrini of Italy. This has included four Pedrini Arco di Trionfo M594 blockcutting centers.

The majority of Aro’s machinery has been supplied by Pedrini of Italy. Existing equipment includes several frames, three slab-polishing lines, four blockcutters and two tile-polishing lines.

Aro has continued its cooperation with Pedrini for this latest expansion, purchasing four Arco di Trionfo M594 cutting centers assisted by a “topping unit,” a new tile-finishing line and a system for resin-treating the tiles.

The Pedrini M594 cutting centers can yield 17,000 to 21,500 square feet of semi-finished products per day -- depending on the block quality and granite hardness class. Meeting the most evolved building principles, these cutting centers are supplied by the “topping unit,” with carriages containing blocks with the top surface already flattened, thus eliminating the downtime typically needed for this processing.

The unit has specific discs to remove all irregularities on the upper surface of the raw block. In addition to reducing downtime, Pedrini reports that the discs of the cutting center will wear more slowly and evenly, as they always process flat surfaces.

Also, the topping unit ensures a high productivity level in the case of reduced-height blocks, according to the company.