Over recent years, advances in waterjet cutting systems have offered firms the ability to cut diverse materials with a single machine, prompting firms from other sectors to enter into the stone fabrication industry. An example of this can be found in PIW, Inc., of Lockport, IL, which introduced its waterjet cutting services four years ago. Since then, the company has seen this area of business grow to 20% to 30% of its overall business, and open up a whole new line of work in the stone industry.

The company began as iron workers and miscellaneous metal contractors, but chose to take a different route in the 1980s, specializing in architectural metals. Later, in the 1990s, they found themselves providing the same fabricating services to the contractors they used to compete against. The shop has acquired a substantial line of metalworking and fabricating equipment, including CNC vertical machining centers, milling machines, cutting machines and more. "We like to say we have a very large tool box," said company Vice President John D. Shepherd, adding that the waterjet machine has proven to be the most flexible and useful tool in the box. "We use the waterjet for just about everything. It's the most useful tool I've ever seen. If you took away everything in the shop, the last thing I'd give up is the waterjet."