Equipment includes a range of saws and polishers, and one of the latest investments was a horizontal splitting machine from Tecnema of Italy. This machine allows the company to split stone horizontally into two pieces of various thicknesses. It is particularly valuable during the production of tumbled tile, as a single piece of stone can be tumbled and then split to create two finished pieces -- effectively doubling the production rate. Moreover, by placing thicker pieces of stone in the tumbler, the pieces are more durable, and the percentage of pieces broken during tumbling decreases dramatically. The company also added multi-disc cutting machines from Tecnema for cutting the smaller mosaic pieces.
Tile production varies depending on the surface finish. “We divide the ones that are tumbled from the ones that have a different finish such as brushed -- which we call 'Antik' -- acid-washed, pillow edge, etc.,†Lesocki said. “Most of our tumbled marble is mounted on sheets and is produced in a thickness of 8 mm. This is required by a lot of our customers that use our products in combination with ceramic tile, which has the same thickness. When it is 6 x 6 inches or larger, it is not mounted on mesh, and the thickness in the larger formats goes up to 1 cm.â€