Fabrication Process for Your Granite Countertops

Getting granite countertops installed in your home is a relatively simple process when looked at from the perspective of what you as the consumer can see from beginning to end. Simply put, you call us, select your slabs, & agree on the particulars, then a couple of weeks later they are installed.

There is however a lengthy process involved in getting the stone from its natural state in the earth all the way to your kitchen countertop. The process of turning stone into decorative and functional building materials has been more or less the same for centuries. On the other hand, the equipment has changed dramatically in that time, and the production time greatly reduced.

The process starts at the stone quarry where large blocks are cut from the earth often in a stair-step like pattern. Various types of sawing & cutting methods are used. There are wire saws which are long steel cables with diamond sections embedded in them. These cables are passed through "core holes" which have been drilled horizontally and vertically to a meeting point in the invisible corner of the "bench" to be removed. Then the cable is run through a drive, continuously going deeper into the stone. Core drilling, as mentioned above, coupled with "blasting" is another method of freeing large blocks of stone in this first step of the process. Some quarries use expanding liquid rather than explosives in the core holes-this is for the more fragile stone to keep from fracturing the blocks.

This first step of the process requires very large and heavy equipment to get the granite blocks from the earth and ready for shipping to the "gang" saws. When the blocks arrive at the gang saw operation, the entire block is cut into some 40-60 slabs simultaneously. These blocks are not a standard size, however a rough average would be 6 feet by 6 feet by 10 feet. This would yield 72 one inch thick slabs less the cutting blades, so around 60 slabs. The blades on a typical gang saw are not really blades, they are flat steel material 3" x 3/16 inch thick. They have no teeth or diamond in them. They are mounted on a large rack 2cm or 3 cm apart depending on the desired slab thickness. The rack is wider than the 6 foot wide slab. This rack in turn is mounted to an arm that is attached to the outer side of a massive flywheel creating a back and forth motion of the rack as the wheel is turned by powerful motors.

Once the block has been turned into slabs, the cart holding the 60 slabs is driven on its rail cart to the polishing line. The polishing line is another massive machine with multiple heads driving various grits of grinding and polishing wheels progressing from rough to polish. These heads drive horizontal grinders as the rough slab goes on a horizontal plane slowly through the machine on a conveyor belt. When the slabs come out the other end of the polishing line, they have become polished from their rough state. They are then loaded onto A frames for shipping to the wholesale warehouses throughout the world.

At this point the slabs enter our world here at Alpha StoneWorks, and our turn in the process begins. We come to your home and make an accurate template of your countertop areas. This can easily be done on new cabinets or on top of your existing countertops without disturbing them. After we have made the template, we like to meet with you at our shop for a layout review so we can agree on which portion of the various slabs will go on the different sections of your counters.

Once we have agreed on the layout, we go to word cutting and polishing your countertops. The surface has already been polished or honed, or brushed as the case may be. We cut the counters to match the templates on what is known as a bridge saw machine. This is a large "upside down" table saw. The sawing motor with the diamond blade are suspended above the saw table on the "bridge". This bridge in turn is sitting on two rails some 18 feet apart with rack and pinion drive to move the entire bridge east and west. The motor with blade runs north and south on the bridge via another set of rack and pinion gears. This entire apparatus allows the blade to be positioned anywhere over the 6 foot by 12 foot slab of granite. The saw motor only moves in one straight line, so the table beneath that the slab is laying on rotates in order to allow cuts at any angle needed. The rotating table has positive lock stops at 90, 45 and 135 degrees, and can be locked in any other degree for other cuts as needed. The table on our saw tilts up to nearly vertical via hydraulic cylinders. This makes loading easy and safe for both our workers and for your material. Once the countertop pieces have been cut to size, the edge polishing process begins.

Depending on the configuration of the piece and the desired edge detail, we have several different methods of shaping and polishing them. If they are straight line edges with a flat, beveled, or bull nose shape, they go one our "Pro Edge" machine. This is a machine some 18 feet long, 6 feet wide and around 6 feet tall. It is massively heavy and does the work of two to three men in terms of its output capabilities. You will see both the bridge saw and the Pro Edge in action in the video. If the edges are curved or have jogs in them, these are shaped with routers and grinders. Ogee edge details and other complex shapes of edges are done with large routers.

All through the process we have water spraying on the diamond tooling doing the cutting and grinding. Once the cutting and grinding is done, we proceed with the polishing process. This is done with a series of polishing pads on hand polishing grinders. There are 4 to 8 steps involved in the polishing process depending on the stone type and finish desired. The polishing grits start around 50 grit and go up to 8000 or 10,000 grit. In the case of antique finishes, stiff brushes are used on the grinding machines in place of the polishing pads.

Now that we have your countertops fabricated, it is time to bring them into your home and install them in place. This requires a little brute force and a little experience doesn't hurt a thing! We have learned to work smarter, not necessarily harder, to get the pieces into place. Granite countertops are very heavy to bring in. We use a combination of wheels, ramps, tables and other devices depending on the particular job. The slabs are test fitted then we adhere them to the cabinet tops with the appropriate stone adhesives. Joints are put together with epoxies formulated for stone work. Once the epoxy cures, we dress up the joints and other final details, leaving you with new gleaming granite countertops!

Vacuum flask are convenient for people of all ages

Vacuum flasks are more commonly known as thermos flasks by most individuals. Instead of stainless steel, flasks are usually made of metal, plastic, glass, or foam, with hollow walls within. The flask works effectively by blocking the heat transfer from the outside surrounding and thus, thermos flasks function well in preserving the cold temperature of the beverages especially during traveling or special occasions.

The thermos flasks are convenient for people of all ages. They are also extremely useful during hot weather when individuals constantly seek cold beverages to refresh themselves. Students can use the flasks when they attend school in replacement of their water tumblers. The flasks are light and easy to handle without any complicated functions. Thus, students can easily bring the vacuum flasks to school without the need to worry on the ways to function the vacuum flasks.

The thermos flasks are also important and useful for individuals especially when their work involves a lot of outdoor running and exploring. Individuals that have to work under constant hot temperature, no matter indoor or outdoor, will find the vacuum flasks useful in ensuring the constant supply of cold beverages when they are tired or when they need something cold to refresh themselves. This will thus eliminate the need for these individuals to constantly look for a local store to purchase more cold beverages, which will eventually cost a lot. All they need to do is to fully refill their vacuum flasks and they will have constant supply of cold beverages throughout the hours of working.

Beside cold beverages, thermos flasks are also able to preserve the temperature of hot beverages. During cold weather, individuals can refill their flasks with hot beverages to keep them warm throughout the hours. Compare to the use of normal glasses or cups containing their hot beverages such as coffee and tea; individuals do not need to worry about re-heating their beverages when they use a thermos because unlike the normal cups and glasses, the temperature of the beverage in the flask will not decrease even after the beverage is contained for a long time.

Furthermore, the thermos flasks are also useful for travelers, no matter what weather condition they are traveling in. During hot weather, cold beverages are important in refreshing an individual's mind and body, especially when they had been traveling non-stop or for hours. For this, vacuum flasks can help in preserving the temperature of the cold beverages during their trip. During cold weather, hot beverages are essential in keeping individuals warm and in the same time, keeping their minds and bodies alert. For this, vacuum flasks can carry out the job in preserving the warm temperature of a hot beverage. All these factors and functions of the thermos flasks can really help individuals in maintaining their ability to enable them in carrying out their tasks. In the same time, the functions of the vacuum flasks can also decrease the frustration of individuals and also, provide convenience to them.

A must-have for any traveling or everyday routine, Vacuum Flasks are a great way to keep your beverages fresh for hours. DiscountMugs offers a wide variety of Personalized Vacuum Flasks to choose from in all different styles, colors, and sizes.

New Jordan CP3.V Shoes For Basketball

Jordan Brand specifically for the popular point guard Chris Paul prepared the playoff shoes, red and blue color collision in the traditional cortex on vamp, of course, Dynamic Fit technology, CMP technology and Podulon technology etc. the forefoot cushioning numerous other shoes technology support, make you run faster, jump higher.

So what will the best point guard in professional basketball be wearing this season? That is of course, if there is an NBA season. I think we all have been anxiously waiting for the new Jordan CP3 VI AE to drop. And, as of today, the waiting is over! The beautiful new CP3 shoe was shown in all it's glory today. Unfortunately we are all going to have to wait a little longer for the shoe to drop. But,after the unveiling today, at least we now know what it is going to look like. All the waiting will definitely be worth it. People, this new Chris Paul shoe is sick!

The recent pictures of this new shoe reveal a sharp looking low-cut, high performance pair of sneakers. Obviously inspired by the success of the Kobe Bryant signature sneaker line, the CP3.V is the next step in the innovative design that is taking over low-cut basketball shoes. The historical impact of the Nike Zoom Kobe IV is being felt in a big way. More and more ballers are looking for a lightweight pair of shoes that provide stability and quickness on the court. In Chris Paul's own words, "Quickness on the court is what my game is about". This new shoe will certainly provide just that.

The new colorway unveiled today is an all Black edition with Gold accents used on the upper, midsole, inner lining and Jumpman logo. This new Jordan CP3.V, like Kobe's signature sneaker, features Nike Flywire on it's black upper and provides for maximum stability. Like the CP3.IV, this shoe utilizes the polygonal cutouts that gave the shoe a unique and instantly recognizable look. In addition, the toe box was specifically designed for the quick, sharp cuts that Mr. Paul is famous for. This colorway is finished off nicely with a translucent icy outsole. One look at this shoe and it is apparent that it's design is a perfect match for the aggressive, quick, slashing game of Chris Paul. The shoe and it's namesake are a match made in heaven.

The last few seasons have been quite frustrating for Chris Paul. Last season Paul led his New Orleans Hornets in points(22.0), rebounds(6.7), assists(11.5), and steals(1.8). He just has not had the surrounding cast that is needed to push his New Orleans into the upper echelon of the NBA. Chris Paul is an NBA superstar. His new pair of Jordan shoes for basketball, although not yet released, is already a superstar. Now, if the front office of the New Orleans Hornets would go out a sign a few more superstars, Paul and his new CP3.V could showcase their star power on the national stage. Perhaps even in the NBA Finals.

Stone processing machinery and equipment

Nearly 10 years of development Chinese stone machinery and equipment has made great progress, some single performance automation level has reached the international advanced level. But in the high-end technology equipment at present Chinese is no production. From the stone enterprise automation production line for the whole, compared with foreign countries there are still gaps, some production processes still rely on manual operation, not only affects the production efficiency, but also because of the quality of staff is not high resulting in product quality unstable factors. The world stone powers of Italy stone enterprise even if most of the use of a high degree of automation of production lines, but still need personnel with certain stone a wealth of knowledge and experience, to master the process of process parameters to produce the top stone products.

At present, many foreign stone mines, especially granite mines has been fully using diamond wire saw mining blocks, and cutting processing in granite Huangliao saw, also has the promotion of bridge saws. However, in many enterprises still use the old stone China saw frame. It's a significant advantage is the cutting cost is low, but there are many shortcomings:

The assembly cost is high, about four times of diamond wire saw;

 

The operating personnel, requires at least two people. When replacing the blade more co operations;

The sawing speed slow, old frame sawing sawing speed is only 2cm/h. The new framework of the sawing speed but also 3.5-3.8 cm/h. and diamond wire saw cutting speed up to 20cm/h, may increase to 30cm/h;

Effects of diamond saw blade for stone

The surface of the plate and frame sawing of the rough, flatness is also poor, and polishing speed is low, was 100cm/min, the surface of the plate and the diamond wire sawing is smooth, polishing speed can be as high as 160 cm/min, thus reducing polishing time;

The energy consumption and material consumption are high;

The disposal of scrap mortar and the work site dust causes serious environmental pollution.