THE BOUNDARIES OF IMAGINATIONBut can you imagine paging through books of pre-engineered designs (or dreaming up your own) ranging in size from 3' to 12', selecting the materials of your choice, allocating which colors you want where, then placing the order and having the design delivered right to your door weeks later? This is happening every day for those who are using waterjet cutting technology to shape their floor designs, wall murals, corporate logos, furniture and the like. "Drawing upon our 91 years of experience in working stone, combined with the latest waterjet cutting technology, we have been working hard at building up an awareness of what can be done with waterjets in the stone and tile world by investing in consistent advertising for several years," says Ward. "Of course we rely on magazines such as Dimensional Stone to keep the industry up to date with the latest developments in the application and use of natural stone products.” "To a large extent," Ward adds, "we have been helping educate installers, fabricators and suppliers as to how easy and accessible even the most intricate design in any medium is." A GIANT LEAP IN TIME SAVINGSDetailed mosaic inlays have provided elegant upgrades for natural stone flooring for thousands of years. But until recently, intricate patterns were time consuming, and limited to the patience and artistry of a finite number of highly skilled artisans-and their rich patrons. "Waterjet technology," says Richard Zenobio, founder of Madera Custom Marble, "now enables fabricators to cut impossible shapes out of slab materials in a time frame which would appear as a blink of an eye to an old-world craftsman." Waterjet work in the stone industry has grown tremendously in the last few years, and the envelope |
is just beginning to open as designers and architects realize they are no longer restricted to simple, geometric patterns and begin to challenge their suppliers with more sophisticated demands. Many companies first began creating marble inlay designs by hand, using a variety of bandsaws, grinders and tile saws that were time consuming and limited its size, shape and thickness of materials. While researching a way to fabricate inlay work more efficiently, the solution kept pointing to waterjet technology. The question then became: How expensive is it? SEVERAL FACTORS DETERMINE COSTWater jet cutting has had the reputation of being astronomically expensive, but is that really the case? Zenobio points out, "The first thing to realize is that the actual cutting of the material often represents less than half of the total expenses associated with a custom stone fabrication project." There are other factors to consider:
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