The Tile Plant

The picture shows a view of our tile processing plant.

As you can see, our tile saws are very large. These saws are capable of taking rough blocks and cutting them to various dimensions. The dimensions are tackled both vertically and horizontally since the machine is capable of sawing on both axes.

Here is a general view of one of the larger tile saws that we use to produce our 610mm (24" wide) range of tiles. Owing to the great demand for our exclusive colours, tiles are normally produced to specific customer requirement orders only.

Here the tile saw is preparing for action. Large volumes of water are used to aid the cutting process which is pumped away from the tile cutting plant to our recycling plant which we have close by on site. This lowers the burden on the local water system and increases our efficiency whilst maintaining our environmentally friendly ethos.

The Tile Saw In Action

(1) First of all the tile saw cuts the granite into slabs 10 mm thick (3/8") of various length strips. The length of strip is determined by the block being cut. Later in the cutting process, the length is dimensioned to customer specification

(2): As you can see from the image above, the tile saw is a very powerful machine and slicing through the granite's very hard structure is relatively easy for it since the saw tips are composed of industrial diamonds.

(3): Copious amounts of water are used during the cutting process to ensure that the diamond tipped blades are kept cool. Even the diamond tips can be damaged during the cutting process if care is not taken due to the extreme amount of heat that accumulates whilst cutting takes place.

Tile Production 1) The first process after the strip leaves the saw is one of cleaning and calibrating. This removes any slurry (wet dust) and saw marks from the strip face and back. 2) After the strips are ready, the start of the lengthy process commences. This is the beginning of the polishing and final calibration of the tiles ready for shipping to customers. The machine cuts the strip to the correct measurement and bevels the tile edges automatically. 3) Here the tiles are polished and calibrated by the machine to the right of this picture. The unit requires several workers to maintain its constant operation, and to provide the input necessary for each individual job that it undertakes. The typical input would be depth of polish and the calibration measurements. 4) After the tiles have been polished and calibrated by our specialised machines, they are visually checked for any flaws that may have occurred during production. We use this checking system to provide feedback across all production processes. It allows us to maintain our high standards of quality and also provide important information for our engineers who service the machines regularly. 5) When the tiles have been inspected and certified as "Approved", then they are stacked in piles ready to be packed into polyethylene for protection before they are moved to containers ready for shipping. 6) Finally the tiles are packed in polyethylene and then wooden crates (for added protection). The most popular tiles are 30 x 30 x 10 mm and 30.5 x 30.5 x 10 mm (12" x 12" x 3/8") They are packed 10 to a box and a typical container load would have the equivalent of 750 square metres, meaning between 805 to 835 boxes.