Tools Used To Fabricate Granite

Granite is a hard and grainy, igneous stone found in the earth. Granite has been used in building and the beautification of structures throughout history. In modern times it is widely used in kitchens and bathrooms as countertops, wall tiles and for flooring. Granite found in quarries around the world has to be cut into blocks and transported to factories, where it will be processed, to give the shiny final product. Various machineries and tools are used to fabricate granite. The tools have become better and more efficient with the advancement in technology and science.

The fabrication process starts with the cutting of the granite blocks that are brought from the quarries. Granite is a very hard stone, difficult to cut, and causes a lot of wear and tear on the tools used to fabricate granite. To cut the blocks into the required slabs and tiles; it has to be sawed. Today the most popular are the Diamond Wire saw blades. They are used to saw granite, and is one of the most important tools used to fabricate granite. A gem called Corundum has been synthesized and can now be produced in laboratories. This gem is one of the hardest known substances, measuring to a hardness of 9 on the Mohs scale. This gem is used as the teeth in the Diamond Wire saw. Granite stone is so hard, that the teeth have to be overhauled, after the saw has been used for around 800 to 900 hours of sawing. After 6000 hours the whole saw has to be replaced.

Granite stone consists of quartz, feldspar, mica and other trace minerals. If the quartzite content is more, than the stone will be harder. Usually the cutting rate of the Diamond Wire saw is 6 to 10 inch square, per minute. If the quartzite content is more it will be much less. Also when the sawing is in process the saw has to cool with a constant jet of water, to improve the efficiency and life of the saw blade.

After the granite is cut into the required size, the next tools used to fabricate granite are the polishing machineries. The polishing machine has fast rotating heads with abrasive pads on them. The best abrasive material is diamond. The machines will generally have 10 or more polishing heads and a few calibrating heads. The polishing and grinding heads can be custom made for special requirements. Different types of polishing are possible like, rough polish, finish mirror polish and burnish to name a few. There is a control panel in the machine to control the pressure exerted on the polishing spindle, which will give the required finish, apart from the abrasive material used. Nowadays these machines are computerized and you can control them via touch screen panel. The advanced control systems of such machines can inspect and optimize the rotation of the polishing head.

Routing machineries is the next of the tools used to fabricate granite. The router creates the standard or fancy designed edges for the granite slab. This is the end process and after that there is only the finishing touches, before actually installing the slab.