The marble and granite manufacturing process is quite simple as a general idea, but the peculiarity of each material and its own fragility impose severe rules in the control of every single working phase.

GANGSAWING

Slabs of different thicknesses come out sawn from each block by the use of diamond blades set on a power loom through vertical gangsaws working at a sawing speed varying from the 4cm/h for the hardest granite to the 40cm/h for the softest limestone. The cutting speed and the sawing characteristic of the diamond blades are differently set every time on the basis of the demanded thickness and of the phisical and technical peculiarity of each stone, so as to avoid the collapse of the block during the gangsawing.

HAND RESIN GLUEING

In order to make harder weak and widespread veined structured marbles it is necessary to exploit the modern technology of the epoxy resin as well as the hands of skilled workers able to glue the most broken material making its structure as hard as possible. This phase is very important, since it makes possible the use of stones of beautiful color shades that otherwise should not be employed in the building field.

REINFORCING

After the hand resin glueing the reinforcing phase is due to render the flexural strength of veined marbles higher. An epoxy resin is poured on the back side of the marble slab so that during oven-drying catalyzing the hard resin fills in all the natural microholes of the stone. The marble is also reinforced by a glass fybre wires net glued by resin on the back side of each weak slab.

AUTOMATIC RESIN FILLING

The plant for automatic epoxy resin filling has been the first cause of cogemar success in high quality marble manufacture. Coloured epoxy resins are sprayed and spreaded all over the front side of the slabs, the catalyzing process goes on inside a vertical line of drying ovens. The mixture of the resins is made on purpose for each material, due to its peculiarity in colour, vein, porosity and strength; the resin mixture definitely fills in all the microholes in the marble slab, making it many times stronger than its natural. Through this manufacture the cycle of strenghtening of the marble slab is completed and so beautiful coloured materials become suitable to an architectural use.

SLABS LINE POLISHING

The stone slab is naturally mat, to make it brilliant you have to polish it by a surface abrasion process.
The first step of this phase is setting each slab properly on the line, than washing it at a high pressure in order to clean every trace of dust. The roller conveyor carries on the slab into a oven-drying section, then all the resin and glue residue are removed. After oven-drying the real polishing activity begins: while carried over the roller conveyor the slab is subject to the rotating pressure of the polishing heads set in increasing order of sharpness. The final wax and the quality visual control complete the polishing manufacturing phase.
Coming out from the polishing line each slab is protected by a plastic film and recomposed in the original block, in order to preserve the colour uniformity of the parcel.
Polishing is just one of the surface finishing treatment for marble, granite, limestone and travertine, even though it is the most employed, the other frequently used surface finishing treatments are:

• HONING
• FLAMING
• ANTIQUE FINISHING
• SAND FINISHING
• BUSHHAMMERING
• CLEAVING

CUTTING

The cutting phase is the most various since the final product can assume the most different shapes customized on each client's specifics. Cogemar has 4 cutting machines for diamond disk cutting and an automatic CAM moulding machine.

"CUT-TO-SIZE" POLISHING

It is often necessary to repolish pieces after their cut to make them perfect. A special machine is dedicated to this aim.

FINAL QUALITY CONTROL AND PACKAGING

Making remarkable projects imposes a severe quality control of manufacture and materials, so taht each piece of product receives the finishing thouch by hand and it is marked on its back by its identificative number so as to be properly set in the assembly plan of each project; then the pieces are packed in wooden crates made on purpose and protected by polystyrene sheets and/or plastic film.