Sawing for shell limestone blocks
In summer 2014, the special machine manufacturer installed and commissioned two sawing systems at Hemm Stone GmbH Natursteinwerk Kirchheim, a Sto AG company. With its own quarries, modern machinery and manual labour, it offers a wide range of products and services relating to natural stone. "We mainly quarry shell limestone, which has proven itself as a building material for centuries," says Christian Gruber, Head of Project Business and authorised representative. Shell limestone is used as a hard-wearing floor covering for outdoor and indoor areas, for façade design and in gardening and landscaping.
The quarried stones are cut on the block saw to create a straight surface, preparing them for further processing on either the beam saw or the multi-slab saws available in the factory. "The advantage of this sawing technology is that we can utilise the finite raw material much better and cut it more economically," says Gruber, summarising the reasons for the investment. Whereas previously a maximum of two blocks were processed at a time, today up to ten blocks can be placed on the respective system and cut.