Machinery : D Zambelis

Anyone buying a Terzago saw or CMG edge polisher from UK agent D Zambelis at the Marmomacc stone exhibition in Verona next month, or after the exhibition until Christmas, will receive an extra 6% discount.

During last year’s Marmomacc, Zambelis made contacts that resulted shortly afterwards with the UK machinery supplier being the new British agent for CMG edge polishers, Donatoni’s huge range of stone processing and handling machinery, top end Omag CNC workcentres and Turrini Claudio dust suppression and water recycling equipment.

Zambelis entered the stone machinery market in the UK in 2007, after years of supplying tools and consumables. It began by selling keenly priced saws, workcentres and edge polishers from Gisbert, the Spanish manufacturer.

Spain has suffered a lot from the world’s economic problems and Dimitri and Stella Zambelis decided to use Marmomacc last year to look for established Italian manufacturers to represent, having already negotiated agencies first for Achilli and then Terzago, both Italian saw-makers.

There were already a lot of the well-known and respected heavyweight Terzago saws working in the UK when Zambelis took on the agency last year – and there are even more now that Zambelis has been selling them for a year or so.

“I’m not complaining,” says Stella of the level of sales of the Terzago Easy 625 and Cute that Terzago showed in Verona last year and will have back there this year. They have a traffic light safety system on them that anyone can understand: red – don’t open the guard doors; amber – approach with caution; green – all clear.

“They have been very successful, I think because people had been waiting for someone in the UK to look after them. Since April we’ve had a Terzago arriving every two weeks.”

In some cases they are replacements for existing saws, with Terzago happy to take back the old saws in part exchange for the new. The old saws are completely stripped down, repainted and repaired and look so good when they are re-sold that customers sometimes find it hard to believe they are buying a used saw. They are even supplied with a year’s warranty like the new machines.

A few of the reconditioned saws have been re-sold in the UK but typically they go to Eastern European countries.

Terzago and Achilli make saws for different sectors of the market, Terzago for the top end and Achilli for smaller workshops, although over time the difference between the two companies’ products has become less distinct where they meet in the middle.

In Verona, Achilli will be showing the GLD-IG TS, which has been produced to meet the requirements given to Achilli by Zambelis based on the specification of the most popular of the Gisbert saws, the CP35MBA.

It has a rotating, tilting table, with positive locking at 0º, 45º and 90º in both directions. The 15hp (11kW) motor carries a 500mm disc. Linear guides with recirculating ball slides mean smooth operation and the software is simple and intuitive to use.

Only the development model has been made to date. It has not been sold, but Stella Zambelis says if anyone wants it she will negotiate a good price. What the price of the production version will be will depend on the final specification, which will be influenced by feed-back from Marmomacc.

Zambelis had already worked with Achilli on the development of the MBS-LTS that was introduced on the Zambelis stand at the Natural Stone Show in London last year. It is a small saw with a big cut that has become the fastest selling of the Achilli saws in the UK – six have been installed and two more are on order.

Although it is a compact saw, it has a 3.5m cut on the ‘X’ axis and 1.9m on the ‘Y’ axis. Steel guides with angle rack and pinion and motors with digital inverters deliver high precision, smooth control of the head, which has an 11kW motor running a disc up to 500mm. Its manually rotating head locks at 0º, 45º and 90º, with the option of a fully automatic head that can be controlled from the head itself or from the 7in touch-screen colour monitor.

The colour monitor is also used to programme multiple cuts (single and step cutting) and for calibrating, and the saw has the facility to store up to 20 cutting lists.

Omag exhibited at Italy’s spring stone show of Marmotec in Carrara, when it introduced the new M14 handling system that it will also be showing in Verona, along with its sophisticated CNC workcentres. Zambelis has sold two Omags to Portland limestone quarry company Portland Stone Firms, which has previously bought various machines from Zambelis.

Stella says she would rather sell big CNCs than the small ones she was selling from Gisbert because there are fewer problems. When a company has spent a lot of money on a workcentre it tends to be looked after, whereas the small machines often receive less respect. Stella: “80% of engineer visits to CNCs last year were not manufacturing faults but were because they had not been looked after or used properly.”

It is the same with edge polishers. CMG machines are not likely to give processors any problems but they are on the pricey side of MarmoMeccanicas, which they are often compared with when companies are investing in edge polishers. Both will be on show in Verona, so you can compare them for yourself to see if you think CMG is worth the extra.

CMG produces Futura, Taurus and Flotter edge polishers in its 2,600m2 factory near Verona. At Marmomacc it will be introducing a new, versatile Taurus called the Kombi. CMG wants to make a splash with it at the show and has not released details in advance, although it promises a machine that will polish the underneath front edge of a surface, produce pencil rounds, cut channels and even produce a sandblasted-effect anti-slip region on steps.