Airknives cut it for Marshalls
November 12th 2010

Industrial cutting of natural stone paving slabs involves the use of copious amounts of water. It is required to lubricate the diamond cutting blade, clean the cut and to prevent the generation of dust.

The subsequent operations of handling and secondary processing demand that this water is removed. At its Howley Park quarry near Dewsbury, Marshalls Natural Stone has installed an efficient means of achieving this – blower powered airknives from Air Control Industries (ACI).

The ACI airknives replace the manual operation of removing the water from each stone paving slab with a squeegee. The airknives avoid potential shortcomings in the manual operation to ensure effective moisture removal.

Maintenance reduced

This in turn reduces maintenance on vacuum lifting systems, such as frequent emptying of water collection reservoirs on the power units. It also minimises the risk of steel shot used for blasting non-slip and decorative finishes adhering to the slabs and causing rust stains.

All this achieved as a result of the efficiency of the airknives’ air delivery pattern; an even and continuous curtain of air across the full width of the slabs.

In addition, there is the bonus for those on the cutting line who no longer get wet as a result of ‘squeegeeing’ the slabs.

“The airknives are very effective,” said Andy Reed, maintenance manager. “After discovering ACI’s airknives on line I contacted the company and we were given one on trial to prove its effectiveness. We now have two installed at this plant and are having others installed on other sites where they are impatient to get them installed.”

At Howley Park, Marshalls cut and prepare sand stone paving slabs for prestigious projects such as areas of Trafalgar Square, Albert Docks and Park Lane.

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