Stone is versatile. Though appearing unimpressionable initially it has properties to produce a whole variety of surfaces; from antique to a finish with lustrous shine - are all within its range. However, a stone has to go through a laborious and time-taking process, often a costly one, to furnish the desired finish.



But this long drawn-out and costly process has been cut short to a cost-saving technique by Kromas, the global pioneer in surface technology and consumables, based in Turkey. It has developed machines that work miracles with stone material.



What is fed into these machines and what comes out of them are so changed that it is hard to believe that such transformation of the surface is possible because it hardly takes any time to bring about this change.



No wonder these machines command global spread. Every region of the world with a significant stone sector uses machines designed by Kromas. Thus Kromas has its machines operating in Austria, Italy, Germany, France, Switzerland, Greece, Bulgaria, USA, Canada, Thailand, Vietnam, UAE, Syria, Jordan and Egypt are only some of the names that come to mind immediately going by the regions.



In India Kromas is represetned by the famous engineering company of Mumbai, Dalal Engineering. With its great reputation Kromas could sell directly but it prefers a local channel so that proper and timely service can be provided to buyers here.



And Anil Dalal, director of Dalal Engineering, is confident about the results of the collaboration with the giant company from Turkey even when local machines have propped up with much lesser price tags than the international brand of his.



He says, "A machine promising high capacity alone is not adequate. What the user has to look at is the productivity of the machine and whether it can work faultlessly and continuously."

Anil Dalal, speaking on the present times, goes on to add, "These are considerations that become all the more important during the current times when the market is slow. There is recession so costs, not only the initial outlay but also operating expenses, and ultimately costs in the long run have to be under control to become a meaningful player. The market is competitive so quality is important in as much as prices are. And our machines score high on all these fronts."

 

Anil Dalal offers options. A buyer can choose the units he desires though Kromas is producing completely automated plants consisting of several units of machines; after some time he can go in for the remaining units to convert to a fully automatic plant if he so desires.



These machines are based on thermo-diffusion, reinforcement or vibratory and centrifugal principles so nothing is left out of its scope. It depends on the buyer to demarcate the field of his choice from among the following:

• Surface ageing machines

• Reinforcement and surface filling automation system

• Fully automatic mosaic production line

• Surface finishing automation system



The final choice is to complete the line system go in for all of them along with an automatic washing and drying system.



At StoneMart 2009 giving the antique look and the fine finish drew a lot of attention. The antique appearance is secured by surface ageing machines and systems that come in several models and produce sizes of final products varying from 1x1 cm to 61x61 cm and 61x91 cm allowing thickness up to 5 cm. On display at the fair were the high end models which could process the largest of sizes.



As for the fine finish every stall at StoneMart that displayed stone also displayed the fine finish but at Kromas the lustrous finish that aroused curiosity of the onlookers was of the pebbles. Kromas has machines that are fed heterogeneous broken structure of stone material finally produces both natural-looking pebbles and pebbles with the mirror-glaze.



Other companies may also supply similar machinery but the plus point with Kromas is that it offers a complete solution by giving the right machines or the plant with the required consumable that creates the desired finish in a short time and in the desired stone whether it is sandstone, granite or a semi-precious one. A total support with a competitive edge paves the way for success.