Porcelain Procedure! HELP!

[MesaTandS]

We have been ramping up production on Dekton, Lapitec, Laminan and other ultra compact porcelains and sintered stones. We have been having one hell of a time figuring out a procedure when cutting these "new age" materials without issues. We are hoping to find someone out there that is having success with cutting porcelain. We have been using a fusion sawjet with a fixed rpm (1750rpm if i remember correctly) and we have been getting more and more jobs with these materials and Knife Mitered, or built up, edges. We have the rubber slat table top on our fusion and have been using hardiebacker backerboard to cut the porcelain on. We have an Italdiamant porcelain blade that we have been running at the recommended: 20"/min entry, 40"/min traverse, 20"/min exit speeds and have an issue with blowouts or chips at intersections with other cuts and at the exit end of a cut when the blade leaves the stone. It has been a huge headache for me (Programmer/saw operator) and our management in light of all the workorders coming up with PORCELAIN on them. Any help in fine tuning our system to alleviate some of the headache and stress in this new material.

[deepwater]

Cut the whole thing with the water jet

[Dave.Scott]

Check your blade for cupping, dress it frequently.
We like the Helix Ceramic blade.
Feed rate is slower on the white/light colors.
Make sure your table is flat.
Place your cutouts and finished edges towards the middle of the slab-- away from the edges.
Water, Water, Water.

If the blade is loud, it is working too hard.

[Stone Guys]

Contact Silestone, they run a magnificent training right in your factory.

They have everything down pat with porcelain and the best training I have see for a while

Aaron
Master Stonemason
National Technical Manager

Stone Guys
stonetech@thestoneguy.com.au
www.thestoneguy.com.au

[Tim the Artisan]

Dave and the Stone Guys both offer great advice.

Cosentino had my local rep come out this past Friday and watch us as we tackled our first "X Gloss" job.

I must say that Cosentino has really impressed me with the amount of time, training and material that they are willing to hand out to get us accustomed to the UCS fabrication process.

We have basic equipment that serves us well and we are following the same practices as you seem to be. The one thing that seems to be imperative is that you are running the blade completely through the cut. I mean until the blade is all of the way out of the cut. Other than that, sounds like you are doing it right.

[kkhrestsov]

you are going way to fast for both of these.
the recommended speeds are for 16" blades.
we plunge at 6-10" /min
and cut at around 20-30" min, and whenever possible use water jet (i mean almost allways)

[dbiel]

What does Cosentino have to do with porcelain slabs ,do you mean Dekton is it the same or different ?I am confused.I am not aware that Cosentino has any product in the
'gauged porcelain slab" category .

[Dave.Scott]

Dekton=Cosentino

[dbiel]

That being said ,is the procedure and process for fabricating Dekton ( sintered material) the same as procedures for fabricating "gauged porcelain panels "?
I know there are different procedures for 6mm then 12mm.

[Tim the Artisan]

We work with gauged porcelain, specifically Laminam, but the fabrication is slightly different.

With 6mm gauged, we use a track cutter. A big straight edge that has a roller Rubi tip that scores the surface. Just like a Rubi board, without the board. It scores and snaps the whole 10+ feet. Pretty sweet. Hand work is the same as UCS. We don't do much fabrication in the shop with the 6mm Laminam as most of the work we do with it are showers and facade's and once you tool up, it is pretty easy to work with in the field.

12mm we treat just like a UCS in the shop.

[EYE4iT]

We have been ramping up production on Dekton, Lapitec, Laminan and other ultra compact porcelains and sintered stones. We have been having one hell of a time figuring out a procedure when cutting these "new age" materials without issues. We are hoping to find someone out there that is having success with cutting porcelain. We have been using a fusion sawjet with a fixed rpm (1750rpm if i remember correctly) and we have been getting more and more jobs with these materials and Knife Mitered, or built up, edges. We have the rubber slat table top on our fusion and have been using hardiebacker backerboard to cut the porcelain on. We have an Italdiamant porcelain blade that we have been running at the recommended: 20"/min entry, 40"/min traverse, 20"/min exit speeds and have an issue with blowouts or chips at intersections with other cuts and at the exit end of a cut when the blade leaves the stone. It has been a huge headache for me (Programmer/saw operator) and our management in light of all the workorders coming up with PORCELAIN on them. Any help in fine tuning our system to alleviate some of the headache and stress in this new material.
[

One trick that seemed to help a lot with the corners not breaking off/chipping was to do a stress relief cut on the last 3" before doing the main length cut. This way as the pressure builds throughout the cutting process, the last few inches are already relieved and will cut smoother. Slow blade movement on a very level surface is another thing to help.

[Stone Guys]

We would highly suggest that you contact Cosentino - Aka Dekton and Silestone.

They do a brilliant training day in your own factory. It will resolve all your issues with any porcelain products

[Ken Lago]

We would highly suggest that you contact Cosentino - Aka Dekton and Silestone.

They do a brilliant training day in your own factory. It will resolve all your issues with any porcelain products
[

Who is we?

[Dan R.]

Not sure how they are in Australia, but Cosentino has been out right non cooperative with fabricators in the USA.

Some would even say antagonistic. Not very smart, imo, but then again, I just a fabricator.

We prefer to work with any other compact slabs & quartz products, other than Cosentino products. No problems to date. i would suggest others pursue the same path.

[Stone Guys]

Wow that is nice to know. They are not like that here, Caesarstone are the ones that are antagonistic etc here.

From the comments above from some fabricators, it may be worth your while either bypassing the local rep and contact the regional manager. As they do have a brilliant porcelain fabricators program.

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Thanks

[Kowboy]

Well, it's happened again. The Kowboy agrees with Dan.

Several years ago I was called to a Silestone job that was attempted to be fabricated as a solid surface job would have been.This resulted in inappropriate and horribly polished seams. The local Silestone distributor was less than cooperative to satisfy the homeowner and more importantly, failed to defend the brand.

[T_Kiwi]

I am a technician in Australia and have been doing a great job helping people with Dekton both on the saw and cnc sink machines, I have found that each machine has different parameters and just like humans they all have different personalities, almost no two machines will be the same parameters for cutting because of varibles involved, rigid table vs sloopy table...good bearings vs sloppy bearings..rack and pinions...amperage of the motors etc etc which is why it is important to have someone who is very experienced come to your factory and set up the system for you.
However, in saying that, a ball park piece of advice is running the blade between 1800-2150rpm, 450-480 diameter, generally with my experience a marble blade will suffice, frequently run through sandstone.
Brand of blade used is important, and with so many brands available it is hard to determine the right one.

[GrumpaDirt]

So far we have had no success with ANY blade offered by anyone. We have tried them all! The only way to fabricate Dekton as far as we have figured out is to make your 3/4" relief cuts with your blade, and waterjet the rest and hand polish. Dont bother with CNC tools for profiling, they will be useless after 1 job.

[T_Kiwi]

I can show you great finishes with profile tools on dekton, and the tools are great, and the blades for cutting are great, for the risk of sounding like a sales guy I know exactly what works with cutting dekton on a saw and on a cnc, i even have videos, short videos,
Anthony Fenton on fb, Fentech

[Alex_Bores]

Just was able to help someone in a similar position.

Here are the latest Hellion Blades available with feedback to back it up! If you need any other help than what was offered here. Please send me a pm or email!

[jody.nick]

Hi there i run a breton saw cutting granite, quartz and porcelain /ceramic slabs. I find most porcelain/ceramics alright to cut once you have all the variables sorted but without getting into trouble i find lapitec the most problematic to cut because of corners blowing out does anyone else have this problem ? Lapitec academy are not that helpful.

[EYE4iT]

Hi there i run a breton saw cutting granite, quartz and porcelain /ceramic slabs. I find most porcelain/ceramics alright to cut once you have all the variables sorted but without getting into trouble i find lapitec the most problematic to cut because of corners blowing out does anyone else have this problem ? Lapitec academy are not that helpful.
[

Do you put a relief cut first on the far side of your cut? That seems to do the trick most times for any porcelain work I've run into.

[jody.nick]

yea mate i do that but still having problems with cnrs chipping out on lapitec blanco assoluto four times to cut one piece.it has to be the worst of the lapitec range to cut .pity because the slabs are clean no imperfections

[joewright]

We have not cut dekton yet but we do cut neo-lith. when i cut es, neo-lith or any other slab of man made material that is under "tension", I drill inside corners and put a relief cut at the end of slab before i cut. While the saw is cutting i insert plastic stone wedges into the cut tightly by hand about every 20" or so. I use the Gran Quartz marble blade or Alpha silencer 3 for porcelain and crystallized glass.

I hope this helps and applies to your question. We are an old school shop with the Park Wizard Deluxe, and Park Jaguar 2 bridge saw. All work is hand fab and we do not have water jet. If I have issues i usually slow down the cut so I am not stressing the stone or blade more than I have to.

Joe

[Stone Guys]

We have not cut dekton yet but we do cut neo-lith. when i cut es, neo-lith or any other slab of man made material that is under "tension", I drill inside corners and put a relief cut at the end of slab before i cut. While the saw is cutting i insert plastic stone wedges into the cut tightly by hand about every 20" or so. I use the Gran Quartz marble blade or Alpha silencer 3 for porcelain and crystallized glass.

I hope this helps and applies to your question. We are an old school shop with the Park Wizard Deluxe, and Park Jaguar 2 bridge saw. All work is hand fab and we do not have water jet. If I have issues i usually slow down the cut so I am not stressing the stone or blade more than I have to.

Joe
[

Spot on,

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