Month: November 2022

Natural Stone Institute Announces New Board Members

The Natural Stone Institute will welcome two individuals to its board of directors in January 2023: Restoration & Maintenance Sal Banchitta, Simple Stone CareSal Banchitta graduated from Hunter College with a Bachelors in geology and served in the Natural Stone Industry for over 35 years in diverse capacities. Sal’s unique … Read more

Park Industries Demonstrates VOYAGER™ XP CNC Saw TightCut Blade Plung

Rocky and Jon of Park Industries, walk you through a tightly nested program on the VOYAGER™ XP CNC Saw. They showcase the value of a really great feature on this machine: TightCut™ Blade Plunging. This allows you to nest parts tighter for more material yield, reduces milling time, and eliminates the need to pause your program to move parts.

Expanding Domestic Quartz Surfacing Supply

An inside look at the development of MSI Surfaces U.S. quartz production plant Rup Shah and his brother Raj Shah are co-presidents of MSI Surfaces, managing all aspects of the company together. The family business has come a long way since its humble beginnings in 1975, when their parents ran … Read more

REHAU Relocates & Expands Edgeband Production in North America

REHAU has announced plans to build a new facility for edgeband production in North America to meet current demand and to scale for future growth. Established in 1993, REHAU México’s new plant in the company’s Celaya production hub in central México employs more than 700 people.  “The decision to relocate REHAU’s … Read more

Vadara Introduces Ebbs & Flows Collection

Vadara has introduced its newest nature-inspired collection of eight quartz designs: Ebbs & Flows. The company describes the designs as gentle, flowing patterns that nod to constant movement of the earth’s elements. A dancing flame, a flurry of snowflakes, the ever-changing formation of desert dunes, the mesmerizing ebbs and flows … Read more

U.S. Customs & Border Protection Announces Final Affirmative Determination of Antidumping & Countervailing Duty Evasion

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (Customs) has determined the existence of a wide-ranging illegal evasion scheme by a network of Chinese producers, international logistics companies, Malaysian companies, and U.S. importers all working together to evade the antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) orders on quartz surface products from China. As a … Read more

NKBA Releases Q3 2022 Kitchen & Bath Market Index

The National Kitchen & Bath Association (NKBA) has released its Kitchen & Bath Market Index (KBMI) for Q3 2022. The overall market index of 63.2 is the lowest it has been since Q3 2020 and the future conditions rating of 55.4 is at its lowest level since Q1 2020. Both are … Read more

Cosentino Activates the Largest Photovoltaic Self-consumption Installation in Spain

Cosentino Group, a global producer and distributor of innovative and sustainable surfaces for architecture and design, has officially activated the largest photovoltaic self-consumption installation put into operation in Spain, and one of the largest in Europe. The plant will be located in the municipalities of Cantoria and Partaloa within the … Read more

Business Sense: The Perfect Way to Use Software in a Countertop Shop

By Katherine Gifford of Moraware Okay, I’m sorry for the clickbait title. That was rude of me because the answer is – there isn’t one perfect way to use software in any business. For over 20 years, we’ve worked alongside fabricators running businesses of all shapes and sizes. If there’s one thing … Read more

Natural Stone Institute Publishes Industry-Wide Environmental Product Declarations

The Natural Stone Institute has published industry-wide ISO Type III Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) for three applications of natural dimension stone: Cladding, Flooring/Paving, and Countertops. Also published are 13 Health Product Declarations (HPDs) for natural stone found in 15 MasterFormat® classifications. An EPD is an independently verified and registered document that quantifies … Read more