Trade
Turkey's marble exporters post a record quarter on Gulf demand
Aegean quarries run near capacity as Riyadh and Doha projects absorb block supply.
Marmomac 2026
Automation
Verona readies Marmomac as robotics reshape the quarry floor
The world's stone-industry showcase opens this week with automation, waterjet and 3D-survey firms claiming the largest hall footprint in the fair's history — a signal that the sector's next decade will be written in software as much as in stone.
By Elena Marchetti·
Verona·
6 min read
Machinery
CNC bridge saws gain adaptive feed control as standard
Sensor-driven feed rates promise longer blade life and fewer stalled cuts on hard granite.
Automation
Robotic polishing cell cuts finishing time by a third
A six-axis arm and force feedback take on a job that has resisted mechanisation for decades.
Latest
All coverage →CET Technology
AI slab-matching moves from the lab to the yard
Vision systems now book-match veining across a block in seconds, not shifts.
07:15CET 3D & Manufacturing
Photogrammetry is quietly replacing the physical template
Fabricators scan a countertop opening with a phone and cut to it the same day.
Yesterday OperationsWhy the smartest yards are metering their water and slurry
Closed-loop recycling is turning a compliance cost into a margin line.
Yesterday MachineryDiamond-wire tension sensors cut the cord — and the downtime
Wireless telemetry lets a saw operator see wire fatigue before it snaps.
Technology & innovation
View all →Cutting
Adaptive feed control lands on mid-range bridge saws
Load sensing that was once premium-only is filtering down to the machines most fabricators actually buy.
Vision
AI slab-matching moves from the lab to the yard
Camera rigs and a trained model book-match veining across a whole block in seconds.
Sensing
Diamond-wire tension sensors go wireless
Telemetry off the moving wire warns of fatigue long before a costly snap.
3D & manufacturing
View all →Feature
From point cloud to finished piece, without the template
Photogrammetry, digital twins and five-axis machining are collapsing the distance between a scanned block and the object it becomes. We spent a week on three shop floors watching it happen.
Digital twins
A working twin for every quarry block
Cut-planning against a scan instead of a guess.
RoboticsRobotic arms carve the maquette first
Sculptors prototype in foam, then commit to marble.
SoftwareNesting software squeezes more from a block
Yield gains of 6–9% reported on complex orders.
MetrologyStructured light hits sub-millimetre on site
Handheld scanners leave the lab for the install.
Opinion & analysis
Column · The Long Cut
"Automation will not empty the quarry. It will change who is standing in it, and what they are paid to know."
Elena Marchetti · Editor-at-large
Analysis · Markets
"The machinery order book is the truest forecast the stone trade has. Right now it is pointing up — and toward software."
Marco Bellini · Contributing analyst
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