Company Notes – September 2007

• Cambria quartz surfaces are now certified GREENGUARD For Children & Schools(SM) by the GREENGUARD Environmental Institute (GEI). The certification is given to companies and products that do not emit harmful levels of chemicals into the environment; the Le Sueur, Minn.-based company’s products were certified for general use in 2006.

• Employees from Cold Spring, Minn.-based Granite Tops Inc. ended up working in the wee hours of a Sunday morning in late August, volunteering services for the ABC-TV show Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. The effort helped build a home for a family in Minnetonka, Minn.; the episode involved – the show’s 100th – will air in late November.

• Eastern Surfaces will relocate 85 employees and its production headquarters in January from Hanover Township, Pa., to a new 45,000 ft² in Allentown, Pa. The company’s 15,000 ft² headquarters area will include a showroom.

• Jet Edge Inc., St. Michael, Minn., is now posting used waterjet equipment for sale on its Website. Equipment inventory includes ultra-high-pressure intensifier pumps, motion systems, accessories and mobile cleaning and cutting equipment.

• Superior Stone Equipment launches a new website, www.bridgesaw.com, giving full descriptions, details and specs on its bridge saws, edgers and water-recycling equipment. Future features on the site include live video of the equipment.

• Shackerley (Holdings) Group Limited, the British partner of KEIL Befestigungstechnik of Engelskirchen, Germany, received the Queen’s Award in the United Kingdom for its Sureclad ceramic granite rain-screen system, which consists of a pre-fabricated ceramic granite slab, an aluminium sub-structure and a special attachment assembled to create a mechanically fixed façade with a defined air cavity to the rear. KEIL’s undercut anchor is used to provide a secure and stress-free ‘invisible’ fix to the rear of the panel, resulting in a façade with a sleek monolithic appearance.

• The International Solid Surface Fabricators Association (ISSFA) now offers a Quartz Template & Install Training Program – a hands-on workshop covering all fabrication issues from measuring and templating to installation and seaming, as well as handling and safety, and cleanup.

• Stone Holdings (Pvt) Ltd, a subsidiary of Zimbabwe’s Industrial Development Corporation, is still awaiting government amendments on laws providing sufficient quality granite for domestic processing, according to the Herald of Harare. Stone Holdings petitioned the government a year ago to clarify a law that compels quarriers to offer 10 percent of each grade and category of dimensional stone to local companies – however, grades and categories of stone aren’t specified.