Page 2 - Demo

2|April 2020 Emco-
Williams
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“Yes,” recalled Bill Grove Junior, “but it was a little diffi- cult in the beginning. We had no knowledge of natural stone and no one to ask for help, so when dad and I went for training at Z-Bavelloni in Greensboro, we took Jon Burns with us. Jon was one of our employees who had been working with cultured mar- ble. He was very computer savvy, and he and I learned how to use the machine even before they in- stalled it. Then, from that point, it was trial and error. We’d put the stone on, and hope it would turn out okay. Every time that we did a project, we’d learn a little bit, and we would then challenge our- selves with a piece that was a lit- tle bit more difficult. The biggest challenge was learning how to handle and cut it more efficiently, and how to install it better. It was learning on the fly, and we’d try and get better at it with every kitchen.”
In the beginning, the company’s fabrication work was residential, but seeing opportunity in other markets, the company since then has become about 50 percent residential and 50 percent com- mercial, explained Bill Junior. “Commercial work to us is hotels, motels, hospitality, rental cabins, resorts, time shares, apartments and restaurants. We are quite di- verse, and we are now getting into the growing trend of porcelain. We’ve done a few jobs, but we are not a big fan of it, yet.”
Slippery rock GAzette
The Nuts and Bolts
Emco-Williams currently has two locations. All fabrication is done at the Sevierville location, which also includes a showroom. There’s a second showroom in Knoxville for the city folks look- ing to adorn their living space with quality stone amenities or cultured products. “We actu- ally still do cultured marble to this day,” continued Bill Junior, “but stone and cultured are not remotely similar. They are two different animals, and we have separated the cultured section and natural section within the factory. The front half is granite and the back half is cultured.”
The all-under-one-roof, 18,000 square foot facility sits on three acres. Approximately two-thirds of the fabrication space is natural stone production, and one third is for cultured production. However, in the next three months, accord- ing to Bill Junior, they are going to phase out the cultured produc- tion portion, and expand fabrica- tion into that space. “We are just
Below, right: Emco-Williams runs two Z-Bavelloni CNC machines to keep production flowing smoothly.
Above and right: Gearing up for early morning production in the 18,000 square foot facil- ity. E-W was an early adopter of CNC technology for granite fabrication, but sometimes a hand-polished touch is needed.
too busy with stone fabrication to keep doing it the way we’ve been doing it, and we need more space.”
Producing approximately two kitchens per day, the materials ratio is 80 percent granite, 15 percent quartz and 5 percent mar- ble. Equipment consists of two Z-Bavelloni CNCs, a Montresor Luna 740 edger, a Donatoni CNC Jet saw, a Marmo Electro Meccanica manual saw and a Sasso Flying Flat edge polisher. Additionally, a Rye-Corp Fab King is the go-to machine for sink area fabrication for commercial
Wet edge finishing with their Montresor Luna. The production staging area in background (and inset) uses a fleet of red Hercules carts.
projects. According to Bill Junior, the shop is totally wet and em- ploys a recently installed Turrini Water Filtration System that pro- vides 169 gallons per minute.
Synchronous flow to the shop is accomplished through two inside sales personnel and an office man- ager, while fabrication is achieved with 11 fabricators in the shop (four are dedicated machine op- erators), and the remaining crafts- men provide hands-on finishing or warehouse and slab routing. Three two-man crews in three trucks take care of the installation end. “Our people are very good at what they do,” continued Bill Junior, “and most have helped us grow. One of our lead installers, Ken Posey, was so good with peo- ple, that we made him a salesman. As an installer, he really made customers feel comfortable and is very quality-oriented. His abilities are one of the key reasons why granite took off for us. ”
is about a 60-mile radius from Sevierville, but they occasionally travel beyond that for commer- cial jobs. As for the logistics, Bill Junior said, “After a salesperson meets with the client at their res- idence, we’ll digitally template the kitchen with an ETemplate Laser, and place all the measure- ments in a folder and bring it back. Typically, the salesperson will then create the finished shop drawing and digitize it, because he has established the client’s needs. The saw operator will then take it, and if the customer wants to come in and take a look at it– which doesn’t happen a whole lot– we will take them to their slabs and do a complete layout.
“The job layout is also given to the CNC operator, and if the cli- ent did not come in for a layout, both the saw operator and CNC operator will collaborate on coun- tertop placement and bring the job into production.”
Emco-Williams’ service area
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