ISFA’s Mineral Surfaces Training
On February 22, 2023, ISFA members traveled to Knoxville, Tennessee for the ISFA Mineral Surfaces Fabrication Training. The attendees visited host BB Industries at their Knoxville Headquarters, and Smokey Mountain Tops fabrication shop, also in Knoxville, and Crossville Tile’s automated manufacturing center, in Crossville, Tennessee. The training focused on getting a better understanding of the challenges and benefits of working with porcelain, sintered stone and ultra-compact surfaces, with the goal of being certified by the ISFA.
At BB Industries, attendees were warmly welcomed by the BBI staff, and engaged in strategy and informational sessions, toured BBI’s extensive warehouse, and participated in a raffle drawing, while enjoying some Mexican cuisine.
On the visit to Smokey Mountain Tops, the group toured the fabrication facility and participated in hands-on cutting, polishing, and gluing of porcelain tops. Fabricators at Smokey Mountain Tops demonstrated porcelain fabrication, including the mitering process, and generally how to work with porcelain materials. During the shop walkthrough the attendees got to see demos on drilling holes, as well as how to glue porcelain properly. They also had the opportunity to have all of their porcelain fabrication questions answered during a Q&A session towards the end of the tour.
At the field trip to Crossville Tile, everyone was introduced to the porcelain tile manufacturing process: what is involved in a quality-controlled tile-making tile process, and how the Crossville factory implements security measures to make it difficult to pirate, duplicate or copy their designs. The entire process was demonstrated, from combining the initial ingredient like sand and other materials, to curing the raw tiles in a very long, hot kiln, to how the product is packaged and stored. The tour group also got to see firsthand how tile shrinks and hardens through the heating process, and learned about Crosville’s recycling process of tile that does not meet their high quality standards. Throughout the entire tour, many were very impressed with the level of automation in the entire facility. Heavy machinery and robots worked in concert together and moved the tile from one place to another with just a few people making sure that their product is manufactured and packaged to their exacting standards.
BBI and ISFA would like to again thank everyone that came out for this training!
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