Closed-loop water recovery
Stone Industry
Scalable solutions
Plants designed around actual
workshop space constraints
Process-water treatment plants for the natural and engineered stone industry
Tecnoidea designs and builds compact water and sludge treatment plants for the stone industry, with 45 years of experience in inert-material treatment and scalable solutions ranging from small workshops to large processing plants.
Managing stone cutting and processing water
Every stone-processing machine — grinding wheels, diamond wires, spindles, polishing machines — needs water to prevent overheating and to suppress dust. The result of this process is turbid water, laden with fine mineral particles from cutting and polishing, that requires appropriate treatment before discharge or reuse.
The most common problem with water and sludge treatment plants in this sector is oversizing, which can lead to unnecessary operating costs and a footprint disproportionate to actual sludge production.
The second problem, conversely, concerns workshops without any treatment equipment, which discharge the turbid water and build up sludge in sumps and channels that eventually require increasingly time-consuming and costly manual cleaning.
The Tecnoidea solution
The water and sludge treatment process in the stone industry
Clariflocculation
The turbid water from the cutting and polishing machines is collected in a sump or tank and pumped to the static clarifier, sized to the plant’s flow rate. During transfer, flocculant is dosed — prepared by a single-chamber unit for lower flow rates, or by a three-chamber unit for higher flow rates — aggregating the fine mineral particles into larger, denser flocs. In the clarifier, the flocs settle in the lower cone while the clarified water overflows at the surface, ready for recirculation to the processing machines.
Dewatering: why the filter press
The sludge that accumulates in the clarifier cone must be periodically discharged and dewatered. The choice of dewatering system depends primarily on the workshop’s actual sludge output.
For plants with continuous or higher-volume production — those cutting blocks into slabs, or handling large volumes of material — a compact sidebar filter press is typically used, fed by a sludge tank with an agitator. The sludge is pumped into the filter chambers, the water passes through the cloths, and the solid cakes are discharged for disposal.
Dewatering: why the dewatering bag
For small operations with low sludge output — workshops producing kitchen worktops, cladding or memorial stonework — the solution is a dewatering bag placed in a containment box beneath the clarifier. The sludge is discharged directly into the bag by gravity; the water percolates slowly through the filter fabric, is collected by a drainage channel and returned to the cycle. The sludge dewaters passively inside the bag, which serves as a filtration medium, temporary storage and disposal container.
Water recirculation and operational autonomy
The recovered water is stored and returned to the processing machines, closing the loop. The plant is designed to operate with a high degree of autonomy: operator intervention is mainly limited to cake disposal in filter-press systems and bag replacement in dewatering-bag systems. Advanced automation systems — LEM (sludge-level monitoring) and SADF (automatic flocculant dosing) — are optional in most stone-industry applications; they become increasingly relevant as plant throughput increases.
Products, plants and technologies for the stone industry
From complete lines for large plants to compact solutions for small workshops.
Disidratazione fanghi
La disidratazione meccanica rappresenta la fase più importante nella gestione dei fanghi di processo. Attraverso una filtrazione ad alta pressione,...
Discover the technology
Vasca dell’acqua torbida
La vasca (o pozzo) dell’acqua torbida è la prima unità di processo che riceve l’acqua dell’impianto di lavaggio carica di...
Discover the product
Chiarificazione e stoccaggio
La chiarificazione rappresenta la fase preparatoria fondamentale nel processo di trattamento e recupero delle acque e dei fanghi. Attraverso processi...
Discover the technology
Filtropressa a trave alta
È la macchina progettata per la disidratazione meccanica dei fanghi nel caso di grandi produzioni. Separa l’acqua dal fango e...
Discover the product
Vertical static clarifier
The vertical static clarifier is Tecnoidea’s preferred technology for separating suspended solids from wash water. Based on the principle of...
Discover the product
Sludge tank
Tecnoidea’s sludge tank is a dynamic process unit designed to receive thickened sludge from the clarifier and prepare it for...
Discover the productSludge agitator
The sludge agitator is installed inside process tanks to keep the sludge homogeneous. It prevents the sludge from settling naturally,...
Discover the product
Horizontal abrasion-resistant pump
Tecnoidea’s horizontal centrifugal pumps are designed to handle turbid water, dense sludge and highly abrasive fluids. With impellers and pump...
Discover the productWould you like to know more about Tecnoidea’s solutions?
Contact usWhy choose Tecnoidea’s solutions for the stone industry
Specialist expertise and right-sized design
Since 1981 we have designed water treatment plants for the extractive and stone sectors. Our experience allows us to size each plant according to the workshop’s actual output. We provide a complete range of scalable solutions: from the compact clarifier with a dewatering bag to the complete plant with filter press and automation for large-scale production.
Compact engineering
Space is often a major constraint in stone-processing workshops. Our plants are designed to fit into layouts already occupied by cutting machines, slab storage and handling areas. Reduced-diameter clarifiers, palletised dosing units, compact sidebar filter presses: every component is designed around the actual space available in the workshop. For larger plants in markets such as India, Egypt and the Middle East, we design complete systems with automation and higher flow-rate capacities.
Service and after-sales
A stone-processing workshop does not always have a dedicated plant manager: the operator is often the same person cutting the slabs. Our service is designed for this reality: remote support, simplified maintenance procedures, spare parts kept in stock, and rapid response. The aim is to minimise the operational burden of water treatment for personnel focused primarily on stone processing.
45
Years of experiencein water treatment for the extractive and stone sectors
630
Water and sludge treatment plantsfor the stone industry, designed and installed in Italy and abroad
55
Countries servedin the stone sector.
References
India
Sector Stone Industry
Material treated Stone materials
Pokarna Ltd
Custom-built clarification and microfiltration plant for engineered-stone processing
Read the case study
Italy
Sector Stone Industry
Material treated Stone materials
Marmi Orobici Graniti S.p.A.
Water and sludge treatment plant for natural-stone processing.
Read the case study
Our partners
