Ancora Group unveils innovations for large sizes

The latest advances in forming and firing techniques have led to the development of large-format ceramic tiles, but when working with low-thickness sheets the conventional cutting or score-and-snap techniques are no longer feasible. Cutting lines now need to be more flexible in terms of their configuration and the ability to be set up rapidly to produce tiles and strips in the widest range of sizes, even in very small batches.

To meet this new challenge, Ancora Group, a leading manufacturer of machinery for the ceramic materials finishing stage, has designed and built a new multicut waterjet machine. This innovative machine uses waterjet technology to perform up to 7 longitudinal and 7 transversal cuts continuously on large-format tiles with initial dimensions of up to 3.6 x 1.6 metres.

Water at a working pressure of more than 4000 bar is ejected at high speed together with abrasive powder from nozzles mounted on carriages positioned by an NC machine. The cut is performed with extremely high uniformity and precision and requires no further finishing operations. By setting the finished product data on the touch-screen controls, the system can be configured to produce sheets, strips or tiles down to a minimum size of 50 x 20 cm with a high degree of freedom in the choice of sizes and the ability to produce very small batches of different products.

The new multicut waterjet cutting system was patented in 2012 and has already been installed in two fully operational systems. It is unique anywhere in the world in terms of its flexibility, quality and productivity.

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