Digital gathers pace

On 8 November, more than 460 representatives of the Italian ceramics industry packed out the Astoria theatre in Fiorano Modenese, the venue for ACIMAC's 5th annual digital technologies conference.

Organised in collaboration with Ceramic World Review magazine, the convention is now an unmissable event for all those involved in technological research, graphic design, and the use of digital decorations in ceramic tile production.  The use of digital technologies is now also becoming increasingly common in the glazing phase. This was evident at the convention, where the importance of digital solutions clearly emerged for the first time. The emphasis was on the next steps in this technology, and the avenues already being pursued by colouring technicians and systems engineers.

The welcome address at the conference, moderated by Prof. Paolo Zannini, was given by Acimac's chairman Fabio Tarozzi, and by vice-chairman Paolo Lamberti. 11 speakers then took to the stage, representing some of the largest companies in the sector.

Three paint factories were represented: Fabio Avoni (Colorobbia Italia) who concentrated on the social responsibility aspects of the "Colorobbia Digital Space" range, Armando Meletti (Esmalglass Itaca) presented DPM, a new range of glazing and digital decoration materials, while Marzia Barattini (from Ferro) confirmed that advances in the digital field, with the introduction of new glazes, are transforming the existing glazing decoration processes. Federico Piccinini and Paolo Monari from Smaltochimica discussed how advanced chemistry can be used to serve digital technology.

The following speakers concentrated on digital printing machines: Rita Cagnoli (System) with her report "System: digital excellence"; Marco Ferrari (Siti B&T Group) who stressed the need to focus on integrated digital solutions in the production process, a concept also mentioned by Erminio Guiducci (IN.TE.SA) in his report "Glazing and decoration in the digital era: an integrated process". Antonio De Carlo (Assodigit) profiled the new digital machine Assodigit D1; Simone Tardini (Kerajet Italia) retraced the key stages of the digital revolution (started back in 1988 by Kerajet, a Spanish company), and also described the more recent technological milestones;  Alberto Annovi (Tecnoexamina, Gruppo Tecnoferrari) presented the VivaJet system while his colleague, Giovanni Affinito illustrated his company's GeCo colour management system.

Below are the slides of the reports presented at the conference (in Italian language):

L'eccellenza nel digitale  (System)

Linee digitali: soluzioni integrate (SITI B&T Group)

Una scelta tecnica all'insegna della responsabilità sociale (Colorobbia)

Smaltatura e Decorazione nell'era digitale (Intesa - Gruppo Sacmi)

Elevata tecnologia per un processo produttivo interamente digitale (Esmalglass)

Nuova macchina digitale assodigit D1 (Assoprint)

"Metamorfosi"... l'evoluzione digitale (Ferro)

GeCo: FaRe Piastrelle (Tecnoexamina-Tecnoferrari)

Chimica avanzata al servizio del digitale (Smaltochimica)

Colour Profiler (Smaltochimica)

1998-2013: Quindici anni di esperienza nella decorazione digitale (Kerajet)

Vivajet: nel cuore della ceramica (Tecnoexamina-Tecnoferrari)