Efi Cretaprint, Vidres, Vernis and Bouquet Ceramic win Alfa de Oro Awards

Cevisama 2016 opened with the prize-giving for the winners of the 40^th edition of the prestigious Alfa de Oro Awards, an event organised by the Spanish Glass and Ceramic Society (Sociedad Española de Cerámica y Vidrio - SECV). The awards are given to the most outstanding ceramic manufacturers in terms of product and process innovation.

The jury, made up of experts from the worlds of business and academia, picked Efi-Cretaprint, Vidres, Vernis and Bouquet Ceramic as this year’s winners.

In the production technology category, Efi Cretaprint won the award for its new X4 printers, with printing width of 1800 mm, for the digital decoration of large and extra-large formats. The company earned particular recognition for its Double Tile Printing (DTP) 2.0 technology, which allows simultaneous printing of two different graphics, on two different formats of tile, with the same head. DTP is a patented technology that’s compatible with all fourth-generation Efi Cretaprint printers.

In the colour technology category, the SECV gave Alfa de Oro awards to Vidres, for formulating a new series of glazes that improve the energy-efficiency of ceramics, and Vernis, for developing a new technology for creating non-slip gloss surfaces.

Lastly, first prize in the tile category went to Bouquet Ceramic (Ceramica Tres Estilos), for developing a new process for the three-dimensional decoration of tiles, which offers substantial energy savings because it dispenses with the drying phases between the various screen-print applications of graniglia. The new system also reduces the residues generated by traditional methods, because the dry graniglia is prepared by means of simple shaking or stirring, and can be removed by suction, without causing calcination of the carriers, in view of the absence of organic materials. The aesthetic results on the finished ceramic are also outstanding, because the process of fixing by polymerisation of the dry applications yields higher-definition effects than any other decoration system. 

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