Ex Losa Olavarria will implement its Lineas Tablas project with Sacmi technology

Argentinian firm Ex Losa Olavarria, a well-known extruded floor and wall brick manufacturer, now part of Cerro Negro Group, has decided to focus on large slabs choosing Sacmi Heavy Clay to renew its manufacturing facilities and complete the ambitious “Lineas Tablas” project for the manufacture of digitally decorated large extruded slabs. The aim is to intercept the most recent market trends.

Following installation of these latest Sacmi Heavy Clay solutions, in fact, the production plant will be able to make continuously extruded, plastic, digitally decorated, cut and polished slabs up to the considerable size of 400 x 1600 mm, with the replication of certain aesthetic effects such as the “random” decoration and veining typical of wood and natural stone.

The heart of the system is the new Sacmi DHD|D 708 digital decorator. Thanks to latest-generation software and the simple, linear mechanical design of the machine, it allows complex, high definition 'tactile' effects.

The order placed by the Argentinian company includes the set-up of the new conveyor-type structuring machine forming department, plus replacement of the current box loading transport system to adapt it to large slab handling requirements. Alongside upgrading of the existing drier, now equipped with new control/management software, Sacmi Heavy Clay has thus opted for replacement all kiln infeed/outfeed devices, with inlet and outlet lines adapted for manufacture of the largest sizes.

In keeping with Sacmi Heavy Clay's policy of equipping solutions with devices that combine quality with optimised consumption, kiln combustion systems and control devices have also been replaced to boost the quality of the firing process and so optimise energy consumption. Completing the picture are the automatic platform-type storage and piece handling lines, which use laser-guided vehicles (LGV) to interconnect all the various production islands, including the fired product cutting and dry smoothing line downstream from the kiln.

Other end-of-line additions include the Synthesis-90 sorting line by Sacmi Nuova Fima – Sacmi's response to the need for a solution that combines compact, flexible and efficient handling of a wide size/thickness range with minimum consumption – and the automatic packaging system to maximise plant efficiency in terms of logistics and storage management.