System Ceramics upgrades Piemme’s sorting department

Piemme is adopting a series of Industry 4.0 technologies for more efficient plant management, starting with the “Hypermate powered by Prime” platform from System Ceramics and including key machines for the sorting, packaging and palletising departments.

Ceramiche Piemme, a historic Italian ceramic brand with an annual output of 7.5 million square metres of porcelain stoneware, has consolidated its longstanding partnership with System Ceramics (Coesia Group) by commissioning the technology supplier to upgrade the end-of-line department at its factory. The aim of the project is to achieve more efficient plant management through the use of Industry 4.0 technologies. Piemme’s first step was to adopt Hypermate powered by Prime, the proprietary software services platform capable of organising the information flows of entire factories with a high level of integration and connectivity, thereby ensuring a considerable reduction in energy and raw material wastage. The software brings many further benefits, including standardised data management to simplify production processes, aggregated information collection, improved communication between the company and the machinery supplier, reduced product change times and optimal management of production costs.

The order from System Ceramics includes the installation of four state-of-the-art machines: Qualitron, a vision system for ceramic surface shade detection which captures images using a network of state-of-the-art video cameras combined with sophisticated lighting devices; Multigecko, a tile sorting system with dedicated software that allows for product and size changes without stopping the machine; the Multiflex just-in-time customised packaging line capable of producing up to 9 packs per minute with the utmost flexibility using a single neutral corrugated carton, which can be used on an as-is basis or customised; and Griffon, the automatic palletiser designed for medium and large sizes (up to 250 kg) complete with a motorised gripper, which ensures maximum pack stability and correct pairing between the pallet barcode and the associated packages for an optimal flow to the warehouse.