Opera: a new all-Sacmi plant

This investment is one of the biggest seen so far in Italy in 2008 and will ensure Opera gets a significant output boost. Installation will take place at the IFK plant in Camposanto (Modena), owned by the company; the latter already has several different commercial brands and now aims to enter the market as a ceramic tile manufacturer in its own right.

Supplied by Sacmi, the new lines consist of four presses, two PH 3590s and two PH 2890s, which directly feed two of the very latest ES5 horizontal 5-layer driers. This comprehensive order also includes four glazing lines that feed, again directly, two FMS 2850 130-metre kilns, preceded by a drier. Featuring highly sophisticated, cutting-edge process optimisation devices, the two kilns installed by Opera offer, according to tests, the lowest energy consumption levels ever seen on Sacmi kilns designed to fire porcelain tiles.

Completing the plant are the LGV storage lines supplied by Sima, a company specialising in the design of machines and systems for product handling/storage and the production of automatic laser-guided vehicles and computerised supervision systems. The automatic Sima shuttles installed at the new Camposanto plant serve four sorting lines and the relative ultra-fast, precise QiK palletizers supplied by Sacmi Automation.

Optimised for management of the classic 333x333 mm size, this new plant has an output capacity of 25,000 square metres. Quite an achievement, then, and one that will allow this Modena-based company to manage high volumes while minimising - thanks to outstanding technology - running costs.