Sabo supplies first plant in Belarus

As part of its continued expansion in international markets, last year Sabo completed its first plant engineering project in Belarus for reconstruction of the Obolsky Ceramic plant in the Vitebsk region.

The Belarusian company chose Sabo’s technology to upgrade the existing dryer and the connected handling systems as part of a project to modernise the now obsolete production processes. Obolsky Ceramics switched from its longstanding operations in the field of dry pressed bricks to the production of extruded bricks with the aim of significantly increasing the production capacity of the line and reducing operating costs. However, the new plant needed to maintain the capability to produce small batches of pressed bricks when special orders are placed using the same dryer designed for extruded products.

Sabo restructured the drying system without the need for civil works. The dryer loading/unloading system and setting on the kiln car were implemented with a compact design consisting of a small number of simple machines managed by 3 Fanuc robots (payload 700 kg), equipped with special grippers. The whole area can be supervised by a single person. The dryer is designed to distribute heat uniformly to all areas and features a special automatic control and regulation system. All fans are positioned at the top and outside the dryer so as to be easily accessible for maintenance.

Overall the plant consists of a new pre-cutter and side cutter with chamfering for facing bricks; new dryer cars; loading/unloading of dryer cars by new generation robotic systems; automatic handling of the dryer cars; setting machine for programming and positioning of the bricks on kiln cars; total reconstruction of the dryer (fans, gas generators, dryer cars, automatic regulation of the dryer, etc.); entry, exit and intermediate transfer cars for the dryer; automatic movement of the kiln cars.

The plant began production in March 2016 and has easily exceeded the set capacity targets. Current production includes 1 NF, 1.4 NF and 2 NF bricks and 1 NF and 1.4 NF perforated facing bricks.