Zanobia Ceramics performs remote start-up of body preparation and press department with Sacmi-Euroelettra

The automation systems in the Syrian tile manufacturer’s body preparation department were remotely installed and started up in record time

The new complete body preparation line at Zanobia Ceramics, a Syrian floor and wall tile manufacturer that has been producing tiles for the domestic and export markets for twenty years, has been tested and started up remotely in record time. Located in the city of Adra, not far from the capital Damascus, Zanobia opted for a fully automated Sacmi line. The equipment was supplied by Euroelettra, a Sacmi group member company specialising in industrial automation solutions, and consisted of systems and software for automatic transport and storage of raw materials, from the spray dryer to the silos and from there on to the pressing department.

Following shipment of the order in January, the lockdown meant that technical staff were unable to travel, so the equipment remained on-site until April when it was remotely connected and tested by the Sacmi-Euroelettra team in collaboration with a local contact. In the space of just two weeks, more than a thousand wiring connections were completed and a complex software control system installed (this configuration features a dynamic raw material storage system which supplies the press department directly). Both the customer and the Euroelettra team were delighted with the successful completion of this tough challenge.

As the project’s technical manager pointed out, what makes accomplishments of this kind possible is effective integration between the work of humans and machines. It is the duty of technology suppliers like Sacmi Group member companies to demonstrate to the market that these operations not only provide an opportunity but are fast becoming a standard approach. Moreover, they can be carried out anywhere in the world thanks to the high level of training of the various teams and the presence of technological infrastructure that allows each individual device (and consequently the entire factory) to be connected to the global network.

Following successful testing of the body preparation lines in mid-May, work on the Zanobia plant continued with the press start-up stage, completed during the summer.