Zao Keramin St. Petersburg modernises its factory with System Ceramics

Zao Keramin in St. Petersburg, a ceramic tile company showing steady growth, and System Ceramics, the main supplier for production systems, have started an important partnership for the technological update of the automation used at the factory. The final goal of the investment was to record a 20% increase in production performance and the improvement of the product quality. The modernisation has been divided into two phases.

The first one was completed in 2013 resulting in the increase of tile production from 5 to 6 million sq.m/year. System and the controlled company Nuova Era designed and supplied the new equipment for the storage of semi-finished, unglazed material, as well as a fleet of AGV vehicles for automatic handling, with parking in metal containers, stackable on three levels.

The second modernisation phase started in March 2014 and involves the departments related to second firing, sorting, palletising and pallet finish. Again, Nuova Era has supplied the equipment for the storage of the fired products, but the major innovation is involving the classification of tiles, with the installation of the latest fully automated System process technologies, for the first time in Russia.

These include the Qualitron QNG for the quality control; the new Multigecko sorting machine with two rows (which will be presented at Tecnargilla 2014); and the 4Phases packaging line, which is more environmentally friendly and more efficient: the traditional packaging dies were eliminated by an automated packaging system that reduces the cardboard used by 60%, besides the packaging costs and the warehouse space occupied by pre-formed cardboard. The supply also includes the automatic palletiser Griffon and the line for the finished product pallet packaging.

Once completed, the modernisation of the factory will guarantee not just a higher productivity, but also the possibility to expand the tile range and their sizes up to 500x1000 mm. It will be possible to perform dry rectification of large-size precious tiles, while the use of machines and processes managed by advanced control systems will help to optimise the work force through the use of AGV automatic handling for both semi-finished and finished products.

Zao Keramin St. Petersburg will also feature a real time production process checking system, thanks to the installation of the SW Data Collector and Data Manager packet developed by System that will communicate with the company management system in Russian language.