#HygienicDigitalGlazing, SACMI-Gaiotto's answer for the sanitaryware sector

SACMI is presenting the next generation of robotic systems for hygienic glaze application, which ensure quality and efficiency of application thanks to full digital control of the process.

Surface sanitisation is an increasingly urgent need of the sanitaryware market and has become a standard requirement in the manufacture and sale of high-quality products.

With the digitalisation of hygienic glaze application, SACMI offers its global customers a new service for maximising the efficiency and effectiveness of the process and consequently the added value given to the product.

The sanitising glaze consists of a special layer with a thickness of just a few tenths of a millimetre applied to the glazed piece before firing.

Ensuring uniformity of application onto the piece and repeatability of the operations are the essential conditions for a truly effective protective covering. With the launch of its latest kit for robotised application of anti-bacterial products onto the glazed piece, SACMI eliminates all manual operations from the application process, thereby guaranteeing maximum uniformity and repeatability, as well as optimising raw material consumption.

For many years, SACMI has been producing and selling all over the world solutions specially designed to automate anti-bacterial glaze application, an operation that is difficult to control manually due to the extremely thin layers required, making it highly problematic to apply the glaze evenly. In the newly proposed solution, the application of the sanitising glaze is handled through a different independent channel of SACMI’s tried-and-tested “mass control” system for the control of flow rate and quantity of glaze delivered during the robotised glazing process.

In addition to ensuring uniform product application, the new system also offers the possibility of offline programming of the robot spraying parameters and paths, thus saving time and optimising raw material consumption (typically, the anti-bacterial glazes have a relatively high unit cost).

This solution offers enormous benefits for customers as it can cater for various market needs in real time without the need for any structural changes to the lines (the kit can simply be installed on the standard SACMI-Gaiotto robot). The distinctive features of the system include simplicity, efficiency and a high level of automation, and it has been designed to maximise the results that can be obtained starting out from the specific anti-bacterial glaze formulations in use by the various manufacturers.

With this proposal, SACMI-Gaiotto consolidates its position as the international market leader in the field of robotised glazing technology. It has responded rapidly to market demand in terms of quality and hygiene, safety and sanitisation of surfaces, issues that have always been a primary consideration in the sanitaryware sector but have now become even more essential in the light of new developments in lifestyles and social awareness.

Advanced 3D simulations of the solution have been developed in recent weeks by the SACMI Sanitaryware R&D Laboratory and represent a further guarantee for customers, who can evaluate in detail and in advance all the advantages of installing the new kit on their production lines.