Luxury: the high-glossy technology by Ancora

The SITI B&T Group company specialising in end-of-line solutions has developed a new technology focused on aesthetics

Ancora has developed a new technology focused on aesthetics. As a result of its continuous Research & Development efforts, the SITI B&T Group company specialising in end-of-line solutions is presenting Luxury, a finishing machine for high-gloss surface treatments.

Luxury enhances the graphic designs of tiles through a high gloss protective surface treatment in response to a growing market demand for new glossy collections.

This effect creates aesthetics with a unique sense of depth that can be applied to a wide variety of sizes and thicknesses. Luxury can be implemented and customised according to specific requirements to achieve maximum flexibility for use on sizes up to 1800x3600 mm and thicknesses from 6 to 25 mm.

To achieve the best possible results, lapping is now a crucial step given that the surface abrasion treatment of glazed and porcelain products makes it easier to attain a finish with a very high gloss level.

Once the lapping process is completed, Luxury proceeds to the finishing and treatment phases.

This technology uses machine tool/product combinations capable of producing tiles with up to a 110 gloss finish. In other words, Luxury exploits the mechanical and physical interaction between the tool, tile and applied product to achieve a super gloss surface finish.

This effect not only gives the tile a high degree of gloss, but also creates the impression of greater reflectance and depth thanks to the considerable reduction in roughness, further enhancing the digital graphic design of the tile surface (see photo).

Following this first phase geared purely to aesthetics, Luxury then proceeds to focus on the morphology of the surface, giving the finished product technical characteristics such as high resistance to abrasion and acid stains by filling the pores that typically occur with this material.

Large slabs are increasingly being used for furnishing accessories such as kitchen worktops and tables, applications for which there is much greater demand for high-gloss surfaces.

Luxury not only guarantees a high level of flexibility in terms of sizes, but if suitably equipped in advance can also carry out different processes, such as creating a matt effect with a finish of between 20 and 30 gloss instead of the 110 of the glossy finish.