Marcheluzzo and Cerámica Fanelli: an outstanding partnership

The historic Vicenza-based company has developed much much of Cerámica Fanelli’s new production line.

Much of Cerámica Fanelli’s modern production line was designed and installed by Marcheluzzo S.p.A., which developed the most suitable technical solutions for the specific type of product and the level of quality requested by the customer.

From the innovative cutting, loading and unloading solutions through to the energy-efficient dryer and the setting machine, every detail is designed to make the process smooth and dynamic and to ensure the highest degree of automation. A strong focus on machinery sustainability (especially minimal waste and low energy consumption) meant that the project was aligned with the Argentine group’s values and commitment to green issues.

Cutting line

The cutting line was equipped with a pre-cutting bow and an in-line multiple cutter (with a useful cutting width of 1,400 mm), complete with wire control and cleaning accessories. The cutter is designed to significantly reduce wire breakage so as to maintain a constant production rate and minimise rejects. This area is equipped with a shredder to shred the clay columns (when they are not being loaded onto the pallets) so that they can be fed back into the processing line without disrupting the extrusion process.

Loading and unloading system

The dryer car loading and unloading system is designed to make greenware loading independent of the setting machine and to be able to draw from the pallet store without wasting space and with relatively uniform ventilation passages. The generously sized pallets are specially designed to handle large quantities of material while maintaining medium to long plant duty cycles, thereby ensuring very slow wear of mechanical components.

Tunnel dryer

The semicontinuous tunnel dryer was designed entirely by Marcheluzzo. The tunnel’s structure is built using traditional high-thickness brickwork with excellent thermal efficiency. This ensures a very high level of insulation so as to minimise energy consumption and eliminate all heat losses. The decision to use ventilation on both sides of the car has optimised the drying process and made it uniform across the entire width of the dryer. But above all, this system improves the quality of the air blown over the material, thereby guaranteeing higher finished product quality.

The 8 lines of cars are ventilated by moving cones with special technical characteristics in terms of the flow rates, air flow inside the material and fixtures to the fan parts. A series of recirculation, ejection and electricity saving solutions have allowed for the creation of a highly responsive, high-precision control system divided into different zones, which is capable of automatically adapting to the dryer’s output quantity without the need for operator intervention. Special attention has been devoted to the possibility of accessing the dryer’s ventilation equipment, greatly facilitating cone checking and maintenance (where necessary).

Setting machine

The large setting machine is effectively the heart of the plant and achieves very high production rates. It is suitable for all types of product and is capable of handling large quantities of materials while guaranteeing the quality of each individual piece. Loading on the kiln cars is performed layer by layer by a pair of Fanuc robots fitted with two innovative and very light grippers, each with two rotating heads, a solution that doubles the production capacity of the individual robots.

With its more than 50 years of experience in technological innovation for the heavy clay sector, Marcheluzzo has once again shown itself to be the ideal partner for projects of any size while meeting the needs of a growing and increasingly demanding market.

Its expertise and constantly evolving business model make it a unique international player with the ability to assist and support its customers in the transition towards increasingly modern, efficient and automated production processes.