A key player in the Civita Castellana ceramic district and a symbol of Italian-made, high quality, superbly designed sanitaryware, Ceramica Flaminia has selected Sacmi to implement a total 4.0-logic plant automation project, from dryer to kiln. Expected to be fully operational by the end of June, the plant has been designed according to 'just in time' logic.
The 7 robots, designed and built by Gaiotto – a Sacmi company and a leading provider of industrial automation solutions – will perform all the handling, glazing and control tasks. A special dynamic buffer allows, in fact, temporary removal of a piece from the line (e.g. if the worker identifies any non-conformities or if inspection is required) and its subsequent re-insertion without stopping or slowing production. What's more, the robots in the glazing cells are equipped with the Sacmi GDA 80, a needleless glazing gun that reduces glaze consumption and maintenance requirements while boosting quality.
In short, at Ceramica Flaminia the production line downstream from the dryer, all the way up to kiln loading, have been completely automated. This means the worker no longer has to perform any manual tasks and can focus on monitoring robot performance directly via the interface. In addition to optimising production factors and modernising the role played by the workers, the thus-configured system also allows complete piece traceability as the robots are interconnected with the factory supervisor which is, in turn, interfaced with the customer's ERP.
This order, which represents an expansion of the already extensive Sacmi machine pool at the Civita Castellana plant (3 robots, a shuttle kiln, two ALS casting cells), incorporates the very latest Sacmi 4.0 automation solutions for the sanitaryware industry