The times they are a-changin’. Never was a slogan - drawn from the best music of the twentieth century - so apt: it perfectly describes the
changes occurring on the global sanitaryware robotized glazing market.
And change is something that Sacmi-Gaiotto welcomes with open arms:
we developed the first robots to feature hydraulic technology back in the mid-80s and since then, with the ever-greater
use of electronics, we’ve succeeded in installing over 1,000 robotized glazing systems, in operation all over the globe.
| These include the 280th robot to be produced (from the GA 2000 series), sold to Duravit, one of the biggest players in the industry and highly renowned for its product quality and design. It’s no chance occurrence then, in these changing times, that this particular robot will be installed in the company’s plants in China, a market that, until very recently, was the least likely to go for such a solution on account of its vast pool of low-cost labour. |
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Yet it’s in China – in the wake of countries like India and Turkey where Sacmi-Gaiotto has seen a marked increase in sales – where demographic adjustments and improved living conditions have seen the rapid emergence of demand for such solutions, which ensure improved finished product quality and eliminate manual coating and glazing tasks (typically very harmful to worker health).
So it’s hardly surprising that, alongside the
440 hydraulic robots already supplied by Sacmi Gaiotto and the 340 RE91 and GA900 robots (those from the first series, initially developed and marketed back in the 1990s), some
300 robots from the new range (GA2000 and GAOL) have also been installed; the latter include the one supplied to Duravit for the Chinese plant, putting the seal on a development programme that has generated unique experience and know-how. The outcome: Sacmi-Gaiotto is seen as the only competitor currently capable of offering complete ceramic sanitaryware robotized glazing solutions.
This is an evident source of satisfaction for the head of the Ceramic Division, Claudio Marani. Another factor contributing to the “globalization” of robotized glazing, explains Marani, “is the appearance on the international stage of a new generation of entrepreneurs, culturally equipped to reap all the rewards of robotized glazing in terms of both product quality and healthier workplaces. Unlike in the past”, observes Marani, “there are no longer places in the world where the human factor can be seen as secondary and efforts can be focussed exclusively on cost-cutting. At Sacmi-Gaiotto we can confidently state we were the first to develop this type of solution and are now capable of offering the best, most reliable technology on the market, putting us in a powerful position to respond to changing mind-sets on all target markets”.