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In this article, we will discuss System Ceramics’ latest moldless press, “Superfast.” This System Ceramics Press is used for making large format slabs tiles. I will explain the working of moldless press, benefits, and types of Superfast press.
System Ceramics Superfast
Superfast is a type of press without mold in the tiles industry. This moldless press is used in the production of large slab tiles and slim tiles.
This press is one of the unique moldless presses in the tiles industry for flexible, sustainable, and high performance with a range of 60, 80, and 90 cm modules.
System ceramics Superfast is the world’s first moldless press with unmatched performance, productivity, and 100 % waste recovery compared to conventional press systems.
It is the latest technology in making tiles with better efficiency and maximizing production.
System ceramics Lamgea is a trendy press model in the Indian ceramics industry. Many factories in Morbi (Ceramic City of India) currently have Lamgea presses for making large slab tiles.
System Ceramics has mainly two types of moldless pressing system for ceramic tiles such as
- Superfast
- Lamgea
Features of System Ceramics Superfast Press
- The Superfast press supports all bodies, all sizes, and all surface types.
- It can produce many different tile formats in the range of 60,80, and 90 cm.
- The thickness of tiles ranges from as slim as 3 mm and goes up to thick 30 mm.
- Superfast is a moldless press with the latest technology. It has endless possibilities and many applications.
- There is an automatic system for control of the thickness of the tile and sizes change.
- The technology in the superfast press guarantees is energy-saving up 70 percent.
- The excess material scrap is 100 percent recycled and recovered in the making process.
- It has a high level of performance, greater flexibility, and less consumption of raw materials.
- Tiles Formats range – 600×600 mm to 1200×3600 mm
- This press has no separate foundation as required in hydraulic presses.
Model of Superfast Press
There are various models in superfast press according to the production sizes of the tile surface.
| Superfast Press Model | Maximum format tiles |
| Superfast 17000 | 1200×2400 mm |
| Superfast 19000 | 1200×2700 mm |
| Superfast 21000 | 1200×3000 mm |
| Superfast 22000 | 1600×2400 mm |
| Superfast 25000 | 1200X3600 mm |
Depending upon the length and width of tiles, the system adjusts the speed and production levels. The maximum tile size that superfast press produces is 1600×4800 mm.
Reference nominal production
Thickness – 8mm
240 cycles/ hour
Total production – 16000 m2 per day
For reference, check the below chart
| Dim Slabs at press exit |
| Size – 1600×3200 Mm |
| Thickness of Tiles in mm | Nominal Production M2/ Day | Slabs per hr. |
| 3 | 22118 | 180 |
| 6 | 20890 | 170 |
| 8 | 19661 | 160 |
| 10 | 18432 | 150 |
| 12 | 16589 | 135 |
| 16 | 12902 | 105 |
| 20 | 9216 | 75 |
| 30 | 3686 | 30 |
Related Post – List of Slab Tiles Manufacturers in Gujarat
Manufacturing Process of Tiles in Superfast Press
The System Ceramics Superfast is used for manufacturing ceramic tiles and porcelain slabs tiles. This press can make tiles thickness ranging from 3 to 30 mm.
Various main components of Superfast Press
- Atomized powder Silos
- Dispensers
- Upper & Lower Belt
- Green tiles Cutting Disc
- Conveyor Belt
- Bucket Elevator
- Scraps Crusher
- Waste Processing unit
- Vibrating sieve
- Crushing mill
Production Stages in System Ceramics Superfast Press
There are four main stages in making tiles in superfast presses.
This System ceramics superfast is a moldless type press. It does not have any die box mold cavity.
I will explain all the stages with images in this article.
- Feeding
- Pressing
- Cutting
- Recovery
1– Feeding
The process of making tiles in superfast press starts from the atomized powder or tiles powder. The moisture level of this tile powder is around 5 to 6 %. It is transferred from the silo hopper to the dispenser’s head present at the first stage of the press.
In this stage, the power is also processed to remove any impurities present. There are two dispensers from which the tile powder is laid on the belt surface.
It can create different types of structured surfaces as the upper belt is equipped with a laser. The maximum depth of engraving in the superfast press is up to 3 mm.
Fresh atomized powder is fed into the press feeding unit through the first dispenser. Also, fresh powder is mixed with regenerated powder into another silo and then transferred to the 2nd dispenser.
The atomized powder is layered directly on the belt with the help of mobile dispensers.
2 – Pressing stage
The pressing is carried out through the rectangular-shaped hydraulic piston. It allows the oil to reach every part of the tiles uniformly. As these presses are without mold, the air escapes without any obstacles. This allows perfect uniform compaction.
The pressing is done with natural isostatic pressing. The pressing is 420 kg x cm2.
The tiles are free to expand. There is no tension in this process.
In the pressing stage, the powder is pressed with the help of belts to form hard surface tiles. It is a double-layer loading process. There are two belts in the pressing stage of making tiles.
Upper Layer – Pure atomized powder is used in the tile’s upper layer.
Lower Layer – Blend recovery powder is used in tiles lower layer
Apparent density is less than <2.02-2.10 gr/cm3. The belts are of sheet steel. The production cycle is up to 240 cycles per hour.
In this press, the advantage is compaction uniformity. It helps to reduce thickness tolerances and Caliber tolerances.
The thickness of tiles is constantly monitored in the superfast press. So in case of any variations, the retroactive control system automatically adjusts the thickness of the tile.
In this press, the tiles are cut into the required size before putting into the kiln. It has an automatic cutting system managed through the control panel.
It has more excellent uniformity of thickness. The thickness tolerance of tiles is (+- 0.2 mm). This helps to achieve the standard sizes near about.
The largest press is superfast 25000. The nominal production of thickness 8mm is 190 Cycles/hr. The total production of superfast 25000 per day is 19000 m2.
For example, if we consider making 800×1600 mm slab tiles in a superfast press, the nominal total box produced per day will be 7400 boxes(2 tiles per box).
Similarly, for 600×1200 mm, the nominal total box produced per day will be around 13200 boxes (2 tiles per box).
3 – Green cutting stage
The green cutting machine cuts the tile’s surface to the most appropriate dimension for subformat tiles required based on the tiles slab primary size in this stage.
Depending upon the tiles to be produced, the cutting disc present in the machine cuts through the horizontal and vertical directions. There are slab sizes produced from the press and subformat tiles which is the final tile size required.
Example – Consider the primary slab size of 1200×2400 mm produced through the press. The cutting discs cut the tiles slab size of 1200×2400 mm into three tiles of 800x800mm.
Consider a slab size of 1200×2400 mm. If we require 600x600mm, then the subformat size cut through the machine will be eight tiles per one slab size piece in a single round. 1200×2400 mm – 8 tiles 600×600 mm.
After the cutting process, the tile’s edges are trimmed.
4 – Scrap crusher
The main advantage of superfast is that it produces zero waste in the tile-making cycle. Through the atomized powder system, 100 percent of the scrap is recycled.
There are conveyors for collecting the tile scraps in the cutting process. Then the waste material is sent to the processing unit at the top of the press through the elevator buckets, as shown in the above image.
The scrap crusher grinds the tile’s small pieces into powder form and passes them to the conveyor belts.
There is an atomized powder collection conveyor for rejecting material and waste powder. Then through the conveyor belt, this waste is transferred to the bucket elevator.
5 – Recovery stage
The superfast press has a recovery system in which the scrap is recovered and recycled in the tiles manufacturing process.
Recovery material is passed to the atomized chamber, processed in various stages to remove any impurities. The storage silos are present on the top of the press.
The waste material is processed in various stages.
Waste material collected – Conveyor belt- Bucket elevator- Vibrating sieve – crushing mill – 2nd Vibrating Sieve – Mixed with fresh atomized powder – Dispenser.
It is a continuous cycle loop to regenerate the atomized powder.
The recovered scrap is dry crushed and mixed directly with the fresh powder in the other dispensers. The scrap powder is crushed till it reaches the appropriate size particles.
The recovered material is then mixed into the pure tiles powder with a ratio decided by software.
This recovered powder is used at the bottom of the tile’s surface, and the new tile powder is used at the top of the tiles.
There is a homogeneous distribution of atomized powder. The superfast eliminate waste throughout the production process.
After that, the tiles are passed through the drying zone in pre kiln and then processed through the Printing (Digital Machine), Kiln furnace, Sizing, polishing, and packing stages.
This way, 100 percent of waste is recovered & reused into the production cycle with the help of a superfast press.
Benefits of a moldless press
Nowadays, the demand for moldless presses is increasing significantly in the tiles industry all over the world. The moldless press is best for making large format slab tiles.
There are various benefits of the moldless press, such as
- Moldless system – As there are no molds in this system, it saves the time for a regular hydraulic press. In this superfast press, a single belt can be used for different tiles format production. It also saves warehouse space as no storage of molds is required. There is no separate press foundation required.
- Rapid & straightforward operation – Operator can replace the belt in the superfast press within 30 minutes. It is not time-consuming like in hydraulic press, where it can take up to 2 hours to change the die box cavity in case of changing. The press can produce many different formats of tiles on a single belt which will reduce production costs.
- Greater Flexibility – The superfast has greater flexibility over the traditional press. The ceramic tile surface is cut into the desired size after passing through the molding stage of this moldless press.
- Zero Waste – The excess waste material is recovered. Superfast has zero waste in which the entire powder is reused. The recovered waste is collected and mixed with the regular hopper into an atomized spreading dispenser.
- Uniformity – In the superfast press, there is an even layer of powders onto the belt. It improves uniformity on the surface of the tiles and has maximum planarity. Due to the advanced technology in ceramic system press, there is uniform laying through the tile’s surface. There is compaction uniformity on the tiles.
- Storage – As this is a moldless press, no mold storage space is required. It requires less maintenance cost.
- Saves Energy – It requires lower consumption of raw materials due to waste being recycled 100 percent. It also lowers 70% of energy consumption to conventional tile presses.
- High productivity – The Superfast’s most unique benefit is its production capacity. The superfast press can achieve a production of the daily output of 20,000 Square meters of tiles. It gives a high-level performance, more quality and
- All Bodies can work with different spray-dried powder bodies such as stoneware, red body, granulated dry powder, and monoporous paste.
- Digitalization – The System Ceramics Superfast can be connected and compatible with the latest prime technology industry 4.0 standards.
Technical specifications of Superfast
Maximum Compaction pressure – 400 bars
The optimum average power consumption is 0.1 kW/m2.
Caliber tolerance – +/- 2 mm
Thickness tolerance – +/- 0.2 mm
Thicknesses range from 3 to 30 mm
Monitor Display – New Copilot 21 pollici HD Widescreen
Efficiency – Average productivity Up to 24000 m2 per day
The Size format changes automatically through the software. It has a Fast Mode Thickness reader
The time needed for the replacement of belts – 30 minutes
Body – All types of atomized powder
Structures for production cycle – There can be the possibility to fit four types of belts with different designs in this ceramic press.
The duration of the upper belt is up to 100,000 cycles.
The duration of the lower belt is up to 600,000 cycles.
About System Ceramics
System Ceramics is a part of Coesia Group companies. It is a leader in designing and manufacturing products for the ceramic industry. It is also in other industrial sectors such as electronics, packaging, and intralogistics.
System Ceramics headquarters is situated in Fiorano Modenese in Italy.
System ceramics is engaged in manufacturing complete ceramic plants. It has various category related to the tiles industry, such as
- Pressing systems for the production of large ceramic slabs and tiles.
- Decorations systems are used for high-resolution decoration with digital printing technology.
- Storage systems used for the handling & storage of ceramic tiles.
- Quality Control tools for quality control and detection of production defects in the process.
- Sorting line systems are used in the sorting and selection of tiles.
- Packaging system used in packaging systems for ceramic tiles.
- Palletization system Automatic & robotized systems for palletization.
- Handling system Smart Automated guided vehicles for internal handling
- Smart Factory Advanced Software Platform that permits the company of information flows of entire ceramic production factories
System Ceramics Italy Address
SYSTEM CERAMICS S.p. A.
Via Ghiarola Vecchia, 73
41042 Fiorano (MO)
ITALY
Contact Details System Ceramics
Tel.+39 0536 836111
Fax +39 0536 830708
Email – info.ceramics@systemceramics.com
System Ceramics Official Website
System Ceramics India Pvt Ltd
B-511, Mondeal Heights,
Near Novotel Hotel & Wide Angle Cinema
SG Highway Ahmedabad – 380 015
Tel:-+91-7929704965
To know about System Ceramics Lamgea Production Process check the below Video
References
Images Credit – System Ceramics
System Ceramics – YouTube channel
Note: The information provided in this article is for informational and educational purposes only. All efforts have been made to ensure the information provided here is accurate. If any errors or any updates are required, please contact us at our mail address or comment on the below box.
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