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CASE STUDY XI: BELIANES CERAMICS PLANT: SOLUTION FOR A SUDDEN 25% INCREASE IN DEFECTS

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BERALMAR AT THE 55TH AGM IN SOUTH AFRICA

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Origin of the project

CERÀMICA BELIANES (Lleida) is a historical manufacturer which—thanks to its accumulated prestige, the quality of its products and the effort and dedication of its owners—has managed to survive the building crisis that has plagued the Spanish market and has laid waste to 70% of the country’s ceramics plants in the last 10 years.

The facility has an Anjou-type rapid dryer and tunnel kiln for producing about 400 tons/day of high-quality blocks.

One of the initiatives taken recently to overcome the crisis was to expand the range of products by adding large formats, such as ceramic sub-roof bricks and large thin-walled hollow bricks (Superenvà). Manufacturing the sub-roof bricks—especially the 100 cm variety—was problematic. Up to 25% of the product was defective, although all other types of bricks met high quality standards and came off the production line without any problems.

The product cracked mostly as the material was handled between the dryer and the kiln. Various engineering firms and other industry players attempted during the longest time to find a solution to the problem, focusing on the composition of the clay, the dryer’s unloading and trolley stacking mechanisms, etc. All their efforts were in vain.

Execution of the project

When BERALMAR was called to study the case, their experience in large-format manufacturing using other types of dryers was key to understanding the root of the problem.

These sub-roof bricks at BELIANES CERAMICS PLANT are manufactured using a double-bar extrusion system, and the extrusion is always different on each bar. Contrary to the general perception, the pressures and tensions in different parts of the bar always differ, even though in most cases these differences are not obvious, as with all other brick formats at CERÀMICA BELIANES.

The fact that most of breakages took place in handling between the dryer and the kiln made BERALMAR technicians suspect that the extrusion was the source of the problem. The small differences between each bar surfaced as various torsions in large pieces during drying, a phenomenon which was imperceptible in smaller formats. Due to their considerable size, these pieces are very sensitive to handling when dry, especially at the setting.

Once the problem was understood, the solution proposed by BERALMAR could not be simpler. The solution consisted in respecting the extrusion bar origin at the kiln car setting. In other words, each packet from the kiln must include only pieces cut from the same bar. Thus, each piece in a given kiln car packet boasted the same type of torsion during drying, thereby eliminating the stresses produced by setting materials with different torsions.

Conclusions

Thanks to the application of this simple solution, large format production wastage dropped from 25% to well below 10%, so that the plant was able to definitively approve the production of this material.

This case study reinforces the idea of multi-product factories featuring a direct setting dryer. In addition to the known advantages (lower thermal consumption, less investment, easy management, etc.), there is no other more effective dryer when it comes to drying large formats. The fact of setting pieces on top of each other guarantees drying without torsion, while the absence of handling between the dryer and the kiln avoids mechanical breakage in such long and delicate products.

Implicitly, this case is also an example of the experience in solving problems by the BERALMAR kiln and dryer regulation technicians. And not all problems require big solutions. Often an appropriate adjustment or simple actions can solve big problems.

The next case study will be published in Newsletter #128, July 2018.

As it has done in recent years, BERALMAR was involved as a sponsor at the annual meeting of the CBA (Clay Brick Association), the national association of ceramists in South Africa.

This year the meeting took place between May 18 and 20 at a resort in Magaliesburg (Gauteng), and as always the event organization was impeccable.

The highlight of the annual meeting was the conference day on the 19th. BERALMAR gave attendees an overview of its technologies in the fields of combustion, automation systems and complete plants.

The next annual meeting will take place in the Mpumalanga province, in the northeast of the country.