Success Stories
 CASE STUDY I: PÁPATESZÉRI TÉGLAIPARI FROM THE HOFFMANN KILN TO THE MODERN FACTORY, STEP BY STEP |
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At the beginning of the 21st century, the PÁPATESZERI TÉGLAIPARI ceramics plant in Pápateszer (Hungary) consisted of a Hoffmann kiln and a natural dryer over racks and produced 50 tonnes/day. Additionally, due to the drying process, it was only operable 6 to 8 month per year. It was therefore a low-volume business dealing with a significant amount of manual labour. Turnover was moderate, as it couldn’t generate enough funds to make significant investments, and funding in Hungary at that time was expensive and scarce.
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The ceramics plant at the beginning of the 21st century
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In 2008, on the occasion of the commissioning of the tunnel kiln, the new factory was inaugurated before many of the country’s ceramists.
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Under these circumstances, the ownership of the business – mainly the Valdinger family – decided that, in spite of the limitations, it was time to take a step forward. Sustainability meant producing larger volumes through more modern and efficient means. The keys to overcoming limitations when addressing the necessary investment were twofold: On the one hand, the ceramics plant obtained partial European funding and, on the other hand, BERALMAR, who was already a supplier to PÁPATESZERI TÉGLAIPARI (having previously installed burner units on the Hoffmann kiln), proposed a modern factory that would be executed in four phases:
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- Phase 1 (2004): construction of a semi-continuous dryer with GARBI platforms. This first investment included the construction of 50% of the plans for the dryer, which increased production up to 120 tonnes/day and made the factory operable year-round. This meant that its yearly production increased five-fold.
- Phase 2 (2007): construction of a PRESTHERMIC tunnel kiln. The tunnel kiln, which measured 72.45 m in length, 3.4 m in interior width and 1.9 m in useful height, was designed for a maximum production of 250 tonnes/day and included a pre-kiln that, at that point, was neither fitted nor in use. Without using the pre-kiln, which measured an additional 18.45 m, maximum daily production would be 200 tonnes/day, although the factory’s entire production was still limited due to the dryer’s capacity.
- Phase 3 (2012): extension of the dryer. The dryer was doubled in size to achieve a drying capacity of up to 250 tonnes/day.
- Phase 4 (2014): fitting the pre-kiln. The pre-kiln was finally fitted and put into use to achieve a daily production of 250 tonnes/day.
Executing the project in phases allowed each investment to be gradually amortized, since each one represented a significant amount of turnover and production efficiency.
Moreover, in 2014 the ceramics plant opted for the use of micronized petcoke with the installation of a BERALMAR MICROMATIC system, which increased the company’s competitiveness even more.
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BERALMAR managers, on the brand-new kiln
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Thus, within about 10 years – and at a speed determined by the market and other circumstances – PÁPATESZERI TÉGLAIPARI went from being a small, manual ceramics plant with seasonal production and a high thermal output to a mid-volume, modern, and efficient ceramics plant with a great future ahead.
Furthermore, the ceramics plant boasts quality management, a proper maintenance policy and production of modern, thermoclay formats (BAKONYTHERM brand).
This is, therefore, a nice success story, and while it wasn’t a very large project, it brings BERALMAR great pride.
The next case study will be published in Newsletter no. 108 in October 2016.
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Corporate
BERALMAR SYMPOSIUM IN TEHRAN
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On 16 July, BERALMAR organized a ceramics symposium in the city of Tehran (Iran).
The conference brought together some 120 participants from 80 ceramics plants from all over the country in a central hotel in Tehran. BERALMAR had the opportunity to present various technologies that are applicable to the needs of the local ceramics industry. Also present among the symposium attendants were guests from the Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade and the Association of Iranian Ceramists, as well as representatives from various regional associations.
The main event of the symposium was a technical presentation given by BERALMAR’S country manager for Iran, Xavier Julió, head of engineering, Artur Massaguer, and general director, Ramon Sarió, who gave the introduction and conclusion of the event.
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Ramon Sarió presenting at the symposium.
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Although the symposium met its goal of informing participants about how BERALMAR could collaborate and optimize productive processes, the flow of knowledge was bidirectional, and the BERALMAR team took note of a great deal of very useful input for considering solutions. In any case, and as participants were able to confirm throughout the symposium, prior to the event BERALMAR was already quite knowledgeable about the Iranian ceramics industry and the details of its clay, production formats, etc., as it had worked in the market extensively before its international isolation in 2006. Fortunately, the geopolitical climate has changed over the last months and the Iranian economy is in an advanced stage of normalization of diplomatic and trade relationships with the international community. Iranian ceramists are once again able to freely collaborate and exchange knowledge with suppliers.
The symposium was a success both in participation and in mutual enrichment of the speakers and participants, who we hope to continue collaborating with for many years.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our local collaborators for their organizational efforts and all the participants for their attendance.
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THE BERALMAR NEWSLETTER, NOW ALSO IN PERSIAN
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Beginning with this very issue, BERALMAR’S NEWSLETTER now has a new version: the Persian-language edition.
Persian is an Indo-European language spoken in Iran (where it is officially known as Farsi), Afghanistan (where it is officially known as Dari), Tajikistan (where it has officially been known as Tajik since the Soviet era and is written in Cyrillic script), Uzbekistan, Bahrain, Iraq, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, the South of Russia and neighbouring countries that have been under Persian influence.
Persian is among the most widely spoken languages in the world: It currently has some 110 million speakers and is an official language in Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
With this new version, the BERALMAR NEWSLETTER is now distributed in 14 languages to nearly 3000 recipients.
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Main regions with native speakers of Persian, including dialects.
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PÁPATESZERI TÉGLAIPARI
