Success Stories
CASE STUDY VI: CERÁMICA SAMPEDRO: NEW KILN IN 12 WEEKS

Corporate
BERALMAR AT KERAMTEX 2017

News and Accomplishments
NEW MICROMATIC INSTALLATION IN SPAIN

Origin of the project
In 2001 CERÁMICA SAMPEDRO in Lardero (La Rioja) asked BERALMAR to build a new tunnel kiln, replacing the old curved vault tunnel kiln. The target production for the new kilm was 240 tonnes/day, increasing the quality of the material and lowering the thermal consumption.

Because the new kiln was to be built in the same place as the old one, the daunting challenge was to proceed with the demolition of the old kiln and the construction of the new kiln in the shortest possible time, in a context of high demand for building materials in which the market absorbed all production.

Execution of the project
Given the need for fast execution of the project, BERALMAR presented an ambitious approach to the customer which involved constructing the kiln in only 12 weeks.

The FORNTHERMIC kiln—98.2 metres long, 3.38-metre interior width and 1.55-metre useful height—was built by the deadline, although the customer later confessed that they were skeptical.

The tunnel kiln was fitted with a natural gas combustion installation, high and low temperature heat recovery, lateral air injection in the preheating zone (an alternative still seldom used at the time compared with traditional recirculating fans) and MICROBER automatic firing control.

Conclusions
The start-up was carried out with no issues in early 2002 and reached the objectives that had driven the investment: higher quality product with lower thermal consumption, and above all minimisation of factory downtime.

Logically, the speedy execution of the project would not have been possible without close collaboration with the customer, a key factor in ensuring that the construction of this tunnel kiln was a resounding success.

The next case study will be published in Newsletter no. 118 on September 2017.

BERALMAR took part last 15 June in KERAMTEX, the annual conference that brings together the most important Russian ceramics companies, which this year was held in the city of Cheboksary.

BERALMAR was the key participant in this edition of the KERAMTEX conference. In addition to offering a technical presentation by Yuriy Zinyak, the event included a visit to EKOKLINKER ceramics plant, which BERALMAR installed and started up in 2015 and which was the first to manufacture clinker products in Russia.

The visit to EKOKLINKER received many favourable responses from visitors, both for the factory itself and for the variety and quality of the formats displayed in the showroom.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank EKOKLINKER for its collaboration in opening its doors to all the participants of the KERAMTEX conference this year and for their trust in BERALMAR, and we congratulate them publicly for running the factory so efficiently.

Yuriy Zinyak giving his presentation.

Participants browsing information about BERALMAR.

Examples of formats displayed in the EKOKLINKER showroom.

BERALMAR has recently installed a new solid-fuel firing facility in Spain.

It was for the CERÁMICA SAN JAVIER in Pantoja (Toledo), where a MICROMATIC system for the combustion of micronized petcoke has been installed to provide approximately 70% of the energy consumed in the kiln. This results in great cost savings since a petcoke therm currently costs about half that of a natural gas therm.

With this, there are already 60 solid fuel firing facilities that BERALMAR has commissioned in Spain.