Carthago Brique makes the decision of investing again in Tunisia
Carthago Brique, a branch of the Poulina Group dedicated to the manufacture of heavy clay products, decided once again to reinforce its position in the heavy clay sector and Equipceramic was newly assigned to develop the project.
The contracts between the two parties were signed the last month of January 2022 and both companies are determined to make all the efforts to conclude the works by the end of 2023.
The project is aimed at building three production units, each one with a capacity of 800 tons/day. Two of these three factories will be twin units and they will be in Tadjerouine, in the west area of Tunisia. The third one will be built again in Jabel el Ouest, next to another factory also owned by Carthagobrique with a production capacity of 1200 tons/day that was also built by Equipceramic.
This brick factory, named BJO, has shown the capacity to advance the future of the Poulina Group. which had asked Equipceramic to build a factory with consumption parameters never reached before. Equipceramic met this demand by applying cutting-edge construction techniques duly approved in advance by the customer.
Development focus on automation and robotisation
However, in this new project, which includes the construction of three plants, Carthagobrique has asked to improve these parameters even further, but above all to make the plants totally robotised in order to reduce the need for occasional maintenance interventions.
Equipceramic has accepted the challenge and has put an innovative project on the table in terms of automated systems and robotics to simplify all handling lines in the plants from the dryer tray loading and unloading equipment up to the final packaging station.
The factories will be equipped with a robot-based system to collect wet products and load them on dryer trays as well as a robotic system to introduce the racks onto the dryer cars. The same system will allow the unloading of the dried products from the racks and the unloading of the products to the stacker.
The drying installation will consist of a Barna type dryer since it has proved a unique capacity for drying hollow and semi hollow bricks. This dryer has shown a unique capacity both in terms of ease of drying and overall energy consumption.
Products will be set on kiln cars by a set of robots. The kiln will be a Gaudí type because its capabilities both in terms of product quality and consumption have been widely proven. The fired product unloading line will also be equipped with robots to simplify the different operations and will consist of two parallel lines to ensure a better working flexibility.
With this project, Equipceramic is preparing to win a challenge that will allow it to further enhance its leading position in the Tunisian market and, more generally, in the whole Arab Maghreb.
