Getting everything under one roof

»1 Tomasz Bilski, Plant Director, (left) and Dirk Vandermaelen,
Senior Project Manager Clay Etex Holding GmbH, showed Zi Editor Anett Fischer around the new clay roofing tile factory

»2 View of part of the preparation facilities, which consists of one pan mill and two roller mills from Händle and a Hellmich dedusting system. An option is available to retrofit a third roller mill if required

»3 The flat roofing tiles are pressed on two three-head presses supplied by Bongioanni

»4 The tiles are dried in two six-tier rapid roller dryers supplied by Sacmi

»5 With the roller dryer technology, no dryer cars are needed

»6 Cleia was responsible for roofing tile handling from unloading of the dryer

»7 View of the gigantic kiln installed by Ceric Technologies

»8 The roofing tiles are packed with the help of robots

The Etex group of companies has built a new plant for the production of 30 mill. clay roofing tiles plus 2.4 mill. tile accessories per year near Koscian, Poland. Rather than awarding a contract for a turn-key plant, the company opted to contract a combination of different suppliers. At the end of November, during a tour of the plant, which was officially commissioned on 19 September 2012, Dirk Vandermaelen (D.V.), Senior Project Manager Clay, explained the strategy behind the investment.

Zi: Mr Vandermaelen, is the plant already running at full capacity and to your satisfaction?

D.V: On 1 June 2012 we pressed the first roofing tile and now, at the end of November, running at 50% of capacity, we are right on schedule. At present we are producing the reference size tile and are in the process of making further modifications. Full capacity is set to be reached by the end of the first quarter of 2013 and we are convinced that we shall achieve this goal.

Zi: Creaton opted to contract several different plant suppliers and had the task of coordinating all the suppliers involved. How...