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Press Release – March 2010
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Highest production flexibility by KELLER HCW – Laterizi Fauci (Sciacca Works)
Gruppo Fauci, Sicily/Italy
[March 2010] The traditional Gruppo Fauci is the most important brick manufacturer in Sicily. By strategic investments in various sites the company has ensured the consolidation of the whole company in the market place. The group comprises of 4 production sites in Sciacca, Colessano, Agrigento and Fondachello Valdina (all in Sicily). The production range includes most kinds of common brick, partition wall bricks, bricks with vertical and horizontal perforations, newly developed thermo blocks with thin internal ribs, as well as ceiling blocks for various uses and with varying dimensions. Pre-stressed concrete beams are manufactured by the concrete components factory, so that together with the production of ceiling blocks the product range is completed.
Sciacca Works in Sicily
The production site at Sciacca is located a few kilometres to the North-West of Sciacca City. The factory was inaugurated in 1978 and replaced the old production plant. Between March and August the raw material is removed from the factory-owned clay pit, which is located near to the factory. The clay is then transported to the brick factory clay storage and stored in layers. This pre-homogenized clay, which has soured for at least two years, is transported to the preparation plants by means of excavators. The raw material coming from the clay crusher, which is fed by a box feeder, is transported to two roller millers arranged in line, where it is crushed to achieve the correct grain size. Afterwards, the rolled coarse grain is processed in a mixer and is then fed to the soaking house. The soaking house, equipped by Rieter-Werke in 1997, is a 57 m long, 20 m wide and 8 m deep transverse silo, which is filled by conveyors and emptied by a bucket excavator.
Extension and modernisation
In order to increase the quality of the 50 different products types and to minimise the times for size changeovers, Gruppo Fauci decided to comprehensively modernise the Sciacca brick factory. This modernisation was planned and realized by KELLER HCW GmbH.
First modernisation step:
Technological Update
The first modernisation step was realized in 1997 and included the modification of the wet and dry sides, the setting machine and the dryer.
For the first time in Italy, two robots were installed on the wet side to take up the products coming from the cutter in several rows and after grouping they are gripped on their cut faces and set down on pre-prepared large-sized pallets. The high output, the variety of products, the frequent size changes, the different setting on large-sized pallets and the corresponding different setting positions led to the decision to use the highly efficient robots. Since the cutter works continuously to transfer the product groups to the following conveyor, the robots are synchronised with the conveyor using in-line tracking. The gripper ledges move into the gaps between the product groups while at the same time the conveyor moves forward and grips the groups on their cutting surfaces to remove them from the conveyor without any resulting friction between product and conveyor. By the use of the robot grippers the large-sized pallets are loaded in a few seconds.
The favoured handling technology of KELLER HCW particularly for the production of common bricks and similar products has been for several years:
• If possible convey the green products on conveyors only;
• Grip the green products only on their cut faces;
• Grip the green products only once before they are set down on the pallet;
• Use as few transfer devices as possible to convey the green products.
The careful handling of green products, which are sensitive to deformation, also ensures the safe handling of the product in the following working processes.
By this increase in quality of the products the acceptance in the market place and increases in sales are assured. The modernisation also included the modification of the tunnel dryer car transport equipment of the existing dryer. After drying in a tunnel dryer, which has 6 forward tracks and 1 return track and which is equipped with circulation units, the tunnel dryer cars are unloaded by a crane which removes the large-sized pallets individually from the tunnel dryer car and sets them onto a conveyor. By means of chain and roller conveyors the dry and no longer sensitive products are conveyed from the large-sized pallets towards the setting machine. During this transport the products are grouped again and, if necessary, are turned-over so that they are prepared for the setting plant in layers. The setting plant consists of two robots, which remove the prepared firing pack layers from the feeding table and sets them down on the firing pack being formed on the kiln car. In order to ensure a smooth set down of the products on the kiln car, the robot moves very slowly to the kiln car deck while setting down the first layer. As soon as the products touch the kiln car deck, the gripper goes into the "floating position" to avoid further pressure on the product and the kiln car deck. Furthermore, the kiln car height is then measured by this equipment. This measurement is then stored temporarily in the control system and is the basis for all other cycles.
Using a setting robot instead of a setting plant required the modernisation of the tunnel kiln car transport in the setting area, i.e. the kiln car changeover time was reduced by the use of corresponding equipment.
Due to the large number of sizes with different clay column heights a large storage system for large-sized pallets was required. The intermediate storage of hundreds of large-sized pallets in many stacking positions is now possible.
Second modernisation step:
New energy standards and new requirements
The propagation and application of the new standards for energy saving (Legislative decree 192/2005 – Implementation of the directive 2002/91/CE concerning the energy efficiency in the building industry) led to the development of common bricks with improved thermal and acoustic performances, although the weight is insignificantly heavier. These increased product quality standards led Gruppo Fauci to continue modernisation.
Firstly, both robots on the wet side had to be replaced by two new robots with higher effective capacity. Due to the higher effective capacity larger grippers could be used, allowing the handling of larger loads. Despite the higher effective capacity this new type of robot is faster, achieving a working cycle with maximum load in less than 10 seconds. The robots are controlled by a control device with vibration control and are equipped with an integrated 2D visualisation system with 3D updating possibility.
Furthermore, the control system allows for the downloading and uploading of programmes from the central server unit. Product changes are realized by the simple input of the dimensions of the product to be produced. By further optimisations in the area of the cutting and wet side system, the efficiency of the plant could be improved. Both robots, which are no longer used on the wet side, were equipped with other grippers to feed pallets in the palletizing area.
In order to facilitate the handling of the kiln cars and to improve the quality of the products during firing, the following measures were taken:
• The loaded kiln cars pass through a newly installed preheater, preheating the products before entering the tunnel kiln.
• The kiln car transport equipment was completely replaced.
• The kiln was extended by 5 kiln cars.
• The complete burner plant was replaced by a new plant.
• The complete kiln is now controlled by the KELLER K-matic control system.
• All kiln cars were replaced by new kiln cars.
• To safeguard the investment, kiln car cleaning equipment was installed to vacuum the draught blocks as well as the kiln car deck after the removal of the draught blocks.
This newly developed kiln car cleaner was installed in Italy for the first time and works as follows:
After cleaning the flat draught blocks, the draught block rows are stacked one upon the other. Then the complete stack is removed. Afterwards, the kiln car deck is cleaned by suction devices and brushes and the draught block rows are returned. Using this procedure a perfect cleaning of the kiln car deck, a better quality of the final product as well as energy savings can be achieved. By cleaning the kiln cars the growth of the kiln car deck is minimised and a longer life of the kiln cars is assured.
By modernising the plant and considering the variety of products as well as the high flexibility of all equipment in the relevant production areas, the quality of the products could be increased significantly.
Furthermore, the application of new standards for energy saving could be realized.
Thanks to the constructive and creative cooperation and the experience of Gruppo Fauci and KELLER HCW the project was successfully completed.
Further information can be found under the following link:
Project data of the plant »
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Picture 1:
Gruppo Fauci, a company with tradition and a view to modern times.
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Picture 2:
Gruppo Fauci, a company with tradition and a view to modern times.
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Picture 3:
The soaking house equipped with Rieter machinery provides homogeneous raw materials.
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Picture 4:
The clay column under pressure, the robots of the wet side in use. While the conveyor conveys in dependence of the slightly irregular advancing movement of the extruder, the gripper ledges of the robot moves into the gaps between the products for taking them up. This synchronisation is called "line tracking".
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Picture 5:
The large-sized pallets are conveyed in one line from the tunnel dryer car unloading equipment to the tunnel dryer car loading equipment. On this line the products are adjusted on the large-sized pallets (at the right of the photo), afterwards the products are removed from the large-sized pallet by a lifting and lowering chain conveyor (centre of the photo) and the large-sized pallets are stored in and emptied, as needed (at the left of the photo).
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Picture 6:
If required, the dry products are set/turned over on the cutting surface by means of the turn-over star.
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Picture 7:
By means of the setting robots which are optimized with regard to velocity the products are set on kiln cars layer by layer to form the firing packs.
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Picture 8:
The new preheater with modified tunnel kiln car transport (new transfer car) and new burner plant which is also controlled by the KELLER control system.
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Picture 9:
Kiln entrance with the sluice which is arranged upstream.
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Picture 10:
The kiln hall and the kiln were extended. The extension of the kiln by 5 kiln cars must have been considered in the cooling zone. The kiln car transport including transfer cars were replaced. The tunnel kiln cars leave the kiln with almost completely cooled down products.
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Picture 11:
This shows the cooling zone of the kiln and the kiln car deck made of bricks, the air inlet slot in the ceiling, the solid setting and the fire between the first and second firing pack from the left.
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Picture 12:
By means of the tunnel kiln car cleaning equipment all bottom draught blocks are removed and the complete tunnel kiln car deck including edges is cleaned.
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 Your Contact Persons:
Yvonne Lammers
Marketing & PR Assistant
Telephone: +49 (0) 5451 85-229
Wolfgang Brunk
Head of the Department Marketing & PR
Telephone: + 49 (0) 5451 85-278
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