Argentinian Group Cerro Negro chooses Sacmi technology to set up – at the Ex Losa Olavarria production facility – the country’s most advanced plant for the production and management of large extruded wall and floor slabs, digitally decorated using Sacmi Digital solutions. The new line, which offers unmatched efficiency and automation, will allow the Group to intercept the latest market and design trends.

Argentinian firm Ex Losa Olavarria is a well-known extruded floor and wall brick manufacturer. Since joining the Cerro Negro Group three years ago, it has decided to focus on large slabs and has placed its trust in Sacmi Heavy Clay to renew its manufacturing facilities and complete the ambitious “Lineas Tablas” project for the manufacture of digitally decorated large extruded slabs.

More than twenty years after making its first purchase from Sacmi (back in 1995), this Argentinian firm has now chosen to renew and extend its product range and so intercept the most recent market trends. Following installation of these latest Sacmi Heavy Clay solutions, in fact, the production plant will be able to make continuously extruded, plastic, digitally decorated, cut and polished slabs up to the considerable size of 400 x 1600 mm.

This result – which makes the Cerro Negro Group one of the most cutting-edge manufacturers in South America – goes hand in hand with a Sacmi-supplied technology that allows not only easy management of large sizes but also the replication of certain aesthetic effects such as the “random” decoration and veining typical of wood and natural stone. The heart of the system is the new Sacmi DHD|D 708 digital decorator. This machine embodies all the best Sacmi Digital know-how in terms of digital decoration machine/plant design (thanks to latest-generation software and the simple, linear mechanical design of the machine) to allow complex, high definition ‘tactile’ effects.

Moreover, the order placed by this Argentinian company includes the set-up of the new conveyor-type structuring machine forming department, plus replacement of the current box loading transport system to adapt it to large slab handling requirements. Alongside upgrading of the existing drier, now equipped with new control/management software, Sacmi Heavy Clay has thus opted for replacement all kiln infeed/outfeed devices, with inlet and outlet lines adapted for manufacture of the largest sizes.

In keeping with Sacmi Heavy Clay’s policy of equipping solutions with devices that combine quality with optimised consumption, kiln combustion systems and control devices have also been replaced to boost the quality of the firing process and so optimise energy consumption. Completing the picture are the automatic platform-type storage and piece handling lines which use laser-guided vehicles (LGV) to interconnect all the various production islands, including the fired product cutting and dry smoothing line downstream from the kiln.

Other end-of-line additions include the Synthesis-90 sorting line by Sacmi Nuova Fima – Sacmi’s response to the need for a solution that combines compact, flexible and efficient handling of a wide size/thickness range with minimum consumption – and the automatic packaging system to maximise plant efficiency in terms of logistics and storage management. By renewing its trust in Sacmi Heavy Clay, the Cerro Negro Group has demonstrated its desire to make the most of the aesthetic potential of extruded products, in keeping with the latest size, decoration and design trends.