Versatile and productive, with the lowest energy consumption and scrap levels on the market. Alongside it, a 5-tier dryer and a new kiln equipped with SACMI’s latest energy efficiency solutions. With this project, then, India’s leading player has made a major investment decision that takes the Group into the high-end slab and tile sector

Versatile, repeatable quality with outstanding productivity and the lowest energy consumption on the market. These are the hallmarks of the PCR2120, the latest addition to the SACMI Continua+ family, now selected by Kajaria as it seeks to become a key player in the high-end slab and tile segment. The country’s number one – and seventh globally – in terms of output volumes, Kajaria joins forces with Continua+ technology after an astonishing 33-year history marked by constant investment with Sacmi in innovation and service. Their success has given them leadership of the domestic market and made them major exporters to Europe and the United States. “Technology, research, quality and design”, points out Ashok Kajaria, owner and founder of the company, now run together with his sons Chetan and Rishi, “have been in Kajaria’s DNA ever since its founding. We’ve always adopted the latest available technologies, looking ahead to boost the quality and appeal of our products and the efficiency of our factories”. Hence their decision to go for SACMI Continua+, the world’s leading technology with over 100 solutions sold on 5 continents. This purchase, a PCR2120, will be up and running by next spring at the South Plant, in Tirupati one of ten Kajaria Group production plants located across the country with the head office in the capital – New Delhi. Specifically designed for the market’s most popular formats – from 60×120 to 120×240 cm and relative sub-sizes – the machine is outstandingly compact and offers, with such sizes, a sound alternative to even to the highest-performing traditional presses. Compared to a discontinuous press, in fact, Continua+ provides unparalleled versatility as regards settings, thanks also to the in-line TPV on-the-fly cutting solution supplied by BMR. Equipped with upstream APB0 and DMS feeders, the machine is designed to provide, once fully operational, an output of 3.5 million square meters per year in various sizes and thicknesses. Moreover, it features the lowest scrap levels in the category (always < 3%, regardless of product size) and fully recycled, thanks to the integrated suction and recovery system.

Another key aspect of this purchase – of particular importance on the Indian manufacturing market, which is recovering fast but also being impacted by high energy costs – is the 5-tier SACMI dryer, which has an effective width of 2850 mm and a length of 47.6 meters. Next come the 25.3-meter pre-kiln and the new 210-meter HTE295 kiln, a next-gen machine with a full complement of systems that retrieve hot air from the kiln and send it to the burner pre-heat area or dryer.

Energy efficiency solutions play an increasingly pivotal role in SACMI tile-making technology and are now a priority for many customers as they seek to maximize both quality and output capacity by acting decisively on the factory’s energy balance. Last but far from least, this PCR has the lowest specific consumption on the market, just 0.06 kWh per square meter against 80 kW of installed power.