Four decades of partnership with Sacmi-Gaiotto have seen major advances in industrial automation, hence the decision by GSI (Gruppo Sanitari Italia) to push ahead with a fully 4.0 approach to sanitaryware production. Now, the Gallese plant -located in the Civita Castellana district, home to a thousand-year ceramic tradition- has completed installation of two new Sacmi AVM casting solutions, the industry standard-setter for complex WC production.
Yet that’s not all: the new AVMs, which join an extensive machine pool supplied in 2020 and previous years (14 solutions in total, including ADM and ADS for washbasins and shower trays), are part of an ambitious GSI plan that aims to establish full factory automation, reducing manual processing while implementing cutting-edge tracking, monitoring and control functions.
First of all, the supplied solutions feature handling robots equipped with green piece finishing tools (part of the rim gluing, brushing and sponging of external parts, etc.). This considerably reduces the need for manual work even at this early stage; moreover, the entire operation is performed in connection with the factory supervisor.
Subsequent tasks -from automatic on-car loading to unloading at the glazing stations- have been configured according to the same logic. While the cars are, today, handled manually, they’re provided with tags containing data on the loaded pieces. This optimizes post-forming phases such as handling and glazing according to the specific lot/article to be produced.
This information can be processed by the factory supervisor, allowing real-time KPI monitoring -to provide info on order management, times/quantities for items that have transited through the various stages- and automatic control of warnings.
Delivered in recent weeks, these latest machines will be fully operational before the summer: this completes yet another strategic stage in the customer’s development plans, which are set to take the facility towards total automation.
