IPERCER

Process innovation for the sustainable ceramic tile supply chain

Principal investigator: Michele Dondi
Involved personnel: Chiara Zanelli, Guia Guarini, Roberto Soldati, Andreana Piancastelli, Cesare Melandri
Starting date:16 Aprile 2016
Duration: 36 mesi
Total funding: 936.886 €
Call: POR-FESR Emilia Romagna 2014-2020
Coordinator: Centro Ceramico (Bologna)
Consortium:  CNR-ISTEC (Faenza, RA); CIRI EC e CIRI MAM (Centri Interdipartimentali di Ricerca Industriale dell’Università di Bologna); NIER Ingegneria S.p.A.
Involved companies: Gigacer S.p.A. (Piastrelle di ceramica), Panaria Group S.p.A. (Piastrelle di ceramica) – SACMI s.c.a.r.l. (Impianti) – Reverse & Quality s.r.l. (società di ingegneria).

The IPERCER project is aimed at the ceramic tile industry, especially the producers of large format porcelain stoneware slabs and, through the study and industrial application of a series of innovative tools, addresses the technological and energy challenges encountered with the increase in production and the demand for these new products.
It will thus be possible to optimize the quality and performance of the finished product, rationalizing and making the production cycle more efficient both in technological terms (improvement of compaction, cooking, measuring methods, etc.), and in energy terms (reduction of consumption). The aim is to provide ceramic tile manufacturers with a series of tools to “design” the characteristics of the finished product according to certain process parameters, so as to support companies in the process design, control and monitoring phases.

The objectives of the project are:
1) realization of a descriptive model of the behavior of atomized and compact powders in the deposition and compacting operations of large format slabs;
2) modeling the cooking behavior of large format slabs with particular regard to residual stresses;
3) energy analysis of the cooking process, identification of solutions for its efficiency and subsequent implementation of a management and monitoring platform for energy consumption strictly connected to each phase of transformation of the material;
4) energy improvement of the cutting process by implementing a system of analysis, monitoring and systemic energy management, with a complete and detailed view on consumption and verification of trends in real time;
5) development of a measurement system (outside the production line) for the determination of the dimensions and planarity of the large slabs in parallel with the definition of a series of criteria for controlling the measurement along the production line of the same parameters;
6) drafting of guidelines and a protocol for measuring the dimensions and flatness of large slabs.