Rocell, a sanitaryware manufacturer belonging to the Royal Ceramic Group (Sri Lanka’s leading tile manufacturer and also the owner of Lanka Tiles), recently installed and tested a new shuttle kiln, designed and built by the Sacmi Group’s own Riedhammer.
The supplied plant is effectively a doubling of the already-installed 'sister kiln', allowing execution of glazed piece firing and re-firing.
A unique kiln car return and handling line ensures maximum output flexibility.
The new kiln consists of 10 cars, has a total effective volume of 100 m3 and, like the existing one, lets the manufacturer load pieces on 2 or 3 levels depending on the specific product models.
Key kiln characteristics include the internal cordierite/mullite refractory lining: this frees the user from exposed fibre maintenance and, indeed, any product defects such fibre might cause.
Moreover, the kiln features a rapid cooling system, thanks to which the entire cycle time has been reduced (down to a minimum of 16 hours).
This new firing system also gives Rocell an effective tool to respond to growing demand for high quality sanitaryware in Sri Lanka and engage with new markets (e.g. Australia, of considerable interest to the Group following their inauguration of a showroom in Melbourne).