Facade porcelain gres of Keramin production is a brand-new artificial finishing agent based on natural constituents.
The natural material (clay, sand, feldspar, etc.), called spray-dried powder, grinded up to 100-500 microns, is pressed into separate plates under very high pressure, then dried and fired under high temperatures. Meanwhile the raw materials are sintered and make a monolith. As a result we obtain high-strength though rather heavy nonporous material. The design is formed still during pressing phase owing to the use of colored spray-dried powders. This technology requires the use of a more complicated machinery than the one used for production of floor or wall tiles. During production process the whole tile’s body is subject to pigmentation to guarantee invariable design both on the surface and in depth. Because of this porcelain gres can be considered practically eternal: abrasion of superior layer does not lead to design deterioration.
A very important property of porcelain gres is a practically zero water absorption and, correspondingly, high frost-resistance and nonsusceptibility to corrosion. Porcelain gres is also known for its high-resistance properties. For example, average values of bending strength limit are more than 45 MPa. According to this value, porcelain gres is 3 times more resistant than natural stones, 2 times more resistant than ceramic wall tiles and 1,5 times more resistant than ceramic floor tiles. For protective and decorative facing of facades, mm 600õ600 slabs are usually used together with mm 600õ900, mm 1200õ600. Up to now porcelain gres facing has been considered mainly of European origin. Italian, Spanish and German manufacturers were especially widely acknowledged (the most known of them Marazzi (Italy) and Agrobbuhtal (Germany). However, due to low prices, Turkish and Chinese products are currently much requested at the market.
With the start-up of the new production line, today Keramin JSC offers products of the quality not worse than that of Italian manufacturers and at the same time, as far as the prices are concerned, wholly comparable with Russian, Polish and even Chinese products.
There are cases in the Russian construction experience when even normal glazed ceramic tiles were used for façade facing, except for high-resistant porcelain gres (façade gres). But as experts we do not recommend to use these products, because one expects glaze curling caused by atmospheric factors. As a result your façade shall be subject to repairing much earlier than when you use porcelain gres.
New porcelain gres production line of Keramin JSC.
At present, a new production line FMP-2950 has been assembled at Keramin JSC, commissioning is being held. Starting from June 2009 it is planned to start manufacturing large-size porcelain gres mm 600õ600.
The new line is equipped with a press of capacity 6.200,00 ton. It’s the first press of such properties to have been installed in CIS countries and Eastern Europe.
The new line is capable of manufacturing of gres size: mm 300õ600, 600x600, 600x900 and 600x1200.
For the project implementation innovative technologies and up-to-date machinery designed and implemented worldwide for the last 2-4 years (in particular, machinery of leading Italian manufacturers: SACMI, LB, SYSTEM) were used. The same machinery and technologies are used by leading Italian manufacturers of ceramics and porcelain gres.
Keramin JSC invested in this project more than ˆ 6.000.000,00.
Production capacity of the new line is not worse than that of some Italian ceramic plants.
The start-up of the new FMP-2950 production line made it possible to use technologies for manufacturing porcelain gres with designs of exquisite aesthetics to fully reflect nobility of natural stones. It means technologies CROMA and COLOR VERTICAL DRY. Dry decoration technology with CROMA filler-box makes it possible to manufacture products with designs throughout the whole volume of tiles with the use of 4 basic colored powders (standard or micronized ones) and 4 additional components (special grains, inclusions and dry compounds). The CROMA technology makes it possible to produce polished and unpolished porcelain gres. Before pressing, colored spray-dried (micronized) powder responsible for tile’s design is applied to tile base by means of the CROMA filler-box. This new technology improves aesthetic and operating properties of porcelain gres.
In 2009 Keramin JSC plans to produce three porcelain gres collections of mm 600õ600, 600õ300 with the use of this technology: Atlantic, Seville, Monocolor. The said collections consist of the most popular color solutions used for façade facing of buildings.
COLOR VERTICAL DRY technology is a design application system by means of dispersion of powdered glaze without pressure, which permits to apply simultaneously 4 colors of dry compounds to tile base in sincronized mode, creating required designs of high resolution. Special surface of dry glaze increases durability and abrasion resistance of porcelain gres.
This year Keramin JSC plans to manufacture porcelain gres collections Quartzite, Elbrus, Everest of mm 600õ600 and 300õ600 size created with the use of the COLOR VERTICAL DRY technology. These collections include the most popular color solutions used for façade facing of buildings.
In production process the CROMA pressing technology can be supplemented with the COLOR VERTICAL DRY system to reflect all diversity of shades and textures of natural materials.
Taking into consideration the market development tendencies and customers’ requests, Keramin JSC plans further expansion of collections and color palette of porcelain gres for ventilated facades.
Technical specifications of facade ceramic slabs.
The main technical specifications of porcelain gres produced by Keramin JSC are:
- High durability;
- Extremely low water absorption (not more than 0.2%);
- Frost resistance (not less than 100 cycles);
- No radiation background;
- Bending strength limit (more than 45 MPa).
All requirements for porcelain gres are confirmed by certificates issued by the Ceramic Center (Bologna, Italy), which is the official control authority of Italy. Based on this document in April 2009 Keramin JSC elaborated and put into operation Standard TU BY 100297103.624-2009. Quality system of Keramin porcelain gres production conforms to requirements of STB ISO 9001-2001 to absolutely assure its customers of compliance of porcelain gres to all declared specifications.
Advantages of working with Keramin JSC.
Currently the main singularity of Keramin JSC is a package deal of solutions for construction sector.
The Keramin JSC production program for 2009 includes:
- 44 collections of ceramic tiles for household interiors (bathrooms, WCs, living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens, halls);
- 27 collections of porcelain gres used for floor coating in places with maximum working loads (airports, stations, banks, shopping centers), for walls and floors decoration, as well as 3 collections of large-size porcelain gres for facing ventilated facades (novelty);
- 14 collections of sanitaryware;
- bricks and ceramic stones.
Brand-new production machinery installed at Keramin JSC is unique in all CIS countries. Quality of products corresponds to the best European analogues.
Constant improvement of technological production process, updating and high-scale investment program, the use of the latest innovative solutions provide Keramin JSC leading positions in construction ceramics market for many years already, creating products of new generation with complex and trendy designs requested even by most demanding customers.
