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San Marco LateriziFacing brick plant with highly flexiblerobot technology in Tuscany

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In Castiglion Fiorentino , about 20 kilometers south ofArezzo, the Italian masonry brick and roofing tile pro-ducer San Marco Laterizi, in the summer of 1998, beganoperating its new plant for facing bricks and thin pavers, which produces an annual 39 500 tons of soft mud bricksin various sizes.

The plant, constructed entirely by Lingl from the soft mudbrick press down to fully automatic pack-forming for thebricks on shipping pallets, is designed for a one-shiftsix-day operation.

The technical innovations in this plant are the loadingand unloading of the tunnel kiln cars by robots, and aspecial setting scheme with the bricks in horizontalposition.

San Marco LateriziFacing brick plant with highly flexiblerobot technology in Tuscany

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DryingThe loaded dryer cars are fed program-controlled to the dryer by the automatic transfer car.The chamber doors are automatically unhinged and hinged.

In the chamber dryer with 7 double chambers for 12 dryer cars each, the drying air is recirculatedby rotary fans. The drying process is controlled via programs regulated according to temperatureand humidity curves. The drying time amounts to 46 hours, and drying shrinkage is approximately8%, with a water content of the green bricks of 30 to 32% on absolutely dry.

SettingAfter the dryer cars are unload-ed, the dried green bricks aretaken from the drying palletsand grouped in bond formationto setting layers.The setting layers positionedon the marshalling conveyorare taken up by robots andstacked precisely on the kilncars as firing packs in bladesetting - a good example forsimple, intelligent use ofmachines.

1 Soft mud brick press2 Pallet return3 Dryer car loading

and unloading4 Storage track

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5 Transfer car6 Chamber dryer7 Unloading gripper8 Transfer gripper9 Setting robot (2)

10 Heated area11 Preheater12 Tunnel kiln13 Control room14 Car unloading

15 Separation anddistribution (2 robots)

16 Pack-forming (4 robots)17 Shrink-hood packaging

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DIVISIONE FACCIA A VISTAFacing Brick WorksCastiglion Fiorentino (AR), Toscana

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FiringAfter passing through a warming area, the kiln cars enterthe preheater, which can take up 6 kiln cars and is arrang-ed as a lock in front of the tunnel kiln.

Oxidizing and reduction firing is performed in the 87 mlong steel-clad tunnel kiln with natural gas. The firingtemperature is 1050 °C and the passage time is 58 hours.

Machinery, dryer and kiln are computer-controlled by theproven Simatic S5 system and Lingl software.

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Unloading, pack-forming, packagingThe expertise of the skilled partner is evident from thesmart solution Lingl has found for kiln car unloadingand brick pack-forming:

The firing packs in blade setting are unloaded row byrow and placed on two conveyor belts. Then two robotsdistribute the bricks onto 4 x 2 conveyor belts. Here the bricks in longitudinal direction are singleddirectly, bricks laid in crosswise direction are singled by4 grippers in the supply conveyors.

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A particularly robust bondingis called for while pack-formingthe bricks on shipping pallets.This affords a variable settingmethod, which can be achievedquickly, precisely and economic-ally by robots.

Shrink-hood packaging ideallycombines protection againstbad weather conditions withadvertising media and safe-guarding of the brick packsduring transportation.

Technical DataProduction: Facing bricks, pavers

Capacity: 39,500 t/year

Staff: 5 operators(setting to packaging)

Lingl chamber dryer for soft mud bricks7 double chambers for 12 double cars each,with automatic door handlingChamber load: 21,600 pcsDrying time: 46 hoursShrinkage: 8%Control via programs regulated accordingto temperature and humidity curves

Lingl tunnel kiln with steel-casingKiln length: 87 m (30 cars)Firing channel: 5.40 m / 1.22 mCar load: 2 x 16 rowsFiring time: 58 hoursPreheater: 17.4 m (6 cars)Control via Simatic S5 withLingl software

Product handling for setting, singling and pack-forming is done by robots.

Reference size: 250/120/55 mm, 2.6 kg

Operating time: 48 weeks/year6 days/week1 shift 6.5 h/day

Hans Lingl Anlagenbau und VerfahrenstechnikGmbH & Co. KGA.-Berblinger-Straße 6 · D-89231 Neu-UlmPostfach 1629 · D-89206 Neu-UlmTelefon +49 (0)731 9751-0 · Telefax -210http://www.lingl.com · e-mail: lingl@lingl.com

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