From analogue to digital with SuperShine and Leviga Digital:
new solutions made in BMR to make the finishing process more efficient, avoiding waste and helping companies to recover margins
At BMR, the drive towards digitization has never been a pure exercise in style or competitiveness: more tangibly, the research and development work in Scandiano has always been directed towards the production efficiency of the machines. Digitization is seen as a tool for customer companies to strengthen margins and balance the relationship between costs and benefits, reducing waste and errors and optimizing resources.
An approach that BMR has always pursued and maintained, and which today becomes vital for ceramic and surface manufacturers, struggling with the increase in energy costs and the shortage of raw materials, which oscillate between the extreme difficulty in finding them and skyrocketing prices. It therefore becomes of fundamental importance to have total control of the entire production process and in particular of the finishing process, and to do so BMR proposes a new way of conceiving it through complete integration within a digital service platform. By creating systems that allow the objective analysis of the data and the optimal setting of the machines, the Scandiano-based company aims precisely at this, at the optimization of each phase, at impressing in the production the maximum possible objectivity that leads to reducing waste (above all avoiding the loss of batches of slabs due to chipping, treatment and lapping errors) and to ensure more efficiency and recovery of margins.
And it is exactly this perspective that has inspired the new versions of two flagship products, two “musts” of BMR: the SuperShine and the Leviga Digital. The double proposal consists in introducing a business management logic integrated with production. Through a constant exchange of information and the introduction of innovative, less empirical technical solutions in the different stages of the process, it will be possible to achieve maximum customization of the finished product in a market that leans increasingly towards a “service on demand”. This approach cannot neglect the salient aspects of quality and yields and, at the same time, the consumption of materials and the use of resources, to achieve “process awareness”. Only the provision and use of the tools necessary to keep the various process variables “under control” contribute to the creation of products with these technical characteristics. And it is clear how an “end of line” of this type can represent a great opportunity even for the users themselves, who thus become protagonists able to have the entire process under control.
To allow all this, in the case of Leviga Digital, BMR has conceived the Leviga Simulator, a new method of planning, monitoring and management of the end of line, which constitutes an extraordinary revolution in the very way of experiencing the production plant, making assessments more objective by “simplifying” the operations for the “technologist” who works on the machine.
*SIMULATORE LEVIGA: LEVIGA SIMULATOR
CONFIGURAZIONE PRODUZIONE: PRODUCTION CONFIGURATION
Larghezza Formato (mm): Size Width (mm)
Lunghezza Formato (mm): Size Length (mm)
V nastro (m/min): Belt S (m/min)
Selezionare modalità: Select Mode
Interasse teste (mm): Heads Centre Distance (mm)
DATI TRAVE: BEAM DATA
Selezionare traiettoria: Select Trajectory
Pausa bordo: Edge pause
Velocità motore: Motor Speed
Sincro Attiva: Synchro Activated
CONFIGURAZIONE SIMULATORE: SIMULATOR CONFIGURATION
Discretizzazione: Discretization
Campionamento: Sampling
Numero processori: Number of processors
Scenario Simulazione: Simulation Scenario
Impostazione scenario: Scenario setup
PONTE: BRIDGE
Testa: Head
The goal is to provide the customer with a system capable of analysing the Leviga polishing cycle, or a settable simulation of how the head works the substrate surface. This simulator is programmable in order to search for the ideal machine setup, in terms of acceleration, stroke, speed. Based on this, the simulator must be able to simulate the machined substrate surface according to:
• Beam Speed
• Beam Stroke
• Beam cycles
• Number of heads
• Head Ø
• Abrasive sizes
• Head pressure
All this to map the surface processing with the aim of having the greatest possible uniformity of this surface processing. By surface processing we mean the time the tools remain on the individual units that make up the surface.
Thanks to this software it is possible to obtain an analysis of how the machine processes the tiles’ surface and this is very useful for verifying unconfirmed theories that are currently subjective, taken from experiences with no scientific value. The Leviga Simulator also makes it possible to facilitate the use of the machines by offering an ideal setup according to the process to be obtained and also guarantees remote support, with the best possible programmable setup in case of problems.
Lastly, the Leviga Digital has a series of solutions that will allow the customer to present different finishes, more or less evident, which will make its surface unique, with an effect that will be fully appreciated with the installation of the materials. The uniqueness of each surface will be such also due to the fact that each slab can have many different combinations: as an example, it will be possible to produce a 60% processed surface, of which 30% can be satin, 20% glossy and 10% natural.
Depending on the combination of tools in the machine, it is ultimately possible to multiply the possibilities of variation and customization: in synergy with specific machine set-ups, the tool can in fact create exclusive “irregularities”. Therefore, even Leviga Digital lends itself to becoming a valuable ally of customer companies in terms of energy efficiency and margin recovery. The new solution will be presented at Tecna 2022.
Let’s move on to the SuperShine Digital dry polisher, which is the evolution in the field of the first SuperShine designed over 10 years ago by BMR. Starting from the successes achieved and acquired in various markets, Digital is able to guarantee ever higher standards of quality and efficiency, projecting itself even more into the future.
A necessary premise: the SuperShine was in effect the first dry super-polisher. Its manufacturing process is based on mechanical and physical dynamics between the tool, the surface and the chemical product applied, and aims to enhance the digital graphics of the tile and to guarantee high gloss and protection for the surface.
Starting from this basis, the latest version features great performance, attention to the environment, and above all the fact that it is ultra-connected, with constant data sharing to allow process control. Its inclusion on the line will lead to the integration of two functions: the aesthetic one of polishing, obtained through the mechanical action of the tools, and that of protective treatment, a consequence of closing surface porosity. And it is the first and only super dry polisher that can guarantee this double value and the digitization of the entire polishing and treatment process.
The new digital component allows the machine to use, via the software, the satellite heads to apply a product A, for example a surface protector which, by mechanically adhering to the treated surface, closes the pores through a filling and sealing process. Depending on market needs, the customer could also use a product B to give the surface specific functions.
Digital will thus be able to guarantee advantages, performance and versatility that could not be achieved with traditional systems, and this also thanks to modules starting from 10, 12, 16, 10+10.
By placing the new super polisher as the central point of the new finishing department, the line in which it will be included will therefore be upgraded from the point of view of efficiency and productivity, with a reduction in fixed production costs and a significant increase in the quality of the ceramic surface, thanks to its ability to remove finishing defects such as halos, infeed marks and micro scratches. As mentioned above, the implementation of the new tools leads to the optimization of resources and the reduction of waste.
The new Supershine version will be previewed at the Tecna fair, the new fair dedicated to surface technologies that takes over from Tecnargilla and will take place from 27 to 30 September in Rimini.
“Through the creation of systems that allow the objective analysis of data and the optimal setting of the machines, BMR aims at complete control of the process – says Matteo Immovilli, Research and Development at BMR -. In this period where electricity and gas have a significant cost, reducing production waste is of primary importance and can bring back the margin lost by ceramics. Furthermore, even the raw materials are now unavailable or cost like gold. Therefore, losing production batches due to chipping, treatment and lapping errors – concludes Immovilli – would be unacceptable. BMR wants to achieve maximum line efficiency and our Research and Development and process efficiency work always tries to anticipate customers’ needs“.