CERIC POITTEMILL jointventure

The two French companies Ceric, a world leader in the design and production of plant and equipment for the manufacture of ceramic building materials, and Poittemill, manufacturer of grinding plants for – among others – the ceramic, chemical and food industries, have concluded a joint venture in 2006. Both companies wish to cooperate in the field of dry preparation.
As Serge Bonnefoi, Group Manager Ceric, and Jean-François Marechal, Manager Poittemill Ingénierie, emphasized at the Tecnargilla, the successful cooperation in 2003 in a Serbian clay roofing tile plant was the basis for this decision. With normal wet preparation the clay used there, which contained CaCO3, led to considerable quality problems due to lime spalling. With the installed dry preparation plant, a roller crusher from Poittemill, it was possible to improve the product quality significantly with the same product properties. A further positive effect was that due to the finely prepared clay mass the service life of the gypsum moulds was increased to two and a half times longer.
For Marechal the use of dry preparation has advantages not only with problematical raw materials. Further aspects are:
• Production of optimal mixtures of different raw materials, e.g. clays with basalt or sand
• Possibility for example of specific admixture of additives
• Improvement of the clay mass properties by fine opening, so that for example even smaller quantities of additive admixtures are necessary, with the same results
Today many manufacturers of heavy clay products have to use raw materials of lesser quality again; in such cases a significant improvement of the clay mass properties can be achieved with fine grinding. The aim is always to dry the clay mass, depending on the raw material, only as much as is absolutely necessary (10 to 15% moisture). With the use of hot exhaust air from the kiln, the energy costs for dry grinding can be reduced.
Poittemill has its own laboratory, in which size reduction tests can be carried out. Through the cooperation with Ceric it is now possible also to determine the clay mass and product properties in the Ceric laboratory.
Through the connection between the two companies, optimal solution possibilities can be offered to customers in regard to dry preparation and the further process stages in the ceramic process (shaping, drying, firing).