Porcelanosa Opens New Sintered-Stone Plant
VILLAREAL, Spain – Porcelanosa opened a new €55 million manufacturing facility here this month for its XTONE sintered-stone slab product.
The new automated plant, when running at full capacity, is anticipated to produce close to 14 million ft² annually.
Located at the Spanish multinational’s headquarters, the new production center – spanning 375,000 ft² specializes in the manufacture of large format porcelain and sintered stone and will lead to 125 new jobs.
The plant will produce 320cm X 160cm and 270 cm X 120 cm panels, with thicknesses of .6, 1.2 and 2 cm (with the capability producing 3cm surfaces). The production systems are also able to produce and work pieces up to 360 cm and 160 cm to suit the needs of professional customers.
For the press selection, two advanced presses on the market have been installed, integrating the latest 3D design technology to achieve visual continuity in any dimension of the piece. The machinery has been unified in enamelling, decoration and textures, achieving a better quality and resolution in the slabs.
The firing system consists of a 250m (820’)-long kiln that produces a product with the best technical performance for the cutting and machining of the material. To ensure that each slab meets the required quality standards, individual sorting is carried out, long with a digitized inspection system.
Post-production includes a 100% automatic grinding machine with dry technology, a meshing machine and a polishing machine.
To power the new plant, a total of 4,475 solar panels with an output of 2.4 MWp have been installed on 12,000 m² (130,000 ft²), or one-third of the roof, to promote self-consumption of energy at this plant.
Other sustainable measures that will be implemented include the recovery of 100% of heat from the kiln for drying processes, the reuse of 100% of water through a treatment facility for industrial use, and recycling 100% of waste for reintroduction into the production system.
