One of the largest producers of ceramic products in the Middle East, Saudi Ceramic Company (SCC), has newly completed expanding and upgrading its compressed air capacity by adding two new Atlas Copco oil-injected compressors to its existing 13 Atlas Copco machines.
The company, based in Riyadh, designs and manufactures a wide range of ceramic products including wall and floor tiles, vitreous china sanitary wares, ceramic road markers and electric water heaters.
SCC has a production capacity of 23 million m 2 of ceramic tiles, 1.8 million pieces of sanitary ware, 800,000 pieces of electric water heaters and 1.2 million pieces of ceramic road markers per year, and had a sales turnover of SR 615 million (US$ 164 million).
Founded in 1977, the company has continually expanded and developed its factories. The most recent phase has been the ambitious expansion of the tile plant, started in 2005 and completed in the first quarter of 2008, which will see total production capacity lifted to 32 million m 2.
The expansion has also enabled SCC to add a production capacity of 7 Mm 2 porcelain tiles to its product line, thereby becoming the first Saudi Arabian tile manufacturer to produce high quality porcelain tiles. SCC also produces swimming pool tiles and extruded tiles, and has a production line for decorative items such as skirting, borders, corners, cappings, and external and internal angle beads.
UPGRADE
“The upgrade to the tile plant was a very thorough one, involving the installation of new production machinery, the building of new production lines, and the expansion of existing lines,” said Jun Diva, head of mechanical maintenance in the engineering department.
“This necessitated upgrading our compressed air capacity, which is used for coloring and for glazing in addition to powering various production line tools.”
The new order is for two Atlas Copco GA 250 oil-injected rotary screw compressors, supplying pressure at 8 bar, and one GA 180 VSD oil-injected rotary screw compressor, supplying pressure at up to 13 bar.
The existing fleet of compressors is a combination of GA 160 and GA 180 VSD oil-injected air machines.
“We have an exceptionally large plant room that has been purpose-designed to be open on one side, and is on the second storey of the building,” said Mr Diva. “This allows air to flow through and keep the machines at a naturally even temperature.
RANGE
“Slotting the new Atlas Copco compressors into the existing range, large though it is, is very simple given the design of the units. We have had extremely good service from Atlas Copco here in Riyadh , they have advised us closely throughout our entire time of operation on how to achieve the optimum from the compressors.”
SCC has made significant inroads into the Middle East , Asian and African markets, and is currently exporting to 45 countries with plans underway to penetrate other markets in Europe and North America .
The company has attained European citation for high quality (CE), the German standard award (GS) a certificate of quality from Russia (Gosstandart) and the certificate of standard (ISO 9001-2000) as well as quality citation of Saudi Arabian Standards Organization (SASO).