Thanks to investment in SACMI-Riedhammer technology, RAK Porcelain reaches a perfect balance between versatility and productivity to meet market demands. Focus on growth of bone chine and vitreous china production
With the recent start-up of two new SACMI-Riedhammer kilns, Rak Porcelain has completed the production expansion plan for its new Tableware plant in Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates. Growing market demand – the production plant is specialized in the highest quality tableware for the Ho.Re.Ca. sector – led Rak to speed up the project that had already been started in 2021 with the installation of the first roller kiln for bone china and the expansion of the pressing department completed in 2022.
Now, two further kilns have just been installed. The first is a new 88.2 metre TKA 240 roller kiln complete with 14.7 metre TMD pre-kiln drier, a highly flexible solution which Rak can dedicate to either biscuit/glost firing of vitreous china or biscuit firing of bone china. The machine supplied has been optimized for tableware and provided with special dual-fuel burners (PL7-APG, SACMI patented), with firing cycles which can vary from 8 hours for bone china to just 100 minutes for vitreous china, allowing great flexibility for recipe/size change-over.
In addition to the new roller kiln, Rak Porcelain also chose to purchase a new TST tunnel kiln which can be used for biscuit firing of bone chine or sintering of cordierite supports at temperatures of 1240 °C and 1380 °C respectively. The factors lying behind this decision included, not just the need to increase production capacity, but also to respond quickly to changing market trends and substantial fluctuations in demand. Again, the new TST kiln was supplied in an optimized version for tableware and is suitable to handle large load volumes and long work cycles.
The result is a perfect balance between productivity and flexibility enabling Rak Porcelain to further grow in the high-range tableware segment, both on the local market and through an increase in export dedicated to the European market.