Digitalisation in process: robotics transforming traditional ceramics production

Exagres is a Spanish SME, involved in the manufacturing and extruding of stoneware and offering technical solutions for global architecture. With a traditional and artisanal working philosophy, this company is at the heart of the ceramics industry by implementing edge-cutting technical solutions in their processes.

Among other products, Exagres is creating some 13 cm diameter clay ceramic spheres, decorated with a leaf pattern and small perforations (holes). The spheres are made in an artisanal maner with a minutious decorative hand-work including the manual perforation of the holes. This tiring and laborious process is not only affecting the worker's time and productivity but also a source of wasted material and damaged pieces. InnDIH EDIH was requested to support the SME in automating this manual process, in order to generate significant improvements in time, price and homogenisation of parts. The challenge laid in the perforation of the small spheres in an automated way respecting the leaf pattern and without breaking the clay.

InnDIH offered Exagres a proof-of-concept service to cover and to test every stage of this complex and innovative process. The purpose of the service was to design and develop a prototype of a perforating system for ceramic pieces by means of a collaborative robot and using artificial vision. Artificial vision systems were used to determine the suitable area of the sphere to be perforated by the robot. 

InnDIH contribution was focused 

• Design and validation of an anchoring tool that allows holding the spheres, a priori after drying, in a specific position, leaving the entire surface of the spheres accessible. The main difficulty of this action lies in the fact that the spheres to be clamped are relatively fragile, which implies that the clamping force exerted by the designed tool must be limited, but at the same time a firm clamping is required so that the robot can interact correctly with the object, without undermining the precision of operations carried out.

• Study the necessity to use vision technologies for the correct execution of the robot operations.

• Selection of the most suitable type of robot and tools for the execution of the drilling.

  This service has been derived from the SME's need. The company realised that it can´t carry out this complicated and time-consuming manual drilling process and it is time to innovate. The robot used is a collaborative robot (cobot) selected to provide the human-robot interaction. At the same time cobots improve the safety without increase the deployment complexity, which make easier the incorporation in SME manufacturing processes.  

  Sometimes SMEs don`t have sufficient financial to test before invest. That means a clear uncertainty for them. The main idea of EDIH is to focus its efforts on the SME, impulse the adoption of the digital technologies and see them work. In this case the SME requires this test to take the “go/no go” decision, and enter in a new phase of developments oriented for a new product.

The purpose of this project is the transition from manual to automated perforation of the clay round spheres taking into consideration the determined pattern and the fragility of the spheres. The proof-of-concept service also defined the execution time for the operations so that the company can evaluate the efficiency of the system compared to a manual system, as well as the return on investment.

The innovation actions are expected to improve the efficiency of the drilling process, minimising the manual labor and bringing sustainability to the process. The company will achieve greater productivity and profitability of the finished product. 

In the ceramics sector, as it is a highly traditional sector, there is a certain lack of confidence concerning the robotics technology implementation. The process of ceramics production is considered to be a very elaborate and sophisticated process. However, InnDIH, as the technological expert has designed the service to prove that the use of new technologies is totally acceptable and advisable for the ceramics production. Possibly it could be a good example of setting an effective technology implementation and cooperation between the company and its technological adviser. 

This service was financed 50/50 by the European Union under the Digital Europe Programme and the Department of Innovation, Universities, Science and Digital Society of the Generalitat Valenciana by means of a nominative aid of the Valencian Regional Government (Generalitat Valenciana).  

Digitalisation has already been a priority for SME. It is clear that it could further improve competitiveness, resilience, and sustainability through more targeted investments in digital technologies and skills.  

• One of the key aspects in the delivery of the solution has been the understanding of the object design and adequate drilling performance, which has been achieved by discussing with the workers. This inspire the final concept and layout and guide the solution.

• It is recommended to start the prototyping process as soon as possible, in order to share the first trials with the final user. This helps in the “go/no go” decision in each of the steps. 

• It is mandatory to be realistic in the limitations and costs of the final versions: sometimes the first steps are very promising, but the path to the industrial deployment are still challenging.