OPERA GROUP
Opera Group was founded in 2003 and is currently one of the main operators in the Italian ceramic sector, active in the production and sale of ceramic materials for floors and walls. Over the years Opera Group has been able to diversify the countries to which it exports, penetrating new markets in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, the USA, consolidating its presence abroad by following and retaining its clientele. Opera is implementing one of the most significant investment plans in the Italian ceramic district of the last 20 years. The technological and structural transformation of the company complex has made it possible to bring the pre-existing production structure back into play and make it competitive at a European and global level, launching a distinctive process of redesigning the product portfolio in terms of ranges and formats.
The group exports 80% of its turnover.
By virtue of a distribution reorientation, in recent years new commercial relations have been initiated, international contracts closed and supplies undertaken in markets such as the australian, russian, central and north african markets.
QUALITY AND DESIGN
The quality in Opera matures by virtue of the development of a different attention to production processes to the operational criteria adopted compared to the past.
Following the new regulatory principles and paying the necessary attention to the technical / qualitative characteristics required by the products, quality now means “continuous improvement of business processes”. We moved from an approach based on punctual inspection and final product control, to a systemic and integrated management approach in which the involvement of all staff, planning, documentation of the activity and an attitude aimed at continuous improvement , become the cornerstones of the new production management model.
Quality becomes a real competitive strategy part of the corporate mission and therefore “end” and no longer a mere means of production.
RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
In Opera, research & development is mainly of an applicative and prototype type.
In opera we study how to use active ingredients and “available” materials to start or define new methodologies, constantly seeking the optimization and standardization of production costs. All this without losing sight of what a qualified market requires.
We can define our laboratory as “district”: it has the task of researching and selecting technical and design proposals, as well as carrying out research on the applicability of specific raw materials to be used in the production cycles.
The continuous innovation in the composition of the basic production materials, the attention to updating the installed machinery, the selection of qualified personnel and the efficient incoming logistic-productive organization, have allowed Opera to improve its results in the constant recombination of production. Massive, production flexibility, aesthetic quality, convenience of its offer.
The internal laboratory carries out constant monitoring of the performance of the chosen materials:
Evaluates defects and deterioration of the materials used; analyzes product failure data, tests to determine the causes of problems, and develops, plans and evaluates artistic solutions.
OUR FACTORY
OVENS DEPARTMENT
The firing of the tiles is carried out in continuous kilns on rollers, in which high temperatures are reached (from 900 ° C to over 1250 °C). Along the way inside the kiln, the tiles are first heated up to the maximum firing temperature and, after a defined stay at this temperature, progressively cooled. During cooking, the product undergoes chemical-physical reactions and transformations necessary to obtain a mechanically resistant structure.
MIXING DEPARTMENT, ATOMIZED RAW MATERIAL STORAGE
The atomised product through conveyor belts and diverter knives is transhipped in the storage silos. Outside, it comes out of the lower part of the silos through a wolf mouth, a sensor device that regulates the atomized product through conveyor belts through vibrating sieves and differentiators and then falls into the conveyor belt.
From here it will be taken directly to the presses by selecting the different diverter knives or will be stored in silos waiting to be used.
TECHNOLOGICAL LABORATORY / LAB. R&D
Research and development is the key to the continuity of our success and is the hallmark of the all-italian ingenuity that inspires our industrial philosophy.
Our ceramic products are developed thanks to a careful and rigorous study, research and deepening of the production process: this path has allowed us to proudly bring to the market a product with high technical performance, safe for health, with a very long life cycle, recyclable and obtained through a manufacturing process that uses selected, inexhaustible raw materials.
PRESSING OF CERAMICS
The tile takes shape and size.
In this phase the powders are dosed and transported to the hydraulic presses, which exert a pressure of 500 kg / cm2 on the atomised powders.
During the dosing and loading of the raw materials into the press cavity, the width of the color range can be defined as well as the possible insertion of grains and / or flakes in the product.
The pressing process , on the other hand, determines the scale of sizes present in our production of porcelain stoneware tiles.