At Catalano, automation entered the factory a good 15 years ago. With a clear goal: to create better products and a better workplace. Inimitable excellence and an ability to look ahead while retaining unique traditions of Italian excellence are Catalano’s hallmarks. Here, every stage is designed to yield outstanding results in terms of practicality, quality and aesthetics. No expertise goes to waste. Every customer is fully satisfied. In short, we put technology at the service of a modern factory’s most valuable asset: its people. 

Our sanitaryware factory has long been a pioneer. By 2008, the company had already joined forces with SACMI to begin total automation of its Fabrica di Roma plant, in the heart of the Civita Castellana district. Well ahead of its time, this move stemmed from Catalano's innate focus on innovation and its desire to meet the needs of a sanitaryware market that was increasingly attentive not just to what was produced, but how. That means, of course, product quality. Yet it also means attentiveness to working conditions, as the market has long been aware that the choice is between being excellent... or being out of business.

Casting machine operation is aided by over 100 robots, glazing and handling devices included, plus the laser-guided vehicles that move the product between the various in-factory production stages. In the Catalano «ecosystem», people and robots work side by side. Nothing is left to chance, thanks to a blend of manual and robotic processing that relieves workers of the most tiring, repetitive tasks.  And that's not all: fully automated processes also boost quality and sustainability. For example, precision handling eliminates any risk of deformation. Throughout the glazing process, application - and therefore glaze consumption - is optimised to safeguard the environment. 

How does a collection come into being? The process begins with careful selection of raw materials, sampling and testing. It later involves in-depth advanced performance studies that use next-gen digital simulation software. Over the years, SACMI has supplied Catalano with numerous, comprehensive modelling and mould solutions, boosting their natural creativity and allowing then to develop new, trend-setting collections with trailblazing style. That close support has involved constant collaboration between the Catalano and SACMI Sanitaryware Laboratory teams as they pursue excellence... together.

The entire SACMI sanitaryware pressure casting machine range has definitely ‘found a home’ at Catalano. The machines in the pool include the AVM, ADM, ALS, ALV and ADI, acronyms that stand for solutions dedicated to specific product families (WCs, washbasins, shower trays, etc.) but with a common trait: full automation of forming, pre-dryer loading, mould management and on-car loading. To date, some 40 RobotCasting solutions have been installed. The goal? To make Catalano products ‘unique’, unique precisely because they are perfectly repeatable, from the simplest items to the complex multi-part WCs, all in keeping with the latest market trends.

Catalano is the first company in the global sanitaryware industry to obtain complete ESG (Environment, Social and corporate Governance) certification. This highlights their ability to think about sustainability in ‘global’ terms. And that means respecting not just the environment but also the people who work in contact with the product every day. Here too, the years-long partnership with SACMI has been broad and far-reaching in every key area, resulting in less dust in the workplace, water recycling-saving and less consumption. 

At technological level, one of the most crucial areas in which the factory energy balance is being improved concerns the high-efficiency kilns, now equipped with latest-generation heat recovery systems. Here too - to cite a recent project co-developed with SACMI - this has been done by implementing robotic loading, thus covering the ‘last mile’ of an operation that most companies still manage manually.