Mosaic Tiles Making Plant

1. Product Description:- Mosaic tiles are major input in the building construction industry. Mosaic tiles are small square tiles used to cover floors, interior walls of bath rooms and exterior walls of buildings. The files are made from clay, silica, feldspar and cement. All these raw materials are found in the country. Compared to mortar plastering and painting of exterior walls, mosaic files have longer life before they need repair and maintenance. They have also decorative purposes.

2. Market Potential:- There is no domestic production of mosaic tiles. All the need of the building construction industry for these tiles is met by imports. Imports of mosaic tiles are not registered separately; it is included in the plastic tiles import figures. An average annual import of the two types of tiles between 1987 and 1993 was about 110000 kgs or 110 tons. The demand for mosaic files has been projected to be 48615m² in 2007. On the average, about 20 kgs of mosaic tiles cover one m² of floor or wall area. This means that the projected demand is 972300 m² of mosaic files.

3. Source of raw Material:- The basic raw material for producing mosaic tiles include Portland cement, white cement and sand, marble chips, mineral colors and chemicals. Except the colors and the chemical (which constitute a small fraction), the other raw materials will be obtained locally.

4. Process and Technology:- A series of operations are undertaken produce mosaic tiles. These include crushing, pulverizing, drying, ageing, forming, glazing, calcinations, screening, back mounting on paper and packaging. Crushing:- the mined mineral raw materials are crushed by hammers to the size of about 20cms; Prior to primary crushing in a jaw crusher. It is then further crushed in an impeller breaker to the 4 mesh size and below. Pulverizing:- the crushed materials are blended in a fixed ratio for pulverization in a ball mill together with water. The pulverization continues for about 17 hours at a rotation speed of 17 rpm. Drying:- the mixture of the raw materials and water is called slip. This slip is sprayed on a spray dryer and dried at a temperature of about 450-500⁰C. Ageing:- the dried powder is left for ageing for 48-72 hours to facilitate subsequent forming:- the powder is put into metallic moulds according to sizes and formed by applying the pressure of 300-350kg/cm². Glazing:- materials are produced outside the plant. The glazes are sprayed on to the formed semi-finished products until the glazing reaches a prescribed thickness while moving on a net conveyor. Calcination:- this is to put the glazed semi-finished product into a refractory box and then place it on a cart. The cart is then placed into tunnel kiln at 1250⁰C for about 33 hours. Screening, back mounting and packing:- The products calcinated in the kiln are screened, back mounted and inspected. Required machinery and equipment include jaw crusher, impeller breaker, vibrating screen conveyor belt bucket elevator, fret mill, ball mill, dryer, friction press, high pressure press, glazing machine, tunnel kiln, tile moulds.

5. Estimated Investment:- For a plant which will produce 30,000m² or 600 tons of mosaic files, the estimated investment will be

· Buildings/shade 400m² at Birr 1000/m² = Birr 400,000

· Plant and machinery………………..…….. = Birr 5,200,000

· Working capital …………………….…… = Birr 300,000

Total ……. = Birr 5,900,000

6. Benefits: Similar to other industries.

7. Location: Near main raw materials center.