THRISSUR: Union Minister of State for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Dinsha J Patel will inaugurate the common facility centre for clay tile manufacturing units set up by Terra Tile Consortium Private Limited (TTC) at Mundur in the district on Monday.
The facility with the state-of-the-art technology has been established at an estimated cost of Rs 5 crore, of which 50 percent was provided by the Centre and 20 percent by the State Government.
Managing director K K Abdul Jaleel and others told reporters the TTC was set up jointly by 33-clay tile manufacturing units in the district.
It will provide technological support in all aspects like quality optimisation, process control and quality systems, research on new products and energy saving.
Its processing parameters include the judicious use of non-clay materials to reduce the use of clay by the tile-manufacturing units. They claim the unit is the first of its kind in the country.
Jaleel said at the TTC a most modern computerised lab has been set up for checking the quality of clay. This is in addition to the 300 tpd capacity clay-processing unit using Italian technology.
The laboratory has been established with the support of National Institute for Inter-disciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), Thiruvananthapuram.
Jaleel said that employment of the equipment is expected to go a long way in relieving clay tile manufacturing units from the serious problem of clay shortage. He said at present tile manufacturing units use clay with 23 percent plasticity for manufacturing clay tiles.
Instead of this total dependence on clay, which is becoming scarce, the TTC produce quality raw material for tile units by using 25 percent clay, 30 percent red earth, 33 percent quarry waste powder and 12 percent broken tiles.