Sanac at Grogastu
In 1939, with the acquirement of the "Industrial Ceramic Society Cagliari", Sanac (Società ANonima Argille e Caolini) was founded in Cagliari, Sardinia.After the second war, in 1948, an establishment was located close to Cagliari city, due to the presence in the territory of clay and kaolin. It produced silica-alumina refractory up to mid-80s, when urban growth made it impossible to keep a refractory plant in the middle of the city.
Years before, in 1974, to meet the huge demands of refractory for the steel industry, especially by new steel plants (Algeria, Egypt and Iran), a new plant, called Grogastu, was built in Cagliari industrial area. It consisted mainly of two sheds: one dedicated to refractories for ladles sleeve bricks and one to the bricks for ladles linings.
In 1983 the first shed was sold. At the beginning of 90s, Grogastu plant was substantially transformed (due to the shut down of another Sanac plant located in Genoa Bolzaneto) collecting all the production of silica-aluminous and aluminous refractory bricks.
In 1995, with ILVA privatization, Sanac Grogastu joined the Group RIVA Acciaio, today RIVA FIRE.
The bricks are used in metallurgy (especially aluminum) and steel fields. In addition to ladles and tundishes refractory lining, the plant is specialized in the linings of coke ovens (regenerator), blast furnaces and hot stoves linings.
From mid 90s, the production of special bricks based on Al2O3-MgO-C for ladles and torpedo cars has significantly increased.
The plant, located about fifteen kilometers far from Cagliari, in Macchiareddu industrial area, covers an area of about 16 ha, with about 23,000 square meters sheltered, and currently employs about seventy people. The unit has multiple lines of raw materials grinding and mixing, nine automatic hydraulic presses equipped with robots, and two ovens, one for special products drying (fuel LPG) and one traditional fired bricks (tunnel kiln fueled with oil dense LSC), for firing up to 1500°C.
