Sanyo Tile Group, founded in 1970s, is a famous domestic ceramic company that mainly manufactures tiles and mosaics products. Confronted by global competition and foreign tiles entering Taiwan’s market, Sanyo is the process of upgrading and transforming its business structure. In view of the large amount of grinding sludge from the process of polishing quartz tiles and the high costs of entrusting waste transportation, Sanyo began to develop new products from the sludge to solve waste storage problem.
Under the support of the Industrial Development Bureau’s “Industrial Technology Development Program” (業界開發產業技術計畫) and New Taipei City government, the Traditional Industry Northern Subgroup assisted Sanyo in the development of eco-friendly tiles. Through systematic experiments of matching the coefficient of thermal expansion, analyzing the prototypes, and verifying product specifications, the company was able to come up with the best material formula and process for the new product.
Furthermore, to help the company solve waste disposal problem, the Subgroup also assisted Sanyo in developing energy-efficient eco ceramic foam molding technique, which reuses the porcelain tile sludge and added it back to the construction clay. The company also used for the first time in ceramics industry, eco-friendly complex ceramic foams to decrease the temperature during the manufacturing process, hence resulted in carbon reduction. In addition, to elevate the quality of glaze, the Subgroup also helped Sanyo matched coefficient of thermal expansion glaze development to increase crack resistance of the glaze and the durability of material for product competitiveness and increased market share.
Through improvement of formula, process, operation procedure standardization, and standardized procedure analyzation, Sanyo has standardized the procedure in making eco tiles and increase product defect-free rate. Through the use of recycled sludge, the company could save NT$150 million in production costs per year. The eco ceramic foam tiles Sanyo developed are aesthetic, energy efficient, light, soundproof, and heat insulated. Since this product is distinctive from Sanyo’s other current products, its sales revenue and market share are expected to grow.