Florea Group builds on environmentally friendly production processes with this system

Florea and the Petra Pavaje brand

Die Florea Group is broadly positioned in the construction and raw material sectors and operates, among others, its own road construction company with asphalt production. It is active in sand and gravel production and manufactures ready-mixed concrete and concrete products. The company was able to establish itself in the Romanian paving block market in a very short time and achieved expansion within two years. Since recently, Florea is uniformly represented on the market with the name “Petra Pavaje” in the paving block sector and has started a complete rebranding campaign. The company works under the motto “in harmony with nature,” focusing on high ecological efficiency.

Florea Pavaje, now Petra Pavaje, is a brand of the Florea Group, which was established in 1996 by the brothers David and Marcel Florea. With a history written a quarter of a century ago, the Florea Group is one of the largest companies in Transylvania with a cumulated turnover in 2019  of over 160 million Lei and a workforce of more than 500. “When I brought Florea Pavaje to the market, I had a strategy that concentrated mainly on the region of Transylvania. With expansion throughout the entire country, we focused on developing products that made us one of the top manufacturers in the whole country. The new objective requires an integrated approach comprising both investments in fixed assets and in human capital. Rebranding is therefore an important step in that direction. With this process we want to tell our partners that the new name is a guarantee for quality, speed and ethics, with which we in the last three years have won their trust. In addition, we have by now attained the professional maturity necessary for being competitive on a national market,” says Marcel Florea, General Manager of Florea Group.

Purchase of the RH 1500-3 MVA

Florea had received an RH 1500-3 MVA from the Hess Group already in 2017 and in the short time since has such good experience with the Hess Group and its system that it has now invested in another system on that basis. In March 2019 a second concrete block machine was ordered for the new production location near Ploiesti. Since the machine impressed also in regard to its sustainability and environmental friendliness, the RH 1500-3 MVA fits perfectly into Florea’s company philosophy. The high-performance hydraulics is another decision made. This systems operates with a controller pump, which flexibly adjusts to performance requirements and, if needed, automatically controls downward to optimize energy efficiency. The high-performance hydraulics, moreover, ensures shorter cycle times, simple operation and reduction in required maintenance work.

Special features of this RH 1500-3 MVA model

The new system from Hess is also an RH 1500-3 MVA, but is already fitted with the latest robust machine frame and the technical innovations of the new generation RH 1500-4 MVA. Around seven tons more steel than in the previous model went into construction of this model. The reinforced frame ensures that the vibration forces are better maintained on the vibration table and transmission to the machine foundation and other machine components is reduced.

Florea, moreover, profits from an efficient board buffer with board buffer finger car and a buffer rack with 2250 boards. In addition, data collection was extended to directly transmit production data and machine parameters into Florea’s data-processing system. This enables, e.g., better analysis of the processes and material quantities. In addition, the quality of the blocks, being continuously controlled, remains constant.

Erection and commissioning in corona times

Erection of the Hess plant began prior to the corona lockdown and was partly carried out by highly qualified personnel from Florea. Hess developed the layout together with the customer with a view to the overall system and the overall function. The company, for example, returns products that visibly do not correspond to the high-quality standards to the cycle via transport belt and intermediate silo. With a view to all larger relationships and sub-concepts, an overall layout was developed that guarantees maintenance friendliness, safety and efficiency. With the beginning of the corona crisis, installation came to a halt, because Hess was not able to send additional staff to Romania.

Hess reacted to this new situation by developing, within five weeks, together with external specialists in the field of insurance and safety technology, among others, a special method for carrying out reliable online commissioning. With several stationary-mounted and one mobile camera, as well as qualified personnel on location, commissioning by remote control was successfully carried out from Burbach in Germany. In mid-June, a team from Hess was able to travel to the site for carrying out final tests. With flexibility, ingenuity and excellent cooperation between Hess and Florea, commissioning was completed on schedule on 01 July 20.

H.S. Anlagentechnik delivered racks incl. accessories

H.S. Anlagentechnik, of Kerkrade/NL, delivered the racks with 15 chambers and with 22 shelves each, with a height 8.3 m and a capacity of 5,940 boards, for boards 1400 x 1100 mm. Every board can be loaded with up to max. 640 kg. They were made of specially galvanized steel profile ZM300, an alloy of zinc, magnesium and aluminum of aseismic design with additional bracing. The advantages of this design, according to the manufacturer, lie in the lateral board guidance up to the end of the chamber, with the head guidance designed as C profile, and with the threshold and stand profile forming a unity. This enables very simple erection and final levelling. In addition, no additional stabilization support is required.

The chamber features a CDS circulation system with three high-performance ventilators, including exhaust air ventilator and 9 ventilators with platform car aisle to prevent air and humidity build-up in that area. The optimal humidity is attained by active humidification (CDS water atomizer), with the fine atomized spray requiring little energy. This enables optimal distribution of temperature and humidity. The delivery scope is completed with board buffer racks in 5 aisles, in stacks of 5, 3 stacks high. Every stack holds 30 boards, i.e., a total of 2250 boards with a stack weight of approx. 2.5 t as well as all rails for the chamber/buffer and transverse transports. On this, Richard Trappe of the management of H.S. Anlagentechnik: “This project is a new second project with Florea for which HS had already delivered and installed a system in 2016. Cooperation with all parties participating in this project, was outstanding.”

Boards from MyWood

For the boards, Florea decided on soft wood and the variety UPplus with double dovetail joint from MyWood. “The quality and the flexibility at MyWood impressed us from the first day. The board, moreover, harmonizes outstandingly well with our plant concept,” says Marcel Florea.

“Our UPplus board was specifically developed for the extreme requirements in the concrete industry. The individual planks, for example, were technically dried and provided with a dove-tail profile. The perfect-fit, tightly jointed and glued planks provide a level and uniform surface. This ensures the high quality of the concrete products, prolongs the service life of the boards and reduces costs. The C-profile edge protection prevents mechanical damage to the edges of the boards,” says Tobias Schmidt, Sales Director at MyWood, in conclusion.