Financial Times

DSI promotes novel clay tile making process
By Quintus Perera
The DSI group, which set up a factory in Anuradhapura to make clay tiles from silt in irrigation tanks despite much bureaucratic obstacles and red tape, is trying to popularise the new product and its manufacturing process.

The tiles made by Samson Rajarata Tiles (Pvt) Ltd (SRTL) are more expensive than other tiles but absorb less water and reflect heat better. Dr T. C. S. Bandula Perera, Managing Director, Samson Rajarata Tiles, said that they want to popularise their innovative approach to making tiles in the industry and are prepared to offer the technology to other local tile manufacturers.

They could market the tiles through the Samson Nivasa marketing network. He explained the difficulties they faced in setting up the plant during a recent visit by The Sunday Times FT:

"We had to plead with the officials of 38 different government agencies, creating immense problems and delaying the launch of our factory by five long years."

Other local investors have expressed similar sentiments saying state officials and agencies have become a major stumbling block in setting up local industries, especially in the rural sector.

Earlier The Sunday Times FT reported how the manufacturer of the 'Micro' car, Dr Lawrence Perera, faced so many difficulties from certain government departments that made it almost impossible to commence manufacturing his car that now has a heavy demand and helps to save foreign exchange.

Samson Rajarata Tiles has an enlightened corporate culture. "Welcome to our novel culture of togetherness and equality. It makes everyone feel happy and content, and gives a sense of belonging contributing to increased productivity," said Dr Perera.

In the common canteen, Dr Perera, a number of senior officials and workers of all grades sat together and ate string hopper parcels supplied by several families living near by.

The factory, which commenced production last June, is on a 16-acre land about a kilometre off the main Dambulla-Anuradhapura road. The run-off is at Tirippane on to Orukmankulama Road overlooking the Nachchaduwa tank.

The area is sparsely populated and the land is barren and could not have been used for any other purpose. Elephants and other animals come to drink water in the tank.

The investment is around Rs 550 million and all machinery is imported from the Japanese tile company Takasogo Industries. Technical advice was also obtained from Japanese experts. The factory employs 170 people.

The area has become a small bustling town after the DSI factory came up. The Orukmankulama Road has been done up well, new dwellings and boutiques are coming up.

Quite a number of local youth have found jobs in the factory and some of those employees coming from outside are boarded in houses in the neighbourhood affording the local people an additional income.

The DSI Group consists of 19 different companies, in diverse fields such as garment, shoes, bicycle tyres, Raleigh bicycles exports to England, jams and cordials and canning of bottled water.

It pioneered the novel idea of utilizing silt in the tanks that forms clay to be used to turn out roofing tiles almost by accident. This happened after Nandasena Rajapakse, the head of D. Samson and Sons Group came across a paper published by Korean experts on availability of tank silt in Sri Lanka which is ideal to make heavy clay products. Careful studies were done of Korean, French and Japanese manufacturers and the Japanese were selected.

The company hired B. G. R. Pemawansa, Director/General Manager, SRTL from the Ceylon Ceramic Corporation where he worked for more than 32 years. He was given two options, Anuradhapura and Hambantota, to select tank silt clay deposits. He selected Anuradhapura where there is a large concentration of tanks.

He is an expert in this field having headed the Ceramic Corporation Brick and Tiles Research Division. Pemawansa said: "During the dry season from July to October in one hectare around 500 cubes of clay is mined to a depth of three feet. That would give us four million tiles annually."

The Irrigation Department, Central Environmental Authority and the Geological Survey have prepared the mining plan for the next 15 years. Nachchaduwa tank alone would provide clay for the next 50 years, Pemawansa said. In the rainy season the mined areas are inundated with water and the tank gets automatically deepened at no cost to the government.

Clay is sorted out, mixed to suit the different kinds of tiles, water added and stored till it matures. Then the clay is ground before being moulded into various shapes.

Pemawansa said the clay after grinding becomes very dense and the articles produced will be highly resistant to water percolation with improved bending strength. The de-aired clay is extruded and pressed through fully automated pressing machines.

Then the tiles are dried, packed in cars and sent through a 100-metre long tunnel kiln. When the kiln is fired to full capacity one car takes 24 hours to go through various stages of firing with temperatures going up to 1000º C. Every 24 hours 13,000 tiles could be manufactured.

Company officials said 135 Samson tiles are required to cover an area of 100 sq ft compared to 125 ordinary 'callicut' tiles. Callicut tiles are around Rs. 18 each while the Samson Sevana tile is around Rs 37.50.

Pemawansa said, "Our tiles absorb only 5 - 6 percent water while in normal tiles it would be around 10 to 12 percent. Tiles with high water absorption tend to leak and increase the overall weight of the roof. Our tiles also generates less heat, being glazed, and therefore a ceiling is not necessary."

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