Glass quality is an important issue in the field of tempered glass and the attention for it increases constantly – not merely because of its huge impact on your production costs…
Which quality problems can occur when I temper glass?
Well known quality issues for tempered glass are roller waves, roller pick-ups, white haze, glass distortion and anisotropy.
What are the consequences of these problems?
These problems can challenge an organisation because in order to control or reduce them they have to invest money and time in experienced operator and process knowledge. Since the localisation or analysis of a problem or the right adjustments is not that easy, the experience of the operator is particularly important.
Moreover, glass companies have to frequently (e.g. quarterly) undertake cold cleaning cycles of the tempering furnace to remove deposits and dirt and to clean or change the rollers. These cleaning cycles are time-consuming because you have to cool down the furnace for approximately 6 hours, then you have to clean it and heat it up for 6 hours again. So it either causes a production stop or it has to be done on weekends, which causes additional operation costs.
Traditional tempering technology
How can I solve the mentioned quality problems?
The transport rollers have impact on all mentioned problems. So you may ask yourself – is it possible to temper glass without these transport rollers? The answer is yes! A unique technology, which uses aircushions eliminates the well-known problems of roller furnaces. The glass is transported on air cushions, which tempers high quality glass and reduces therefore costs resulting from the above-mentioned problems.
Bear in mind – if no transport rollers are used it is not necessary to replace or clean rollers and consequently saves time-consuming cold cleaning cycles.
Aircushion tempering technology
Which solutions use aircushion technology and what are the advantages?
Until now, there is only one solution on the market: LiSEC developed and patented the tempering furnace using aircushion technology called AEROFLAT. It is characterized by various advantages:
- Significant cost reduction: no tempering furnace experience required because every employee will be able to run the furnace within 3 days and achieve a high-quality glass product. This is very suitable for your growing strategy.
- More speed and output because you can change a recipe within 3 seconds
- Reduced production stop – if a glass breaks in the AEROFLAT heating zone it can be cleaned within 15 minutes only (no cool down and heat up)
- Low-e glass is tempered with 50 % more speed. This reduces the costs per square meter significantly.
