The world’s first furnace that simultaneously melts two different types of glass.
Forglass known for its innovations has done it again – this time reimagining and reengineering the glass melting process to help its clients manage production, save money and improve the environmental impact. With smaller order volumes for specific assortments of container glass and ever shorter order lead times, glassworks all over the world are struggling with the current technology, which does not allow them sufficient flexibility to efficiently produce what their customers order. Answering that challenge, Forglass engineers have created the world’s first furnace that can simultaneously melt two or more different types of glass.
Merging the need to quickly implement changes in production schedule involving different glasses with the desire to maintain the highest possible melting efficiency for as long as possible in one furnace is difficult, most often impossible. The Forglass Multi-glass Furnace is the perfect answer to these expectations because it can simultaneously produce smaller volumes of two or even several glasses with energy consumption comparable to melting only one glass in a standard, single-tank furnace.
Lower energy consumption per ton of glass also reduces the emission of environmentally harmful compounds (CO2, NOX, SOX), and eliminates reject of glass that is unsellable due to its undesired properties or quality, but has to be produced when changing the glass composition in the furnace “on-the-fly”.
The Forglass Multi-glass Furnace is the ideal option for both greenfield investments and modernizations in restricted spaces. For many glassworks located in urban areas, this opens up new opportunities for expansion or restructuring of their production capacities. Conversion of a standard furnace into the Forglass Multi-glass Furnace can be carried out in any glassworks by expanding the furnace (adding a second tank) only in its width, not length. It is generally the only space available in the production hall and, what’s crucial, the expansion of a U-fired furnace does not involve radical rebuilding of the regenerator, which makes it inexpensive and fast.
Forglass is once again blending the line between the technical and the creative, pushing the limits of glass production to help its clients remain competitive in the changing marketplace.