Pilkington has installed a digitalised tempering furnace for flat glass at its Norge AS plant in Elverum, Norway.

The fully digitally controlled oven, approximately 25 metres in length, was supplied by North Glass.

The digital control means that the tempering process is controlled by the machine, which is set in advance with information about glass type, thickness and size.

The new oven can harden flat glass from sizes 100 x 300 mm to 2440 x 5000 mm, and from a thickness of 4 to 19 mm.

Sensor systems control the tempering process and ensures the hardened flat glass is of high optical quality.

The path to optimal hardening consisted of countless hours of fine-tuning and testing, but Pilkington reports a successful end result.

Features:

  • The hardening processes are controlled by the machine based on glass types/glass thicknesses/sizes: 4-19 mm float, 4-10 mm coated glass and max. 2440 x 5000 mm.
  • Intelligent management of over/under heating and cooling.
  • Improved and stable quality.

Pilkington believes the furnace will give the Elverum site better efficiency, increased capacity and provide opportunities to temper more products.

The entire installation process was filmed by a time lapse camera that was mounted above the installation area. See the video here: https://youtu.be/hNqc87bhKu4