Ramp up glass production and increase throughput and productivity, all while ensuring product quality.

When making millions or billions of vials or syringes, process optimization using temperature measurements is critical to success in processes such as glass gob, pre-heating, shrinking, flanging, forming, cutting, stress testing and more. As you ramp up production to meet the increased demand of glass vials and syringes due to the COVID-19 vaccine, get the accurate temperature data you need to increase throughput and ensure product quality with Fluke Process Instruments solutions: the Datapaq Furnace Tracker Profiling System and Endurance Series pyrometers.

The tempering of flat glass is achieved by heating and then quenching in either conveyorized or oscillating furnaces. The process is generally conducted in two separate chambers with the quenching being achieved using very high volume airflow. This can be a high volume, low mix, or low mix, high volume application.

This application involves the forming of automotive and truck/bus windshields in the sag-bending process. The glass sheet is heated until it is within it's viscoelastic phase, at which point, the glass then slumps into a former to take on the required shape.

High temperature coating of flat glass and glass lenses is conducted in a vacuum and involves the application of special coatings, such as anti-reflection.

This medium temperature application is conducted in a conveyor process and involves the curing of resin coating on glass fiber used in insulation boards.

Annealing of glass containers is conducted immediately following the forming process and the containers enter the lehr when already hot. The annealing lehr will further heat the containers and then cool them at a carefully controlled rate. Post annealing processing can provide cosmetic decoration and in some cases, decorative coatings are applied that require further thermal curing.

Float glass is a sheet of glass made by floating molten glass on a bed of molten metal, typically tin. This method gives the sheet uniform thickness and very flat surfaces. Once off the bath, the glass sheet passes through a lehr kiln, where it is cooled gradually, so that it anneals without strain and does not crack from the temperature change.