Make a step change into a new manufacturing era

Glass processes that rely on platinum equipment to apply heat to the melt have existed for many years, but due to long campaign lifecycles and resistance to change, some manufacturers are still using old technology. In continuous processes your only window of opportunity to make step change improvements is during a new build or a shut down, so you need to be sure your choice of equipment provides for all your future needs.

Over the next few years, incoming energy and environmental regulations will likely affect your business, as will changing customer demands. Will you be able to meet them if you stick with traditional equipment and design?

Need to save energy costs and improve your KPIs?

Platinum heating equipment requires a high level of electrical energy to melt the glass, but in traditional power system design, it’s common for electrical noise to cause additional heat loss in the cables and busbars of the system itself.

You’re paying for that unnecessary heat waste, plus you’re at risk of paying energy taxes and fines for going over your tariff, and failing to meet government or utility regulations. What you really need is a system where the applied energy is optimally utilised to melt the glass via the platinum heater, rather than being wasted and adding extra costs to the electricity bill.

Need to increase production?

In older plants, traditional electric power control systems are often operating near their supply capacity, limiting your ability to increase throughput and output. What if you need to meet growing customer demand?

Sticking with older technology will not give you the flexibility to increase productivity without upgrading your electrical distribution system, nor improve the quality of the product.

Increase productivity without costly electrical distribution upgrades

The energy saving aspects of a Eurotherm system are so substantial that they can make productivity expansion possible within the bounds of your current electrical supply. For example, once installed, the amount of energy saved could give you the option to increase the size of platinum heating equipment or even add another production line.

Increase throughput by reducing product defects

Vibration and poor temperature uniformity across platinum heating devices are common causes of damage and imperfections in glass products.

The way a Eurotherm system applies power in combination with the electrical-noise reducing design, has a beneficial effect on the temperature uniformity across the platinum heating equipment and substantially decreases vibration. Precision control also maintains the temperature at the optimum level. The result is a consistent pull of high quality glass with less breakage. It becomes a highly repeatable process, needing less historical knowledge and input from an operator.

Reduce maintenance time and extend the life of your valuable assets

Platinum heating devices are high value assets so you want them to last as long as possible. In older style power system design, the weak points are the connections where small cracks and erosion can occur due to vibration.

Extend the lifetime of high value platinum parts

Our low noise system greatly reduces the cause of damaging vibration so platinum parts last longer. Think about the possible savings over the lifetime of a campaign in your application.

Reduce maintenance frequency

As the platinum equipment is replaced less often, maintenance time is saved. In a large plant this could amount to weeks or months saved over the entire campaign.

Ready for IIoT?

Whether you call it Industry 4.0 or the Industrial Internet of Things, your system needs to be ready to connect with and utilise these evolving technologies.

Pulling data from multiple systems can be a challenging manual task. How many of your personnel are wasting time generating reports by hand?

Benchmarking your process with data analytics

Optimising your process is difficult if you can’t see what’s going on, so it’s important to invest in a system that can acquire the data you need easily and reliably.

For data analysis you need accurate measurement of key parameters, dependable recording, archiving and retrieval of data, plus an easy way to report your findings.

A Eurotherm process control system is based on well-designed products that provide high accuracy measurement and signals even in electrically noisy environments. Data is collected at the point of measurement and recorded in internal memory from where it can be archived automatically to a historian server. Once you have data you can start analysing in real time or historically and see if improvements are working.

Benchmarking your process will enable you to spot previously unforeseen issues caused by ageing equipment, different batches of raw materials and different machine operations.

Meet electrical and safety regulations

Glass plants are electrically noisy environments and regulations exist to limit their detrimental effects on the electricity supply. A key parameter measured by utility companies is Power Factor (PF) and industrial consumers with low PF are often forced to pay higher tariffs.

Traditionally designed platinum heating systems often don’t provide a high PF so correction is required in the form of costly capacitor banks.

Improve power factor to reduce your energy tariff

Eurotherm’s power control methods, specially designed equipment, and attention to component, cable and busbar layout can greatly improve the PF compared to a traditional system. The improvements can result in a lower electricity tariff, less risk of fines and negate the need for correction capacitors.

Flexible solutions