Glaston ProL-zone upgrade for old lamination line chamber
“It’s really something when you have a new section installed in between all the old, and everything works seamlessly both mechanically and electrically,” says Lone Kjaer Joergensen, Production Manager of Glaseksperten A/S in Hjorring, Denmark. “I was really excited and a bit nervous, but with our new Glaston ProL-zone upgrade, we got something far better. Although we initially aimed to correct our temperature imbalances, we got better lamination quality, higher capacity and reduced energy consumption. Plus, we have been able to reduce the thickness of the PVB foil from 1.14 mm to 0.76 mm, and are looking forward to pushing the limits even more.”
Glaseksperten, which means “the glass expert”, began in 1990 as a local glazier. Since 2000, the company has moved into major projects and special deliveries of laminated glass to customers and construction projects across the country and outside Denmark. Today, Glaseksperten creates glass solutions in all imaginable shapes and forms, making the company one of Europe’s most reliable and dynamic glass suppliers and enabling it to take steps towards its global ambitions.
“The problem with our existing furnace was getting worse. Temperatures on the edges of the glass as well as on both ends were not the same as in the middle,”
describes Lone. “On a normal day, when there were no bigger issues, about 13% of the glass had bubbles after the autoclave. Some of it may have been caused by the glass being too hot when leaving the autoclave or when relieving pressure. But most of it came from uneven glass heating in the furnace.”
Once the upgrade had been completed, Glaseksperten discovered that it could run the glass with the same temperature all the time for all glass types. “We only need to change speed, and the changeover time is nothing compared with what we had earlier,” Lone states.
