FLACHGLAS, Germany

At FLACHGLAS, a culture of operational excellence fuels continuous modernizations. “The latest Glaston ProL upgrade for our 50-year-old lamination line has helped us raise performance, save energy and automate production with the push of a button,” says Martin Geiss, Technical Manager at FLACHGLAS Wernberg.

Keeping up the productive synergy

FLACHGLAS has continuously invested in emerging technologies at its three locations in Germany. Along this journey, long-time partner Glaston has actively supported the company’s modernization initiatives and supplied equipment.

Even before the previous joint project to upgrade FLACHGLAS’s two tempering lines was finalized in February 2023, planning for the next upgrade at the company’s Wernberg site in Bavaria was in full swing.

This time, the focus was on the company’s old lamination line, a cornerstone of its operations since the 1970s. The goal was to upgrade it with Glaston’s ProL technology to meet efficiency and sustainability standards while maintaining its unique capabilities.

Empowering employees, elevating efficiency, saving energy

The “split drive,” a game-changing feature of the upgrade, has already paid off. Two drives allow a new sandwich to enter the heating chamber when the previous one has reached the midpoint, even if the sandwiches have slightly different thicknesses. This reduces employee waiting time in the clean room and significantly increases capacity. Presorting according to sandwich thickness is also no longer necessary, eliminating a work step.

Employee intervention in the control and input of process parameters has also been significantly reduced, if not completely eliminated. Employees only need to manually enter the parameters for special products. Most products are produced automatically, with the system setting the proper parameters.

Everyone at the plant is enthusiastic about this. “We simply press a button and no longer worry about the settings. We’re getting consistent and flawless quality at the end of the line,” says Julian Lobinger, Technical Project Manager. “Despite the challenging nature of our products, this mode is 90% reliable and guarantees us consistent capacity and quality.”

Enhanced production capabilities also extend to vehicle and railroad glasses, important sectors for the Wernberg facility. FLACHGLAS can now produce these glasses much faster.

“We have also been able to save 80% in heat costs with our new line. This currently results in an average of 0.02 kWh/kg glass – an absolute peak value.”