Glassware manufacturer maximizes production

An industrial manufacturer of glassware using a unique float glass vertical furnace process needed to avoid furnace downtime problems resulting from excess corrosion. This issue gradually leads to restriction of combustion air and fouling of flue gas flow passages, reducing the “pull rate” of required air supply.

The downtime to reline furnace corrosion can cost up to $2.1 million per week. Many factors contribute to corrosion rate including quality of glass, location of heating anodes, and “pull rate” compared to design. Position of anodes is optimized for glass quality and operating conditions. Operating furnaces at or above their design rate causes accelerated corrosion. Coping with the heat is the most common process problem in glassware manufacturing. Non-uniform heating, and currents caused by rapid melting of raw material, causes deformation of the glass in the quenching (cool-down) process.

For this challenge, our team engineered a solution that significantly decreased the temperature and flow of the external furnace air cooling. The engineered package combined chillers and blowers to uniformly cool the furnace, leading to increased run time and ROI, while extending time to furnace outage for relining. Using this equipment, our engineers assembled a configuration that could supply large amounts of cooling air across a flow path unique to these vertical furnaces.

Other solutions previously provided by competitors were neither adequate nor efficient. Additional layers of industry knowledge and project management capability were required, as seen with Aggreko’s measurable results, including DEF burn rates, safe operations, and a total project value of approximately $2,070,000.

In addition to the engineering support, our technicians collaborated on-site with plant operators, resulting in flexible interfacing of our equipment with the plant’s systems to deliver an efficient and uniform supply of cooling air. The fully engineered turnkey solution can supply large amounts of cooling air across flow paths unique to proprietary float glass manufacturing processes.

With the combined talents of Aggreko engineers and technicians and 24/7 access to our staff, we helped the plant maintain full production with our reliable equipment interfaced with Aggreko Remote Monitoring (ARM) capability. This arrangement bought the client extra time for production during a period of high demand.