Improve quality, eliminate costly re-makes
Flat Glass Solutions has recently become the exclusive UK and Ireland distributor for glass scanning technology specialist, Viproton. Here, Flat Glass Solutions MD, David Cahill, outlines five scenarios where glass processors can benefit from Viprotron solutions.
You are an experienced glass producer – you know what you’re doing, but you have a feeling that you could be keeping a tighter control on the quality of glass being delivered.
Here are five signs that indicate you may need to improve your production processes:
- You’ve lost an important customer to your competitors, or you haven’t gained any new customers in a long time. Next to prices or poor service, it could be product quality that is at fault.
- You struggle to balance volume of output with consistent quality.
- You need to increase output to meet demand, but don’t have the staff or capacity to manage product quality.
- Your claim costs are rising.
- You need to reduce waste and operate more sustainably.
The introduction of a Viprotron scanner, can help solve all these issues. Designed to detect defects such as inclusions, scratches, bubbles and dirt, they can be easily integrated into existing or planned processing lines.
By identifying issues during the production process, Viprotron’s range of high-performance manual and automatic solutions allow processors to significantly reduce volume of sub-standard product. This offers clear benefits to existing customers but can also be demonstrated to potential new customers as well, introducing a valuable USP over competitors and greatly reducing any requirement to compete on price.
For glass processors who are looking to scale up operations, or who are struggling to meet existing demand, Viprotron scanners offer a clear way to improve production efficiencies.
The root cause of problems on production lines can be flagged up much faster, again reducing the volume of potentially damaged product before it is dispatched and allowing production teams to remedy issues more quickly.
Viprotron scanners are compatible with all major equipment manufacturers and are suitable for all glass manufacturing processes from coating, to cutting, to lamination and tempering, fabrication, IGU manufacturing and more besides.
Not only can they be connected to in house ERP / PPS software, but they can also be used to provide automatic archiving of quality control procedures, demonstrating additional reassurances of quality to customers as well as delivering valuable, in-house quality evaluations.
The Viprotron range includes market leading automated and manual scanning solutions to suit a variety of budgets.
That includes the Eco Scanner and Eco Scanner Pro, that offers high quality glass defect detection for a minimal investment. Easily integrated into new or existing lines, it is designed to be installed after a washing machine, either vertically or horizontally and for single or parallel production of glass.
It features an intuitive user interface and meets ASTM C1036, EN 1279 or JIS R3209 for defect detection of architectural glass.
Viprotron’s Quality Scanner 3D system introduces more advanced glass defect detection systems, designed for more demanding applications, while the top of the range Temper Scanner 5D provides a complete metrology system – with glass defect detection after the furnace exit – and the ability to identify rollerwave, edgekink, anisotropy, white haze, scratches and coating defects.
Poor quality glass units slipping through quality control checks are a big problem for the industry at the moment.
If a big order of glass units is not up to standard, that can hold up an entire installation if it is rejected in situ and it will most likely put a big strain on customer relationships. There’s the delay for those remakes, which have to be explained to the end user, and the cost of re-supplying them – that can all be avoided if the issues are identified before they leave the factory.
With oversized glass units for higher end domestic and commercial projects now increasingly in demand, and not forgetting the calls for added value laminated, printed and decorative glass products, the potential for costly mistakes becomes much greater.
It is more important now than ever before for glass processors to operate as efficiently and as sustainably as possible, and why equipment that can reduce wastage, and deliver consistent high-quality throughput should be central to all glass production processes.
A Viptrotron scanner is, therefore, a highly beneficial investment. Depending on the scale of production, we estimate that it can typically pay for itself within a year.