Glass Systems improves laminate cutting times

An infra-red heating system from Heraeus Noblelight has allowed Swansea based Glass Systems to reduce the cycle time required to cut sheets of laminated glass by almost a half.

According to Glass Systems, this has given it the capability to significantly increase output to meet increasing demand for its products.

Laminated glass comprises two outer glass sections, sandwiching an inner sheet of Polyvinyl Butyral (PVB) plastic foil. This is used as safety glass as, if the sheet breaks, the PVB holds the pieces of glass together to minimise the risk of serious injury from shards of broken glass.

However, the laminated construction can cause a problem in manufacture, as this type of glass is more difficult to cut to size than conventional glass because of the sandwiched foil. This problem is solved by applying heat along the cutting line to soften the PVB and at the Swansea factory of Glass Systems, this targeted heat was supplied by an infra-red emitter.

However, at Glass Systems, this softening process was said to be creating a bottleneck and Lukasz Matlingiewicz, the engineering director at Swansea, contacted Heraeus Noblelight for advice.

It was realised that that the supplied electric current was close to the maximum that could be achieved for a single, continuous emitter and consideration was given to the use of multiple emitters. However, this would have created unwanted cold spots along the cutting line so Heraeus found a solution by providing two 6kW, fast response medium wave emitters.

Each emitter was produced with a small 10mm cold end of the non-connection side and these were then butted together, with the electric connections at either side of the cutting machine. This allowed the power to be increased, with no noticeable effect from the cold butted section in the middle of the assembly.

Lucasz Matlingiewicz commented: “This novel solution has allowed us to reduce the cutting cycle time from 55 seconds to less than 30 seconds. In fact, we are so pleased with the results that the Heraeus modification has now been incorporated in many of the other glass-cutting machines at our other sites across the UK.”

Heraeus specialises in the production and application of high-quality energy sources covering the electro-magnetic spectrum from ultraviolet to infra-red. It has over 40 years experience in infra-red technology and offers the expertise, products and systems to provide efficient and effective solutions to drying, heating and curing problems throughout industry.

Glass Systems UK comprises of four companies, incorporating six sites located throughout the UK. Originally founded in the 1980’s, Glass Systems has been owned by Press Glass Group since September 2015 and is headed up by Khaled Elleboudy, managing director.

The company is said to supply the largest market share of insulated glass units within the UK.