Synseals Global Glass division can now toughen twice the glass at its K2 plant in Blackburn, all faster, to a better quality and save energy thanks to an advanced new furnace there.
The Tamglass ProConvection unit is both 40% bigger and 40% faster, doubling the existing capacity at the Lancashire facility. It is now capable of processing a greater number of glass sheets given the furnaces impressive size (4,800mm x 2,440mm), which is significantly bigger than the previous plant.
The Global Glass plant at Blackburn specialises in creating insulated glass units for roof glazing applications, including the premium quality Celsius performance glass range. This specialisation means that 100% of the glass units produced have to be toughened; this investment was therefore key to improving performance.
Synseal Head of Marketing Mark Schlotel says, This furnace is one of the fastest and most advanced on the market. It represents a very significant investment for Synseal and K2 but it will be more than worth it in the benefits we know it will bring to our customers. As well as keeping all our products very cost-effective, it will also give improved visual quality with reductions in bow, ripple and edge lift, and we are in no doubt the increased capacity and improved quality will be more than enough to satisfy all our customers, fabricator partners and professional installers alike.
It can also process any kind of glass, be it clear, Low E or high performance solar control, which makes it extremely versatile. In short, we are very unlikely if ever to hear of any order it cannot fulfil.
The high convection furnace not only uses the Tamglass HeatEx system to recycle a high proportion of the heat it generates. It has also been upgraded for Synseal with special inverters to reduce the energy consumption of the blowers and further reduce its carbon footprint all major plus-points to add to Synseals enviable environmental credentials.
With installation and commissioning successfully completed at Blackburn, the unit went into production at the end of October and has already proved its worth with efficient processing of orders for all types and sizes of roof glass.
