With our extensive knowledge in glass chemistry and practical experience in glass melting, we help you optimise your glass production process and improve your glass quality. We assist glass manufacturers in optimising colour changeovers on their melting furnaces, enhancing glass melt characteristics and developing new glass products;e.g.: boron-free, lead-free glass.
Expertise in colour changes
Glass colour changes pose significant challenges and require deep expertise in both furnace operation and glass chemistry. During a colour change, two different glasses, often incompatible (e.g. due to different redox states), mix in your melting furnace. The combination of a high pull (necessary for a fast colour change) and changing glass characteristics can fundamentally alter furnace glass melt flow and melting reactions. This can lead to severe quality degradation, producing defects like cords, seeds, and blisters. Recovering high-quality glass production in such cases can be extremely difficult and time-consuming, taking from a few days to several weeks.Having performed dozens of complex colour changes, we have developed detailed procedures to optimise transition times and minimise production losses. Our high-value expertise is offered at a cost that is negligible compared to the financial losses from a failed colour change.
Projects
e.g.
- Development of batches for various standard and non-standard colours; e.g.: flint, amber, green, antique green, olive green, UVAG, dead leaf, royal blue, grey or purple.
- Guidance for glass production according to CIE and CIE-Lab colour specifications.
- Colour quality improvement: improving flint glass colour quality and optimizing batches for extra clear flint through physical and chemical decolourisation.
- Lab melting studies: conducting comparative lab melting tests of different batches to study the melting process, intermediate crystalline phases and the formation of vitreous phases.
- On-site assistance: providing on-site optimisation of colour change processes using proven strategies and procedures for batch modification and furnace control.
- Developing high cullet batches for coloured container glass, glass wool and providing assistance in introducing cullet in specific glass production runs.
- Glass chemistry assistance and troubleshooting: modifying batch formulas to optimise glass melt and quality characteristics, e.g.: density, viscosity, working range, chemical durability, thermal shock resistance, liquidus temperature, light transmission, colour, brightness.
