This is one of the greatest fears of companies and glassworks that want to invest in a glass tempering furnace: to invest in a machine that costs a lot of money and then find that it is too difficult to use.
The risk is that you will lose what you have spent on the investment and will not even have the funds to employ specialist staff, or even to enable your staff to attend specialist courses to enable them to use the hardening furnace to its full potential.
Those who buy a glass tempering furnace do so to give their business an extra boost, so it is essential to make the most of it to give it a competitive edge.
Are there glass tempering furnaces that can be used by non-specialists? Fortunately, yes. And they also guarantee top quality performance and reduced environmental impact.
How easy is it to use a tempering furnace?
The general shortage of skilled labour has affected all manufacturing sectors in recent years and even companies of all sizes working in the glass sector have often found themselves having to employ staff who are not fully trained and experienced in working with this material.
This is where the technological equipment of the glassworks can come to the rescue, so that even a new operator can easily master the use of very sophisticated machinery, such as tempering furnaces.
A furnace of this type, whatever its size, can indeed be designed and built in a user-friendly way: the ‘secret’ lies in the machine management software.
Today, intelligent software is available that is able to regulate and manage the operation of the furnace almost automatically, based on a few commands from the operator.
Furnaces equipped with this type of software are integrated in the context of Industry 4.0 and are therefore designed to improve the productivity of the company, the quality of the products produced and the working conditions of the operators.
Based on advanced algorithms, the easy-to-use management software is able to automatically calculate the most efficient way to achieve the desired result, without requiring any special or in-depth knowledge on the part of the operator.
Two other important benefits of advanced management software
Advanced software not only makes it easier to communicate with the furnace, it completely revolutionises its performance, delivering exceptional operational benefits.
One of the first benefits is certainly energy saving, as these software packages are designed to optimise the consumption of the machines by reducing energy absorption peaks. For example, there is software that can detect the areas of the furnace occupied by the glass plate and heat only those precise areas accordingly, without wasting energy.
And then there is another important operational benefit: thanks to the software, maintenance of the quenching furnace is also simplified and will be less frequent because it is continuously monitored and it is easier to detect if something is wrong and to take timely action on the critical issue.
Advanced software can therefore greatly simplify the management of a complex piece of machinery such as a glass tempering furnace. However, it is essential that all the know-how of the manufacturing company is incorporated into the programming of this software, as this is the only way to adapt the furnace to the needs of the customer.
Mazzaroppi tempering furnaces, for example, are the most energy-efficient solutions for glass tempering: thanks to innovative proprietary technologies, they can consume up to 70% less energy than other furnaces, while maintaining very high performance and ease of use. What’s more, we guarantee all our customers in-depth training and coaching to learn how to get the most out of their Mazzaroppi furnace.
Would you like to equip your company or glassworks with a tempering furnace, but are you afraid that it will be too complex to operate or that it will consume too much energy? Give us a call and you will be amazed at what we can do for you!
CEO Mazzaroppi Engineering Srl
