Have you invested in a high-quality glass tempering furnace? From an economic point of view, you have certainly made a good choice: such a furnace guarantees you a long service life and high performance.

However, after a few decades of use, you may need to ask a little more of your furnace. And thinking about a refurbishment might be another good choice.

What is revamping and who can do it?

Revamping a glass tempering furnace is a process of renovation and modernisation to improve its efficiency, performance and lifetime.

It may involve the replacement of obsolete components with more modern solutions, with the aim of improving the energy efficiency, safety and productivity of the furnace. A thorough analysis of the furnace must be carried out prior to any refurbishment to identify any critical issues and to assess the performance that can be achieved with the work to be carried out.

Once the kiln has undergone this ‘repowering’, its life cycle can be significantly extended, bringing forward the need for a new installation by a few years.

Who should you turn to when you need to upgrade your oven? The best choice is always to speak to the manufacturer themselves, if they offer this type of service.

If your oven was bought from a manufacturer who designs and manufactures the machines, if it was built with high quality raw materials and robust technology, you may be surprised at how much a refurbishment can ‘rejuvenate’ it.

The most common refurbishment interventions

The refurbishment of glass furnaces can involve several elements of the machinery. Here are some of the most common interventions that can revolutionise the current performance of your furnace:

• Modernisation of electrical components: is your furnace very old? Then it is possible that some components are no longer on the market. If they no longer work properly, it is better to replace them with compatible ones. This can improve the performance of the stove and reduce consumption.

• Replacement of mechanical elements: it is possible that after decades of intensive use, some of the mechanical components of your hardening furnace are worn out. For example, you can replace the rollers of the various sections that make up the machine, some of the heating elements in the heating chamber, the motors that move the various zones, and other elements.

• Upgrading the electronics: you can equip your oven with new software to give it new functions and also optimise its consumption. Integration with remote monitoring and data analysis systems is also possible.

• Add convection: does your current oven lack convection technology? With an upgrade, you can add this capability and expand your production to include additional types of glass, such as all types of low-e glass.

Once your furnace has been refurbished, you will have a machine that is more reliable by reducing the risk of breakdowns, but above all it will be more efficient: more modern components and software will reduce energy consumption and optimise productivity, or even allow you to expand your range to include new products.

How do you assess the refurbishment of your furnace?

The refurbishment of a hardening furnace is a strategic investment, but the key to its success is an accurate assessment of the current state of the machine and a clear definition of the objectives of the intervention.

Before intervening, it is essential to analyse the condition of the furnace on the basis of parameters such as

• Age of the equipment: how old is it? Are its components still on the market?

• Energy efficiency: is there heat loss? Is the consumption too high compared to the expected consumption?

• Accuracy of process parameters: does the furnace maintain the correct temperatures and cycles, or are there variations?

• Reliability and maintenance: are breakdowns or stoppages frequent? Has routine maintenance always been carried out correctly?

• Safety and regulatory compliance: does the furnace meet the latest regulations or is it in need of upgrading?

Once the assessment is complete, a report must be drawn up with critical points and possible actions to be taken, prioritised according to the objectives to be achieved, which may be to reduce consumption, increase productivity, improve tempering quality, etc. The report will also show the performance that can be achieved thanks to the interventions carried out.

At Mazzaroppi we design and build glass tempering furnaces that last for decades. In order to keep our equipment at the top of its game, we also carry out more or less extensive upgrades on our machines.

Would you like to know how you can take your tempering furnace to a higher level of performance?

Give us a call to find out more.

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!