We all know that glass lamination is the process of bonding two or more panes of glass with a flexible interlayer in between. Sounds simple. But is it always so in practice? How can you ensure that your end result is consistently outstanding while your process remains efficient? Let&#;s look at the top five important factors for successful glass lamination.
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It&#;s important to remember your business segment will determine many of the requirements for your lamination process. For example, if you are in the façades business, requirements for the glass will be different from those in the interior glass market. The glass specifications will not be the same, and the line settings will be different, too. Moreover, for many producers the most important factor is that the line can easily adapt itself to different kinds of production. Therefore, let&#;s focus on the factors that matter equally for every glass processor, regardless of the business model.
1) Optimal heating technology
The choice of heating technology directly affects the day-to-day use of your laminating line. There are mainly two technologies to consider: full convection and radiation with convection.
Today, most furnaces are still using infrared radiation technology. If this is also your case, remember that radiation efficiency depends greatly on the glass type you process. Infrared radiation is only really effective in heating thick clear glass with no coating. Unfortunately, glass processors working only with this type of glass are few and far between.
When it comes to really optimal heating, full convection is a much better choice. This is mainly because full convection is totally indifferent to the glass type you use. It consistently heats the glass uniformly. Even Low-E coatings do not reflect convection heat. So, there is no need to adjust the furnace temperature as often, saving you lots of time.
2) The right
pre-pressing technology
The laminating line&#;s pre-pressing unit affects how easy it is to operate the press and how uniform the pressing result is for different glass sizes and shapes.
Often, laminating lines are equipped with two pressing units. In this case, less is more! A good press design combined with accurate heating is more than sufficient with only one press. Plus, you avoid the sticky situation of having a long glass pane under two press units at the same time.
The most modern pressing machines are designed so that the press unit does not need to be adjusted based on glass width or shape &#; not even automatically.
3) Mixed production capability
More often than not, mixed production capability of the line is the most important factor to consider. This means that it is fast and easy to switch between different products &#; whether it&#;s changing the coating, glass size, shape or sandwich thickness. The most important factors affecting this are heating and pre-pressing design (discussed in points 1 & 2) and design of cleanroom operations.
When comparing capacities between different lines, make sure to take into account what is the real output you get out of the line versus theoretical capacity values. It&#;s especially important to understand what kind of changeover time there is between products, as changeover times can cause a huge difference between actual output and theoretical output.
In the cleanroom, the most important thing is that the line enables easy operation between automatic and manual modes &#; depending on what kind of products you are using. Pay attention especially to how easy it is for operators to work around the line, when it comes to manually trimming and positioning the glasses. A well designed trimming station makes trimming easier and quicker for the operators, as well as leads to better trimming quality as well.
4) Cleanroom design
The cleanroom is an inherent part of the laminating line, ensuring smooth operation when loading foils and making the operators&#; work as straightforward as possible. Things to consider for a well-designed cleanroom include ease of moving around the line, automated and offline methods of storage of the PVB rolls and sufficient lighting, especially in the assembly area.
You should also know and maintain the temperature and humidity level recommended for your cleanroom as well as air filtration requirements. These are not standard but are very specific values based on the type of foils you store.
5) Optimize
d
machine size
Defining a suitable line size is crucial, especially if you are going for high-volume production. The line&#;s length has a direct effect on the capacity you can achieve, due to longer travel distances of the conveyors and glass lifters. The larger the line, the bigger its footprint &#; which is also a downside.
If only a small part of your business comes from long glasses, consider purchasing those from somewhere else rather than investing in a larger machine.
And the list goes on
Ease of using the line, glass lifter design, the washing machine, foil type, foil cutting methods and the line&#;s automation &#; all have their own role in the overall success of your laminating process efficiency and business, as well.
To learn more about the many other success factors and get more detailed information on those listed here, download our free Laminating Line Buyer&#;s Guide. This new eBook features a wide range of tips on how to make your lamination business flourish, even if you are only looking to tap into this niche.
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With a background in industrial engineering and management, Riku is Director of Heat Treatment Product Management & Sales Engineering at Glaston. He is keen on working with customers and developing new business- and technology-related things &#; which makes product management a natural fit for him. In everything Riku does, he aims to ensure that glass processing customers are as successful as possible. This drives Riku and challenges him every day to think about what could be done better. Riku is an e-sports enthusiast. Aside from watching, he also enjoys playing the games that he actively follows.
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Furthermore, individual representatives of the glass industry can gain a certain competitive edge over the competition in this way and develop it accordingly.
But also in terms of cost effectiveness, it is important to take a holistic view of the production processes and analyse them in detail. In the case of lamination systems, the speed of pre-lamination should by no means be regarded as the only way of improving cost effectiveness with this process. After a detailed analysis of all parameters, it quickly becomes clear that many measures relating to the machine and the control system have a significant influence on efficient production.
The four most important points for increasing performance are:
Cost effectiveness starts with the planning of your own company and by determining the development steps for the future.
The following seven questions are crucial here:
Points 5 to 7 in particular can be regarded as key questions. But it is only when all of these questions have been answered that the entrepreneurial direction will emerge. And only then can you make an informed decision about which lamination systems (width, performance and degree of automation) are the correct ones for your own operation.
The machine width is considerably dependent upon the glass size that a company wants to produce, and has a strong influence on the amount of the investment.
Customer XY only wants one lamination system in production. Their company mainly processes sheets that do not exceed a width of 2.6 metres (92%) in 3-shift operation. However, the customer requires glass sheets with a width of approximately 2.6-3.0 metres for special productions (8%).
Following a detailed analysis of their business plan and the future direction of their company, they decide on a lamination system for process and cost reasons. And so they are absolutely right in this example. Because the wider system would also have increased the cost of any spare parts, such as rollers, and the level of complexity in terms of foil placement and cutting. This would also increase the investment costs.
Furthermore, the amount of foil wastage in wider systems also increases if the number of foil rolls in the magazine is not increased.
The customer can buy the bigger sheets for the 8% special production, since the proportion in this example is very low. Large companies that use multiple lamination systems also work according to this principle in many cases in order to increase efficiency and reduce production costs.
This approach is heavily dependent upon the customer segment and the products required in this segment. In such companies, the laminated glass products are sorted in advance and assigned to the appropriate lamination system in order to ensure that the process is quick and efficient.
There are also different types of foils that are used to bond glass lites sheets together, depending on their composition, degree of moisture and thickness. Special soundproofing foils are very different from those that have been developed for bulletproof glass, for example, even if the basic functionality is the same.
And these differences also have a significant impact on the price per square metre. For this reason, the foil itself also has a significant influence on the total production costs. Whereas a standard PVB foil costs around 4 euros per m², special foils can cost 4 or 5 times as much.
In terms of cost effectiveness, it is therefore of fundamental importance to place the foil economically and efficiently and to keep the foil overhang as small as possible so that foil wastage can be reduced. If a small glass with a width of 1 m is produced on a lamination system with a foil roll width of 2.6 m, for example, more foil wastage will occur. Wrinkle-free intermediate storage (for example with a foil shuttle) is also essential for this, so that the foil can be reused at a later point in time and overall costs / foil wastage are significantly reduced.
Glass alignment is the real &#;bottleneck&#; of a lamination system. The converter places the aligned glass onto the first glass and the foil. The availability of the glass sheets is particularly important when it comes to production speed with this process. However, the cycle time can only be improved with an optimal combination of design with regard to glass alignment and positioning accuracy, and stable automation and programming.
Another very important element with regard to efficiency is pre-lamination, which is the final link in the process chain and is often referred to as the heart of a lamination system.
Pre-lamination has a significant influence on the quality of the finished laminate.
However, in addition to the pre-lamination speed, the upstream process steps of glass alignment, foil placement and cutting must also intertwine in the best possible way to achieve optimal results.
The speed mainly depends on the energy supply, but also on the reproduction of the energy. Energy that is extracted from the laminated glass packages during pre-lamination must be recycled as quickly as possible in order to ensure efficient production. Otherwise the cycle time is reduced because the foil cannot warm up quickly enough due to an insufficient quantity of ambient energy.
There are two approaches with regard to this:
It has been shown in practice that a combination of both approaches is the most effective. With low-E glass, the radiation (heating energy) is very strongly reflected by the coating. This means that the foil takes more time to reach the right temperature. This effect can be compensated for to a considerable extent by means of convection.
However, with clear glass, which represents the majority of laminating glass, energy-efficient IR radiation is required to speed up the heating of the foil. The use of radiation or convection alone therefore not only weakens the energy transfer into or through the glass, but also the supply of energy for the next laminated glass package.
The figure shows the speeds of different lamination systems. Here it is clearly evident that LiSEC not only has 3 different pre-lamination machines to choose from, but can also score points in terms of speed.In addition to speed, the waste that can arise in pre-lamination also plays a significant role when it comes to increasing cost effectiveness. This particularly applies to the processing of expensive foils or with expensive glass lites sheets with printing as well as tempered glass lites sheets.
Experience has shown that pre-lamination with a spindle drive for the pressing roller infeed leads to significantly greater stability and process reliability and significantly reduces waste resulting from having an edge seal that is not optimum.
Pre-lamination can be described as the &#;heart&#; of a lamination system. But when it comes to increasing efficiency, there are many factors to consider. Only after a detailed analysis of all parameters should the decision be made as to which lamination system is right for your own operation. But the foils themselves, as well as the processes of foil placement and cutting and glass alignment, also have a fundamental influence on the overall cost effectiveness of the lamination process.
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