Bystronic supplies machinery for Scheuten's 'zero fault plant'

Scheuten Glas company has built a 10,000-square-meter hall in its plant in Venlo, close to the border between Germany and the Netherlands, to manufacture insulating glass, according to an April 14 Bystronic release.

The initial concept for this plant was made in 2006. At the time, Scheuten already manufactured laminated glass, single-lite safety glass, enameled glass and coated glass in the largest possible dimensions; however, the insulating glass production facility had become outdated. Next to the other glass producing plants of Scheuten, all of which are located in the same premises, the company wanted a new production hall. "In early 2007, we therefore approached various machine builders with out request for an individually designed plant," said Paul Heiligers, operational director, Scheuten Glas, in the release.

Bystronic was the only supplierthat offered an individual solution tailor-made for Scheuten,Heiligers said.In September 2007, construction of the hall began, and in early January 2008, Bystronic glass delivered the first machine parts. At the time, the hall had neither doors nor windows, and only half of the floor had been finished. Completion of the hall and the erection of the machine, therefore, proceeded in parallel, according to the release.

Today, the hall is a light-flooded but closed construction and offers a pleasant workplace for the staff, who work in a two-shift operation. The glass storage with two times 25 places is the starting point for production. Special glasses can be introduced via harp racks on the open hall side. The glass plates are therefore automatically conveyed onto the two insulating glass lines. The cutting area follows the loading area. Next to the float glass cutting plant SMFR with an edge deletion device, there are two LAMICUT cutting tables that effectively cut, break and separate the laminated safety glass up to a length of 4,700 millimeters, according to the release.

Cutting is performed not at a maximum speed, but at an optimal speed, and has been set to achieve the minimum possible cut of the residual plates. Large glass residues are automatically conveyed to the connected residual plate storage. An intermediate buffer is indispensable for arranging the glasses after cutting in the production sequence on the insulating glass lines. Highly flexible mechanisms, controlled by software from Hanic, direct the glasses over intersecting tracks of the fully linked plant--from cutting to insulating glass production. Existing buffers can therefore be used intelligently. The particular requirement for the software in this respect related to the high complexity of the plant and the interdependency of all production stages, according to the release.

In order to be able to implement its large product mixture, Scheuten works on two parallel insulating glass lines. The company produces square shaped units, which account for approximately two thirds of the products, on the right hand insulating glass line. The left line is mainly used for the production of model shapes and stepped units. The spacers can be processed on both sides in stainless steel or aluminum. In between the two top-modern lines, the attentive visitor will notice a relic from past times: an old insulating glass line from the Bystronic Lenhardt Technology Centre, which Scheuten uses today for the manual manufacture of small units, according to the release.