Glaston participating in Finland’s first industry-oriented machine learning project

In addition to Glaston, the key actors of the two-year group project are Novatron, Nokia Technologies, Epec and Tampere University of Technology. The project is significant for the fact its research topics are business-oriented.

Glaston’s research topic is focused on tempering machine artificial intelligence, aimed at a fully automated tempering furnace. The MIDAS project continues Glaston’s work in utilising the opportunities created by digitalisation. Last year, digitalisation was supported by the glass industry startup event Step Change as well as the glass industry hackathon event Hack the Glass, which was held for the first time.  

“Glaston seeks to be a frontrunner in both technology and business practices. We are now participating in the DIMECC-led artificial intelligence consortium, because it was planned from an industry perspective and we have great opportunities to apply artificial intelligence in our furnaces and in the analysis of our installed machines. We invest in business-oriented research and develop glass processing, where we are recognised as being at the absolute peak globally,” says Glaston Corporation’s President & CEO, Arto Metsänen. 

Glaston invests heavily in product development, particularly in developing digital and IoT-based products such as, for example, utilising analytics, raising automation, developing continuous monitoring, and proactive maintenance.  

By utilising cloud services and the opportunities provided by IoT, Glaston helps its customers use their machines as efficiently as possible. As a frontrunner in its field of business, the company was the first to bring to the glass processing market a service that enables customers to monitor production in real time.  

The companies participating in the MIDAS project will cooperate closely with each other and with Tampere University of Technology (TUT). Also involved are researchers specialised in artificial intelligence, who have high expertise in the development of machine learning.  

“We are building TUT into a leading artificial intelligence research institution in industrial applications. The MIDAS project is possibly one of the biggest to date in the artificial intelligence programme funded by Business Finland,” says Professor Heikki Huttunen, a Tampere University of Technology artificial intelligence specialist.