The main reasons for the investments are to increase the company’s tempering production throughput along with being able to better monitor and develop the tempering process. The company is getting ready to meet the growing demands for architectural glass now that Tokyo will host the Olympic Games in 2020.
Following its motto of “Infinite Creativity,” Sanshiba Shozai is taking specific steps to develop architectural glass products that combine visual beauty and excellent performance by embracing science and engineering technology. The company was founded in 1957 in the Toyama Prefecture in the center of Japan.
Since its start, Sanshiba continues to create interfaces between nature and people through infinite creativity, such as double-glazed glass, which excels as such an interface. By being the first-ever to invest in GlastonInsight™ with its RC350™ tempering furnace, Sanshiba Shozai is getting ready to supply high-quality tempered glass for the Tokyo city center redevelopment projects before the 2020 Olympics.
Sanshiba began expanding in the 1970s by establishing new facilities around Japan and widening the scope of its manufactured glass. Today, the company has the largest laminated glass manufacturing plant in Japan and a workforce of 160. Additionally, the main facility in Toyama of 47,000 m2 boasts the largest autoclave in Japan.
“We are especially looking forward to GlastonInsight™, which automatically gives our operators a proposal for quality improvement.”
“After careful comparison, we chose the Glaston RC350™ furnace because we feel that it best matches our business expansion goals. We feel that Glaston’s tempering line performance and quality is much better compared with other solutions.”
Visiting others to see more
Earlier in 2014, Norihide Funase, Director at Sanshiba, and Toshiyuki Takashima, Manager of Tempering, visited various glass processors to see the technologies they were using. The Tvitec factory in Spain was one that had just started operating its new RC350™ furnace from Glaston.
“For a long time, we have been interested in Glaston machinery, especially the tempering furnaces. We were impressed by the production capacity and the latest technology,” Funase says. “After careful comparison, we chose the Glaston RC350™ furnace because we feel that it best matches our business expansion goals. We feel that Glaston’s tempering line performance and quality is much better compared with other solutions. So, this will be our first Glaston machine.”
Japanese-Finnish cooperation - project team ready for the future opprotunities.
By being the first-ever to invest in GlastonInsight™ with its RC350™ tempering furnace, Sanshiba Shozai is getting ready to supply high-quality tempered glass for the Tokyo city center redevelopment projects before the 2020 Olympics.
Fastest continuous production volumes
“We chose Glaston RC350™ because it demonstrated the fastest continuous production volumes in the market,” Funase continues. “This means not only one or two fast production cycles, but rather constant production with no delays. This was our main decision factor.” Toshiyuki Takashima adds.
They go on to say that Glaston’s product quality, both in terms of glass quality and machinery quality, outperformed other solutions that they saw.
Glaston RC350™ has been specifically designed to increase total line throughput, lower operating costs and provide a wider production capability. The Vortex Pro™ convection system gives Sanshiba the ability to run practically any types and shapes of glasses with minimal energy consumption and maximum quality. Glaston RC350™ has the in-built ability to heat the glass with matchless uniformity. This significantly reduces distortion and iridescence.
“We also believe we can better follow and develop our tempering process through the reporting systems and applications included with the machine,” Takashima says.
RC350™ comes complete with Glaston’s iControL Dynamics™ automation system with an intuitive user interface to facilitate an easy user experience.
Looking forward to GlastonInsight™
“We are especially looking forward to GlastonInsight™, which automatically gives our operators a proposal for quality improvement,” Funase says. “It’s based on the iLooK™ system that measures glass in production online. This latest system will help ensure that we consistently provide our customers with the highest possible glass quality.”
GlastonInsight™ uses an accurate temperature scanner and online quality measurements to help raise glass quality to an excellent and more uniform level.
The system provides operators with automatic proposals on how to tune the process to achieve outstanding production results. It also helps minimize waste because the process is tuned immediately if there are any deviations.
Going for gold
As Japan prepares for the Olympics, Sanshiba Glass will be running at peak performance with its new investments – Glaston RC350™ with GlastonInsight™ to coach them to gold-medal results.
Glaston RC350™ has been specifically designed to increase total line throughput, lower operating costs and provide a wider production capability. The Vortex Pro™ convection system gives Sanshiba the ability to run practically any types and shapes of glasses with minimal energy consumption and maximum quality.
GlastonInsight™ uses an accurate temperature scanner and online quality measurements to help raise glass quality to an excellent and more uniform level.
For more information, please contact us:
Glaston, Tel. +358-10-500 500, info@glaston.net, www.glaston.net
