GED Integrated Solutions wins national 2012 Crystal Achievement Award for Most Innovative Machine

This recognition marks GED’s ninth Crystal Achievement. Sponsored by Window & Door magazine, the coveted annual awards recognize significant innovations in window and door technology, manufacturing and marketing.

GED’s new Automated Tri-Lite Assembly System (ATLAS) is the machine that garnered the company this distinction. As the latest addition to GED’s family of i-3 Technologies, ATLAS is a revolutionary glass fabrication system that produces dual and triple pane IG units in unprecedented 20 second cycle times – and with touch-free technology. The flexibility of ATLAS, its schedule-driven production and seamless integration for Intercept® lines are only a few of its exceptional innovations.

Suitable for handling Intercept Warm Edge as well as standard type and most other branded spacers, ATLAS is adaptive to a range of unique IG combinations, including small and large units, both dual and triple-glazed, and in any order or combination. The machine-controlled consistency ensures uniform, high-quality sealed units complete with an optimum level of production – dual glazed units at six per minute and triple units at three per minute.

The ability to simplify the complexity of manufacturing both triple and dual pane IGUs in any sequence is made possible through the development of GED’s new Win IG-5 software and the ‘no-touch’ Vortex vacuum lift technologies.

WIN IG-5 Software allows the sealed unit manufacturer to have complete production control of every aspect of the IGU manufacturing process. Operations can now schedule each unique IGU in a one-piece flow manner as the visual software interface provides grid, spacer and glass alignment. Additionally its Queue Management module allows for remakes and deletions and additions of IGUs to the schedule.

ATLAS automated production process starts at the glass rack, where glass is pre-sorted. WIN IG-5 software provides the operator with the visual management to load the glass into the washer in the correct sequence. Once the glass is loaded and washed, it passes through ATLAS’s Positive Pressure Clean Room, specifically designed to eliminate all dust from the units.

The glass is then delivered to the Topping Station where the ‘no-touch’ Vortex-designed air vacuum mechanisms lift and suspend the middle lite without physical contact on any part of the glass surface. This ensures contamination-free placement, alignment and assembly of the dual or triple unit. The ‘no-touch’ process not only eliminates operator glass handling, it also minimizes the chance of glass breakage and means that remakes due to Quality Control (or worse) customer rejection through factory contamination and/or damage to the glass within the sealed air spaces, is a thing of the past.

The assembled unit is then transferred into the Smart i-3 Oven for eating/pressing, assuring proper wet-out of the unit.

As part of GED’s complete line of glass and vinyl window fabrication equipment and software, ATLAS is fully backed by the company’s industry-leading training and support services. For more information, call 330.487.5051 or visit www.gedusa.com.

About GED Integrated Solutions

GED Integrated Solutions is a worldwide supplier of fully integrated insulating glass and vinyl window and door fabrication systems, and the pioneer of the revolutionary Intercept i-3 Warm Edge spacer frame production system. The company’s i-3 platform works with its LeanNet® communications software to integrate every facet of a plant’s operation, increasing IG quality and production volumes and profits while decreasing operating costs and material wastage. GED’s commitment to innovation that addresses its customers’ needs is evidenced by the fact that 18 of the top 20 window and door manufacturers utilize GED’s equipment and software solutions.