LiSEC Technology Days 2017

Every two years, LiSEC Germany organizes the meanwhile established technology days. This year, the technology days were held in Isernhagen near Hannover on June 20th and 21st under the motto „Solutions that fit“. Around 60 specialists from the glass industry caught up on current topics and trends of glass processing.

The two-day event began with the presentation of the video „Just make it big“. It shows the largest insulating glass plant in the world, a line for large-size products.

The line was specifically developed by LiSEC for sedak GmbH & Co. KG in Gersthofen, Germany and was installed almost a year ago.

In his welcome speech, Clemens Macarei, General Manager of LiSEC Germany and initiator of the technology days, pointed out that the industry needs the right, tailor-made solution for the respective corporate objectives and the objectives of the entrepreneur.

“Markets strongly driven by competition need the most efficient solutions and the most important pieces of information“, he stated when opening the technology days. The first one to give a lecture was Dr. Klaus Huntebrinker, General Manager of ‘Isolar Glas Beratung’.

He spoke about the new versions of the standards for the glass dimensioning. He outlined the status of the standardization and the interpretation of the regulations in a clear way and gave a passionate plea to point out the personal responsibility of the glass-processing industry when it comes to the drafting of the regulations.

After that, Leopold Dammelhart, Technical Support at LiSEC Austria, presented the cutting machine for laminated glass for the fully automatic cutting of X, Y and Z sections.

The expertise in terms of the tailor-made cutting line for laminated safety glass consists of implementing an optimized mapping of the cutting patterns provided by the customers in the unit. The applied outfeed and lateral transport lengths thus have a significant influence on the cycle time.

Using an example, Dammelhart demonstrated how LiSEC was able to reduce the cycle times in the cutting area by more than 17% due to the optimization and orientation to the customer’s situation.

By means of the new laminated glass cutting plant with X-Y-Z cutting bridge, the speaker very descriptively demonstrated how it is possible to realize an output of more than 90 m² laminated glass per hour with only one operator.

Theory was followed by practice

Practical experience and operator expertise plays an important role at LiSEC. Therefore, a visit of the production plant at Schollglas Isernhagen was part of the agenda at the first day.

With his speech on unmanned production in which he presented the TPA insulating glass concept, Jürgen Wuchter, Sales Manager LiSEC Germany, prepared the attendees for this factory tour.

After that, the attendees had the possibility to experience the more than 63 m long LiSEC TPA line in operation – a demonstration that was met with great interest.

The TPA lines are individually adapted to the customers’ requirements. One objective is to integrate them as space-saving as possible in the production.

Thus, LiSEC offers every customer the right, tailor-made solution. When planning the new plant, Schollglas‘ long production experience in the field of TPA already led to the demand that the sheets should preferably be able to cure automatically after sealing without suffering a loss of quality due to the handling of the not dried out sheets.

This problem was solved with the tailor-made UTS system by LiSEC. The company Schollglas was established in 1969 and has approximately 1,500 employees at 16 locations by now. Schollglas is one of the leading independent companies in the field of production, refining and trading of flat glass and a long-term customer of the LiSEC Group.

On the second day of the event, one specialist lecture by LiSEC followed the next. Herbert Jung, Head of the Business Unit Tempering gave an overview of the benefits of the AEROFLAT air cushion technology of the tempering furnace.

“Given the customers‘ wishes, we have precisely analyzed the processes and construction costs of the AEROFLAT furnace and are now able to offer it in two different categories. The solution when it comes to the curing of single-sheet safety glass of 4 to 10 mm constitutes a highly economical and extremely flexible alternative to the established furnaces”, explains the freshly graduated specialist for single-sheet safety glass.

With his presentation on the FastLane concept, Clemens Macarei linked to the factory tour the day before. The concept was already presented at the glasstec 2016.

Due to the partly parallel transport of the sheets on different levels on the insulating glass line combined with the latest LiSEC TPA technology, it is possible to realize very short cycle times (1200 x 800mm in 33 seconds, standard triple glazing).

The FastLane constitutes the benchmark regarding cycle time, low level of investments and top product quality at the same time because only one applicator and one press are required due to the intelligent production logic on the line.

“The TPA technology offers an enormous degree of freedom in terms of production planning and makes the manufacturer of insulating glass very flexible. We, as the plant manufacturers have to do justice to the characteristic features of the material at any point in order to ensure the quality of the end product. For me, that includes the consistent support of the (triple) insulating glass unit from the press up to the placing on the transport rack. With the LiSEC technology, there is no offset of the sheets“, reports Clemens Macarei with tangible pride.

Product Manager of the Business Unit Insulating Glass, Wolfgang Radler, presented the new operator system for insulating glass plants, the Cockpit.

“For the operator, automation has to mean that the operation of the plant is getting easier and clearer. All important information of the plant has to be provided for the operation and decision making in one place.“ Following this practical approach, the attendees were able to witness this technology at a test station.  

Learning from the best

The event was wrapped up by Matthias Dolderer, world champion of the Red Bull Air Race 2016. He talked about the importance of recognizing and setting objectives and how the correct planning will lead to success.

”The lecture by Matthias Dolderer shall show all of us that it is essential to set objectives. We will only be able to jointly develop the right solutions if we are aware of our objectives“, Clemens Macarei emphasizes this approach.

The issues of increasing automation and the permanent improvement of the cycle time ran through the two days like a common thread. After every individual lecture, an exchange on the respective topic took place on equal footing and led to discussions which were also continued after the event had ended.

“In those two days, I learned a lot about the new interesting technologies. For the years to come, we have planned steps towards automation. This is why the topics covered were a tremendous enrichment for me,“ Philipp Dahmen, Project Engineer of Saint Gobain, drew his personal conclusion.