Meet Glass Tempering Beloved Child, Convection

That person in the glass tempering business, the kid everyone knows, is convection.  

For this reason, it’s not surprising that we, and probably you too, hear people saying “I want a full convection furnace”, “Is that assisted convection?”, “We will buy a forced convection furnace”, “Recirculated air convection provides the best quality”, “Compressed air convection does not meet my requirements”, “Is this a high convection furnace?”.

And the list of convection terms goes on.. And on… And on..

We understand that convection is one of the most important things, and it is good investment. But before we move forward, we have to clarify that there are two main types of convections in the industry:

1. Compressed air convection technology





 

2. Recirculated air convection technology





 

Splitting them into two sections gives you no indication of how they might perform. The titles might give a hint about the technology used to create the convection. But that’s about it.

Rule of Thumb?

To be very clear, one is not better than the other. Which one to choose is merely an answer to the question: What do you want to achieve.

See, glass does not know what technology is being used to create the convection, it only shows the efficiency of it. So, don’t concentrate on the technology, concentrate on the impact, since that’s the only thing that matters to the glass in the end.

The technology used to create the convection does not necessarily correlate with glass quality. Instead, the capability of the convection does.

Tempered Glass Quality and Glass Processing

There is no direct correlation between the technology used to create the convection, regardless of whether it is recirculated or compressed air, and the glass quality. There is, however, major difference between different convection systems. See the difference? Convection performance is not depending on the source for the convection, but rather on the entire convection system: measurement, accuracy and control of the full heating system.

Full / high / assisted are simply marketing terms for convection, which are made up by the tempering line manufacturers. For instance, there are no full convection furnaces because every tempering furnace in the world uses conduction and radiation alongside with the convection.

Instead of the convection technology, you need to concentrate on the capability of the convection system: the repeatability, capacity, quality of the glass and reliability of the line.

Learnings:

• Your tempering line technology should be selected based on your production needs.





 

• Don’t concentrate on the convection technology, concentrate on your desired result. It’s most important to find the solution that provides the best results for you.





 

• Recirculated air convection furnaces are not the same – don’t put them in the same category only based on the similar technology used to create the convection.





 

• Compressed air convection furnaces are not the same – don’t put them into the same category only based on similarities in the technology used to create the convection.





 

Psst! We have written a whole ebook on the topic, so if convection ovens are in your interest, I recommend you downloading our free Ebook!