Optimally set up for the future with Bystronic glass

Although this family-owned enterprise has entered into an entirely new field, it has focussed completely on quality during the selection process regarding its production line. Without doubt the Bystronic glass system belongs to the latest and most versatile systems in the world.

The portal crane carefully presses its vacuum suction pad onto the jumbo-sized glass panel, lifts it slowly from the rack and then guides it completely automatically to the float glass cutting line. In reality, a relatively unspectacular process perhaps and Hans-Peter Damke, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Glasid AG, has already seen this procedure many times before. However, it seems that watching the process still gives him great pleasure. "Automation fascinates me over and again", he says, then continues to watch how the portal crane travels back into its starting position.

With more than 25 years of experience in the glass business, the Damke brothers have the right to be called "old hands” in the industry. Starting as a pure glass grinding shop, Glasid AG’s fields of business have increasingly expanded. Today, above all, products for the Safety Glass area, encompassing ESG, LSG, break-in-resistant and bullet-proof glass are part of its core business. And since the beginning of this year, insulating glass also, as Director Günter Damke explains. "We have been involved in selling insulating glass for a long time. For us, as a provider of the full range of products with more than 3000 customers, it was very important to us that we could produce this product ourselves." With the new manufacturing facility, Glasid has now brought one of the most modern insulation facilities in the world into operation. Hans-Peter Damke mentions several reasons why Bystronic glass was selected for the machine technology. Already during the preparation of the initial plant layouts, we noticed that Bystronic glass made great effort to ensure we could realise our individual concepts and ideas. Furthermore, Bystronic glass has numerous unique selling points such as, the contactless and dirt-free transport of glass on air cushions or V-belts, which have a strong influence on the quality of the product."







Quality as a measuring stick

The starting point of production is a large glass warehouse which has two cutting lines running in parallel, one for float glass and one for LSG, which are continuously fed with raw material. The cut lites are then distributed in the right sequence on the compartmentalized carriages by the first´sort dynamic sorting system, before being sent on to the insulation glass line. All in all, the length of the pure production line amounts to more than 160 meters, reports Branch Manager Robert Renat. "The special element is that despite the enormous length from back to front, we can manufacture in a continuous production process. In this way, not only the individual processes come together, but also the entire logistics process can unfold significantly easier." At the moment, Glasid AG is proceeding according to plan with setting up the production facility. The Branch Manager believes that by the end of the year, one finished insulating unit will run off the belt every 30 seconds in uninterrupted three-shift operation. But for Robert Renat, it is not the output which is the most important measuring stick, but rather the quality. "As a new provider in the insulating glass sector, it is perfectly clear to us that we can only make a name for ourselves through the quality of our products."

This claim is also reflected in the concept of the systems. So before assembly, all lites for the production of insulating glass at Glasid are seamed. This procedure is not absolutely necessary, but provides clear advantages: during the further processing, it reduces the risk of impact damage to the edge area, for example, and the additional grip provides greater safety during manual handling of the lites. Accordingly, account must be taken of Glasid AG in the insulating glass business from now on. Hans-Peter Damke is certain that the company has a successful future ahead of it in this field of business as well: "We have the feeling that we are now set up for the future with a complete range of products."