Pilkington Finland enhances line performance with Glaston’s CNC96

“We decided to extend the lifetime of our Bystronic (now Glaston) automotive glass cutting equipment with a Glaston CNC96 upgrade kit and ensure that we can continue to get spare parts,” says Matti Säynäväjärvi, Technical Services Group Leader, Pilkington Automotive Finland Oy, Laitila plant.

Established in 1949, Pilkington Automotive Finland delivers highquality glass windshields that improve the safety, efficiency and comfort of the vehicle operators and passengers. With two plants in Finland, the company works closely with its customers to develop new and innovative products for their chosen markets. The company’s Laitila plant in southwestern Finland specializes in laminated windshields primarily for buses and special transport vehicles, such as offroad tractors and harvesters.

In 2006, Pilkington Automotive Finland became part of the Japanese NSG Group, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of glass and glass products. NSG Group manufactures glass products and solutions under the Pilkington brand for the world’s leading car manufacturers, the construction industry and the technical market.

SIGNIFICANTLY LENGTHENING OLD LINE LIFE 

In autumn 2023, the Laitila plant decided to upgrade its nearly 30-year-old glass cutting line with a Glaston CNC96 retrofit. The main driver for the decision was that many of the components were reaching the end of their life, and replacements would no longer be available in the future.

“The investment in Glaston’s CNC96 upgrade was the best way to extend the lifetime of our equipment and ensure uninterrupted processing performance,” says Eerik Meriö, Automation Engineer at the Laitila plant, who led the CNC96 update project for Pilkington Automotive Finland.

“In fact, this upgrade was much cheaper than buying a completely new line. And it will give us significantly longer life for our equipment,” Matti adds.

The Pilkington Automotive Finland team discussed the advantages of the upgrade with Glaston’s teams in both Finland and Switzerland.

“We went to Switzerland to see a retrofitted machine, but that line was quite different from ours,” Eerik mentions. “Then we went to see a machine similar to ours in Pilkington’s Tampere factory. Watching it in operation was very useful.”

RUNNING AHEAD OF SCHEDULE 

The upgrade was commissioned in August 2024 when the factory underwent a total maintenance shutdown for a few weeks.

“Such a total production shutdown is very rare for our Laitila plant, but it gave us sufficient time to carry out this particular upgrade project,” Matti says.

They planned one week for installation and one week for testing. Everything proceeded on time without any delays. Production was even possible before expected. “Glaston scheduled the upgrade to make 100% certain we’d be back up and running as planned,” Eerik explains.

Glaston’s team was easy to work with. Two Glaston team members were from Switzerland, a programmer and an installation specialist. The rest were from Finland. “We even knew a few of the team members before they came to do the installation and testing work,” Eerik says.

Before the actual installation, Eerik was heavily involved in all the project preparations via online Teams discussions.

EASIER FOR OPERATORS 

“Once the upgrade commissioning was completed, running the line went better for our operators than I expected,” Eerik says. “The new interface was easy to use and simpler than the earlier one. By working with Glaston closely, our operators quickly learned how to run the upgraded machine.”

The processed glass quality has remained at the same high level as before. The one real noticeable difference is that the machine is now more reliable.

“And this is one of the main reasons we wanted to make this upgrade,” Matti says. “Another reason was to help our operators. Now, it is easier for them to run the line.”

“Another benefit to the new interface is that we can operate several devices from the same computer. With the old system, we had different user interfaces for the cutting machine and the breaking machine. Now, we can easily control these processes with just one interface,” Eerik says.

GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE THROUGHOUT

Pilkington Automotive Finland felt they received good customer service from Glaston throughout the entire upgrade project. Cooperation was successful and easy. Everything went very smoothly.

“Production started on time, as planned,” Matti says. “There was some minor fine-tuning, which is normal for this kind of upgrade project. But we had very good service, even for the smaller issues.”