In addition to the five day highly technical, comprehensive Glass Technology training course focused on industrial glass production, a programme of shorter courses focusing on specific topics has been developed by CelSian for different levels of seniority in the glass industry.

This includes introductory courses for novice to advanced beginners who would like to improve their understanding, as well as advanced courses for advanced beginners to skilled professionals looking to deepen their knowledge.

CelSian Academy training courses planned for 2021 include:

The Glass Configurator – an online application developed by AGC Glass Europe – is a powerful tool that glass processors, facade and window manufacturers, architects and designers can use to calculate light, energy and safety properties.

Single glazing, double and triple insulating glazing, as well as laminated safety glass, can all be configured. The latest version delivers even enhanced functionality, such as acoustic calculations and photorealistic renderings.

The AGC Glass Configurator is a free service available in nine languages on all devices.

www.agc-yourglass.com/configurator/app/login

The Elizovo plant of JSC Grodno Glassworks in Belarus has appointed HORN Glass Industries to build a modern end-fired furnace with a melting capacity of 180 tonnes/day.

The project involves planning of the glass melting furnace, distributor and forehearths. In addition, HORN is responsible for construction, commissioning and optimisation.

www.hornglass.com

Recently announced by Guardian Glass North America, Guardian SunGuard SNE 50/25 HT is a high performance, low-E coated glass that gives architects a subtle, blue-grey colour and mid-reflectivity aesthetic.

Architect focus groups helped Guardian Glass deliver a product with a visible light transmission of 48% and low solar heat gain coefficient of 0.25 with a crisp, neutral, subtle blue reflected colour in the mid-exterior reflective range.

The world’s first hybrid furnace for high tonnage operations has been announced by SORG. According to the German glass melting specialist, the CLEAN Melter achieves what others have only hypothesised, allowing larger furnace operations to finally reduce their carbon emissions and energy consumption by combining the latest electric and combustion technologies to achieve an 80% electric share.

“The unavoidable challenge for the global glass industry is to find more renewable energy sources; otherwise, to speak frankly, its future will be short lived” comments Thomas Breitfelder, Technical Director at SORG.

Via this month’s commissioning of a second float furnace at its Ankara site in Turkey, Sisecam has created one of Europe’s largest flat glass production sites.

A further $130 million has been invested at the Polatli glassworks to add a furnace with an annual capacity of 240,000 tons, equipped with state-of-the-art technology in line with Industry 4.0 manufacturing practices.

Total annual manufacturing capacity at Polatli has been increased to 540,000 tons to meet growing domestic demand.

Advances made by the Verallia Group in the field of artificial intelligence have received international recognition, with Patrice Siatchoua, Data Scientist recently accepting the Artificial Intelligence and Enterprise Trophy.

This award, organised by the RH&M Group, highlights the transformative role of artificial intelligence within different organisations.

Verallia reports that AI provides industrial excellence.

Examples include automatic furnace control, cold end quality inspection in partnership with equipment suppliers and a series of ongoing hot end process control projects.

www.verallia.com

Piramal Glass has appointed Sudip Mazumder as Vice President, Global Chief Digital & Information Officer. He joins the international glass packaging specialist from Larsen & Toubro (L&T), where he was Deputy Head Digital, driving digital transformation in operations and change management.

Mr Mazumder comes with global experience across the UK, EU and India in IT and digital technologies, previously working for such companies as Siemens, TCS, Cognizant and RPG Group, where he worked with multiple business transformation initiatives.

At Piramal Glass, he will lead the next phase of Digital 2.0 embarked upon by the company.

The digital networking platform, glasstec VIRTUAL is all set to take place from 20 to 22 October, with more than 750 exhibitors ready to present their products, solutions and applications to interested visitors.

“Exhibitor profiles have long existed as a digital add-on service for our exhibitors” explained Birgit Horn, Project Director glasstec. “But by extending add-on features and services in the Exhibitor Showroom, we have further adapted the spectrum of presentation options to the needs of our customers.”

Highlights include exhibitors’ live web sessions. The interactive format permits the presentation of products and innovations but also personal exchanges with customers – independent of the location and in real-time.