Furnace Solutions and the preceding SGT Training Day will again be held in Stoke-on-Trent, UK on 5 and 6 June 2019. A full programme of speakers has already been organised for the Furnace Solutions Conference on 6 June. EME’s Sebastian Woltz, for example, will discuss the challenges facing a batch plant supplier when a batch plant is upgraded.

Virtual reality has become a part of everyday life and Chris Sorsby from British Glass will introduce delegates to a system developed for virtual machine training. Separately, Fives Stein’s Andy Reynolds will speak about refractory corrosion, prediction and prevention when electric melting.

Frank Schuurmans from Libbey, the Netherlands, will share the glassmaker’s experience of using Optimelt at its Leerdam plant, with contributions from Praxair. In addition, a first time speaker at Furnace Solutions, Mrs Burcin Gul from Sisecam will present her work modelling the furnace.

The glass industry takes safety very seriously and is everyone’s responsibility. With this in mind, Andrew Bowker from the Health and Safety Executive has been invited to review the HSE’s plan for manufacturing in 2019/2020.

Representing the maintenance and installation sector are Hotwork’s Benjamin Koster and from the USA, Dave Boothe, CEO of Allstates Refractory Contractors. Benjamin Koster’s paper will ask the question ‘Is it possible to repair the regenerator without loss?’ and Dave Boothe will talk about how US installers work with the plant owner to design and operate a furnace for the long-term.

Speakers at this year’s Training Day (5 June) include Ardagh Group’s Peter West, who will discuss potential defects, their causes and how to link them back to the batch and batch plant. Dr Richard Hulme of Guardian Glass will review redox, managing sulphate load to the furnace and when and why to make batch changes, while Dr Richard White of Lucideon will show how glass and raw material defects are analysed for routine quality control and part of a post mortem programme.

Trevor Wilson of DSF will present the Mellor Memorial lecture and will review the effect of carryover on the regenerator. Other well respected speakers during the Training Day include Martyn Marshall from GTS and SORG’s Matthias Haas