As part of its latest major furnace repair, Allied Glass Containers has built a helpful partnership with Sorg Group company, EME, whose expertise in batch plants and raw materials handling will ensure that the furnace's batch charger provides the greatest operational and environmental benefits. As part of the project, Allied will install EME's sealed, screw-fed batch charger design. In recent times, Sorg has developed an integrated concept for batch preheating - the Batch 3 principle - incorporating a batch and cullet pre-heater, a deeper doghouse design and EME's sealed, screw-fed batch charger. This is the first installation in the UK of this type of batch charger and doghouse design. It will deliver a better working environment around the doghouse due to protection from the heat and less dusting from the batch, reduced NOx emissions due to the doghouse being sealed and not allowing air ingress to the furnace and improved energy efficiency due to smaller, better distributed batch piles. The installation will also provide better glass level control due to inverter-driven screw feeders and even batch distribution on the surface of the melt and a safer working environment, with full guarding of all moving parts, a change from the machine being over molten glass to being behind the doghouse and elimination of the batch charger charging process.
