Over the past few years considerable technologcal progress in the production of tableware and lighting glass has emerged. From what was almost entirely manual production the industry has moved on to automatic and semi-automatic processes with much use of gathering robots, automatic machines and continuous tanks. This has helped companies become more competitive in various markets. A negative aspect, however, is that although the use of continous furnaces has led to a lowering in the cost of glass and an improvement in quality, it has also led to a loss in flexibility in the production of glass of different colours. What glassworks are now demanding is automatic and semi-automatic production equipment which can produce coloured glass with the same flexibility as before. This paper looks one company's solution to this problem.
