Gobind Glass Industries Ltd. India invited Lahti Glass Technology to quote upgrading of an existing Batch Plant for the needs of their planned new furnace for solar glass production. Negotiations were concluded in late summer 2021.

In India there is a big boom in solar panel production. The new furnace was specially dedicated to satisfy the demand of extra clear glass. Production of such glass requires very low iron content in the raw materials, typically below 100 ppm. That also means special technology for the machinery, first to eliminate possible metallic and paramagnetic impurities and secondly to protect raw materials from contamination, like wear of material contacting surfaces. It is vital to have low iron content, because iron makes glass greenish. Loosing transparency is harmful for the efficiency of the solar panel.

The engineering work itself required careful measurement of the existing structures to fit the new design into the building. The target was to keep some of the existing equipment but modified slightly. All the existing and new equipment got a new control system, too. For example the weighing instruments are the latest available technology including Lahti’s famous dynamic material in-flight compensation.

There were some extra challenges during the execution phase due to worldwide logistic problems in component deliveries caused by Covid-19 and war in Ukraine. Anyhow the goods were delivered on time.