Consolidation and continuous provision of insulating glass units in shipping order is at the centre of a sorting system that HEGLA presented for the first time at Glasstec 2024.
The new concept simplifies the introduction and post-production of missing or damaged units. In addition, the strict dependency between dispatch and production is resolved. This pushes a previous principle of production to its limits and opens up additional opportunities for optimisation: the dispatch sequence is no longer the dominant factor for IGU production.
The order batch is usually organised in descending order from large to small formats so that the units can be transferred to the available A or L racks in shipping order and without restacking. If post-production is then required, for example due to scratches in the glass, this sometimes leads to the dispatch process being cancelled and the glass racks are positioned in another area of the hall, which is both time-consuming and labour-intensive. Alternatively, the subsequent units are placed on additional racks, so that the desired order has to be restored later by employees.
By buffering the manufactured insulating glass units, the new SortJet IG sorting system decouples the processes between production and dispatch, reducing direct dependency: the loading of the racks only begins when all units of an order have been produced. To achieve this, up to four insulating glass units are automatically transferred to a transfer plate immediately after completion on the line and stored in a drying tower. Depending on the configuration, they are removed after curing and transferred to a horizontal sorting store.
Once a customer batch is complete and ready for dispatch, the operator or the software triggers the provisioning process and all panes are ejected in the required sequence. Finally, intermediate storage and optimised merging also create a reliable glass transfer in sequence, which makes the use of robots possible as a further expansion step to relieve personnel.
Once the production requirements between the insulating glass line and the dispatch provision have been relaxed, there is further potential for optimisation. Depending on the customised equipment of the insulating glass line, for example, it is advantageous in terms of set-up times to produce single-variety double or triple glazing. Furthermore, batches with the same gas filling or sealing compound can also lead to improved processing times.