Batch plant
ForglassBox – 21st century technological support for producers Piotr Knast* and Marian Klisch** explain how the company designed an engine that can make complex calculations at the tap of a button via a smartphone app.
W
hat if it were possible to perform complex, sophisticated calculations and select raw materials of defined chemical composition for a batch, from which flint (colourless), amber, green and olive glasses with desired properties could be melted – and to do it anywhere, anytime, on a smartphone? Forglass, the Polish glass melting technology supplier, has answered this question and created the first
calculating engine that takes advantage of the powerful processors on modern mobile devices and enables the glassworks technologists to perform complex, sophisticated calculations on a smartphone that is always in their pocket. The application, called ForglassBox, allows the user to select specific raw materials and assumptions (limits) for batch and glass according to its colour requirements, and it calculates the technological and physicochemical
properties of these glasses, including: � Temperatures at which the glass reaches desired viscosity; � Liquidus temperature; � Cooling time; � WRI, RMS, RGT, linear thermal expansion coefficient; � Density; � Specific electrical conductivity; � Heat capacity and; � Effective thermal conductivity.
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� fig.1, fig.2 etc, as explained in text
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