Glass Batch Plant Control with Small Computers

Glass batching, the process in which raw materials are stored, weighed, mixed, and delivered to glass melting furnaces, was modernized with small dedicated digital computers. The modernized glass batch plant includes the direct control of twenty-one scales, weighing 136 000 kg (150 tons)/h for nine glass container furnaces. The computer system improved the weighing accuracy, increased the potential material through-put, and provided greater flexibility of operation.