Technical and Economical Feasibility of All Electric Melter for Large Production of Blow Glass

The industry of blow glass in Italy, with an energy consumption of more than 800000 TEP in 1997 equivalent to about 16000 of petrol for day, results in one of the most energivor that covers more than 2% of total energy absorbed by Italian industry. A top level of automation, productivity and efficiency in the word characterizes it even if the final glass price results in the lowest ones of Europe. Complex technological aspects, more and more pronounced for the blow glass manufacture characterize the production process. It is a mature production sector where technologic advancements introduced in the last decades have been aimed to optimize the process, rather than definitively change; the innovations are generally aimed to reduce the costs and increase the quality. The improvements introduced up to now concern, for instance, the increase of melting rate, the reduction of emission, and the enhancement of furnace efficiency. In other worlds, they have been strictly focused on the crucial section of the process, the furnace.