Redwave designed and built a new plant for Swarco to produce reflective glass beads. These glass beads, made from industrial sheet glass waste, are primarily used for road and airport markings to ensure road safety.
After more than 50 years of successful operations at its plant in Amstetten, Austria, M. Swarovski GmbH recently moved to a new location – the Global Competence Center for Swarovski Glass Beads in Neufurt – to increase production capacity. At the new plant, industrial sheet glass waste is processed into high-quality, reflective glass beads. The production processes at the new plant are designed to be energy self-sufficient. All raw materials are processed as efficiently as possible to achieve their full potential. Waste heat from the furnace is returned to the building’s heating system. Even dust particles generated in the filter system are processed directly at the plant.
The reflective glass beads produced at the plant are subsequently used as high-quality material for road markings, as well as for special industrial purposes.
Redwave designed, supplied and installed a plant to convert cullet into mixed granules. Overcoming the wear and tear that occurs during this process is critical as it requires longer lifespans and less maintenance and effort.
In the first stage, flat glass pieces are loaded into a hopper. Depending on weather conditions and season, the wet material can be dried in a drum dryer and then crushed using jaw and impact crushers. After this, the particles are pre-sorted on a coarse screen and fed to two fine screens. In the secondary crushing stage, a roller crusher helps to ensure the particle size. In addition, additional light material is added to ensure a high quality product. The granules are then sieved to ensure the desired particle size distribution in the final product.
Glass granules are fed into the blast furnace via an elevator. The pellets are heated and melted in an energy-efficient vertical furnace. Due to the high surface tension, the liquid glass particles are compressed and take on a perfect spherical shape. Every second, millions of irregularly shaped glass particles are transformed into precise microspheres. After this thermoforming process, the cooled microspheres are tested in the laboratory. By mixing particles of different sizes, the desired end product is ultimately created. The correct size of the microspheres is crucial for the desired effect in various applications.
Post time: Apr-14-2025