Page 38 - Glass Machinery Plants & Accessories no. 3-2021

PROCESS INNOVATIONS
Process innovations
processing cameras and their use It’s in light of current tech- to the given motion curves.
for inspecting glass. “The theory nological innovations advanced Shortly afterwards, the first
was there,” he recalls, “but the by his department that Glass servo motors were also used
technology was still not power- Machinery Plants & Accessories in the IS-machine to make
ful enough for the glass indus- recently caught up with Kellner critical process sequences rep-
try.” While conducting his doctoral in Obernkirchen, Germany, for licable and to avoid container
research on automation and image an update on his company’s defects. An important compo-
processing technology in glass contributions to measuring the nent in light glass production
production, Kellner began work- glass-forming process. is certainly the introduction
ing at Schott Glas, following which of the Heye Process Control,
he started as a trainee at erstwhile GMP&A: Digitisation and which digitally keeps track
company Heye-Glas - a very inno- Industry 4.0 are both major top- of the pressing process while
vative, medium-sized enterprise. ics at the moment. How long also visualising it by recording
Kellner was the initial link between have you been working on these? plunger positions.
production and development for MK: Digitisation is not a new In 1998, Heye worked on
introducing automation solutions field at Heye. At the beginning a Hot End gob camera for
in glass production. In 1992, he of the 1990s, we introduced a recording the cut of gobs. But
was responsible for testing the PC-parameterizable, electronic the resolution of the cameras
first image processing applica- timing system for controlling and the performance of the
tions based on image processors the IS-machines and the Hot PCs was not sufficient enough.
at Heye, and he began developing End reject system - including Nevertheless, the experiences
PC-based image processing solu- the evaluation of pushing glass gained were extremely impor-
tions shortly afterwards. “Experts containers from the dead plate tant in order to build up the
at the time thought image process- onto the machine conveyor by skills for the following years.
ing could never work with a PC,” means of pushers. The com- When the first grabber cards
notes Kellner. “A clamorous mis- plete Hot End process was were available, the new Terra
calculation.” As a doctoral gradu- converted to servo technology computers were bought and
ate the ‘process engineer’ left the - that is, from gob forming to a camera-based mould num-
company in 2000 only to return to ware handling. This was a huge ber reader and a camera-based
Heye in 2006 as head of develop- step into the future, as the sealing surface tester were
ment. Since 2019, he has been motion sequences were now developed.
responsible for the development of matched and followed by the
digital systems. feedback generators according GMP&A: What’s the state of
affairs at Heye International?
MK: We’ve converted com-
Michael Kellner
plete machine platforms
because the market has tended
to triple and quadruple gob
operation. Consequently, we
made all the Hot End equip-
ment ‘fit for the future’. Today
we offer the complete tech-
nology platform for all appli-
cations. We are on the right
track. The further develop-
ment of sensors and actuators
has created new opportunities.
Since the introduction of indus-
try 4.0, we’re raising the bar
higher and higher. For example,
it’s we who’ve developed the
new IS-machine - hence the
name ‘Heye SpeedLine’. The
SpeedLine IS-machine is the
first machine that is fully bus
capable.

36 GMP&A 3/2022