HORN® builds a wide variety of glass furnace types for its customers, ranging from the usual end fired furnace to the all electric melting furnace. Furnace selection depends on individual customer requirements and demands.
Due to its high flexibility and its low energy consumption the regenerative end fired furnace is the working horse of the glass industry. Most mass produced glass products such as bottles and containers of all kind, tableware and glass fibre can be produced with a minimum of fossil fuel firing and thus carbon dioxide emission.
In comparison to other furnaces the cross fired furnaces can be designed in larger overall dimensions due to the larger firing zone because of the lateral burner arrangement. The only limitation is the furnace width due to crown span length.
Recuperators for small furnaces, i.e. up to 80 t/d are double shell recuperators. For melting capacities between 100 to 450 t/d tube bundle recuperators are used. The air preheating output of recuperators is far below the output of regenerators.
Oxyfuel furnaces are usually designed as cross fired melting furnaces where the fuel used (mostly natural gas) is combusted together with oxygen. The greatest advantage is in the low energy consumption, since little nitrogen is used for combustion.
In general all electric furnaces with a cold top are used typically for a production range of 5 – 80 t/d. It is possible to increase melting capacity up to 200 t/d. More capacity is possible with sufficient developing time. For this furnace type energy is not supplied by means of fossil fuels, but exclusively by means of electric energy supplied by molybdenum electrodes.
Float glass furnaces are the largest type, both with regard to dimensions and to the overall melting output. These furnaces are close to the limit of constructive possibilities. Furnace capacities are usually between 600 – 800 t/d.
Hybrid furnaces combine the combustion of a fuel (mostly natural gas) with a highly increased proportion of electric power. For the combustion, an end-fired as well as a cross-fired setup can be used.
