Triplex Safety Glass, Part of the Pilkington Group, is a world leader in the manufacture of toughened safety glass for the automotive industry and uses high energy multi-process production techniques across a range of products. Chief Engineer Bill Thilwind, responsible for specification, design and implementation of all plant equipment was also charged with ongoing Energy management project. Electricity is our largest energy cost. The Requirement Manufacturing of safety glass is a multi-stage process.
Energy usage is very intensive, but demands varies by process and product run.
Energy sources are electricity, gas, water and compressed air but only very global information could be gained on which to base any meaningful cost saving analysis. Electricity was the energy source likely to provide the greatest saving and this was chosen as the highest priority in the energy saving programme. A substantial number of primary meters and sub-meters were already installed throughout the plant. These were the traditional type of basic meter installed by te electricity providers, giving manual readings only. These readings could not be readily assigned to particular processes or production runs, with t he consequence that raw glass production and processing costs could not be determined or assigned to a particular product.