A major part of Pilkington North America’s multi-year, $70 million improvement and repair project is nearly complete.
Work began on replacing the Ottawa plant’s furnace in June and is expected to start making glass by Thursday, but will not be full strength for several weeks.
"Because these furnaces are under such stress and heat ... They operate up to 15 years at 24 hours a day seven days a week," said Todd Huffman, vice president of strategic planning for Pilkington. "At the end of its life, we have to literally take a backhoe into the building and demolish the old furnace. We knock it down, pile up the rubble, take it away and then build a new one."