A SORG end-fired regenerative furnace at the Ardagh Glass Drebkau factory in the east of Germany has finally been stopped after a total campaign of 15 years and 2 months without a cold repair.During this period a total of more than 1.6 million tons of container glass was produced.
The furnace was commissioned in June 1994 in a new factory built by the West German glassmaker Lüner Glas, which later became part of Rexam Glass and then finally Ardagh Glass. For most of its life the furnace was used to produce flint glass, but in later years the glass colour has also been changed to amber on two occasions.
Interestingly, a second furnace originally belonging to Lüner Glass was commissioned a year earlier than the Drebkau unit and is still in operation without a cold repair.
SORG: 15 Years And 1.6M Tons-Even More Records?
Date: 11 December 2009
Source: SORG
At a time when the average campaign length of typical container furnaces has increased to between 8 and 10 years, it is very surprising to find one that has exceeded these figures by more than 50 %.