Date: 18 September 2026
The event marked the final stage of a major plant renovation, including a complete cold repair and rebuild of the float furnace. The project will allow the Ramensky plant to produce low-iron float glass up to 18 meters long — a format that has never been manufactured in Russia before.
“The renovation of the Ramensky plant is an investment in the long-term reliability and growth of our production,” said Dmitriy Litvin, General Director of Larta Glass. “We are upgrading key parts of the float line and expanding the range of products and sizes we can make. This gives us more flexibility to respond to market demand, develop our product portfolio and move into more advanced glass solutions.”
Before the furnace was brought back into operation, it became the centerpiece of a unique client event. More than 250 clients and partners had the rare opportunity to walk inside the furnace chamber. Once the furnace is operating, this space is completely inaccessible, with temperatures reaching more than 1,500°C.
The production team had only a very short period to prepare the performance. The furnace construction first had to be fully completed, leaving a narrow window before heating and commissioning began. Larta Glass developed and staged the entire performance in just one month, working around the furnace startup schedule.
“When I came up with the idea for this event, I wanted to apply the thinking behind the experience economy to an industrial setting,” said Maxim Koldyshev, Marketing Director of Larta Glass. “Our goal was not simply to show our partners a renovated furnace, but to create an experience they would remember and associate with Larta Glass. That is why we decided to do something completely different and stage the performance inside the furnace itself. Of course, this came with a number of technical challenges — from sound and equipment installation to the most important issue: making sure more than 250 guests could safely enter the furnace. We worked closely with our technical teams and the Chinese contractor building the furnace to find solutions that kept our guests safe without putting the furnace structure at risk.”
For the event, the furnace interior was transformed into an immersive theater. Light, sound and live performance came together around the image of the Phoenix — a symbol of fire, light and renewal. The main musical theme featured the famous chorus from Alexander Borodin’s opera Prince Igor. It was performed live by Ksenia Muslanova, a Russian dramatic soprano and Honored Artist of the Udmurt Republic. The enclosed furnace chamber created unusually powerful acoustics. The sound added depth and scale to the live performance and reinforced the theme of renewal.
The Ramensky furnace first began operating in 2006. Over almost 20 years, it produced a continuous glass ribbon with a total length of around 115,000 kilometers — almost three times the circumference of the Earth at the equator.
Another important element of the performance was an erklez — a solid piece of glass removed from the furnace before the cold repair. During the performance, the singer held it as a “magic stone.” The piece was a physical reminder of the furnace’s previous production cycle. It was glass that had once passed through the same high-temperature process inside the furnace.
Larta Glass preserved several pieces after the old furnace was shut down. Some were used as props during the performance, while others were given to guests as keepsakes. They created a tangible connection between the furnace’s previous campaign and the new one.
After the performance, guests were invited to leave their own mark inside the furnace by writing messages and wishes on its walls. These messages became a temporary record of the event. Once the furnace was heated and returned to operation, they disappeared from view. The furnace startup took place one week after the performance, on schedule and in line with the planned commissioning program.
The furnace performance was part of a broader documentary-style journey through the glassmaking process. The program began at the Larta Minerals plant, where silica sand is prepared for glass production.
At the glass plant, additional installations combined industrial spaces with real stories from employees. Among them were stories of families whose members from several generations have worked at the Ramensky plant during its 20 years of operation.
Guests also visited the site of a new laminated glass production line, which is scheduled to begin production by the end of 2026.
The event ended with the placement of a time capsule containing messages and predictions from clients and partners. It marked both the plant’s 20th anniversary year and the beginning of its next production cycle. Larta Glass plans to open the capsule during the furnace’s next cold repair, expected in approximately 20 years.
Guests were invited to imagine what the world might look like in 2046. They made predictions about how many glass-melting furnaces Larta Glass would operate, how tall the tallest building in Russia would be, and how much one square meter of 4 mm float glass would cost. They also left personal messages for themselves and for the company to read when the capsule is opened.
About Larta Glass
Larta Glass is one of the leading manufacturers of flat and coated glass and mirrors in Russia and the CIS, with production facilities in Ryazan, Ramensky in the Moscow Region, and the Rostov Region. Larta Glass products have been used in more than 10,000 projects in Russia and abroad, including Evolution Tower, IQ Quarter and Neva Towers in Moscow City, FIFA World Cup stadiums in Sochi, and major Russian and international airports.
600450
Add new comment