“We decided to extend the lifetime of our Bystronic (now Glaston) automotive glass cutting equipment with a Glaston CNC96 upgrade kit and ensure that we can continue to get spare parts,” says Matti Säynäväjärvi, Technical Services Group Leader, Pilkington Automotive Finland Oy, Laitila plant.
Established in 1949, Pilkington Automotive Finland delivers high-quality glass windshields that improve the safety, efficiency and comfort of the vehicle operators and passengers. With two plants in Finland, the company works closely with its customers to develop new and innovative products for their chosen markets. The company’s Laitila plant in southwestern Finland specializes in laminated windshields primarily for buses and special transport vehicles, such as offroad tractors and harvesters.
In 2006, Pilkington Automotive Finland became part of the Japanese NSG Group, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of glass and glass products. NSG Group manufactures glass products and solutions under the Pilkington brand for the world’s leading car manufacturers, the construction industry and the technical market.
Significantly lengthening old line life
In autumn 2023, the Laitila plant decided to upgrade its nearly 30-year-old glass cutting line with a Glaston CNC96 retrofit. The main driver for the decision was that many of the components were reaching the end of their life, and replacements would no longer be available in the future.
“The investment in Glaston’s CNC96 upgrade was the best way to extend the lifetime of our equipment and ensure uninterrupted processing performance,” says Eerik Meriö, Automation Engineer at the Laitila plant, who led the CNC96 update project for Pilkington Automotive Finland.
“In fact, this upgrade was much cheaper than buying a completely new line. And it will give us significantly longer life for our equipment,” Matti adds.
Running ahead of schedule
The upgrade was commissioned in August 2024 when the factory underwent a total maintenance shutdown for a few weeks. “Such a total production shutdown is very rare for our Laitila plant, but it gave us sufficient time to carry out this particular upgrade project,” Matti says.
They planned one week for installation and one week for testing. Everything proceeded on time without any delays. Production was even possible before expected.
Easier for operators
“Once the upgrade commissioning was completed, running the line went better for our operators than I expected,” Eerik says. “The new interface was easy to use and simpler than the earlier one. By working with Glaston closely, our operators quickly learned how to run the upgraded machine.”
The processed glass quality has remained at the same high level as before. The one real noticeable difference is that the machine is now more reliable.
“And this is one of the main reasons we wanted to make this upgrade,” Matti says. “Another reason was to help our operators. Now, it is easier for them to run the line.”
“Another benefit to the new interface is that we can operate several devices from the same computer. With the old system, we had different user interfaces for the cutting machine and the breaking machine. Now, we can easily control these processes with just one interface,” Eerik says.
