Agra glass units get new technology

Ever since it was established, the glass industry of Firozabad, a small industrial town close to Agra, has hardly seen technological changes apart some shifting from wood-fired furnaces to natural gas.

Glass units depend on manual glass blowing and manufacturing techniques, which cannot ensure consistency in quality and increases costs. This has been the primary reason for the glass industry of this town failing to compete with products from China.

As a step towards reducing costs, the Centre for the Improvement of Glass Industry, operated by the Union Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, has introduced new technology in pot furnace manufacture in the town recently.

This incorporates multiple chambers developed under a glass industry development project initiated by the Centre's Department of Science & Technology, instead of the usual furnace design using a single chamber.

According to industry sources, the centre has been holding demonstrations of this furnace for 16 days at Durga Glass Works, a local glass manufacturing unit. Demonstrations have satisfied more than 80 entrepreneurs, who are willing to introduce this technology in their glass units.

Inaugurating the public display of this unit, the director, technology development & transfer division, department of Science & technology, Laxman Prasad, said while the life of a single chamber pot furnace was between nine months and a year, after which the glass-melting chamber had to be replaced, the multi-chamber furnace had a life at least three times higher than the single chamber furnace.