Imagine a factory where machines are able to make decisions by themselves or at least make the decision-making process easier for humans by seamlessly communicating with us.

This isn’t science-fiction anymore. The factory of tomorrow is here today.

Forglass, the Polish batch plant and furnace technology supplier is at the forefront of these changes.

The company’s R&D department, in collaboration with The Main Mining Institute in Katowice, AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow, Poland and other technical universities, have developed an array of technological solutions for both batch plants and furnaces.

In the pursuit of maximising production and minimising costs for its clients, and even more importantly to improve safety, Forglass developed an ‘intelligent’ scraping conveyor, named SmartScraper.

Equipped with Overload Protection System (OPS), the design uses electronic sensors to continually monitor the working conditions of the conveyor, diagnose problems and react instantly to changes in operation.

The machine’s built-in intelligence allows it to slow down or stop before its elements are damaged, including the protection system itself.

Additionally, when connected to an array of sensors (e.g. temperature, working speed or efficiency), SmartScraper allows detailed analysis of its performance to avoid future malfunctions.

Forglass has already delivered a number of SmartScrapers to its clients’ factories, including packaging, float and glass fibre production facilities.

The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, so Forglass has decided to offer SmartScapers equipped with OPS as the only option in the company’s family of scraping conveyors.