Welcome to the Glass Age

118 and how they will impact production. Leading engineering firms and glass producers around the world use furnace modeling known as computation fluid dynamics (CFD). While in 1990 accuracy was debated, today the technology is considered reliable and valuable. It has become state of the art for designing or rebuilding furnaces. Furnace and forehearth model predictive control (MPC) systems of today, one of which is the Expert System III TM , have evolved beyond CFD. Initially sceptics had little belief that it was possible to control a furnace using MPC. Today over 300 furnaces worldwide have it installed, with over 20% of their forehearths. Since 2010 interest in Industry 4.0 has skyrocketed, as new equipment has been installed, such as furnace cameras to monitor batch flow. The question is what next? A review of Industry 4.0 uncovers many different technologies to use and bundle together to optimize factory operation. Robots, augmented reality, the Internet of Things and Big Data, where useful information is harvested using powerful computers, Figure 7.7A (upper). Advanced model based predictive control model relations [12]. Source: Glass Service, a.s. Figure 7.7B (lower). Example of model relations after process identification using historical data. Source: Glass Service, a.s. Figure 7.7C. ESIII PC taking over with MPC furnace control from the operator. Source: Glass Service, a.s.