Horn Glass Industries began equipping the plant in May. The Ploesburg, Germany-based company, is in charge of planning, delivering and commissioning all technological equipment to the facility, Glass International says.

It is due to be handed to the customer next summer.

Since extraordinary times call for extraordinary commitment, a lot of Horn’s employees are currently stationed in the city of Zarafshan.

Uzbekistan has no float glass production of its own and therefore has had to import glass sheets from abroad.

The scope of supply includes planning the melting tank, tin bath and annealing lehr and delivering all the refractory material, the firing system for natural gas and diesel oil, batch and cullet chargers, coolers, stirrers and measuring as well as control technology.

Horn will also supply the tin bath with its associated technological equipment including a shield gas mixing station as well as the entire annealing lehr and automation system for the hot end.

With regard to total automation, Horn developed a concept for the top rollers that allows the tin bath to be integrated in the process control system. Zarafshon Oyna will use the HTRM-S (suspended) top roller.

Horn relies on Siemens products for all the machine technology.

As a general contractor for this project, Horn has collaborated with European companies which specialize in different fields.

Horn has recommended future expansion at the site so that processing and finishing can also be performed in Uzbekistan.

In doing so, the customer will be able to market architectural and automotive glass directly from the factory, both at home and abroad and consistently promote the Made in Uzbekistan image for float glass products as well.