Know Your Yield Before the Shift Ends
Stage-by-stage piece counts from the IS machine to the packing line — live yield, instant stoppage alerts, and shift-level visibility without touching your machine controls.
The Furnace Doesn't Stop When the Line Does
A glass furnace melts around the clock, so every minute a line is stopped or forming bad ware is glass paid for and never sold. Most plants only see that loss in the next day's report — too late to do anything about the shift it happened in.
- Pack-to-melt yield is only known at the end of the shift or the day — by then the loss has already happened and the furnace has kept pulling glass
- IS machine stoppages, swabbing, and job-change downtime are logged by hand, so the real duration is estimated after the fact
- Hot-end and cold-end counts live in separate places, so it's hard to tell whether ware is being lost in forming, in the lehr, or at inspection
- Inspection rejects roll up into one scrap number, hiding which stage or shift the losses are coming from
- Shift-to-shift performance gaps are visible only in delayed reports, not while the shift is still running
Hot End to Cold End, Counted at Every Stage
From batch house to pallet — where Tork counts ware along the line, and why the gap between what's formed and what's packed is the number that matters.
Batch House & Furnace
Sand, soda ash, limestone, and cullet are weighed, mixed, and melted continuously. The furnace runs 24/7 — every hour a downstream line is stopped, it keeps pulling glass that never becomes saleable ware.
Forming — The IS Machine
Gobs are sheared and delivered to each section of the individual section (IS) machine, where blank and blow molds form the container. Section and cavity-level problems start here, long before anyone sees a reject.
Hot-End Coating & Annealing Lehr
Ware passes through hot-end coating, then the lehr relieves the thermal stress left by forming. Counting ware in and out of the lehr is the first real read on hot-end yield.
Cold-End Coating & Inspection
Cold-end coating, then automated inspection for checks, stones, blisters, dimensional and wall-thickness defects. This is where most rejects are removed — and where the gap between ware formed and ware packed becomes visible.
Packing & Palletizing
Good ware is packed, palletized, and shrink-wrapped. Pack count against gobs formed is the number that actually defines the line's yield.
An Interactive Model of Your Line
The same real-time tracking engine Tork runs on production lines today — watch it detect a stoppage and recover in real time.
Built for the Glass Plant Floor
Stage-by-Stage Piece Counts
LoRa-connected edge devices count ware at the IS machine discharge, lehr exit, inspection, and packing — without touching the forming controls.
Live Yield per Stage
Hot-end to cold-end yield computed live from those counts, so you see where ware is being lost while the shift is still running.
Instant Stoppage Detection
Automatic alerts the moment a line stops, instead of finding out from a shortfall at shift-end.
Shift & Historical Analytics
Shift-wise and line-level performance with trend history, so recurring losses can be traced to a line, a job, or a shift.
ERP Integration
Production data flows into SAP, Oracle, and other ERP systems for planning.
No Machine Modification
External sensors only — your IS machines, lehr, and inspection equipment and their controls stay untouched.
Built Around How Your Plant Is Actually Staffed
Hot-End Supervisors
Live output and stoppage visibility on the IS machines, instead of discovering a problem from the lehr or the cold end.
Cold-End & Quality
Inspection losses shown against what the hot end formed, so rejects are traced to a stage and shift, not just totalled.
Maintenance Team
Instant breakdown alerts and a measured record of how long each stoppage actually lasted.
Plant Management
Pack-to-melt yield and line utilization as live numbers across every line, not a report that arrives the next day.
Before You Ask
Do we need to integrate with our IS machine or lehr controls?
No. Tork uses external edge devices at each stage to capture piece counts and machine state. The IS machine, lehr, and inspection equipment and their controls are not modified.
Can it show where ware is being lost between the hot end and the cold end?
Yes — because ware is counted at each stage, Tork shows yield per stage, not just a single end-of-line figure. That makes it clear whether losses are happening in forming, annealing, or inspection.
Does it work across multiple lines and furnaces?
Yes — each line gets its own view, and plant leadership can monitor all lines and plants from one dashboard.
How long does installation take?
Typically 1-3 days per production line, depending on layout and the number of sensors required — the system starts collecting data immediately after.
Already Running at a Glass Container Plant
Sunrise Glass Industries moved from manual logbooks and delayed reports to live dashboards and automatic stoppage alerts across their lines.
Ready to Pilot This on Your Glass Lines?
No sales scripts — just engineers who'll walk through what it takes to deploy on your line.