After acquiring the Gallo glassworks in Marinha Grande, Vidrala commissioned Zippe to construct a batch plant for container production at the end of 2005. Zippe was responsible for the design and implantation of the main plant components as well as the electrical technology for the batch plant, which processes raw materials for 700/tpd. The raw materials are stored in steel silos & are batched/weighed in 10 tank scales & then fed to 2 mixers. 4 controlled weighfeeders then add cullet to the finished batch in a sandwich process. The batch mixing plant fills 4 furnace front silos, which each have a dedicated weighing system for the 2 downstream container glass furnaces. The batch plant is controlled by a Simatic S7-400 with a 414-2 DP CPU that communicates via an Industrial Ethernet link with the Simatic cullet system controller & 2 PC-based HMI systems.
