We distinguish first of all, control of the manufacturing process where the objective is to measure critical parameters, in order to regulate or simply to record and stabilize them. Then control of the finished product where the objective is assessing all physical and mechanical characteristics to remove any defects and assure
quality.

More recently, the needs to pilote the production process, based on the data obtained during manufacture and on the finished product, have appeared, thus enabling swift reactivity in case of
non-conformity of the variables along the process. Hence the necessity to supervise these measuring tools electronically to treat the available data, to correlate it, but especially to be able to visualise it on a screen and prioritise it to exploit it more easily.

Whether it be to control the production process or the finished product, promising developments in the field of captors are underway to meet the new needs in our industry (reliable measurements, without contact, one line, at high production rate, at high temperature…), and using modern technologies like lasers, infrared captors and image capture and treatment systems.

Our future production units will no doubt possess ever higher-performance tools, more complex to use and certainly more costly. Let us then be very watchful about the proper use of all the data and information produced. It will allow us to evolve gradually toward total mastery of our production processes, with its ensuing positive consequences on quality and output and therefore the production costs of our glass products.