Even if the production of complex toughened safety glass is not the main business of the insulating glass professional from Bavaria, WEHA-THERM also wants to work exclusively with highly efficient machines in this area. The new acquisition of the systron proHD at the end of 2022 leads the way for them to expand the ESG business.

Founded in 1970 by Max WEber and Herbert HAhn (WEHA), WEHA-THERM Isolierglas GmbH & Co.KG, based in Hutthurm near Passau, has continually grown. With three production plants and a production size of about 20,000m² and 170 employees, the portfolio was also expanded steadily. For 53 years now, the company’s largest division has been the production of insulating glass with 350,000m² of processed glass per year. In 2009, the first tempering furnace was purchased to meet the demand for ESG in insulating glass. In this respect, an edge seaming plant was acquired, later a processing centre with water jet as well as a single edge polisher. “That’s how we got into the ESG business step by step,” says Alfons Freund, who is the managing director together with Gerlinde Freund and her two sons Daniel and Johannes Freund.

Especially for glaziers from the surrounding area, the ESG panes with flexible shapes and sizes, were a fantastic benefit. The sector grew. Especially for ESG with polished edges, the WEHA-THERM team quickly reached the limits of capacity with the single-edge polishing machine. When they had the opportunity to acquire a neighbouring building, they decided to reorganise and better automate the ESG production for mono glass. They invested in a double-edger, a new tempering furnace and a new processing centre with water jet. “We have been working with waterjet for cutting for 13 years, so this technology was a must-have for us. We can produce extremely complex shapes quickly and precisely,” says Daniel Freund and adds: “We have known Thomas Haan, Sales Manager at systron, for a very long time. He was a service technician and installed the previous processing machine at our company. When he presented systron, we found the concept of the proHD waterjet centre very impressive.

After visiting existing proHD customers, we were able to get better insightsand decided to replace the existing system with a systron proHD glassprocessing centre with waterjet.”

The smooth integration into the existing software is usually a challenge. Even with the proHD glassprocessing machine, a few parameter adjustments were still necessary. Production manager Johannes Freund explains: “Especially with countersunk holes, there was a bit of a problem with the interface to our Lisec software at the beginning, but we soon had it under control. Our operator Daniel Eichberger is thrilled. He already has experience, as he also worked with the previous glass processing machine for 12 years.

The systron proHD is even simpler to operate and the ease of maintenance is outstanding.”

When purchasing the new machining centre for their tempered safety glass production, Johannes Freund had clear ideas: “Of course, the quality has to be very good, and versatility as well as the use of a wide variety of tools is also an important point for us. However, it was essential that the costs for maintenance are manageable. Thanks to conversations with other systron customers, we have gained confidence that systron is the right choice. And so far we have not been disappointed. After 6 months, there were no repairs, nor were there any technical failures. The service and the technicians are extremely competent, the direct communication works quickly and reliably.

We also appreciate systron’s open spare parts policy, it’s very customer-friendly.”

The 3 managing directors agree – the focus must be set more and more on automation. “The glass pane should be touched as little as possible. That increases the quality and reduces the need for new specialised staff.” An automation solution would also be conceivable for the proHD from systron. Two systron customers – Flachglas Nord-Ost and Glasprofi – are already working with proHD and buffer storage – with integrated robots for cut-outs. “Perhaps a visit to one of the two glass manufacturers will convince you,” recommends Thomas Haan from systron.