Glaston is the glass processing industry’s innovative technology leader supplying equipment, services, and solutions to the architectural, automotive, solar and appliance industries. The company also supports the development of emerging technologies integrating intelligence into the glass.
The Challenge
Tempered glass is shatterproof. When it breaks, it breaks into very small pieces, so it is less dangerous. In the glass manufacturing process, this quality is controlled by a glass fragmentation test. It is carried manually by a human worker, who takes a sheet of glass and breaks it and then counts and measures the cullets. The worker checks the pieces manually – either by counting them within a certain area or by weighing the largest fragments in order to determine whether the batch meets the quality standard. This process is slow, and the results vary depending on the person doing the control. Even though the process is defined by the standard, the actual result always depends on which person is doing it. The workers do this several times a day, at minimum every two to three hours, or every time the glass thickness changes on the manufacturing line.
The Solution
The mandatory fragmentation test becomes easier, more consistent and reliable with computer-aided, automated tools. Artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) are used to analyse glass fragmentation patterns in an image. The results are presented digitally instead of using paper and pen.
Technologies
The solution applies modern computer vision technologies such as deep learning-based pixel-wise classification to segment fragments in a photo. With mobile integration, the new fragmentation test becomes easily accessible and cheap.
The result, Glaston Siru App, is a free app for iOS and Android. It uses a smartphone camera, computer vision, and AI to conduct the glass fragmentation test.
Implementation process
The original idea for automating the calculation of glass was developed by an international team of postgraduate students from the Signal Processing Laboratory of Tampere University at the end of 2017. The team visited Glaston showroom and after seeing the compulsory process of breaking the glass and counting the cullets, the team thought about using AI for the process. The origins of the Siru App show that the cooperation between University scientists and a company may produce completely new business ideas.
The Siru app was developed at the beginning of 2019 and launched in the summer. The second version of Siru, which also supports American ANSI Z97.1 standard, was launched in March 2020.
Results
The Glaston Siru application is capable of precisely determining the 50 x 50 mm segment and counting the fragments from an image exactly as defined by the EN 12150-1 standard in just around 3 seconds. The updated version of Siru, released in March 2020, is also capable of measuring the cullets as specified in the American ANSI Z97.1 standard.
Similar solutions in the market cost tens of thousands of dollars, but the Siru App is available for free for Android and iOS devices. It is the newest and most advanced assistant in glass fragmentation analysis.
The tedious task of glass fragmentation test has been made easy with a tool that fits in the pocket. The test is accurate, fast and cheap and it increases overall productivity.
Glaston homepage: https://glaston.net/
Video about the Siru App: https://youtu.be/UPUTPw8C-CA
