Imagine all of the waste glass sources in your facility being automatically removed to a central location without ever being handled by human hands or a fork truck driver. Imagine a breakout table operator snapping off a waste piece of glass and immediately discarding it without turning or walking, and without throwing it! This is what Custom Conveyor cullet systems can do for your glass fabrication plant.
Custom Conveyor provides complete turn-key cullet handling systems designed to minimize effort and maximize safety in manual and automatic flat glass processing applications. These systems have been used for decades by major glass fabricators to improve system throughput, reduce manual handling, and reduce injuries.
Talk to an engineer about your waste glass
Tell us how many breakout tables, axis breakers and rejection stations you run and where the cullet needs to end up. We will help you decide between a local above-floor system and a plant-wide below-grade system.
How a Cullet Handling System Works
Our cullet handling systems accept waste plate glass at its point of generation: A manual breakout table, an automated axis breaker, or a quality rejection station. They then break it down into a consistent size which is easily handled by conveyors. Once broken down, the cullet stream may be loaded into bins near the point of generation for fork truck handling or transported to a centralized loadout area to be loaded into bins or directly into bulk tractor trailers.
-
Generation: trim, axis breaker waste or a rejected lite drops toward the breaker.
-
Breakdown: a glass breaker reduces it to cullet of a consistent size.
-
Conveyance: belt conveyors carry cullet away, above the floor or through below-grade trenches.
-
Loadout: cullet fills a local bin for fork truck pickup, or central bins or bulk trailers.
Operators never stack, carry or toss sharp waste sheets. See these installations in our glass processing gallery, our wider glass and ceramics work and our cullet handling systems.
Why Breaking Glass at the Source Matters
The Custom Conveyor advantage is the immediate breakdown of the glass, which allows for the use of highly efficient belt conveyors for transportation. The replacement costs for this belting is a fraction of the cost of replacing a steel hinged belt, and the throughputs are much higher.
Whole sheets bridge across chutes, catch on transitions and concentrate weight and sharp edges on small areas of the conveying surface, which is why unbroken waste glass often ends up on steel hinged belt. Cullet of a consistent size behaves more like a bulk material, so it rides on standard belt conveyors and transfers, lifts and discharges predictably.
Why breakdown at the table matters
Breaking the glass where it is generated is what makes belt conveyors practical for the rest of the system. It also removes the stacking, carrying and throwing of waste sheets, the steps that expose breakout operators to cuts and strains.
Above-Floor Single and Double Breaker Systems
The simplest of these systems can be “above floor” single or double breaker systems which service smaller breakout tables or other low volume manual generation points and take less than one shift to commission into operation.
Above-floor systems are the practical choice when trenching for a below-grade system is not possible or the waste volume does not justify it. Configurations we have built include:
-
The basic cullet system, our simplest configuration: one glass breaker mounted directly to the breakout table, with conveyors that put the cullet into a bin for disposal.
-
A single-table above-floor cullet system with breakers fitted to the sides of the table, placing the waste chute between the operator and the table. A fork truck retrieves the cullet bin without disrupting table operations.
-
A single breaker cullet system for a particularly tight work space, with turnkey controls that need only a 480/60/3, 20A mains power connection.
Below-Grade Plant-Wide Systems With Central Loadout
In plants with many generation points, a bin at every table becomes a traffic problem of its own. At their largest, these systems utilize “floor mount” breakers and a series of below grade trenches to connect dozens of generation points to a centralized cullet loadout area, handling thousands of pounds of waste glass a day.
In one expansive below-grade cullet handling system, eight glass breakers on four breakout tables feed a central cullet collection area where the waste glass is loaded into a tractor trailer. The entire system runs on an interconnected control system that monitors breaker torque, belt motion and trailer fill level.
Plant-wide systems typically combine:
-
Floor-mount breakers discharging onto trench conveyors
-
Collection and transfer conveyors that merge trench runs into one cullet stream
-
Lift conveyors that raise cullet out of the trench
-
Bin fill or trailer loadout conveyors at the central collection area
We have supplied cullet handling systems, bin fill conveyors, lift and transfer conveyors and system controls to several flat glass and insulating glass manufacturers and a window manufacturer. For high-angle lifts, a vertical cleated sidewall conveyor like our trench-to-bin beltwall conveyor saves floor space.
Glass Breakers From 6mm to 120 Inches
Each generation point calls for a breaker matched to its glass thickness, sheet width and available space. The glass breakers themselves can run for many years before requiring replacement of wear parts. Our glass breaker range includes in-floor and above-floor models:
| Breaker | Configuration | Typical fit |
|---|---|---|
| 6mm glass breaker | Short, above-floor mount | Space-limited tables, glass up to 6mm |
| 12mm glass breaker | Long, floor-mounted, heavy-duty | Thicker glass up to 12mm |
| 48-inch enclosed breaker | Fully enclosed in steel, wide-mount infeed chute | Replacing an existing disposal chute |
| 84-inch glass breaker | Floor-mounted, standard width | Glass up to 6mm thick |
| 120-inch glass breaker | Extra-wide, top-mounted assist rollers | Large sheets up to 6mm thick |
| Breaker rollers | Long and short rollers | Breaker builds and replacement parts |
Interconnected Controls and Monitoring
A jammed breaker or a stalled belt quickly backs glass up to the table. Our cullet systems can be supplied with turnkey controls, from a single panel on a one-breaker system to an interconnected control system for a plant-wide installation. On the below-grade system described above, the controls watch three conditions:
-
Breaker torque, which shows when a breaker is overloaded or jammed
-
Belt motion, which confirms each conveyor is running so cullet is not dropped onto a stopped belt
-
Trailer fill level, which signals when a trailer needs to be changed
Interlocking these signals lets upstream equipment respond when something downstream stops. Tying the system into your line controls follows the principles in our guide to conveyor system integration.
Retrofits, Parts and Long-Term Support
Custom Conveyor is committed to providing premier solutions for glass cullet handling. Our ongoing commitment to incorporate customer feedback ensures our systems offer reduced maintenance, enhanced longevity, and lower overall cost of ownership.
We supply custom-made replacement parts for the equipment we build and support it for as long as you own it. Our cullet work includes incline conveyor retrofits and maintenance parts for an insulating glass plant, and we modify existing bin fill conveyors when needs change. Our overview of incline conveyor design covers lift and incline sections.
Design, fabrication and assembly happen in one Cedar Rapids, Iowa facility, with validation runs before shipment while the design is still easily modified. Learn more about our custom process.
Cullet System FAQs
Related Resources
Explore related pages from Custom Conveyor.
Industries:Glass Processing Glass & Ceramics Bulk Material
Related equipment:Cullet Handling Glass Breaker Incline & Decline Conveyors and Retrofits
Project examples:Cullet Handling System Above-Floor Cullet System Single Breaker Cullet System Basic Cullet System
Plan your cullet system with our engineers
Contact us today to discover how we can optimize your facility’s waste glass management. Share your table layout and waste volumes, and we will help size the breakers, conveyors and loadout.
Cullet systems from a single breakout table to a plant-wide central loadout.
