Why our lehr oven is so important

Did you know that our lehr oven is one of our most important pieces of equipment at the Blenko factory?

A lehr oven is a long kiln with an end-to-end temperature gradient, which is used for annealing newly made glass objects. Our glass objects take a 5 hour trip down a conveyor belt in which they are gradually cooled from a beginning temperature of 1600 degrees to 660 degrees in the middle and eventually room temperature. The annealing process renders glass into a stronger material with fewer internal stresses, and with a lower probability of breaking.

Fun fact: Our lehr oven was installed in 1955 and has been in near continual operation ever since!