Case Study: Corning Asahi

Overview

The Corning Asahi Plant in State College, Pennsylvania was one of the largest producers of television screens in the world. Corning and Asahi are major manufacturers of glass with more than $20 billion in revenue. They worked through a partnership at the huge State College location until it was unfortunately forced to close in 2003 due to stiff overseas competition.

Challenges

Two huge 500,000 gallon water storage fire tanks were heated and recirculated during the winter to prevent freezing. The heating coils in the boilers would scale up terribly, causing extreme heating efficiencies. Expensive and time-consuming acid washes were required regularly.

Solution

Large commercial ScaleBlaster models were installed on the boiler line to solve the scale problems.

Installed

1997

Outcome

The facilities’ operation staff were amazed when they pulled the coils out for the first time (see photo). They were virtually scale-free and what residue there was rinsed off easily. Savings on chemicals and maintenance were considerable.