Analysis of Expert Skills on Burner Works in Glass Processing

Abstract

For the efficient transfer of skills from expert workers to inexperienced ones, it is necessary to analyze their performance. In the present study, we evaluated the skills of workers at the process of glass forming, wherein the workers heat up a glass cylinder with fire and form glasses into different shapes. In the process, workers are required to rotate a glass cylinder over a gas burner for uniformly heating up the glass. Three workers with different skill levels performed two different tasks stretching a glass cylinder and expanding the end of a glass cylinder into a funnel shape were monitored using video cameras and an infrared thermograph. These workers also performed the task of rotating a glass cylinder, in which five inexperienced workers also participated in. Results indicate that, by stably rotating the glass cylinder, an expert worker can increase the production rate and the quality of the products. Moreover, the stability of rotation showed a positive correlation with the stability of finger movements of the worker. A further analysis of the finger movements suggests that dexterity and a unique way of holding the glass cylinder enables the expert worker to smoothly and stably rotate the glass cylinder.

Development of Self-Learning Program for the Bending Process of Quartz Glass

“…In the field of fire processing of quartz glass, the number of previous study examples are very limited. Though there is one example, the study of Umemura et al, that analyzed the motion of the work to machine a glass tube while rotating it by fingers [9], there has no study on the process sequence of experts and the know-how that exists in that process regarding the fire processing of quartz glass. As a result of process analysis [10] and product evaluation conducted by Suda et al, it is clarified that the products made by the expert possess significant characteristics [11].…”