Why Furnace Charging Speed Is an Energy Question, Not Just a Labour One
Every minute the furnace roof is open is heat the furnace has to make up before melting resumes.
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Engineering insight
It is tempting to treat charging speed as purely an operator-hours problem. It is not: heat radiates out of an open furnace continuously, and the furnace has to spend energy re-reaching temperature before useful melting resumes.
That is the energy case for mechanised charging — hydraulic pushers, pokers and chargers — independent of any labour saving.
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VMPL's approach
This is also the founder’s stated engineering principle, rendered as VMPL’s guiding line: "the energy saved is better than energy produced." Reducing charging time is one of the most direct ways to apply it.