glass june 2015

June 2015 | Vol. 38 No.6

GLASSMAN REVIEWENCIRC INTERVIEW

FORMING

Glass International June 2015

www.glass-international.com

22 & 23 September 2015Expo Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico

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Contents


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June 2015 Vol.38 No.6

2 Editor’s Comment

5 International News

12 Glassman Europe conference: A sustainable future

16 Interview: Encirc increases its sustainability efforts

19 Personality profile: Numbers add up for Pennine as new recruit starts

21 Company profile: Mexican glass company that keeps it in the family

24 Personality profile: Allied means business

Container glass 26 Container Glass Alliance in Brazilian start-up

Forming 28 Sealing the deal in stemware 31 Solving forming problems for 40 years 35 Hot end process monitoring 37 Heye strengthens position in CIS countries 38 History 40 British Glass

42 Glassman exhibition review Glassman attracts top visitors

Events world 44 Milan set for Vitrum 2015

Environment 45 Through the looking glass

47 Diary

Front cover image courtesy of www.pennine.org

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Plus find us on Linked-In and Twitter.


@Glass_Int

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June 2015 | Vol. 38 No.6

GLASSMAN REVIEWENCIRC INTERVIEW

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Editor’s comment


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One of the industry’s key themes of recent years has been sustainability and reducing emissions.

This refl ects a growing trend among the general public where we are all keen to reduce our carbon footprint, recycle more of our consumer products and do ‘our bit’ for the environment. The rise of the recycling industry is something I have witnessed in my lifetime.

I remember as a youth watching my parents unceremoniously throw glass bottles, newspapers and cardboard into the dustbin and thinking: ‘surely these materials could be re-used?’

Today, such has been the growth of the ‘green’ movement, that I can just about recycle anything from the comfort of my own home. I simply have to toss the said plastic/glass/paper into a recycling bin outside my house, which is then collect-ed once a fortnight. Easy.

A quick glance through the June issue of this magazine makes clear how for-ward-thinking the glass industry has been in reducing its environmental footprint.

Adeline Farrelly, Secretary General of European container glass association FEVE, discusses the circular economy and how the industry has reduced emissions by 80% in the past 50 years.

However, this is not enough. The EU has set itself the target of reducing CO2 emissions by 90% in 2050. According to FEVE, for the glass industry this means a reduction of minus 43% by 2030, which cannot be achieved without break-

through technology.Later in the issue, UK glass manufatur-

er Encirc discusses how uses 92% recycled glass to manufacture green glass.

The company has invested in an elec-trostatic precipitator and a catalytic con-verter, which means it not only controls its NOx and SOx emissions but, according to the company, it now has among the lowest glass industry emissions in Europe.

The glass industry has to continuously evolve and adapt to the latest custom-er and consumer trends. It always needs ‘young blood’ to bring fresh ideas to the industry who have alternative ways of thinking. Two such new members are highlighted in this issue, who have recently started to work for an industry supplier and manufacturer respectively. We welcome them both.

Finally, I’d like to say what a pleasure it was to see so many of you at the recent Glassman Europe event in Lyon. The event was attended by people from around the globe, many of whom were senior decision makers keen to do business at the show.

The show helped secure French televi-sion and newspaper coverage and gave the glass industry the opportunity to pro-mote its ‘green’ credentials to a mass au-dience. Only by continuously promoting these benefi ts will glass remain the mate-rial of choice for consumers.

Greg [email protected]

Greg Morris

Glass is a industry


Quartz Glass Portfolio

Editor: Greg MorrisTel: +44 (0)1737 855132Email: [email protected]

Editorial Assistant: Sally RobertsTel: +44 (0)1737 855154Email: [email protected]

Designer: Annie BakerTel: +44 (0)1737 855130Email: [email protected]

Sales Director: Ken ClarkTel: +44 (0)1737 855117Email: [email protected]

Sales Manager: Jeremy FordreyTel: +44 (0)1737 855133Email: [email protected]

Production Executive: Martin Lawrence

SubscriptionsTel: +44 (0)1737 855023 Fax: +44 (0)1737 855034Email: [email protected]

Published by Quartz Business Media Ltd,Quartz House, 20 Clarendon Road, Redhill, Surrey RH1 1QX, UK.Tel: +44 (0)1737 855000. Fax: +44 (0)1737 855034. Email: [email protected]: www.glass-international.com

Glass International (ISSN 0143-7838) (USPS No: 020-753) is published 10 times per year by Quartz Business Media Ltd, and distributed in the US by DSW, 75 Aberdeen Road, Emigsville, PA 17318-0437. Periodicals postage paid at Emigsville, PA. POSTMASTER: send address changes to Glass International c/o PO Box 437, Emigsville, PA 17318-0437.

Offi cial publication of Abividro - the Brazilian Technical Association of Automatic Glass

Industries

Member of British Glass Manufacturers’ Confederation

China National Association for Glass Industry

Glass International annual subscription rates including Glass International Directory:For one year: UK £159, all other countries £224.For two years: UK £285, all other countries £403.Airmail prices on request. Single copies £44.

Glass International Directory 2014 edition:UK £206, all other countries £217.

Printed in UK by:Pensord, Tram Road, Pontlanfraith, Blackwood,Gwent NP12 2YA, UK.

© Quartz Business Media Ltd, 2015ISSN 0143-7838

Monthly journal for the industry worldwide

Directory 2015Annual international reference source

Glassman specialist exhibitions rotate between America, Asia and Europe


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HORN's innovative doghouse design combined with the HVR 700F-2P HORN's innovative doghouse design combined with the HVR 700F-2P

charger result in a tightly sealed doghouse, greatly reducing energy and charger result in a tightly sealed doghouse, greatly reducing energy and

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make their furnace more economical and ecological: The HVR 700F-2P make their furnace more economical and ecological: The HVR 700F-2P

HORN's innovative doghouse design combined with the HVR 700F-2P HORN's innovative doghouse design combined with the HVR 700F-2P

charger result in a tightly sealed doghouse, greatly reducing energy and charger result in a tightly sealed doghouse, greatly reducing energy and

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International News

NEWS IN BRIEF

Encirc comes top in sustainability awardsUK Glass manufacturer Encirc won gold at the Drinks Business Green Awards 2015.

Encirc won in the Logistics and Supply Chain Green Initiative of the Year at the awards, which aim to raise environmental awareness in the beverages industry.

In the past 12 months the company has modified its warehouse, consolidated deliveries to different customers into combined loads to take lorries off the road, and reduced the amount of plastic packaging it uses by 146,000kg, cutting the waste it has to send to landfill. See Encirc feature, Page 16.

Lyon safety workshop proves popularA ‘Safety in the plant – Safety for consumers’ workshop proved to be popular event.

The workshop covered the topic of safety in glass plants, which has become increasingly important in glass production facilities.

The event, organised by Heye International and Iris Inspection Machines, provided a variety of speakers talking about safety.

About 30 people from six countries participated in the workshop held in Lyon, France prior to the Glassman Europe exhibition and conference.

Pro-Sight moves to larger premisesUK vision inspection and glass container handling equipment manufacturer Pro-Sight has moved into larger premises.

The company’s new, larger site in Dewsbury, UK provides increased workshop and office space. It also houses a training room that customers can visit to either be familiarised with new Pro-Sight equipment, or for refresher courses as and when required.

The company’s address is: Pro-Sight. Unit 8, Shaw Cross Court, Shaw Cross Business Park, Dewsbury, WF12 7RF, UK.


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VISIT: www.glass-international.com – For daily news updates and regular features

5

Glassman Latin America conference call for papersThe organiser of the Glassman Latin America conference has issued a call for papers.

The conference takes place in Guadalajara, Mexico on September 22 and 23 with the theme ‘Future solutions in the container and hollow glass in-dustries’.

The conference will be free to attend and takes place at the Expo Guadalajara. The conference will be held along-side the Glassman Latin Amer-ica exhibition.

Papers to be presented are likely to include environmen-tal solutions, energy efficiency in the industry, batch supply, a focus on the Mexican in-dustry, health and safety in a manufacturing plant, and in-novative inspection solutions.

Papers will be 20 minutes in length. Conference language is English. Anyone interest-ed should send Greg Morris ([email protected])an abstract of around 300 words no later than August 3.

SGD acquires India’s Cogent GlassFrench company SGD has be-come a majority sharehold-er of India’s pharmaceutical group Cogent Glass Limited.

Cogent is a manufacturer of Type I moulded and tubular glass vials for the pharmaceu-tical industry.

Cogent’s acquisition repre-sents an opportunity for SGD’s pharmaceutical division and will consolidate its leader-ship position in this sector. It will also enable SGD to enter into the tubular conversion market and benefit from the

fast-growing Indian pharma-ceutical market.

SGD’s efforts in forthcom-ing months will be on imple-menting processes in the In-dian plant, suitable for both domestic and international standards.

Glassman Latin America takes place at the Expo Guadalajara centre, Mexico.

Iran commissions float glass lineIran has launched a glass fab-rication plant described as the country’s largest.

Sahand Float Company in Tabriz in northwestern Iran will produce 220,000 tonnes of flat glass per year for build-

ing, automotive, security and decoration use.

Addressing the inaugura-tion, President Hassan Rou-hani hailed it as Iran’s largest glass production line, saying it had been established by the

private sector which would compete with ‘advanced countries for quality and price of its products’.

Rouhani said efforts must be made to raise domestic stand-ards to compete in the market.

Stands are already sell-ing for the Glassman Latin America exhibition, with 60% of floor space already reserved by some of the world’s leading suppliers to the container glass industry. For more information on exhibiting contact [email protected].

The exhibition and con-ference promises to be an essential event for the hol-low and container glass in-dustry, especially with the recent entry of O-I into the Mexican market.

june news.indd 1 6/9/15 2:17 PM

International News


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NEWS IN BRIEF

Be first with the news! VISIT: www.glass-international.com for daily news updates

Tiama obtains patent in-fringement judgmentsOn November 6, 2014, the regional court in Düsseldorf handed down two judgments in a patent dispute between MSC & SGCC and Heye International, citing that Heye’s ‘Ranger’ device infringes MSC’s patents EP 1 147 405 and EP 0 692 710.

The decisions are not final, as Heye has appealed. Tiama-msc&sgcc said it was confident that the decisions will be upheld.

EME wins Algeria’s Africaver bidEME Maschinenfabrik Clasen has won the bid for the modernisation of the sodium silicate line at Algerian glass manufacturer, Société Africaine du Verre (Africaver).

Africaver is a flat glass manufacturer that specialises in making patterned glass, solar and photovoltaic glass, safety glass in the automotive and architectural field and in the production of solid and liquid sodium silicate glass.

EME is to supply cooling devices (steel plate conveyors), big bag filling stations and an automatic feeding device for two autoclaves.

EME also secured an order from the company in 2014 for the supply of a batch plant with a capacity of 130t/d.

UK recycler in 81% sales boostUK recycler WRL Glass Media has had an 81% rise in sales for the first four months of 2015 for its specialist glass products.

The Teesside, UK-based company delivered more than 7,000 tonnes of processed glass between January and April, which is used for applications including shot blasting and water filtration.

As a result of the growth and increased demand for its products, the company is creating four new plant operations roles and implementing a four-day-on, four-day-off rota to enable 24-hour operations.

Consol to buy Kenya’s Central Glass

Frigoglass to sell glass operations

Kenya’s East African Breweries Limited (EABL) has signed an agreement for the sale of its glass subsidiary business, Cen-tral Glass Industries (CGI) to South Africa’s Consol Glass.

Consol’s Chief Executive Of-ficer Mike Arnold said the deal was a further step in creating a pan-African glass packaging

company, adding to Consol’s existing manufacturing sites in South Africa and Nigeria.

Consol exports to more than 15 African countries. It was founded in the 1940s and is the largest glassmaker in Af-rica.

The company has four pro-duction sites, 11 furnaces and

29 production lines in South Africa and a furnace and two production lines in Nigeria. Its combined capacity is 900,000 tons or an equivalent 3½ bil-lion glass bottles.

CGI was established in 1987 to produce glass containers in flint, amber and green to inter-national standards.

Glass manufacturer Frigoglass is to sell its glass operations business to GZI Mauritius Limited (GZI).

GZI is the holding compa-ny of GZ Industries Limited, the largest beverage can man-ufacturer in West Africa with manufacturing operations in Nigeria, which is now expand-ing into Kenya.

The operations being sold consist of all of Frigoglass’ glass container operations in Nigeria and Dubai as well as its plastic crates and metal crowns businesses in Nigeria.

Frigoglass has also reached an agreement to acquire the minority interest in its Frigoglass Jebel Ali business based in Dubai, which will

also be part of the transaction.The Glass Operations man-

agement team and employees will be transferred with the business on disposal. The busi-ness has 1,588 employees in Nigeria and Dubai.

The acquisition is valued at $225 million (€200 million). The transaction is expected to be completed later this year.

A 400t/d batch preheater was successfully commissioned by Zippe Industrieanlagen at South Africa’s Nampak Glass in April this year.

The batch preheater was in-stalled at a new regenerative container glass furnace with a melting surface of 120m².

The preheater was installed together with a new 400tpd batch house, also supplied by

Germany’s Zippe.The whole system is inte-

grated within PCS7 automa-tion software, which realises the Plant-Wide-Automation (PWA) concept.

The preheater has shown double-digit energy savings and has been safely running since installation.

A photo of the installation works.

Bystronic celebrates milestoneBystronic glass’s Neuhaus-en-Hamberg site, Germany celebrated after its 1000th sealing robot was delivered to a customer in China.

The ‘speed’sealer’ was deliv-ered recently and all employ-

ees are proud, especially the group leader in the mechan-ical assembly department, Heinz Burghard. He had pevi-ously worked on production of the first sealing robot.

The first sealing robot was

developed and built by Len-hardt Maschinenbau (now By-stronic Lenhardt), in 1981.

The speed’sealer is a high-speed sealing robot. It was in-troduced for the first time at glasstec 2010.

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Owens-Illinois (O-I) has ap-pointed Sergio Galindo as pres-ident of O-I North America and Tim Connors as president of O-I Asia Pacific.

Galindo, currently president of O-I’s Asia Pacific region, brings 20 years of experience to his role and will be responsible for O-I operations in the USA and Canada.

“Sergio is a strong and knowledgeable leader who un-derstands the importance of balancing revenue optimisa-tion and new business devel-opment with manufacturing capability and performance,” said Andres Lopez, O-I chief operating officer and president of glass containers.

“We are confident he will support and encourage the

strong operational focus we are undertaking in our North American region.”

Connors is currently general manager of O-I’s Australian op-erations, which drive the larg-est portion of O-I’s business in the region. As president of O-I Asia Pacific, Connors will be re-

International News

NEWS IN BRIEF



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EME reports successful Glassman EuropeGermany’s EME Maschinenfabrik Clasen reported a ‘satisfactory’ Glassman Europe event, which took place from 6th to 7th May in Lyon.

The group exhibited under the banner of its parent company, Sorg, and said it was an opportunity to meet with customers, and potential buyers. It said that there was satisfactory feedback for EME and its parent company, Nikolaus Sorg, after the two-day exhibition.

Positive Glassman Europe for PneumoforeItalian company Pneumofore said it had positive results from the recent Glassman Europe show in Lyon, France.

The company had a booth at the exhibition held May 6 and 7 and said it had met some interesting contacts, especially those from North Africa and the Middle East.

The company said: “As a traditional meeting point, the event is also a good platform to present the latest innovation results.”

Once again Pneumofore was the only pneumatic machinery manufacturer present, offering solutions for compressed air and vacuums in the glass industry.

Schott tubes boost algae output by 22%Schott has said its oval glass tubes for photobioreactors (PBRs) increase maximum dry biomass output by more than 22% a day.

In a study in partnership with Heliae, a technology-driven algae production company, the Schott round glass tubes were retrofitted with oval tubes.

An indoor study over multiple cycles in several months found that the algae growth rate per volume increased by more than 45%. The oval shape reduced the total internal volume of PBR tubes by 15% compared to standard circular tubes, resulting in the overall output increase stated above.

Gerresheimer to close US siteGerresheimer will close its Millville, New Jersey mould-ed glass manufacturing plant due to a slow market de-mand.

The decision will affect more than 100 employees and follows on from the company’s decision to lay-off

more than 100 staff members earlier this year.

The US market accounts for approximately 20% of Ger-resheimer’s sales. Following the closure the company will have six moulded glass plants worldwide, with its US man-ufacturing operations based

at its Chicago plant. The oth-er plants are Kosamba, India; Momignies, Belgium; and Lohr, Tettau and Essen, all in Germany

Overall, Gerresheimer has 40 plants worldwide that cater to the glass and plastic pharmaceutical industries.

Schott makes tubing historyGerman company Schott has made history by creating the world’s largest industrially manufactured glass tube.

The record-size tube has an outer diameter of 460 milli-metres (mm), a total of 40mm wider than the previous re-cord-setting tube.

The tube measures more

than 1.5 metres long with a wall thickness of 8.5mm.

Developed with a speciality manufacturing process, the tube presents new application possibilities for the chemical, biological and pharmaceutical industries, among others.

Manufacturing large outer diameter tubes is challenging

because they tend to collapse under their own weight.

Schott overcame this by de-veloping the drawing process to manufacture the large tube. Due to the low thermal ex-pansion of the glass the tubes can endure prolonged periods of exposure at temperatures above 100°C.

O-I appoints presidents for North America and Asia

sponsible for O-I’s business in Australia, New Zealand, Indo-nesia and China, as well as the company’s joint venture inter-ests in Malaysia and Vietnam.

In his 18-year career at O-I, Connors has served in a vari-ety of finance, manufacturing and business strategy roles.

Sergio Galindo,

president of O-I North America.

Tim Connors,

president of O-I Asia Pacific.


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Horn completes 300t/d furnace

International News

NEWS IN BRIEF



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Ardagh Glass in US environmental successArdagh Glass North America has been awarded six Energy Star plant certifications by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), continuing its run as the only glass manufacturer in the US to be officially recognised by the body for its superior energy performance.

The six Ardagh Group plants, located in New Jersey, Indiana (2), California, Massachusetts, and Oklahoma, demons-trated best-in-class energy performance and, on average, perform within the top 25% nationwide for energy efficiency when compared to similar plants across the country.

Ardagh continues to be the only glass manufacturer in the US to be officially recognised by the body for its energy performance.

Download Glassman Europe papersGlassman Europe conference paers can now be downloaded for free.

The 16 speakers at the free of charge conference included Bormioli Rocco, Ardagh, Siemens, Air Liquide, Spie and FEVE.

Visit the Glassman Europe site at http://www.glassmanevents.com/europe/conference and click on the presentation/s you require. The paper should automatically download as a PDF.

Glass for Europe’s energy label campaignGlass for Europe has launched a communication campaign to support the development of an EU energy label for windows.

The campaign aims to inform citizens and decision makers about the added-value of an EU label for windows. The association said that energy labelling has demonstrated to be among the most efficient EU tools to help consumers make informed choices.

German group Horn has com-pleted a 300t/d furnace instal-lation at Turkish container glass company Gürallar Cam Ambalaj.

Horn signed a contract in April 2014 for the delivery of a complete 300t/d regener-ative end-fired furnace with three forehearths.

The furnace is heated with three burners per port by means of natural gas and/or heavy fuel oil as standby.

Due to the special batch composition, the melting end was equipped with barrier boosting and additional bot-

tom electrode bricks for the retrofit of melting boosting.

The control and measuring system was equipped with an additional oxygen-measuring device, which is integrated into the new control system.

Gürallar followed Horn’s recommendation and changed over to frequency converters for the fans at the furnace and throat cooling system, instead of the regular-ly used soft-starters.

According to the calcula-tions, the investment will pay off within a few days of opera-tion, since the cooling air fans

operate only at the output actually required and thus in the most efficient mode.

Apart from the econom-ic aspect, it is also environ-mentally friendly because the noise was also reduced.

Horn’s latest forehearth system type GCS 301 with di-rect/indirect cooling was used for all three lines to obtain optimum temperature homo-geneity at the spout.

In addition to the heating technology and the meas-uring/control technology, a forehearth booster was also supplied for each line.

Nampak’s glass performance in 2015: ‘disappointing’Nampak’s glass operations were ‘disappointing’ in the first half of 2015, the company said in its H1 2015 financial report.

The South African glass manufacturer said overall group operating profit was down 9% due to a disappoint-ing glass performance and headwinds in the domestic trading environment.

But the company’s Bevcan division showed ‘outstand-ing growth’ and was a major contributor to group profits as demand for beverage cans increased.

Nampak chief executive An-dré de Ruyter said: “The chal-lenges experienced at Nam-

pak Glass resulted from the commissioning of the newly installed third furnace and legacy issues from 2014.

“We have implemented a comprehensive plan target-ed at overcoming production inefficiencies and operation-al constraints and are seeing good results from these inter-ventions.

“Furnace 3 is ramping up and the final phase of com-missioning was concluded with the pre-heater commis-sioning, a first for the south-ern hemisphere. We expect to see full furnace energy saving benefits reflected in the 2016 financial year.”

The company is evaluating glass opportunities in Angola, Nigeria and Ethiopia.

The company is unlocking close to R2 billion ($162.2 mil-lion) in cash for investment in new potential opportunities across all areas of its business in the rest of Africa, he added.

“The group’s operations in the rest of Africa are expect-ed to continue generating growth in revenue and profit.

“Our strategy, which focus-es on growing glass, metal and rigid plastics in key markets on the African continent, is sup-ported by an exciting pipeline of potential expansion oppor-tunities.”


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Events world


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Presentations at the conference in Lyon this year discussed ways in which the glass industry is currently

employing energy saving sustainability techniques, and also ways in which the industry will need to improve to meet future regulations.

Opening the show was keynote speaker François Pierrot, Country Executive France & Spain, Owens-Illinois (O-I). Mr Pierrot started by highlighting the importance of glass manufacturing to France as a region: “As we are in France today, let me give you some key fi gures about the glass industry here.

“The glass industry in France represents €1 billion of value added industry per year; 15,000 people work for the glass industry in France; 20 plants are located in France, producing glass containers,

and more than 3 million glass containers per year are produced here in France.

“Three out of four bottles are recycled. Over ten years the industry has invested over €700 million – more or less €70 million per year. In the last two years O-I has invested €42 million in France… On top of that, [glass] is a perfect example of a circular economy as well.”

The circular economyEurope’s circular economy was also a feature of FEVE Secretary General Adeline Farrelly’s presentation, ‘Competitiveness, challenges and opportunities’. Addressing the issue surrounding the European Commission’s commitment to the circular economy she said: “The new European Commission took offi ce on the 1st November last year. It was an

important day, because it was the start of the EU responding to euro-sceptics, and the feeling that many people have across Europe that the EU is interfering too much in our lives.

“The new commission started about trying to address that perception and the fi rst thing they did was to withdraw hundreds of proposals for legislation. One of the casualties among those was the circular economy package.

“This package proposed to review our waste legislation in Europe. It is very important for glass, as it is 100% recyclable. We like the circular economy and the fact that waste legislation encourages packaging materials to recycle over and over again.”

Glassman Europe conference: A sustainable future

It was standing room only at this year’s Glassman Europe conference, with presentations on a variety of subjects relating to energy effi ciency and environmental solutions in the glass industry. With presentations from companies such as O-I, Ardagh, FEVE, Siemens and more, the two day event addressed the challenges and opportunities that surround a sustainable future for the industry.

Continued>>

z François Pierrot of O-I delivering

his keynote speech.

Glassman conference.indd 1 6/8/15 3:59 PM

Ms Farrelly revealed that following the efforts of organisations such as Brussels-based FEVE, the European Commission has agreed to reconsider and put forward a new proposal on the circular economy by the end of this year.

This will include a review of waste legislation and recycling targets – both of which is good news for the glass industry. Ms Farrelly also pointed out some of the major challenges faced by glassmakers, in particular with regards to emissions.

“Over the last 50 years the industry has been able to reduce energy by 80%, which is a great figure, but we still have to do more. Being energy efficient isn’t going to be enough in the future.

We have a decarbonisation agenda, and the European Union has set itself the target of reducing CO2 by 90% by 2050.

“For us in the glass industry, that means there’s a milestone we need to meet by 2030: We have to reduce our

CO2 emissions by minus 43%, and that’s simply impossible for our industry without any breakthrough technology, so that’s going to be a huge challenge for us.

“We need to turn all these challenges into opportunities. In terms of manufacturing, industry is again very cool so the glass industry is more relevant today than ever before.

We are a real industry operating in a real economy, maintaining jobs – there are two jobs created for every one job in our industry, further along the value chain. We also offer society authentic value and healthy and safe products.”

The economics of sustainabilityThese sentiments were echoed by Steffen Seehausen, Group Head of Sustainability, Ardagh Glass. During his presentation,

which was the final conference presentation and an apt note to end on, he stressed how glassmakers themselves need to ensure that ‘a sustainability strategy is part of their corporate strategy’, and that this should be communicated as part of an overall brand.

Asking, ‘What drives the sustainability agenda? Why is it important on a global scale?’ Mr Seehausen noted that the importance of sustainability for a business was now part of a ‘brand protection’ exercise.

“What does this mean for Ardagh?... The brand protection – we want to make sure that our customers are protected. They want to display ‘if you buy this product, it does not do any harm to the environment’, so there’s a shared value approach that the brand needs to reflect.

“Of course any industrial process is linked with destruction, but we need to accept that because we want to have a

certain living standard. But we can do something to limit it. Glass is infinitely recyclable. We re-use it, we recycle it, and that means a lot to a brand.”

Sustainability as a brand aspect was something that Ms Farrelly from FEVE was also keen to promote:

“We want to be a brand for consumers, not just a commodity. We want to get the industry acknowledged as a real circular economy to invest in. We need to redefine our industry and the way it operates in our value chain, and we need to work in collaboration with customers and suppliers.”

Explaining Ardagh’s attitude towards balancing the negative impacts created by industry, Mr Seehausen summarised: “Every industrial process is linked with destruction. It is a dilemma and we

need to accept this dilemma and act and respond to that in a responsible way. There’s an opportunity to try and compensate on the social side of the community you are in. It doesn’t balance one to one, but it gives you an idea of how to act responsibly.

“Balancing negative impacts… It’s a change in perception. This is why Ardagh is of the opinion that sustainability is a strategic business item: it is not for ‘naïve greens’ anymore, that was a perception of the 80’s and 90’s’ it’s something that has turned into hard business.”

Today and tomorrowAs well as the environmental and economic benefits that the glass industry is striving towards, presentations also focused on varied topics affecting the glass industry today, such as the ‘Global soda ash outlook’, delivered by Marguerite Morrin of IHS; ‘Food

packaging and health: Science policy update’, from Jane Muncke, Managing Director of the Food Packaging Forum; ‘Years of improvement in glass recycling’, from FERVER’s Stéphane Leroux; and ‘A case study in safety’, from Roberto Gentilini, Health and Safety manager at Bormioli Rocco.

Also popular were the case studies into energy saving practices currently employed by companies, presented by speakers such as Jean-Philippe Martel of the Container Glass Alliance, Uyi Iyoha of Praxair, Mark Ziegler of Heye International, and Michael Terhorst of SPIE Energy Solutions. These gave real-life examples of technology and equipment that is having an impact on

Events world


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13Continued>>

“The glass industry in France

represents €1 billion of value

added industry per year;

15,000 people work for the glass

industry in France; 20 plants are

located in France...”

“Over the last 50 years the

industry has been able to reduce

energy by 80%, which is a great

figure, but we still have to do

more”

z Adeline Farrelly of FEVE discussing the

industry’s challenges and opportunities.


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Events world


energy efficiency within the glass industry. Looking to the future of glass, Leandre Lasfargues, NPD

Manager of Stolzle, focused on ‘Innovation and decoration’ in terms of bottle design, noting that “We are seeing some decoration mixing [with] embossing, so you can have extremely realistic results. I think we will soon see decoration that has never been seen before, so look at the products that are coming – some people are really being daring with innovation. The shape of your bottle will probably make it a very special object, but we found the decoration will always make it unique.”

Also focusing on the future of glass, the conference’s keynote speaker, Mr Pierrot of O-I, highlighted the importance of glass to the planet as a whole, underlining why he believes in its importance as a packaging material:

“The inhabitants of Lyon should be proud of its fantastic heritage of glass, but I believe we have to be proud and confident about our future as well. Let me tell you my conviction: I do believe that glass is the future for packaging. It is natural, inert, transparent, 100% recyclable, it is premium. In short, glass is more relevant than ever.

“Today we, the glassmakers, talk about energy efficiency, environment, and the latest technologies that reduce energy and emissions. Those technologies make our products even more sustainable. We speak about how we are the ideal solution for the food and beverage industry.

“Let me tell you what I think: It’s great that we, the glassmakers, know all about those benefits of glass and what the industry does to support society and the planet. However, I think as an industry, and as O-I, we haven’t talked enough about the benefits of glass to our customers and stakeholders.

“I’m a firm and strong believer that we need to become more vocal and better promote and explain what we have to offer, because I do believe in the strength of glass packaging.” r

The Glassman presentations are now available to download as PDFs from the website: http://www.glassmanevents.com/europe/conference

z Standing room only at the Glassman Europe conference.

ElEctroglass

Your link to EnErgY EfficiEncY

Electroglass Ltd, 4 Brunel Road, Manor Trading Estate, Benfleet, Essex SS7 4PS, England

t: (44) 01268 565577 e: [email protected] w: www.electroglass.co.uk

Specialists in electric glass melting and conditioning

EvErything wE do is for iMProvEd...Energy Efficiency, Glass Quality, Furnace Output

electroglass.indd 2 04/07/2013 14:36


Company profile


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16

“We’re up to

around 92%

recycled [green]

glass... and our

emissions are the

lowest in

Europe.”

Continued>>

What sustainability policies does Encirc have in place, for glass?Let’s start at the beginning of the process. First of all, we’re recovering cullet back from the market place. All the cullet we take into our plants is recycled and in a good enough format for us to use it – on green we’re up to around about 92% recycled glass. Rather than melting new raw materials, we’re using a high proportion of recycled glass already. We’re melting that in Elton, UK in two of the largest furnaces that exist and that gives us economy of scale.

As well as that, because we control the NOx, SOx and particulate by means of an electrostatic precipitator and a catalytic converter, our emissions into the atmosphere are the lowest in Europe. So, not only are we using a high proportion of recycled material, when we burn that material the emissions are very low.

After we form the bottles, we store that glass in the world’s largest automated bonded warehouse. We have 266,000 pallet spaces on site. We keep the glass there, and then we fill a proportion of that glass with wines, beers, ciders, some spirits and

Sally Roberts visited the Encirc stand at London Wine Fair 2015 and spoke to Peter Fitzgerald* about sustainability and the supply chain, and how Encirc has addressed these issues from the beginning of its entry into the UK market.

Encirc increases its sustainability efforts

some soft drinks. Rather than transport that glass 150 miles to a filler, we fill the products ourselves and then we store it. We can then deliver the full product to our customers. We are therefore reducing the supply chain phenomenally. It’s a very sustainable package that we have.

You said Encirc uses 92% cullet for its green glass – what is the overall figure for all colours?It’s more than 50%. The main restricting factor is getting back good quality, colour separated cullet from the local authorities to go to our recycling supplier, for it to enable us to do more.

If we got back more, we could do more. We have, however, assisted the glass recycler in new technology so that they can recycle non-colour separated cullet, so we can use more.

Vidrala recently acquired Encirc. Will this impact the company’ sustain-ability efforts, and if so, how?It can do, yes. We were an independent glassmaker, and we started in 1998. We weren’t particularly welcomed by the glass industry, so everything we did we learnt ourselves. We were almost like an island with no contacts, because it was just ourselves. There’s not a lot of interaction between us and other glassmakers.

We built the business to the point where we have 32% or thereabouts of the UK and Ireland glass container market, so we did very well. And then when the business was for sale, we as a management team were hoping to end up with a partner who was within the glass industry and who could help us take the business further.

Vidrala was the perfect partner, in that they’ve been in the business 50 years, they’re a glassmaker with obvious ambitions for expansion and they have glassworks in Spain, Portugal, Italy and Belgium.

For us it was ideal – we would learn a lot from them and hopefully they would learn from us. And, as it it’s transpired since January the match has been very good.

From being a small independent in UK and Ireland, we’re now part of the fourth largest glass container business in Europe and we can see lots more opportunities. In terms of sustainability, it makes us a lot more attractive to our existing customers and to new customers.

How long has Encirc placed such an emphasis on sustainability? Has it been since the beginning or since the tighter EU regulations?There was a predilection within us to make it as green as possible, but again as a new entrant into the UK glass industry there were IPPC regulations [Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control]

Peter Fitzgerald,

pictured at the event.

Encirc.indd 1 6/9/15 12:06 PM


that we had to comply with, which were aspirations for the longer term people in the glass industry.

As for emissions, the targets for us were set lower than for those that were currently operational within the UK, so we started out with them.

But, from a business perspective we want to be environmentally friendly, so we started out on those principles from day one and we’ve expanded and fi nessed that all the way through.

What do you think the future of sustainability will look like in the glass industry? There are initiatives now around the world that are predominantly driven by the major global companies, the likes of Unilever.

Rather than try to work to different sets of criteria, they themselves are starting to look at sustainability and environmentally green measures and how they impose it on themselves.

My belief is rather than one system for Europe, one system for North America, one for South East Asia, these global companies will be driving forward those models – and I see that as being a lot better than what can be achieved by government bodies.

I think most global companies now have an environmental agenda and it’s probably in advance of what the governments in those countries are pushing. So I see that as a very positive move.

What can happen is, the companies that we supply are selling their products throughout the world, and so we need to be competitive as a glass industry, as a packaging industry, as an industry within Europe: We need to be competitive for our customers to be able to sell their products throughout the world.

*Recently retired Strategic Development Director, Encirc Glass, Elton, UK www.encirc-glass.com

Encirc’s stand at the London

Wine Fair, featuring an impressive

bottle-opener sculpture. The large

contraption uncorks and then pours

wine into a pre-positioned glass.

Contact us: [email protected] www.vidromecanica.com

• Belt and spindles tempering lines • Decorating lehrs • Chemical tempering ovens • Roller annealing lehrs • Mold pre-heating kilns • Stackers + cross conveyors

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Encirc.indd 2 6/9/15 12:06 PM

“The company

had grown from a

small-to-

medium to a

medium-to-large

company, so our

fi nancial

practices needed to

change.”

Personality profi le


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19Continued>>

Despite only joining the company in April, Chris Hobbs has been a familiar face at Pennine Industrial in recent years. The

newly appointed Finance Director has attended several director’s meetings and has also worked for the company in a short-term capacity during summer holidays.

Such a familiarisation with the company helped on the all-important fi rst day of his new job. “I’d met a lot of the people before and had worked here before so was familiar with them, so it was not a completely fresh start but was just starting in a new way,” said Chris.

The Accounting and Finance graduate has been appointed as a result of the company’s recent growth, which meant its fi nancial practices needed to change. His role will be to oversee the fi nance department and to bring an extra professionalism to it. Since graduating with a fi rst class honours degree from the University of Salford in the UK, Chris qualifi ed as a chartered accountant with Crowe Clark Whitehill and has gained further experience working for Ernst and

Chris Hobbs is the third generation of the Hobbs household to enter into the family business, Pennine Industrial. The company has expanded in recent years so the new Finance Director will help oversee the accounts as well as become a ‘face’ of Pennine, travelling to meet glass industry customers.

�Chris Hobbs (right) with his

father Graham, outside the

Pennine plant in Yorkshire.

Numbers add up for Pennine as new recruit starts

Young. At Pennine he will use this experience to oversee tasks such as internal audit, budgeting, forecasting and management accounts.

On top of that he will be introduced to the glass world, attending overseas events and travelling to meet international customers to get to know the glass industry.

Pennine Sales Manager Graham Womersley said: “The company had grown from a small-to-medium to a medium-to-large company, so our fi nancial practices needed to change. The fi nancial decisions used to revolve around one man making a decision, but because we’ve grown things needed to be done in a different way.

“So the next step was to bring in a fully qualifi ed professional. His recruitment will allow us to make more informed decisions and to see where our spend has gone well and see if we can push on in those areas that will hopefully take us even further forward.”

Chris pennine profile.indd 1 6/8/15 10:51 AM

Personality profi le


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“I wanted to

bring something

different to the

company and

fi nance was the

way to go.”

BackgroundPennine has been a major part of Chris’s life since the day he was born. The company, based in Skelmanthorpe near Huddersfi eld, UK is run by his father Graham and was originally set up by his grandfather Leonard in 1968.

Pennine was originally a supplier to the power transmission industry. The company fi rst started producing conveyor chains for the glass industry in the 1970’s and by the mid 1980’s the company’s focus had moved on to supplying the glass industry and material handling industry.

Today the current split is about 65%/35%, however the development of a new range of power transmission chains may change this split.

Chris and his father are rugby union supporters and regularly watch the Sale Sharks in action. Chatter between the two would invariably turn to the business while father and son sat in the stands. In the past his dad would talk generally about how the business was going. But since Chris’s graduation and his own work experience in accounting, the discussions in recent years have become more detailed, with Chris adding his own points to the conversation.

Chris said: “Our conversations have become a lot more in-depth in the past couple of years. I’ve not made any actual decisions but my dad has asked more questions and that’s been nice.

“It makes me feel as though I’m being useful and

hopefully he sees me as someone who has a skill and who can help.”

Growing up, he had often heard stories about the glass industry from his father from his travels around the world. As a boy he remembers the company’s 25th anniversary celebrations and was also recruited to the Pennine shop fl oor as a youngster to earn extra money during the academic summer break.

He had always planned to join the company eventually but wanted to gain skills in other businesses before making the move.

He recognised that a fi nancial qualifi cation would be a useful skill for the company but there was also a pressure of working for a company owned by his father.

Chris said: “It’s something I have worried about because there is an extra pressure of my dad being the owner. I wanted to make sure that people know I have the skills and can bring them to the table and that I am not here because of family ties, I don’t want to be that guy. I wanted to bring something different to the company and fi nance was the way to go.”

He admits his detailed knowledge of the business, such as its chains and sprockets for the glass industry, is limited at the moment, although he does understand the general gist. He will continue to get advice about the business from his dad and will set some ground rules about his day-to-day working relationship with his father. He joked: “I defi nitely won’t be calling him dad while I’m here!” �

Pennine Industrial, Huddersfi eld, UK.www.pennine.org

� Graham and Chris inside

the manufacturing plant.

Background

Pennine Industrial Fast Facts

� Manufacturer of conveyor chains and sprockets for the glass container industry.� Employing in excess of 60 people on its two manufacturing sites in Huddersfi eld and Wolverhampton.� Exporting to more than 50 countries worldwide.� Producing and assembling approximately 1.5 million components every week.� Conveyor chains are manufactured in both high quality Carbon Steel, and 420 grade Stainless steel.� A typical conveyor chain is about 30 metres long and will contain about 200kg of steel.

Chris pennine profile.indd 2 6/8/15 10:51 AM

Mexican glass supplier M-Glass Factory Services (MGFS) was formed by German expatriate Hans Mehl and his wife. Today their nephew also works for the company, which mainly serves the Mexican and Latin American markets.

Company profi le: M-Glass FS


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What do you do? We are a company offering services for all kind of furnace hot repairs, heat-up, draining, drilling, overcoating of glass melting furnaces, working ends and forehearths.

We also offer complete organisation and supervision of new constructions of furnaces. We give technical assistance on the furnace side, trouble shooting and solutions. MGFS represents companies such as Asahi Glass Ceramics, Japan; Zippe, Germany; UAS, Germany; and Hotwork of Switzerland.

Together with the companies we represent, we can offer a wide range of products and services to the Latin American Glass industry. We are still expanding our representations.

Our fi nal goal is to be able to offer products and services from the unloading of the raw material until the gob falling into the IS-Machine.

When was the company formed? In February 2011, by myself and my wife. It was founded because I saw a lot of potential in the Latin American glass industry with the services

we could offer. Other companies offered similar services but they were not based in Latin America.

Local customers were asking for integral solutions, which we are offering today out of the American continent.

How many employees do you have? We have a staff of four but we have access to the specialised personnel of the pool of companies we represent and we also work together with domestic subcontractors that offer specialised labour.

You are the owner of the company and are originally from Germany. How did you come to be based in Mexico?This is a long story. I was born in Germany but I grew up in Venezuela and I lived the fi rst 18 years of my life there. After college, I left Venezuela to study in Germany. From 1983 to 1986 I worked for a smaller glass factory in Venezuela as manager for furnaces and raw materials. In 1986, I left Venezuela to attend the Institute for Glass

Continued>>

Company profi le: M-Glass FS

“Looking back at more than 30 years of

experience in the glass industry worldwide,

we can offer a wide range of products and

services.”

Mexican glass company that keeps it in the family

FGM mexico.indd 1 6/9/15 12:07 PM

Company profile: M-Glass FS


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Technology in Zwiesel, Germany and graduated as a Glass Technologist in 1988.

In August 1988, I started to work for the Nikolaus Sorg company in Germany. I worked for Sorg, building furnaces worldwide. After a period of time, I was asked to call on the Latin American market alongside my construction activity.

I can speak fluent Spanish so I was usually sent to constructions in Spanish-speaking countries. After the construction of three furnaces in Mexico (almost one after the other) and calling on the Latin American clients, I decided that it was more convenient to work out of Mexico.

Another positive side effect, which led to my decision, was that I met my wife here in Mexico.

Where is most of your business based? Our largest clients are in Mexico and Brazil. We also see a positive tendency in all of the other Latin American countries where there is an important glass industry.

What makes your company stand out from competitor companies? Looking back at more than 30 years of experience in the glass industry worldwide, we offer a range of products and services.

We can offer turn-key solutions for glass melting furnaces. We can sell the refractory material for a furnace; we can also build the furnace, heat the furnace and commission it.

The client is always in contact with us from the installation of the first steel beam until the gob comes out of the spout.

From August, 2015, we will also have a warehouse where we will keep a variety of refractory materials suitable for emergency hot repairs, expendables and heat-up equipment.

This creates a lot of confidence between the customer and us. After sales service is also important for us. It is comfortable for the customer to communicate with us in their own language. We speak German, Spanish, English, French, Italian and Portuguese.

This gives an opportunity to communicate with a lot of customers in their mother language.

Generally, what is the Mexican con-tainer/hollow glass manufacturing market like at the moment? Are there exciting opportunities in the market? We see a steady growth in the container glass industry here in Mexico. Glass manufacturers are expanding their production capabilities. Fuel efficiency and environmental control is becoming ever-more important.

There is a large market in Mexico for companies offering products in these segments. There are some opportunities in future in the northern part of Mexico, close to the US border. Some factories are evaluating future operations and expansions in this part of the country.

In your opinion, where are the growth opportunities in the Mexican market?Definitely in the container glass market and especially in bottles. A lot of beer, Tequila and Mezcal is being exported and these bottles do not return to Mexico.

The vicinity to the US is also an important factor for the growth of the glass industry in Mexico.

Are many young people entering the Mexican glass manufacturing market? Is it regarded as a good career path? To be honest, I wish there was more young blood entering the glass industry. We all know that the hot end of a glass factory is not the most comfortable place to work.

Young engineers prefer to work in other industries rather than in the glass business. It is a particular problem in the production area due to a lack of future professionals, but I think this is a problem worldwide and not only in Mexico.

Glass manufacturing is a matter of many years experience and a lot of young people want their professional success and career as fast as possible. I still consider the glass industry in Mexico to be a good career path and a good possibility for long-term employment.

One of the problems I see in Mexico is that there is no institute where professionals can be trained. It is costly to bring specialists from outside in order to train people.

We offer the option to train employees in their own factory. We are offer training for furnace technology, refractory technology, trouble-shooting and furnace operation.

You previously worked for Sorg for more than 20 years. What was it like to work for such a company and what skills did you learn working there? It was a great experience for me. I had the opportunity to work internationally on all types of glass furnaces and forehearths, got to know a lot of interesting people, acquired a lot of experience in the glass melting process.

I had the chance to really expand my experience every day, which was important to me and still is today. I had the chance to work on a lot of new developments within glass melting and conditioning technology.

What do you like about the industry? For me the glass melting process has turned into a passion, rather then work.

If you asked me today, ‘would you choose to do the same job again’, I would answer a big ‘Yes’ with a grin on my face.

My father started work in the glass industry in the 1970s and today, the third generation of the family is working with me in MGFS.

Continued>>

“The

international

glass industry is a

large family and it

is of huge

satisfaction to me

to be a part of it.”

z Hans Mehl.

z Luis Weller, Mr Mehl’s

nephew.


Company profile: M-Glass FS


My father once told me ‘If you last more than six months working in the glass industry, you will stay forever’. I did not believe him then but today I must acknowledge he was right.

What I like most are the every day challenges. Every problem is different. You never get bored. During furnace construction, you see your work advancing every day until the first gob finally comes out of the feeder mechanism into the machine. This feeling is priceless.

The international glass industry is a large family and it is of huge satisfaction to me to be a part of it. Our company slogan is ‘We deal with heat’ and this is my passion.

How did you start working in the industry? I started working in the glass industry in 1983.

My father had a strong relationship with the Venezuelan glass industry as he represented companies such as Sorg, Bucher Emhart Glass, SEPR and DIDIER.

My father spoke so much about glass at home that I started to get to become fascinated with this material from a young age.

I was 15 years old when I first had the chance to look inside a glass melting furnace and it was this experience that led to my future in glass.

In your view does glass have a strong future? Or will competitor materials overtake glass? In my personal opinion, glass has and will always have a future in this world. Strong or not, this will depend on the final consumer.

Why do I say that? In most of Latin America the consumer doesn’t have the same mentality for recycling as in Europe, for example.

The consumer has to be educated as to why glass should be recycled and, by doing so, how they can contribute towards saving energy and preserving the environment.

With the development of lightweight bottles there is a further incentive for the consumer to use more glass containers.

Plastics and cans will always be a competitor for glass, but I think the glass industry and the governments have to enforce the recycling mentality of the consumer to control the importance of these other competitor materials.

I hope I will never have to pour a good wine out of a plastic bottle, or have to drink a cold beer out of a plastic bottle.

M-Glass Factory Services, [email protected]


Personality profile


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Congratulations on your new role. What will your role as Business Devel-opment Director entail? My new role concentrates on the building of customer relationships and working to form strategic collaborations. Overall the key is to ensure that Allied continues to support our customers by delivering enhanced levels of service.

What was the appeal of working for a glassmaker such as Allied?Although established over 130 years ago, Allied Glass continues to be a thought leader for glass packaging, creating beautiful and award winning packaging, which support the spirits industry’s desire for premium, value added packaging.

You previously worked for Bacardi. What skills will you bring to Allied as a result of your previous role?I bring an in-depth understanding of the spirits industry coupled with a strong understanding of purchasers. This essentially means that I can work to support our customers to ensure that their glass packaging delivers against key brand values.

What challenges do you anticipate in your new role?The spirits industry is currently challenged yet it still remains an exciting sector to be involved with. As with any industry, innovation plays a

vital role, both with the liquid or the packaging. Therefore, Allied has continued to invest and work alongside our customers to facilitate their desire for innovative high-end glass packaging. This was seen in the work we have recently carried out on the packaging upgrade of Scottish Leader whisky for Burn Stewart. Here we used our 3D print capability to facilitate an agile and flexible design service which assisted with the timely launch of the beautiful new pack.

From your previous role at Bacardi, was there much competition from rival materials to replace glass?Yes, there was certainly competition from other materials. Yet, I believe glass presents a confident and positive image to brand owners as it is highly inert, recyclable and has made advances with lightweighting, design, shape and decoration. Glass is the only packaging material that delivers a quality perception that supports our customers’ premium brand cues and drives brand value.

Does glass packaging have a future? Yes, glass has a very strong future, the raft of benefits it offers makes it a truly unique packaging solution which both brand owners and consumers admire and trust. r

Allied Glass, Leeds, UK.www.allied-glass.com

Allied means business

Jonathan Culley is the new Business Development Director for the UK’s Allied Glass. Greg Morris spoke with him to find out his thoughts on the industry.

“Glass has a very

strong future,

the raft of benefits

it offers makes it a

truly unique

packaging

solution.”

Allied.indd 1 6/8/15 12:19 PM

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Electric Furnaces Developing newfurnace designs for most glass types, includingopal. Complete technical back-up for melting qualityimprovement from raw materials though toforehearth, including all operational problems.Trouble shooting service on all types of existingfurnace designs.

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The four Container Glass Alliance partners Zippe, Horn Glass, Bucher Emhart Glass and MSK worked

together to ensure the successful start-up of Vidroporto’s Porto Ferreira glass plant.

The project proved how the Alliance stands for high international quality and solutions that shape the market.

Vidroporto appointed the Container Glass Alliance in Q2 of 2013 to construct its plant in Porto Ferreira, Brazil. Since then the four partners have not held back on their efforts to serve their customer in due time and with full respect of the budget and technical requirements.

The Glass Alliance was selected to design and install all process equipment, from the batch storage and preparation down to the complete cold end.

The production unit, built in an extremely short time, came into operation in October 2014.

The whole plant quickly reached its nominal capacity, allowing Vidroporto to produce 1,800 bottles per minute on three lines, mainly destined for leading bottler AMBEV.

Vidroporto President, E. L. Rossi, declared: “We fully appreciate the cooperation with the Container Glass Alliance, whose contribution to the success of our project is fully recognised by all.

“The Glass Alliance professional team made us very satisfied and confirmed that we made the right choice by preferring a holistic approach with a global partner rather than the classical way consisting of contracting several independent contractors.”

He added: “Beyond the technical expertise and global coordination, working with the Glass Alliance offered the advantage of getting an overall Performance Guarantee that filled us with confidence right from the beginning until start-up.”

The project highlighted the close cooperation between the four members. The combination of the four members brings benefits to investors in terms of technical optimisation, smooth work-

The Container Glass Alliance provides targeted know-how for the manufacture of container glass or individual projects and production steps in glass plants. Jean-Philippe Martel* outlines a case study of a recent installation in Brazil.

Continued>>

z Unloading area of the Zippe batch house. z Batch charging zone of the furnace area.

z MSK palletising lines at the cold end.

Container Glass Alliance in Brazilian

CONTAINER glass.indd 1 6/9/15 12:08 PM

Container Glass


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start-up

fl ow and mitigates fi nancial risks. All interfaces between each section of

the hot and cold ends were managed by the four members, internally, under the transversal control of the independent engineering company cm.project.ing, while overall project management remained in the hands of Vidroporto.

The Glass Alliance provides targeted know-how from experts in their fi elds, for the manufacture of container glass or particular projects and production steps in the glass plants of its customers.

Within the Glass Alliance, Zippe guides its customers from the mixing and cullet processing stage. Horn provides the planning and production of glass-melting furnaces while Bucher Emhart Glass offers forming and inspection machines.

Production is brought through to the cold-end area of the lehrs and packaging from MSK.

*General Manager,Container Glass-Alliance, www.glass-alliance.com

z An Internal view of Horn Glass’s furnace at the hot end before heat-up.

z Bucher Emhart Glass’s AIS triple gob machine at

the hot end.

z MSK shuttle car at the cold end.

PIONEERSin Pressure Testing

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CONTAINER glass.indd 2 6/9/15 12:08 PM


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In terms of glass processing and forming for pharmaceutical, tableware and technical glass items, Ocmi

has a depth of experience in factors that affect the glass forming process such as temperature, processing time, environmental conditions, and the quality of glass and raw materials.

In Ocmi’s tableware division, the most popular equipment throughout the world is the sealing and stretching machine available in models SA42, SA48 and SA60, depending on the number of working stations required (Fig. 1).

The science of stemwareThis machine allows manufacturers to produce stemware articles such as wineglasses by joining the stem and bowl (previously produced in pressing and blowing machines) and, if necessary, by stretching the stem before unloading.

Stemware processing is one of the operations where glass forming becomes a sort of science. Each operator has

particular opinions about the way to work with the glass and achieve the desired article shape.

Ocmi’s sealing and stretching machine is usually placed in a production line with a press and a press-blow (or blow-blow) machine to produce stems and bowls, with the two items sealed together to achieve the final stemware (Fig. 2).

Ocmi SA is a round rotative machine divided in different working areas. The loading area consists of two loading devices for stems and bowls with 12 arms each. These loaders must be perfectly synchronised with the conveyors coming from the previous machines in order to avoid losses and breakages and, of course, with the rotation of the sealing machine itself. The bowl loader is equipped with 12 mechanical grippers designed in accordance with the shape of the bowl, while the stem loaders can work by vacuum if the stem consists of a simple disk without a foot.

The bowls are loaded into the lower

chucks of the machine, while the stems go to the upper chucks.

The lower chucks can be developed with some adaptations so as to correct any defect in stemware axiality: floating chucks with movable supporting plates serve this purpose.

Furthermore, the lower chucks can be developed for internal or external gripping of the bowl depending on the regularity of the moil shape.

SealingFor bowls without a moil, if the moil cut is made before sealing then the lower chucks can be equipped with vacuum gripping in order to avoid any contact of mechanical grippers with the bowl edge. The upper chucks can be automatically adjusted in height through a camera control system that checks the level of the items into the machine: this is important in order to obtain the same

Sealing the deal in stemware

Alessandro Crescentini* explains a forming process used to join the bowl and stem of stemware, in particular wineglasses.

Continued>>

Fig. 2 Stemware sealing process in action,

in Ocmi’s sealing machine.

Ocmi.indd 1 6/8/15 12:22 PM

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sealing point in each station and achieve a uniform quality for the whole batch.

The first working area of the machine is equipped with heating burners to keep the items at the correct temperature before the subsequent operations.

The main cam of the machine allows for the vertical movement of lower chucks up to the sealing point for joining with the stem. At this stage the glass is processed through specific burners dedicated to the sealing operation.

After sealing, for some types of stemware such as Champagne flutes, the stem can be stretched by lowering the lower chucks: the configuration of the cam can be designed for quicker or slower stretching, or a longer or shorter sealing area.

Dedicated burners treat the glass and all burners follow the movement of the chucks rotation. The nozzles are internally designed and developed by Ocmi in accordance with the different operations to be made on glass.

At the end of the process an unloading device, also equipped with 12 arm mechanical gripping hands, picks up the finished articles and places them on the exit conveyor before they move on to either the moil cutting machine or the lehr (Fig. 3).

The configuration of the cam affects the forming of the glass, along with the type of burners used, their position and the temperature of their flames.

OutputThe sealing machine by Ocmi allows manufacturers to produce stemware

articles with a maximum height of 350mm and a maximum output of about 60 pieces per hour in the highest performing model, the SA60.

The speed depends on the type of article processed, and the glass bowl can come from either press-blow or blow-blow machine. The blow-blow solution produces a thinner glass and a higher quality item that will require a slower rotation of the working station in the Ocmi sealing machine. As always, higher quality products cannot be produced at the highest speed possible.

The machine is not the only factor responsible for the final quality of the article, but in this case, more so than in other types of production, the operator

must be accurate in regulating the levels of gas, oxygen and air for burner feeding and in the adjsutment of cam height in the sealing and stretching zones.

As already explained, the operator can be supported by technological developments such as the camera control system for the self-adjustment of the upper chucks. Camera systems are one of Ocmi’s main internal developments, applied not only to this equipment but also to tube forming machines for the production of pharmaceutical containers.

Many historical stemware manufacturers in Europe use Ocmi machines to produce stemware articles. The flexibility in designing this machine came from the analysis of several needs of the end-users and different types of glass such as the traditional soda-lime, to standard and lead crystal.

The growing market in this field is Asia, with countries such as China and Thailand looking for solutions to improve their quality.

Ocmi is conducting research into having machines with a higher number of stations, which would provide a better performance rate and an all-in-one solution for stemware.

As it stands, the company can offer a high speed machine with more than 100 stations, with working areas for heating, sealing, stretching and, on request, more space available for stations dedicated to further operations. r

*Spare Parts Manager, Ocmi-O.T.G., Milan, Italy. www.ocmigroup.com

Fig. 3: The finished product.

Fig. 1 Ocmi’s

sealing machine

for stemware.

Ocmi.indd 2 6/8/15 12:22 PM

There’s only

ONE WAYto make an high quality product

PAS-12 and PAS-9 the new Amig jug forming machines

PAS-9PAS-12

Amig_Pas-12_Pas-9_adv_V03.indd 1Amig_Pas-12_Pas-9_adv_V03.indd 1 2/18/2014 8:50:31 PM2/18/2014 8:50:31 PM

Adam Neupert* highlights a selection of case studies where Quantum has worked with glassmakers to solve a variety of forming problems in the glass production process.

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Next year will mark the 40th anniversary that Quantum Engineered Products has served the

hollow glass industry. The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA based company began solving glass forming problems for North American manufactures. Since then it has been fortunate to collaborate with glass manufacturers in just about every part of the globe. One of the company’s aims has been to help hollow glass manufacturers increase their profitability by eliminating forming problems encountered on the blank side. Blank side forming is arguably the most critical step in the manufacturing of hollow glass containers and Quantum devotes 100% of its engineering time to improve this demanding process. In the past 40 years Quantum has plenty of examples of how it has helped glassmakers bring an end to their forming problems. The following case studies summarise a selection of these projects.

Case Study 1Location: Latin AmericaContainer: Liquor BottleManufacturing Process: Blow and Blow

Forming Problem: Reoccurring Choked Neck DefectsForming Problem Summation: A choked neck defect can occur due to problems in the blank side forming process. A choked neck defect is an obstruction, restriction, or closure of glass within the neck of the container or bottle. Visibly, excess glass caused by poor glass distribution can be seen inside the neck of the container. The choked neck defect can cause costly problems on a filling line, so it is important to eliminate them from hollow glass production. The Latin American manufacturer was experiencing re-occurring choked neck defects during the production run of a particular liquor bottle, which led to production efficiency losses and reduced pack to melt percentages. Previous attempts to eliminate the defect were unsuccessful and Quantum was approached to help provide a solution.Corrective Action Taken: First, Quantum began an in-depth analysis of all the variables of the job. Since the choked neck defect was more prominent on one specific job (liquor bottle) the analysis focused on the design and setup of that

particular job. Quantum constructed a full forming system layout using the mould equipment (plunger, neck ring, guide plate,) overlaid onto the models of the Quantum Forming System to create a 3D view of how the job is setup on the IS machine. Quantum’s engineers analysed the 3D model and realised that when the forming plunger was in the counterblow position, the counterblow air was being restricted by interference of the forming plunger itself with the guide plate. If the counterblow air is restricted a cold spot can be created in the parison and this cold spot can be blown into the neck during the counterblow function, thus creating a choked neck. Also, proper glass distribution depends on a uniform counterblow, which cannot be achieved if there are air restrictions, as was occurring on this job.

Quantum hypothesised that because the liquor bottle had such a tall finish that more pullback of the forming plunger was required and that more pullback should solve the choked neck defect. Quantum’s 9100 series Blow and Blow Cartridges

Continued>>

Solving forming problems for 40 years

z Quantum’s headquarters in Saxonburg, PA, USA.

Forming quantum.indd 1 6/8/15 4:29 PM

Forming


32

allowed the manufacturer to have various pullback positions to help maximise the counterblow delivery. In the world of hollow glass production there are countless different mould designs and types of finishes, so having the ability to change the counterblow position of the forming plunger is a design feature that tailors the manufacturing process to each job and creates an advanced Blow and Blow Process.

Once the correct counterblow position for the liquor bottle was determined the company advised the customer to install the lock spring piston (spacer) that gave them the correct pullback position. During testing the chocked neck defect was reduced and the problem could be considered solved. The quality of glass distribution and the finished product quality also increased due to the increase in counterblow efficiency.

Case Study 2Location: Southeast AsiaContainer: VariousManufacturing Process: Blow and BlowForming Problem: Stuck Plungers Forming Problem Summation: In the Blow and Blow Process plungers can become ‘stuck’ or unable to return to the gob loading position. The stuck plunger can occur because of an abnormal relation between the thimble and the forming plunger. If the plunger and/or thimble tilt or deviate from their proper alignment a stuck plunger can occur.

If the forming plunger also completely pulls out of the thimble during the full down position this can create a stuck plunger. When this mechanical failure occurs the glass loads into the thimble, which leads to excessive machine downtime and a negative effect on the bottom line.

Corrective Action Taken: Quantum worked with the manufacturer to design a Blow and Blow forming system that did not allow the thimble and plunger to misalign. Quantum designed a thimble with an extended base or ‘skirt.’ This skirted thimble kept the components of the Blow and Blow Cartridge in precise alignment with every cycle of the IS machine.

The forming system is a pyramid of pieces and it is important to make sure all of the pieces remain in the proper relation or alignment with each other.

The skirt on the thimble acted as a dual function feature. It kept the thimble properly aligned and added length to the thimble which made it impossible for the plunger to completely pull out of the thimble and jam.

Upon implementation of the new thimble the problems of stuck plungers and unforeseen machine downtime were resolved. The absolute alignment of Quantum’s forming system was achieved by design and not by the machine operator or setup of the equipment.

The solution brought about stronger ware with less finish defects and a more reliable production line.

Case Study 3Location: North AmericaContainer: VariousManufacturing Process: Blow and BlowForming Problem: Air leaking into the parison during the Plunger Up functionForming Problem Summation:Quantum collaborated with a North American hollow glass manufactur to solve an air leakage problem that plagued its production.

Process air was leaking into the blank mould and parison during the Plunger Up function. The air leak was coming

from a gap between the cooler tube seal and the inner diameter of the Piston Rod. The leaking air entered the Piston Rod during Plunger up and made its way out of the Piston rod, up through the counter blow holes of the forming plunger and into the blank mould. When leaking air entered the blank mould, it created poor gob loading and unnecessary actions, such as excessive settle blow, to form a proper container.

Corrective Action Taken: Quantum supplied the manufacturer with its Plunger Mechanisms that include the Tube-within-a-tube (TWT) Cylinders. The TWT is a sealed forming system that eliminates air leakages in the forming process. The sealing technology within the TWT solved the air leakage problems that the manufacturer had struggled with for years. Gob loading improved and the related defects were eliminated.

The pack to melt percentage on the production line increased with the addition of the Quantum forming system and the TWT.

Case Study 4Location: Latin AmericaContainer: Hot Sauce BottleManufacturing Process: Narrow Neck Press and BlowForming Problem: Overheating of the forming plunger and a loss of cooling air capacityForming Problem Summation: The manufacturer was struggling with overheated forming plungers that were causing defects and limiting the speeds that the IS machine could achieve. The cooling air was leaking from the current forming system, which created a drop in cooling air efficiency. Also, the overall design of the plunger cooling system needed improvement.

z Plunger mechanism.

z Process equipment.


Forming


Corrective Action Taken: At the request of the manufacturer, Quantum agreed to participate in a side-by-side test to evaluate the Plunger cooling capacity of Quantum’s QH9000-OS cylinder versus the cylinders that the manufacturer was currently using.

The results of the test proved that the Quantum cylinder cooling system was more efficient than the competitive system. The forming plungers on the Quantum cylinders were cooler by an average of 126 degrees Celsius. There are multiple reasons why the test resulted in the favour of the Quantum cylinder.

First, the area of the cooling air inlet on the Quantum cylinder is larger than competitor systems. Quantum’s OS style Piston Rod has an inlet area of 19mm and a cooling air pathway that delivers the cooling air with maximum efficiency.

Second, the Quantum cylinder is a sealed system that eliminates any leakages of the cooling air.

The entire blankside forming system can be a network of possible leak points and any small leak compromises the inlet volume of the process air and the integrity of the forming process. Quantum’s TWT cylinder and the various features of the Narrow Neck Press and Blow Positioners work together to eliminate the leak points.

Lastly, Quantum and the manufacturer worked together to improve the comprehensive design of the plunger cooling system.

The project incorporated Quantum’s cooler tube design, which includes a swaged tip, a spiral to promote cyclonic action and air movement, and the proper balance of inlet versus outlet cooling air to create backpressure in the system.

All of the design features and mould design recommendations led to a successful test and the manufacturer began to implement the Quantum Forming System as standard.

In response to the cooling efficiency testing results, the manufacturer chose to swap its plunger mechanisms and upgrade its forming process with the Quantum system. The customer was able to achieve the production speeds it desired without experiencing the overheating of forming plungers and the related ware defects.

The variables that can negatively affect the manufacturing process of hollow glass containers are many and can change every day.

The only way to minimise the challenges in the manufacturing process is to use the right tools and rely on the right people to do the right things. Many manufacturers rightly invest in improvements to their furnaces, forehearths, or batch plants so they can have the highest glass quality.

Glassmakers also allocate attention towards inspection machines and cold end processes to make sure they are releasing a safe and high quality product to their customers, which is paramount.

However, thought must be applied to the critical blank side forming process where the glass begins to take the shape of a final product and where many defects can either be created or avoided.

Having the best glass means nothing if it cannot be properly formed and it is always better to prevent the formation of defects rather than detect them. r

*Sales and Service Manager, Quantum, Saxonburg, PA, USA.www.quantumforming.comQauntum will be exhibiting on stand D10 at Glassman Latin America in Guadalajara, Mexico Sept 22 and 23.www.glassmanevents.com/latin-america


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Anglo Carbon Ad_07-2014_outlines.pdf 1 16/07/2014 11:31

A stable glass gob is essential for forming high quality glass products. Gob weight variations

lead to differences in the quality of the formed glass products. Variations in the gob temperature and gob shape are given less attention but they do have an influence on the quality of the glass product. For example, a change in the gob temperature leads to a change in the glass distribution of the formed products.

When the gob forming process is in control, it’s much easier to get the glass forming process in control.

It is therefore important for glass manufacturers to monitor and to control the gob forming process and the glass forming process. The result will be higher glass product quality, better production efficiency and lower production costs.

Complete solution Cortex Glass offers a complete hot end solution for inspecting, monitoring and controlling the gob forming and the glass forming process.

Cortex systems provide operators and process engineers the necessary process information, in an understandable format, to improve the glass manufacturing process.

The systems are connected to each other in order to share data. Product data only has to be entered in one system, the other systems automatically receive the product data and are set up without user intervention. Measurement data from one system can be displayed in real time

in other systems, speeding up the root cause analysis process. All measurement data is stored in a database and can be easily retrieved. An open data interface is available for third party systems to automatically control, for example, the glass forming process.

According to the company, its systems are modular and built with up-to-date hardware and software. The large 22” touch screen interfaces are easy to use and all systems have the same feel and looks. The company said the systems also improve the glass forming process knowledge of operators and process engineers. This is essential for manufacturers who want to continuously improve their glass manufacturing process.

GobWatch The GobWatch system monitors and controls the gob forming process. The system contains two high-resolution cameras (for single, dual, triple and quad gob operation) capturing images of all falling gobs right after they are cut.

The GobWatch system provides real-time information about the gob weight, gob temperature, gob falling angle and gob shape. The system warns operators when the gob forming process changes.

A feature of the GobWatch system is that it inspects every gob for inclusions such as seeds and bubbles. The number of detected seeds and bubbles are shown in trend graphs on the touch screen. With the seed count and bubble count information, process engineers have a

tool with which they can improve the melting, fining, forehearth and feeder processes.

The closed loop gob weight control function of the GobWatch is accurate. It can stabilise the gob weight within ±0.05% of the desired weight. The automatic gob weight control function can start directly after a job change, when the first gob is produced. The system creates more time for operators and job change crew to set up and control the glass forming process.

Glass products with blisters, bubbles, cords, stones and other gob inclusions are rejected by the GobWatch directly after the IS-machine. This makes the GobWatch an efficient inspecting system, especially for non-round and engraved glass products such as perfume bottles, which are difficult to inspect at the cold end.

The GobWatch rejects formed glass products with, for example, gob weight deviations, reducing the chance of over-pressed finishes in NNPB production.

The company said the GobWatch system leads to higher product quality, a reduction of the job change time by more than 30 minutes and increased production efficiency.

ISWatch The ISWatch system is a hot end infrared camera system that inspects every bottle for defects directly after the IS machine.

Hot end process monitoringMark Holtkamp* and René Brummelman** explain why glass manufacturers should monitor both the gob forming process and the glass forming process.

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35z Cortex Glass system z Gobwatch Shape screen

Continued>>

2.63 m/s

11271136°

0.3°

77.8mm

84.3mm

-2.4°

23.6mm24.9mm

4 90.0g 2.74m/s 4 90.0g 1 FRONT 1 BACK

Feeder

IS-Machine

Reject

Reject

TopWatch

GobWatch

ISWatch

Forming Cortex.indd 1 6/8/15 11:17 AM

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The ISWatch system gives real-time cavity-related information about glass distribution, temperature, symmetry, lean and shape.

A feature of the system is that it uses small infrared cameras that make it possible to view the glass products with four or more infrared cameras from different positions and angles, making a complete hot end inspection feasible.

The ISWatch informs personnel when the glass forming process changes, direct remedial action can take place so that the production of glass products with defects and of lower quality can be prevented.

Information of the GobWatch system can be displayed in real time in the ISWatch system. For example, problems with the mould cooling can be found by

correlating the gob temperature with the glass distribution of the formed products.

The ISWatch rejects bottles with stones, bubbles, blisters, bird swings, choked necks, wedged bottoms, lean, thin glass, thick glass, stuck ware, fallen ware and fins.

TopWatch The TopWatch system can be integrated in the ISWatch system and reduces losses at the hot end which are the result of a wrong positioning of glass products on the conveyor.

The TopWatch system uses one small infrared camera mounted above the conveyor in order to create thermal images of the glass products.

The TopWatch provides real time cavity

related information about the x-position, y-position and tilt of the bottles.

The system also measures the conveyor belt speed. With the provided information of the TopWatch, the pusher settings and conveyor belt speed are easily set up and optimised. The result is a smooth transport process and a reduction of the job change time.

The TopWatch rejects bottles with a wrong position before they can cause jams at the coating tunnel and ware transfer. r

*Chief Executive Officer, **Chief Technolo-gy Officer, Cortex Glass, Groningen, The Netherlands.Web: www.cortexglass.com

z ISWatch overview screen zTopWatch Overview screen

dx = 0.4°dy = 0,7mm

tilt = 1,1°

dx = -0.8°dy = 0,1mm

tilt = 1,8°

207,8mm 217,2mm 217,3mm 217,0mm209,7mm215,9mm206,8mm

dx = 0,0°dy = -0,6mm

tilt =- 1,5°

dx = 0,9°dy = 1,0mmtilt =- 0,1°

dx = -0,5°dy = 1,6mm

tilt =2,8°

dx = 0,0°dy = 0,0mm

tilt =0,0°

dx = -0,8°dy = 0,8mm

tilt =0,2°

dx = 0,0°dy = 0,7mmtilt = -1,6°

1F

Front

Symmetry neck Lean 2mm

Thin neck

Back

1B 2B 3B 4B 5B 6B 7B 8B 9B 10B

2F 3F 4F 5F 6F 7F 8F 9F 10F

Forming Cortex.indd 2 6/8/15 11:17 AM

Heye strengthens position in CIS countries

Forming


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PROVENSCIENCE

in Pressure Testing

We wrote the book on pressure testing.

OUR BRAND


+1.724.482.2163AGRINTL .COM

The economies of the CIS countries continue to provide successful business opportunities for German

glass container production technology company, Heye International.

In recent years, the company’s dedicated sales and service experts for the region have established long-term partnerships with some of the area’s glass packaging manufacturers.

This year, at least two new IS-Machines will go into operation, one of them as 12-section 5½ inch for Narrow Neck Press and Blow (NNPB) bottles. Heye’s advanced servo feeders with assortment

production (different weights on one machine) has also been a success. NNPB is important for the CIS countries.

NNPB saves energy and also increases customer convenience through lighter container weight. Heye said it was in the process of several NNPB upgrades for customers. The feedback from the market has been good and Heye said it was happy to help its customers to become more successful. �

Heye International, Obernkirchen, Germany.Web: www.heye-international.com

� Heye IS machine with assortment production, which allows for different weights on one machine.

� Heye’s SpeedLine machine.

Forming Heye.indd 1 6/8/15 11:19 AM

History


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Soap to wash the colour from glass! What a boon that would be. Manganese compounds though

have been attributed with just this remarkable property, known even to Roman glassmakers.

How do they work? Are they effective for any colour? How can they also be a colouring agent? We explore these contradictions here and in doing so will uncover the reason for its demise.

This ‘soap’ (usually pyrolusite, MnO2) came from the Magnesia region of Greece. A magnesium ore, also useful to glassmakers, and magnetite, an iron oxide (Fe3O4), were found there too.

The magnesium ore, termed magnes alba, was white. Both magnetite and pyrolusite were black and called magnes negra but could be differentiated by their interaction with iron. Magnetite was magnetic, pyrolusite was not.

A corruption of magnes negra is allegedly the source of the word manganese, whereas magnes alba led to magnesium. So manganese, magnesium and magnetism all have one Greek root.

Manganese and iron share other similarities, both being transition metals, with multiple oxidation states and many differently coloured compounds. This rich behaviour arises because some of their electrons are in less strongly bound d orbitals. The atoms can lose varying numbers of d electrons in forming chemical compounds and not all available orbitals must be filled. The consequences are 1) some magnetic ions, because not all electrons have a twin with an opposing magnetic field and 2) colour, because the energy level spacing matches photon energies corresponding to visible light.

Iron is a common impurity in glassmaking raw materials, e.g. sand. It dissolves in glass melts as either ferrous (Fe2+) or ferric (Fe3+) ions; commercial glasses typically have 20% ferrous and 80% ferric ions depending on melting

conditions. Fe2+ absorbs strongly near infrared radiation and the red part of the visible spectrum more weakly. Glasses with Fe2+ alone are therefore blueish. Conversely ferric ions absorb at the blue end of the visible spectrum giving glasses a yellowish tint, although the effect is weaker than for Fe2+.

When both Fe2+ and Fe3+ are present simultaneously the glass has a greenish cast, visible in thicker sections such as a bottle base or sheet glass edge-on.

Glassmakers have always been pressed by their customers to make their glass colourless so they demand the purest, more costly raw materials. Imagine then the excitement of discovering that a black ore could reduce the natural greenish hue of their glasses. The chemical equation describing this process is: Fe2++Mn3+

→Fe3++Mn2+. Fe2+ and Mn3+ add more colour, Fe3+ and Mn2+ much less. Mn3+ adds a purple hue while Mn2+ is almost colourless. Actually the faint colour Mn2+ balances the weak yellow of Fe3+. So enough Mn must be added to a batch to ensure sufficient Mn3+ in the melt to oxidise all Fe2+. Too much Mn and the glass becomes purple, too little and the green of iron remains. This trick, known for millennia, featured in the high value, clear white Venetian glasses, termed cristallo. Manganese containing glasses fluoresce under UV radiation.

So why not use this approach now? Well this redox reaction occurs not during melting but during cooling. Each element strives to become more oxidised, with no source of ‘oxygen’ other than the other ion. This unequal struggle favours Fe2+ oxidation and the final equilibrium ratios are fixed near the annealing temperature.

But light with sufficient punch can reverse the reaction, in particular photons corresponding to UV radiation can recreate Mn3+ and Fe2+ with little possibility of reversing the reaction chemically after removing the light

source. So old Mn containing window glass often turns purple on exposure to strong sunlight, a phenomenon termed solarisation.

Interestingly the same has been seen when refining Mn rich glasses. During melt cooling, oxygen in any remaining bubbles can dissolve, encouraging bubble shrinkage. In experiments, a thin purple halo has been observed around remnant bubbles as the dissolving oxygen oxidises Mn2+ to Mn3+.

Manufacturers of glass substrates for solar panels have a similar issue. Fe2+ is deleterious because it absorbs those IR photons that are particularly active in generating photovoltaic currents. Apart from demanding low iron sands, glass manufacturers are keen to find a modern variant of glassmaker’s soap to remove Fe2+. Species like cerium, antimony and arsenic all are possible but none are totally immune to solarisation.

Manganese in larger concentrations gives purples as a result of Mn3+ ions. This use is as old as decolourising. It is used in jewellery and stained windows. Control is difficult though because of possible redox reactions with varying iron levels and because of the temperature dependence of the Mn2+/Mn3+ equilibrium. So glassmakers often deliberately create a stronger colour and then use dilution to obtain the required tint. r

BibliographyW A Weyl, Coloured Glasses, published by the Society of Glass TechnologyWikipedia: Manganese & Manganese in Glass

Prof Emeritus John Parker, Curator of the Turner Museum of Glass, Sheffield University, UK www.turnermuseum.group.shef.ac.ukEmail [email protected]

Glassmaker’s soap

Prof. John ParkerTurner Museum of Glass and ICG

Prof. John Parker investigates manganese compounds, used to both decolourise and add colour to, glass.

History.indd 1 6/8/15 11:21 AM

British Glass


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Connecting with consumers about the benefits of glass is one of the major achievements of the industry-

backed Friends of Glass campaign. Since its creation by Feve in 2008, the

campaign has attracted 65,000 supporters from all across Europe, with another 55,000 followers and fans on Facebook and Twitter – and is still growing.

Each year the campaign chooses a different focus: in 2014 it was health, 2016 it will be recycling - and this year, 2015 it is taste. To celebrate, British Glass, which manages the campaign in the UK on behalf of Ardagh, O-I, Encirc, Allied, Stolzle and Beatson Clark, has secured a place for Friends of Glass at one of the world’s leading food and drink festivals, Taste of London.

The festival takes place in Regent’s Park from 17th – 21st June and promises five days of foodie heaven, with signature dish tastings offered by London’s top restaurants, live cooking demonstrations from leading chefs plus wine, champagne and beer tastings and masterclasses for visitors to experience.

Friends of Glass will be getting the message that glass is best for taste out to the expected 55,000 visitors by offering a chance to win tickets to a beer tasting, hosted by the UK’s first Beer Sommelier of the Year, Jane Peyton in the VIP lounge.

Jane is a font of all knowledge about beer and will be offering the chance to compare the flavours and aromas that can be found with different types of beer.

Three beers of contrasting styles will be sampled: Fuller’s Wild River, a classic IPA, Harveistoun’s Bitter and Twisted, a smooth golden ale and Fuller’s Black Cab, a perfect stout.

She will be explaining why glass is the perfect vessel for both drinking and storing beer – and how the shape of the

glass is also an important factor in the experience of taste.

Visitors to Taste of London who are unlucky in the draw for the VIP beer tasting session, will still have another chance to enjoy a tasting session with Jane by entering the Friends of Glass Fuller’s Brewery Tour and Tasting competition which will be running all week.

Taste will also be on the agenda for visitors taking part in the Friends of Glass #MapYourTaste quiz, which will be featured on main stand. The quiz is part of a new quest which was launched by Friends of Glass in April this year to find out what tastes people prefer and how this may be affected by where they live.

All the 12 European countries in the Friends of Glass group are taking part, with the aim of ultimately mapping what is the real ‘Taste of Europe’.

Visitors to Taste of London will be able to play the quiz and find out their own personal taste profile – be it salty, sweet, bland, sour, bitter, spicy or cool.

Participants can see how their individual preferences compare to others, both at home and abroad.

To create the Taste Map, Friends of Glass joined forces with a panel of renowned taste experts to identify taste foundations for map.

The taste experts’ panel featured Ms Peyton, plus a host of Europe’s finest authorities on wine, water and nutrition such as Andreas Larsson, Swedish Wine Sommelier, voted Best Sommelier of the World; Arno Steguweit, Europe’s first Water Sommelier from Germany; Caroline Furstoss, French Wine Sommelier 2014; Professor Giorgio Calabrese, a renowned Italian Nutritionist; Guillermo Cruz, voted Spain’s Best Sommelier in 2014; and Christophe Baert, chef and Vice-President of the Belgian Euro-Toques

Association. The Friends of Glass #MapYourTaste

quiz has already featured at major European food and drink events in 2015, including EXPO Milano and at the Salon de la Revue du Vin de France.

After Taste of London, the quiz will continue to be available online until the end of 2015 and there are also plans to feature it at other food and drink festivals that take place in Hamburg, Munich and Madrid.

Friends of Glass has been consistently successful in finding creative ways to connect with consumers such as participating at events such as Taste of London, maintaining a vibrant active social media presence where consumer voices can be heard and offering engaging activities like #MapYourTaste.

The campaign helps remind packaging decision-makers that 87% of Europeans consumers consistently prefer glass packaging for their food and drinks.

How to play the #MapYourTaste Quiz

r Go to www.friendsofglass.com/mapyourtaste and complete the quiz to #MapYourTaste

r Discover how your preferences will feed into the Taste Map

r Learn more about different tastes from peer consumers and our Taste Makers

r Join the Friends of Glass Community on Twitter. Find us at @friendsglassUK or Facebook, or on www.friendsofglass.com/tastemap to stay up-to-date with the #MapYourTaste campaign and share your results.

*Head of Container Affairs, British Glass, Sheffield, UK.www.britglass.org.uk

Glass takes a stand for taste

British Glass

This year’s Friends of Glass campaign will focus on taste. Rebecca Cocking* discusses how British Glass has helped secure a place for the campaign at a major UK food and drink festival.

British Glass.indd 1 6/9/15 12:17 PM

WHEN YOUR REPUTATION IS ON THE LINEDepend on us.Are you experiencing downtime due to the lifetime of your ware handling materials? POCO’s premium GLASSMATE® grade offers exceptional wear resistance in the hot end process.

Need to increase your pack rate? Depend on us.

Visit www.glassmate.com to find out how GLASSMATE solutions can significantly reduce downtime and checking.

ISO 9001:2008 & AS9100:2009POCO® and GLASSMATE® are registered trademarks of Poco Graphite, Inc.

15 - 16 May 2012World Trade Centre, Mexico City

5

2015

5


Where the container glass industry meets to do business

NEW EVENT ANNOUNCED

www.glassmanevents.com/latam

See the website for more details

For more details contact:Ken Clark Sales Director Tel: +44(0)1737 855117 Email: [email protected]

Jeremy Fordrey Sales Manager Tel: +44 (0)1737 855133 Email: [email protected]


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Visitors to the Glassman Europe event in Lyon included senior decision makers from glassmakers around the globe. Greg Morris attended.

Visitors from around the globe descended on Lyon, France for the Glassman Europe event in May.

The exhibition floor was packed with suppliers to the global container and hollow glass industry and included renowned names such as Zippe, Heye International, BDF and Lyon-based Iris Inspection Machines.

Visitors came from as far afield as Guatemala, Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Japan although the majority of visitors were, naturally, from France.

Global companies that visited the event included Owens-Illinois (O-I), Ardagh, Heinz-Glas, Verallia, Sisecam, Saint-Gobain and SGD. French-based companies represented included Arc International, Stoelzle Glass, Saverglass and Pochet du Courval. End-use

companies that attended included Bacardi and Danone.

There were a total of 637 visitors plus a number of media representatives from newspapers and television at the event.

The seniority level of visitors was incredibly high. It included CEOs, Presidents, COOs, General Managers, R&D Directors, Plant Managers, Technical Managers, Director of Purchasing, Buyers, Furnace Engineers and Marketing Managers.

FeedbackThe exhibition included more than 60 companies displaying a variety of their latest technology.

Among those was Mark Holtkamp, CEO of Cortex Glass from The Netherlands, who reported a positive show.

He exhibited because, as a relatively new company, it was an opportunity to show its systems to potential customers. France is a key country for the company.

“France has a lot of high quality glass manufacturers especially in the perfume & cosmetics and container glass sectors. Cortex Glass develops and sells systems for high quality glass manufacturers.

“The visitors we’ve met were well prepared and had a clear focus. We’ve met visitors from Japan, Chile, Guatemala, and Saudi Arabia who we did not expect to attend a ‘local’ exhibition.”

Michael Terhorst, Head of Central Sales at Spie Energy Solutions, said the exhibition fulfilled the company’s expectations.

Glassman attracts top visitors

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“Glassman was a very good opportunity to meet new and existing business contacts. The combination of having a stand and giving a presentation was a great option to meet new, interesting business contacts.

“After the presentation we had opportunities to discuss with listeners at our stand about the presentation.”

Another upbeat exhibitor was Daniel Hilfi ker, CEO of Italy’s Pneumofore, who reported that it was a ‘positive show’.

He said the company had met some interesting contacts from North Africa and the Middle East.

Another satisfi ed exhibitor was AGR, which reported that the show was well attended and that its staff enjoyed quality visits and discussions with several key glass container manufacturers and fi llers.

The focus of many of its discussions was its latest pressure tester, the SPT2, as well as the DSG and OmniLab systems.

Interest was high in the new SPT2, which brings glass container automated pressure testing and volume measurement to an advanced level.

Germany’s EME Maschinenfabrik Clasen shared a stand with parent company Nikolaus Sorg. EME said the show was a good opportunity to meet and discuss with customers and potential buyers and reported a satisfactory show.

Opening eventThe event, held at the Cite Centre de Congrès, Lyon on May 6 and 7 was offi cially opened by O-I’s Country Executive for France and Spain, Francois Pierrot. He cut a ribbon alongside Glassman’s local partner for the event Jean Luc Logel, CEO of Iris Inspection Machines. They were joined by Dr Bernd-Holger, President/CEO, Zippe; Yann Crombecque, Member of the Regional Council; and Philippe Valentin, Vice President, CCI Lyon.

It was the seventh time Glassman has been held in Lyon and the eighth time

in France. Following successful feedback from a number of exhibitors there are now discussions between the Glassman organiser and Lyon city dignitaries to make Glassman a regular exhibition in the city.

Mr Pierrot and Mr Logel were later joined by Adeline Farrelly, Secretary General of FEVE, in a press conference set-up by the Glassman organiser. The three executives fi elded questions from 10 French journalists who asked a number of questions about the regional and national glass industry, and about the environmental benefi ts of glass.

Media coverage of the event included a fi ve-minute feature on the regional glass industry on French television channel FR3 Rhône-Alpes.

The news article included a visit to the O-I Labegude site located in the Ardèche region and an interview with Gilles Martin, Plant Manager, who discussed the glassmaking process.

Later in the news article, Mr Logel discussed the regional glassmaking industry and its economic importance.

The futureGlassman Latin America takes place in Guadalajara, Mexico on September 22 and 23. Recent acquisitions in the Mexican domestic container glass manufacturing market have highlighted the level of interest in the country.

The country, famous for its tequila and beer, has an expanding container glass market thanks to the rise in exports of its globally renowned beers such as Corona and Modelo.

Glass International will organise the conference that runs parallel to the exhibition. It has put out a call for speakers. If you are interested in speaking contact Greg Morris at [email protected] �

www.glassmanevents.com/europewww.glassmanevents.com/latin-america

Introducing the SPT2 the most advanced volume and pressure measurement system available today.• 270 bottles per hour throughput

• No job change

• Lab-precision volume measurement at the line

Introducing the SPT2

INNOVATIONin Pressure Testing

OUR BRAND


+1.724.482.2163AGRINTL .COM

� The Iris stand at Glassman Europe.

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A showcase for glass machinery, equipment and special products for glass processing, Vitrum

will display technology designed for glass in the industrial, architectural, pharmaceutical and automotive sectors.

Focusing in particular on the cost and energy savings of these products, this year the show coincides with Expo 2015, the universal exhibition which this year has the theme of ‘Feeding the planet, energy for life’.

The World Expo, which has previously been the inspiration for London’s Crystal Palace and Paris’s Eiffel Tower, occurs once every ten years and visitors to this year’s event in Milan should certainly put aside ample time to visit the exhibition and the various country pavilions.

Italy’s heritageNow in its 19th year, Vitrum is held in Milan every two years and is a popular forum for decision makers in this particular and highly specialised industrial sector. The last exhibition attracted glass players, with exhibitors arriving from 28 countries and more than

20,000 visitors, more than half of whom travelled to the exhibition from abroad.

Speaking ahead of the event, Dino Zandonella Necca, President of Vitrum, highlighted the importance of the event for the Italian industry, which has a glass

heritage dating from the Roman times, and which he said should be preserved for future generations. Speaking of his optimism for the event, he stressed how the Italian glass industry is the leader in the European market, and his hope that the show continues to be supported by the industry.

This year Vitrum is also hosting the 30th Annual A.T.I.V. Conference, with the theme ‘Advances in Glass Processes: Key innovation topics in hollow and fl at glass’. The event, which will take place on the 8th October 2015, is promoted by the Italian Association of Glass Experts in partnership with Vitrum.

The conference will give exhibitors and research centres an opportunity to present their process and product innovations in fl at and hollow glass to an audience of experts.

With more than 180 provisional bookings for this year’s event, Vitrum once again looks set to be an important exhibition for the glass industry. �

www.vitrum-milano.com

Milan set for Vitrum 2015Vitrum 2015 will be held at Milan’s Rho Fiera exhibition complex onthe 6th–9th October, set alongside this year’s World Expo event.

� Examples of some of Milan’s glass architecture, including (centre) a view of the city’s modern district in the background of Milan’s historical centre.

� The Italian Palazzo at this year’s World Expo in

Milan, where Vitrum will take place.

Vitrum.indd 1 6/8/15 11:28 AM

There are a number of advantages to being able to accurately monitor conditions inside glass melt tanks,

although traditionally this has been done via visual camera technology and manual inspections. Both of these have their limitations in that they are liable to provide data that falls short of requirements in terms of accuracy and timeliness.

As a result, and as demand for flat glass increases, many production plants are investing in infrared technology as it provides real-time, continuous, remote monitoring and with it, improved accuracy and efficiency. Ultimately, innovation in the way that temperature in the melt tank is measured provides the operator with better controllability over production critical areas, and that can, as we have seen, result in a plant being able to operate above optimum efficiency. In these cases it can result in a rapid return on investment and significant market opportunity.

Traditional measurementThere are several elements that need to be closely monitored within the tanks. One is the crown and wall temperatures of the furnace to help ensure that the refractory is not overheating and operating at a level that could cause damage. Another is to monitor the blanket (or melt line); another critical area.

Historically, conditions inside glass melt tanks have been monitored using either visual camera technology or manual inspections. Visual cameras do not provide any true temperature readings, which means that it is virtually impossible to know whether a melt tank is running at optimum performance. The potential consequences of this are the

melt tank overheating or being in a state of inefficient combustion.

Manual inspections present their own specific set of challenges, although continue to be widely used. The principal issue is that they can be labour intensive and therefore are time consuming – it can take hours to complete daily temperature measurements, which is a serious drain on resources.

There is then the tendency for different operators to take the temperatures readings from slightly different points, which adds another undesirable variable. Also, from a safety point of view, manual inspection is riskier because the operator has to spend an extended period of time within the application environment. As a result of all these factors, the data collected may not be suitable for building trend information.

The shortcomings involved with traditional methods of monitoring the melt tank are leading to more plants investing in remote, infrared temperature measurement. The remote measurement tool Near Infrared Borescope (known as the NIR-B) addresses these issues by utilising infrared measurement to give the operator instant, real-time access to data that would have previously been time consuming, inaccurate or could cause concerns about safety.

By using infrared technology and capturing accurate data, the operator can begin to increase the efficiency of the furnace, improve product quality and reduce process costs.

Technology-based approachThe melt tank is obviously a critical part of the glass making process and investing in infrared imaging technology can provide operators with access to real-time,

accurate temperature data at any point within the scene. This approach results in much greater controllability, which ultimately leads to improved product quality and reduced process costs, as well as providing a rapid return on investment.

Using remote temperature measurement gives the operator much more information. For instance, it provides the ability to field areas of interest and measure live data points as well as storing and trending this data for future analysis. Monitoring the blanket (or melt line) video in real-time can allow the operator to configure the correct, most efficient firing pattern, which can save significant costs through reducing fuel usage and gaining the best possible performance from the furnace. The live video feed enables the operator to configure the optimum burner flame length and firing pattern, achieving optimum performance from the burners and hence maximising fuel efficiency.

This kind of enhanced controllability can result in significant cost savings through reducing fuel usage and gaining the best possible performance from the furnace/melt tank. Prior to the introduction of real-time infrared measuring technology, this would have been a time consuming process, by which time the data would have aged to an extent that is was of little use. The great thing about infrared technology is that it allows adjustments to be made in real time, because the data readings are ‘live’.

Being able to measure temperature in this level of detail can also reduce maintenance and repairs costs in what is one of the most capital intensive elements of the production process. For example,

Through the looking glass

Improving efficiency and maintaining product quality are essential within the flat glass industry as worldwide demand continues to grow. Here, Richard Gagg* looks at how infrared temperature measuring technology can help achieve optimum performance within the glass melt process.

Environment


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Environment


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pixel level temperature readings provided by the infrared measuring technologies can identify even the smallest air leak in the side of the tank lining. Likewise, it can instantly identify when the lining is becoming too hot and edges around the exhaust on the port side are in danger of becoming damaged, allowing corrective action to be taken. The ability to monitor port arch temperatures minimises the chance of damaging the refractory in those critical areas.

Improved controllability It is easy to see how the latest infrared imaging technology offers the operator numerous advantages over traditional methods of measurement. However, the key benefit is that it provides a high resolution radiometric image of the process, which means a live temperature value can be obtained from any point on the image. And, because it provides continuous measurement, automated alarm outputs can instantly alert the user to any problems within the process and many operators value this feature because it has helps reduce unplanned maintenance.

Take the situation, for instance, where an internal image identifies an area

of significantly cooler temperature in the melt tank wall, which could be an indication of an air leak. This level of detail enables corrective action to be taken again improving the energy efficiency of the operation.

Likewise, providing clear visibility of the profile of the flame, the operator has access to more than 324,000 live temperature data points combined with coverage 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The thermal imager will also alert an operator to areas overheating. In addition, it improves plant safety and reduces risks by removing personnel from the application environment. By locating data points in the displayed scene, the operator can ensure that readings are taken repeatably with none of the variables possible with manual measurements.

ConclusionAccurate thermal imaging inside refractory-lined glass melt tanks usually involved plant operators manually measuring through view ports in the refractory. Much development work has gone into facilitating the installation of infrared imaging technology on new or existing melt tanks – all that is required with the Borescope technology

is an aperture of around 60mm (2.125”) through the wall and refractory insulation. The lens of the imager is recessed slightly in the refractory insulation and a choice of either 44 or 0 degree wide lenses provides maximum scene coverage.

Infrared temperature measurement offers significant advantages over traditional methods of melt tank monitoring, such as manual infrared point inspection (which can take hours to complete and isn’t continuous). Similarly, a visual camera (does not provide temperature readings) or Thermocouples only provide point measurements and suffer from drift in readings over time due to tip migration at high temperatures. Conversely, remote temperature measurement using installed infrared thermal imaging cameras provides a number of key benefits. These recent advances in measurement technology are helping plants to make significant improvements in the melt tank process. r

Global IR Product Manager, Land Instruments, UKwww.landinst.com Tel +44 (0)1246417691

Land Instruments visual camera technology allows operators to accurately

monitor data.

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� 13th International Seminar on Furnace Design The event will focus on Furnace Design - Op-eration & Process Simulation.June 17th -18th 2015Velke Karlovice, Czech RepublicCONTACT: [email protected]://seminar.gsl.cz

� Glass Performance Days 2015The event will once again bring together in-dustry leaders and glass technology experts.June 24th -26th 2015Tampere, FinlandCONTACT: [email protected] www.mobile.gpd.fi

� Glass Refl ections September 7th -9th 2015Cambridge, UK.CONTACT: www.sgt.org

� ICG Annual Meeting The next International Commission on Glass (ICG) Annual Meeting.September 20th -23rd 2015Bangkok, Thailand.CONTACT: [email protected]

� Gulf Glass 2015 September 14th - 16th 2015Dubai International Convention and Exhibi-tion Centre (DICEC).CONTACT: [email protected]

� Glassman Latin America Glassman will be returning to Mexico in 2015 and stand sales are already underway.September 22nd -23rd 2015Expo Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico.CONTACT: [email protected]

� Vitrum 2015 International trade show spe-cialising in machinery, equipment and sys-tems for fl at, bent and hollow glass.October 6th - 9th 2015Fiera Milano exhibition complex, Milan, Italywww.vitrum-milano.com/en

� Glasstech Asia 2015 A platform for indus-try players around the globe to tap into the growing South-East Asian market.November 19th - 21st 2015Jakarta, Indonesiawww.glasstechasia.com.sg

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CLASSIFIEDS

contact us [email protected] www.vidromecanica.com

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On-line Process & Quality Control

TIAMA - msc & sgccZA des Plattes, 1 Chemin des Plattes, 69390 Vourles, FranceTel +33 (0) 4 37 20 15 00,Fax +33 (0) 4 78 07 94 50Email: [email protected]:www.tiama.eu

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Tel +44 (0) 161 654 7700 Fax +44 (0) 161 655 3812Email [email protected] www.montselas.co.uk

MANUFACTURERS AND SUPPLIERS OF SELAS SQUARE PORT GAS & AIR VALVES

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Glass International directory 2015 contact: Esme Horn to

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Glassman events visit:www.glassmanevents.com

ContactEsme Horn

T+44 (0) 1737 855136to book your space

CLASSIFIEDS.indd 1 6/9/15 12:31 PM

53035 MONTERIGGIONI (SI) ITALY - Strada di Gabbricce, 6 Tel +39 0577 304730 [email protected] www.fonderievaldelsane.com

glass june 2015

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