Glass International October 2020 by Quartz Business Media

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October 2020â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Vol.43 No.9

NSG LUCKEY PLANT OVERVIEW ENCIRC PROFILE ENERGY EFFICIENCY I N T E R N A T I O N A L

A GLOBAL REVIEW OF GLASSMAKING

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Our sights are set. Neutron® targets thin and thick areas by mapping glass distribution inside your entire container – no matter the shape – with no contact at full production speed.

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Contents

www.glass-international.com Editor: Greg Morris Tel: +44 (0)1737 855132 Email: gregmorris@quartzltd.com Assistant Editor: George Lewis Tel: +44 (0)1737 855154 Email: georgelewis@quartzltd.com Designer: Annie Baker

October 2020 Vol.43 No 9

Managing Director Tony Crinion tonycrinion@quartzltd.com Chief Executive Ofﬁcer: Steve Diprose Chairman: Paul Michael

Subscriptions: Elizabeth Barford Tel: +44 (0)1737 855028 Fax: +44 (0)1737 855034 Email: subscriptions@quartzltd.com

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: glass@quartzltd.com Website: www.glass-international.com

Ofﬁcial publication of Abividro the Brazilian Technical Association of Automatic Glass Industries

Member of British Glass Manufacturers’ Confederation

Company proﬁle: NSG Maintaining schedule on a greenﬁeld glass plant despite Covid.

Company proﬁle: Encirc Encirc ignites world’s largest container glass furnace.

Centenary: Zippe 100 years of serving the industry

Handling: Masitek 0ptimising container handling analysing the ‘bottle’s experience’.

Energy efﬁciency: BV Glas/GWI Essen The HyGlass Project: decarbonising the glass industry with hydrogen.

Energy efﬁciency: Turboden A waste heat recovery solution.

Glass Printing: VDMA Printing glass is possible.

Furnace ignition: O-I Veauche O-I unveils €30 million investment.

Inspection: AGR International Gawis4Glass measurement system for containers.

Energy efﬁciency: Tri-Mer Global Advantages of modular dust collection with ceramic ﬁlters.

Sustainability: Glass for Europe Flat glass improves green credentials, despite Covid challenge.

History: How’s tricks?

China National Association for Glass Industry

United National Council of the glass industry (Steklosouz) Glass International annual subscription rates including Glass International Directory: For one year: UK £185, all other countries £255. For two years: UK £335, all other countries £460. Airmail prices on request. Single copies £50.

Printed in UK by: Pensord, Tram Road, Pontlanfraith, Blackwood, Gwent NP12 2YA, UK. Glass International Directory 2020 edition: UK £206, all other countries £217. Printed in UK by: Marstan Press Ltd, Kent DA7 4BJ 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.

Editor’s Comment + International news

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International News

GREG MORRIS, EDITOR

Be first with the news!

FRONT COVER IMAGE:

VISIT:

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Reasons to be cheerful

While the world holds its breath about the next stage of the pandemic – do we lockdown again or not? – the glass industry has been going about its business. On the whole, most of the news from the sector has been positive. I spoke last month about several investments in the flat and container sectors and these have continued this month. Social media and weekly newsletter readers would have seen the biggest news of the month – with an emphasis on big! Encirc unveiled the world’s largest container glass furnace in terms of tonnage at its Elton, UK plant. The 900 tonnes a day oven means the glass packager can serve increased market demand as well as meet sustainability requirements. It’s also an achievement to have constructed this during a lockdown period! There is also further good news from the perfume and cosmetics industry – sectors that suffered as a result of the lockdown. Stoelzle is to invest €20 million in its glass manufacturing plant in northern France. Hopefully this is an indication that both sectors are now on the upturn and the worst of the economic effects are over. But we shall see. Even the flat glass sector reported good news with Sisecam confirming a TKL $1 billion investment at its Polatli, Turkey site. Of course the global economy is still fragile and it feels we are not over the worst of it yet. But glass has continued to provide jobs and more importantly, opportunity.

Encirc unveils 900 tonnes per day container glass furnace UK container glass manufacturer Encirc has unveiled a 900t/day furnace. Managing Director, Adrian Curry, said: “This is a monumental day for Encirc and the

wider container glass sector as a whole. “Today’s lighting of our 900 tonne furnace will significantly increase our capability to meet market demand as

well as support our journey towards becoming the most sustainable beverage supply chain business in the world. “A huge thank you to all in making this happen.”

AGC Glass Europe to close one float furnace at Boussois, France One of the two float furnaces at AGC Glass Europe’s site in Boussois, France will be closed. The flat glass manufacturer said the furnace had been on hot hold since April 1 as a result of the decline in glass demand due to the coronavirus. The closure will result in 90

job losses out of the 220 staff. The group said it was now feeling the full impact of the economic crisis. This has led to acute overcapacity, falling prices and a marked deterioration in the group’s result overall. It said: “In the absence of prospects for recovery in the

medium term, and despite the remarkable efforts towards productivity and diversification made by all the Boussois personnel, the group sees itself forced to bring its manufacturing capacity into line with the current market situation.”

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International News

NEWS IN BRIEF

Piramal Glass appoints Global Digital Officer

Global glass-melting specialist, Sorg has launched the world’s first hybrid furnace for high tonnage operations in glass manufacturing: the CLEAN Melter. The CLEAN Melter will allow larger furnace operations to reduce their carbon emissions and energy consumption by combining electric and combustion technologies

to achieve an 80% electric share. “The unavoidable challenge for the global glass industry is to find more renewable energy sources; otherwise, to speak frankly, its future will be short lived,” said Thomas Breitfelder, Technical Director at Sorg. The first hybrid furnace is a sustainable solution to larg-

er furnace operators with requirements for a pull of up to 400tpd. It harnesses combustion and electric technologies to increase the electric share of a furnace to as much as 80%. Manufacturers can build the CLEAN Melter and start with a higher portion of fossil heating to avoid potential disruptions.

Sisecam fires second Polatli furnace after TKL 1billion investment Turkish glass manufacturer Sisecam has fired a 240,000 tonnes per year furnace at its flat glass manufacturing plant in Polatli, near Ankara, Turkey. The plant’s second furnace was part of a TKL 1 billion investment (US$130 million) in the facility.

The company said it had increased its production capacity in line with domestic market demand. Sisecam Vice Chairman and General Manager Prof. Dr. Ahmet Kirman, said: “With the commissioning of our new flat glass furnace equipped

with advanced technology in accordance with Industry 4.0, we have made another important investment. “Our facility, whose annual production has reached 540 thousand tonnes, has become one of the largest European flat glass production bases.”

Horn Glass secures Grodno Glassworks furnace order Belarusian container glass manufacturer Grodno Glassworks has appointed Horn Glass Industries for the construction of a 180t/day end-

fired furnace at its Elizovo facility. The order comprises the planning of the glass melting furnace, distributor and fore-

hearths. Horn will also supply the equipment and take care of the construction, commissioning and optimisation.

Berlin Packaging acquires Vinkova

Berlin Packaging has bought Dutch glass food and beverage packaging supplier Vinkova. It is Berlin’s eighth acquisition in Europe since 2016 and strengthens the company’s glass offering in northern Europe. Vinkova has been a supplier for more than 50 years and has strong relationships with glass manufacturers. Vinkova’s customers now have access to Berlin’s packaging offering, which includes 40,000 SKUs, 130 sales and warehouse locations and innovation centres on two continents.

Ardagh collaborates with fritz-kola on bottle

Ardagh Group has worked closely with German beverage manufacturer fritz-kola to produce a new long-neck 200ml flint bottle for its cola brand, created for the hospitality industry. The new bottle has been designed to reflect the brand’s values. Ardagh worked with the design agency to bring their creativity to life with unique design features. The bottle is designed to be returned and refilled up to 20 times, before being recycled. It is constantly developing ideas for reusing bottles along with encouraging consumers to return them for refill.

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Sorg launches hybrid furnace for high tonnage glassmaking

Piramal Glass has appointed Sudip Mazumder as its Vice President, Global Chief Digital & Information Officer (CDIO). Mr Mazumder joins Piramal Glass from Larsen & Toubro (L&T), where was the Deputy Head of Digital. At Piramal Glass, he will be responsible for reinforcing digital transformation journey and lead the next phase of Digital 2.0 that the company has embarked on. This will include setting up Advanced Analytics Technology stack and building a dedicated team of professionals.

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International News

Cleanfire® ThruPorte™ Burner

Stoelzle to boost production at French glass plant

A prescription for aging regenerators Undergoing regenerator repairs or having difficulty maintaining full production in an aging furnace? Turn to Air Products’ Cleanfire ThruPorte oxy-fuel burner for a quick, costeffective heating solution to avoid downtime or extend your furnace life. This patented and commercially-proven technology, installed from the underside of your port, allows you to add heat where and when it’s needed. Key features: • Tandem water-cooled oxy-fuel burner and oxygen staging lance assembly • Proven durable design; easily installed in an existing port while furnace is running • Adjustable flame length and angle for optimal heat distribution and surface coverage • Remote, wireless and continuous online monitoring of burner performance

Perfumery and cosmetics glass manufacturer Stoelzle Masnières Parfumerie is to boost production at its plant (pictured). The group will invest €20 million in a furnace rebuild

at the facility in the Hauts de France region, northern France. The investment will include a fifth production line to better fulfill customer demands for high

end perfumes and cosmetic items. Construction work will start next month with the furnace ready for production at the beginning of January 2021.

Polish glassmaker choses Forglass for furnace upgrade Polish glassware manufacturer Krosno Glass has again chosen Forglass to perform upgrades on one of its main furnaces. The works, planned for November 2020, will include partial replacement of refractories, heat-up, fill-

up and hot sealing. Forglass designed the forehearth with two rows of burners, with the upper row capable of both heating and cooling functions (by delivering pure air). Additionally, the forehearth will feature ceramic

stirrers positioned strategically along the path of glass flow. All of the functions of this atypical forehearth are controlled automatically by customised software, also designed by Forglass.

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A regenerative and recuperative furnace from BDF The Delta furnace series from BDF Industries is the result of studies and experience in terms of melting technology when production is focused on commercial bottles and the focus is enhancing the furnace specific pull and the operation

trust-ability. The key points of the furnace are modulated to achieve the best results with this kind of production. BDF Industries has designed a particular series of End fired furnaces to have

the perfect compromise in terms of consumption and glass quality, keeping an eye on the balance between CAPEX and OPEX in order to propose the best solution technically speaking but also in economic terms.

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Glass is our Passion

International News

NEWS IN BRIEF

Helmut Sorg 1939-2020

Helmut Sorg, the longserving managing partner of Beteiligungen Sorg GmbH, died unexpectedly at the age of 80, on July 16. Helmut, a member of the fourth generation of the family, was still at the helm of the family business, working together with his son Alexander and his brother Karl-Heinz. Helmut’s drive resulted in the successful sale of modern furnaces in Europe. He won many new customers in the core markets of Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, Spain, and Portugal. Furthermore, he opened markets outside Europe, for example on the American and African continents.

Top 10 stories in the news Our most popular news over the past month, as determined by our website trafﬁc All full stories can be found on our website � � � � � � � � � �

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

OMCO set to acquire Ross International’s moulding business Encirc unveils 900t/day furnace Piramal Glass for sale at $800 million Helmut Sorg 1939-2020 Historic pharmaceutical tubing site set to restart production next year Consol Glass relights Clayville furnace #1 after rebuild O-I unveils €30 million Veauche, France furnace investment AGC Glass Europe to close one float furnace at Boussois, France Encirc and Glass Futures to develop environmentally-friendly glass bottle Sisecam signs the largest merger in the history of Turkish capital markets

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Condat acquires Kemno

French lubricant group Condat has acquired Kemno. Kemno, like Condat, is a family owned company. It was created in 2004 and specialises in neat and soluble coolants. It is mainly active in the cold heading business and also offers metal working fluids, maintenance oils and greases, quenching oils. Condat has decided to formalised this venture with the creation of a 100% subsidiary, named Condat Italia.

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Recresco purchases Ellesmere Port site

Glass recyclers Recresco has completed a deal with Peel Ports to purchase the Ellesmere Port site in Cheshire, UK, which the company has occupied on a lease basis for the past 12 years. The purchase secures Recresco’s long term future while allowing the company to develop its operations further and opening employment opportunities at the Cheshire location. Recresco is headquartered in Nottingham and has an additional site at Cwmbran, Wales. Ellesmere Port site is its largest facility, covering approximately 12 acres.

Heye appoints sales partner for Spain and Portugal EMC from Barcelona has taken over the distribution of Heye International products in Spain and Portugal with immediate effect. EMC works with all major glass manufacturers on the Iberian Peninsula and has strengthened customer relationships over the past few years.

Thanks to extensive knowledge of mechanics, electronics and software development, a wide variety of projects in the container glass industry are successfully implemented. Sales Manager Oriol Gil said: “With more than 15 years of experience in the Spanish and Portuguese markets, EMC is an important player in the con-

tainer glass, food and beverage industries. “Our technical service is able to provide to Heye a quick response on existing problems on site and reduce the time of interventions with our technical knowledge. “The Heye products are fantastic, but even better is the way they do business.”

A Year of Glass in 2022 gathers momentum Representatives for an International Year of Glass 2022 (IYOG) will outline their proposal to the UN in November. The Spanish Ambassador to the UN will provide a virtual presentation to United Nations representatives in early November from Madrid using YouTube. It will be broadcast in New

York and Geneva simultaneously and will be downloadable worldwide. He will introduce partner organisations and personalities in the IYOG project, explain the activities planned and concepts being developed, and how they link to the UN Agenda 2030. Ambassador Santos will

send a list of the 191 countries represented at the UN and each will be contacted and invited to the IYOG project presentation. Face-to-face meetings and voting are cancelled for 2020. Instead the General Assembly will adopt a silent process based on unanimity.

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Unless it solves a problem automatically, isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t data just data? Our technologies speak the same language.

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International News

NEWS IN BRIEF

Anchor Glass rejoins GPI

Anchor Glass Container Corporation has rejoined the The Glass Packaging Institute (GPI) as a full member. Anchor Glass, headquartered in Tampa, Florida, is the third largest North American glass manufacturer of premium glass packaging products with six U.S. locations that serve the South, Northeast and Midwest regions. “For the first time in many years, we have all the major U.S. glass manufacturers and their major suppliers working together on common issues and opportunities in the glass industry,” said Bertrand Paulet, CEO of Ardagh Glass North America and Chair of the GPI Board of Directors.

Duralex placed in receivership

French tableware glassmaker Duralex has been placed in receivership. The glassworks was placed in receivership by the Orleans commercial court, putting nearly 250 jobs at risk. The company is located in La Chapelle-Saint-Mesmin, Loiret, near Orléans. It is best known for its Picardy tumblers and its glass is sold around the world. Coupled with the pandemic, turnover has dropped by 60% as a result of fewer exports, which represent 80% of its activity.

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German industry output better than expected

The German glass industry is coming out of the coronavirus crisis better than expected. Figures from BV Glas show that while sales in the first half of 2020 fell, economic indicators suggest an upturn has already started across all segments. Total sales in the German glass industry fell by 4.1% in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period in the previous year to around € 4.70 billion (2019: € 4.90 billion). Both domestic and foreign sales declined with a decrease of 5.7 and 1.8% respectively.

Encirc and Glass Futures to make sustainable glass bottle UK glass container manufacturer, Encirc and industry research and technology organisation, Glass Futures, are partnering to create what should be the world’s most sustainable glass bottle. In Quarter 1 2021, Encirc’s Derrylin plant in Northern Ireland will use bio-fuel on

one of its furnaces, hoping to pave the way for an industry-wide reduction in carbon emissions. Alongside this trial, Encirc will use up to 96% recycled glass to create the new bottles, further reducing the carbon footprint of its products. The UK trial will be the

world’s first and the results will feed into UK Government policy around decarbonisation. The project forms part of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) Energy Innovation Programme, within which Glass Futures is a £7.1m project.

Sisecam signs largest Turkish capital markets merger Sisecam has successfully completed the largest merger ever registered in the Turkish capital markets. Sisecam Vice Chairman and CEO Prof. Ahmet Kırman said that Sisecam simplified its legal entity and shareholding

structure and consolidated all its activities under one entity to further enhance its global competitive position. Kırman stated that the merger was a historic milestone in Sisecam’s long-term strategies and competitive

goals in global markets. He said: “We have completed the largest merger of the Turkish capital markets with exemplary success. “Sisecam has become the enterprise with the highest free float rate in Turkey – 49%.”

Revimac completes challenging Belarusian container glass task Revimac recently completed an unusual order set by Belarusian container glass manufacturer, Belstekloprom. As part of its expansion project, the glass manufacturer requested Revimac to re-manufacture 8-section boxes of

Double Gob 5” centre distance originally supplied by Heye International, as part of a general renovation of a complete IS production line. Despite the odds, the job was successfully completed in eight months.

It also included one remanufactured servo feeder mechanism, one servo-gob distributor and a complete set of automation systems including forming control, flexible multi-motor drive and servo-pusher system.

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Furnace opening: NSG Luckey plant

The NSG Group’s Todd Huffman* discusses the new Luckey flat glass plant and the collaboration with the TECO Group as they faced the challenges the year 2020 presented with regards to the Covid pandemic.

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Maintaining schedule on a greenfield glass plant despite Covid-19

he NSG Group is in the final stages of completing a turnkey float plant in Luckey, Ohio. Construction began in the second quarter of 2019 and production will start at the end of 2020. The $265 million, 511,000ft2 facility, will melt 600 tons per-day of transparent conductive oxide (TCO) coated glass to supply the rising solar marketplace, as companies and communities strive for carbon emission neutrality. To accomplish this endeavour, the TECO Group was chosen as the design-build general contractor.

What was the motivation for building a turnkey greenfield glass plant in the USA? Market demand for TCO glass. The global production of TCO glass is expected to accelerate, and this represents our commitment to our customers to supply value-added products to support the use of renewable, sustainable energy. Why and how was the Luckey, OH site chosen? First Solar, the only US-headquartered company among the world’s 10 largest photovoltaic manufacturers, operates the western hemisphere’s

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Based on multiple industry accounts, other firms around the world have had to suspend construction and send personnel home. How was this plant construction able to continue? Within the State of Ohio, construction firms were granted an exemption to the extent they were operating in support of essential businesses. Ohio identified glass manufacture as an essential business. NSG and TECO’s pro-active planning measures to ensure everyone’s health and safety were key.

biggest solar manufacturing footprint in Perrysburg, OH and NSG has a long-term supply agreement with it. Proximity to a skilled labour force, existing operations, raw materials, transport, and utilities were all factors the company considered. I should mention here, that the TECO Group was an active participant in determining the exact location. Their involvement on this project started with the site selection. What were some of the unique challenges in regards to Covid-19? The two biggest challenges regarding Covid-19 were ensuring the health and safety of everyone on site as well as maintaining schedule.

� The NSG greenfield site in Luckey, OH, USA.

*Overall Project Manager – Solar Projects, NSG Group www.nsg.com/en *TECO, Toledo, OH, USA. https://teco.com/

What effects did Covid-19 have on the project ? Three effects come to mind. The first of these is the reality of contact tracing. At one point, we experienced several symptomatic cases, which forced about a third of the work force off-site for two to three weeks. These cases were not spread across the entire workforce but generally within a specific trade discipline. The second challenge being faced is international travel. Gaining entry and exit for global technical experts, necessary for the final steps of installation and commissioning of equipment, has proven to be quite the challenge. Lastly, some key componentry for the project coming from overseas has been delayed either in the country of manufacture or in port. How was NSG and TECO able to stay on schedule? This has been a challenge but the collaboration and quality of teamwork between NSG, TECO, Dreicor, sub-contractors, the State of Ohio and the local community has kept the project timing very close to plan. One of the things TECO did to minimise schedule impact was to backfill selected areas from the TECO offices.

What measures were implemented to insure peoples’ safety throughout Covid-19? TECO and Dreicor, in conjunction with NSG, designed a Pandemic Response Plan for the jobsite. In the early stages, before the project experienced any cases, the NSG/TECO team were having meetings dedicated to formulating and coordinating an execution strategy to efficiently respond to COVID-19 cases discovered during the project. Throughout this process, there has been high-level management involvement from both companies and excellent collaboration among all the team members to address workforce safety. This plan was based on State of Ohio and CDC guidelines and a risk assessment to better fit this specific jobsite. One example of this is that Dreicor was able to partner with a lab in Tennessee to provide hand sanitizer when everyone else was out and there was a national shortage. Dreicor also dedicated, and NSG funded, full-time personnel to disinfect all high touch areas, common areas and tools, multiple times per day. Consistent messaging to the workforce and effective contact tracing were also key. This project incorporated design-build project delivery. Now that the project is in the final phase, what are your thoughts using design-build? One of the key selling points about using designbuild for project delivery is schedule compression. I do not believe in the COVID environment that this project would be where we are without using design-build. Also, having TECO as our designbuild general contractor has been advantageous, due to them being one of the glass industry’s only design-build firms in the world. Finally, what are some of the highlights of the NSG and TECO team performance that contributed to the success of the project? Just the fact that we got to this point with the current global heath pandemic is remarkable. From project launch, we had standing meetings with open communication of ideas, concepts, and resolutions to roadblocks. Risk assessment to the health and safety of all employees is another one. Lastly, the quality of work. So, to sum it up, the collaboration between NSG and The TECO Group is a key factor in the overall success of this project. �

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Furnace opening: NSG Luckey plant

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Company profile: Encirc

The future is now for Encirc With a new line scheduled and the ignition of a 900 tonnes per day container glass furnace, it’s an exciting time for Encirc. George Lewis spoke to Managing Director, Adrian Curry*.

ncirc has ignited the largest furnace for container glass in the world at 900 tonnes per day (picture 2 below). It will eventually become fully automated, along with a 14th production line at its Elton, Cheshire UK site, and its 26th overall across its three sites. Line EI 11 will be at the forefront of technology with help from Bucher Emhart Glass, which is producing a 12-section NIS End-to-End quad gob line, the first of its kind. Other digital technology includes swabbing robots developed by Novaxion and a specially designed virtual reality training room organised in collaboration with Virtual Reality Machine Training (VRMT). But the journey to where the company is now has not always been easy. Northern Irish entrepreneur Sean Quinn founded Quinn Glass in 1998 when he felt there was an opportunity to become successful in manufacturing glass. Fast forward 23 years, the company is now Encirc and forms approximately 40% of the revenue of Spanish glass manufacturer and parent company, Vidrala.

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Emergence Mr Quinn decided to manufacture glass bottles as, apart from being interested in the manufacturing, the raw materials Quinn had nearby was high in iron and more suited to the production of coloured glass bottles. Quinn Glass was in unusual territory, it was the first new entrant into the Irish glass industry since 1932 and its Derrylin plant was the first in the UK since 1968. Even then, building a new manufacturing plant was capital extensive with a long pay back. Having risen to become at one point the richest man in Ireland, Mr Quinn invested £100 million in the Derrylin plant. Adrian Curry, the current Managing Director at Encirc explained that if someone had told them that it would be a difficult start where a lot

2 � 1. Swabbing � 2. Furnace � 3. Gobs � 4. Annealing

of money would potentially be lost, the company may have never been in the position it is today. Mr Curry joined Quinn in 1996, two years before the Derrylin plant opened. Mr Curry would become the Managing Director in 2004 and 24 years later, is now the company’s longest serving employee. Quinn gained the confidence of its customers and after two years it had enough critical mass to be able to turn a profit. This coincided with the closure of Irish Glass, which meant it had the Irish market to itself. Despite success Mr Curry explained ‘we needed to go again’. A bid for Rockware Glass was unsuccessful, so management decided to build a new plant in 2003 at a cost of £325 million.

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Company profile: Encirc

supply chain. But finding the site was the easier part of the process. A legal challenge was issued on the validity of the planning permission and the local authority’s approval. But contracts were already in place with suppliers and the company had over 600 people on site that had already started working. “We were given a choice, recalls Mr Curry. “We were told that we could stop, or continue at our own risk.” The manufacturer chose the latter. The challenge lasted for six years and during that time they finished building the plant. A further public inquiry was launched, which was initially lost but ultimately ended up being successful and the plant was able to begin its manufacturing process. But after the financial crisis hit in the UK between 2007-2008, Mr Quinn was hit hard. He lost a lot money from the hit the Anglo Irish Bank took and in April 2011 lenders were given control as the Quinn Group owed over €2.8 billion. They took control of the Quinn family’s equity interest in Quinn Group, which included the glass manufacturer. Quinn went from having shareholders to a private equity firm. Mr Curry said: “We went from having an infinite mindset to a finite one. Long term investment was

The site in Elton, Cheshire was located as both the infrastructure and distribution options in the area were strong. The site was a Brownfield site, which means it is easier to develop, and the North West Development Agency were ‘of great help to secure the site. The location was also important, as its distribution options and infrastructure in the surrounding area were already set up. “We tried to build the most efficient supply chain. We wanted the biggest furnace in the world, with the lowest emissions and the biggest machine capabilities,” Mr Curry explained. It also wanted to be able to fill on site and an automated warehouse to complete the whole

industry is going to come under huge pressures to be carbon neutral by 2030.

”

Adrian Curry

difficult to achieve.” Mr Quinn was declared bankrupt on 11th November 2011 in Northern Ireland. This was annulled on appeal but he was declared bankrupt again in the Republic of Ireland on 16th January 2012.

Rebranding Over the next few years, Quinn Glass was rebranded to the Encirc 360 model and sold to Vidrala in 2015 for €408.6m (£316.3m). The Spanish manufacturer had businesses interests throughout Europe but no manufacturing presence in the UK or Ireland. Continued>>

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“We think our

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Company profile: Encirc

Mr Curry explained that he felt Vidrala could invest in the business due to the low amount of debt the company had. Encirc was asked how much they needed Vidrala to invest in order to maintain efficient operations. Its business plan said £150m over five years, to which Vidrala advised this is ‘no way enough investment’. Encirc now represents nearly 40% of the turnover that the company makes, and Vidrala has been restructured to include executive committee members which includes Mr Curry himself, giving him a voice on all future decisions the company makes. In the subsequent years, Vidrala has also sold a Belgian plant it owned and bought the former Owens Illinois (O-I) plant in Corsico to become part of the Encirc business unit. It has also acquired a plant in Santa Barosa, Portugal. To date €275 million has been invested to rebuild all six furnaces across Encirc.

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The future Mr Curry understands that working in the glass industry is not at the top of people’s career choices. He knows that working in a ‘demanding, 24-7 and hot plant’ is not for everyone, but wants to show that it can be an attractive industry. Vidrala and Encirc look closely at the appetite for increasing sustainability not only for themselves, but for the planet altogether. It wants to make the glass industry safe, attractive to new employees and to be constantly improving its products with the help of its employees. It aims to do this by being sustainable in three different ways: people, environmental and economic sustainability. Vidrala has its own initiative called Vidrala is Glass while Encirc has its own Good to Great project to become the employer of choice for prospective employees. The Good to Great project aims to improve all aspects of the glass industry for Encirc employees. It targets looking at the daily things it does well, or ‘good’ and aim to improve them to become ‘great’.

� 5. Pallets

Mr Curry said: “If you stay at good you’ll never be great and that’s what we want to be.”

� 6. Virtual reality

Industry 4.0 To become ‘great’, Encirc has invested in the latest technology, including the first plant in the world to have Emhart’s 12-section NIS End-to-End quad gob line. The line will start its life as a normal line but will developed over time to have Industry 4.0 capabilities. Mr Curry explained that from the outset, it will take more people to set up this type of line than normal as more data capture will be required, which means more opportunities to work in the glass industry. Future employees will need a higher skill level and technical competencies. To help provide these skills, Encirc’s graduate/apprenticeship programme, the Vidrala Academy, will become an important component. But while the production line is not quite ready for Industry 4.0, Socabelec’s and Novaxion’s swabbing robots are running on certain lines. Mr Curry hopes that by the end of 2020, every line will have them. There is much focus on the robots after the two companies jointly won the Health and Safety Action award at the Glass Focus awards 2019 in Sheffield, UK in November last year. The collaborative robots, known as ‘cobots’ ‘do more of the dangerous and challenging jobs’. But with the increase of artificial intelligence in Continued>>

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Company profile: Encirc

its plants, no job losses have come about, and it in fact helps operators spend more time on other tasks of greater value to the company. The ‘cobots’ improve the working environment and ensure it is safer for workers while increasing productivity. Along with improvements on the production line, Encirc has also invested in a virtual reality (VR) training facility, with the help of Yorkshire, UK-based company Virtual Reality Machine Training (VRMT). Mr Curry said after seeing the world his children live in, with the use of such things as virtual reality, ‘we couldn’t afford to not do it’. The company is constantly questioning how it as an employer can attract more people into the industry, and this was another idea the company has moved forward. He added: “We can train employees to a very high standard using the VR equipment without the risk of injury. “We can create defects in the bottles, and can even help employees learn about fire safety. We have bridged the step between new employees being fresh into the industry to being able to fully use IS machine within months. We want to make the training process attractive for everybody.” When asked whether the types of training will be increased over time, he said that ‘it’s almost endless in terms of how much training can be provided this way’. The company has also invested in the ability to digitally design and 3D print a bottle for a customer to come in and examine it. If satisfied, this can then be twinned in the manufacturing process with moulds designed to be manufactured on a larger scale. With a quick turnaround a key component for glass manufacturers, Encirc wants have a swift process from idea to production.

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Next steps With the impact carbon emissions have on the environment and the UK government’s target to bring greenhouse gas emissions to carbon neutral by 2030, Encirc is investigating ways to reduce its emissions. Its Derrylin plant has invested in a natural gas line which is better for the environment, while Mr Curry sits on the board for the Glass Futures initiative, which is investigating cleaner ways of manufacturing glass. Mr Curry said: “We think our industry is going to come under huge pressures to be carbon neutral by 2030. “We want to rebuild our furnaces from 2030 with alternative fuels with a huge reduction in carbon use.” The process of decarbonisation has already started, with its Elton plant one of the only plants in the UK which delivers approximately 50% of its raw material in by rail.

7 � 7. The control room

“We want to rebuild our furnaces from 2030 with alternative fuels with a huge reduction in

”

carbon use.

Adrian Curry

To help further reduce its emissions, it also manually prepares pallets for store in house. This means the emissions produced is lowered by the lorries being able to deliver straight to store from production instead of a further stop at a distribution centre. Mr Curry said: “We want to come out with a big statement saying we will be carbon free by a certain year. We know this is very ambitious.” As part of Glass Futures, it is set to trail a furnace on bio-fuel in early 2021 which will use high levels of cullet to produce the world’s most sustainable bottles (see news pages this issue). Encirc also has plans to have lorries that bring in the cullet use biofuel in order to produce a bottle that has a very low carbon footprint, something that hasn’t been seen before (see news pages, this issue). “We’re giving customers a vision,” said Mr Curry. He said: “We want to make the industry and Encirc attractive. We want to have really good sustainability credentials, and do the right thing for the local economy.” Despite the impact of Covid-19 across the globe, it is full speed ahead for Encirc. It didn’t have to furlough anyone or make any employees redundant. Encirc’s aim is to completely close the loop within the manufacturing process. With major investments already completed or close to be, Encirc plans to be at the forefront of the major changes the glass industry is expecting over the coming years. �

*Managing Director, Encirc, Elton, UK www.encirc360.com

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Zippe anniversary

A centenary of serving the glass industry 2020 marks the 100th anniversary of Zippe J Industrialagen. George Lewis spoke to Dr Philipp Zippe*, the fourth generation of the family to take the reins of the German batch and cullet systems specialist.

“We have a very bright future. We work in an industry that is not extremely fast growing,

”

but that is stable and sustainable.

� Dr Philipp Zippe has been

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CEO of Zippe since 2016.

une 5, 2020 was meant to be a date of huge significance for batch plant specialist Zippe. The date marked 100 years since Alfred Zippe founded the company, and remarkably, the same day he married his wife Maria. Celebrations were pencilled in to commemorate this milestone, but due to the COVID-19 crisis, those celebrations have been put on hold. Since its formation in humble beginnings in the Czech Republic, the engineering organisation has steadily developed into the global-focused organisation it is today. It has designed, installed and commissioned more than 650 batch plants for the international glass industry, which are located in manufacturing plants all around the world. It has also been a pioneer in the use of automation over the past 25 years and sees the use of digital and virtual technology as very much part of everyday technology in the glass industry. While the majority of its applications are in the container sector, the float glass batch plants represent an important part of the company´s portfolio. More than 80 large plants have been installed for many of the major international float glass producers all over the world. Overseeing the business and its nearly 250 staff is CEO Dr Philipp Zippe, who is the fourth generation of the family to take control of the group. It was his great grandfather who founded the company in what was called Haida, now known as Novy Bor in the Czech Republic in 1920. Dr Zippe has been CEO since 2016. Being a Zippe-family owned company allows it to make fast decisions for the good of the whole company and not just for the benefit of certain employees. While Dr Zippe is CEO, his father and former CEO Bernd-Holger sits on the board as Chairman and an adviser, Susanne Zippe works in the Public

Continued>>

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Zippe anniversary

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Relations and Marketing department, while Katharina Zippe works in Human Resources. “It gives the company strong roots having family members throughout the company”, Dr Zippe said. The Haida region where Zippe originated from was already known for its Bohemian crystal glass. Alfred realised that there was a demand for solid and professional equipment for that industry. Alfred himself was a master craftsman and a certified engineer and the company started from a small workshop in the region.

Milestones There are many significant moments throughout the company’s history. The first is when it was moved from the Czech Republic to Wertheim in Germany in 1952, where the company still resides today. It was difficult to remain in the Czech Republic after World War II ended and the whole organisation had to be set up from scratch again in Wertheim. The Zippe family came to Wertheim with

minimal possessions, and had to find their market. Luckily for the family, there was already glass production taking place in Wertheim at that time, which meant the company eventually found its feet quicker than anticipated. Other milestones for the company include the creation of the first automatic batch charger in 1954, the first automatic batch house for container glass in Nienburg, Germany in 1960, changing the whole process of producing batch, and the first automatic cullet return system including scraping conveyors in 1964. Alfred Zippe Junior, Alfred Snr’s son and Dr Zippe’s grandfather was also a master craftsman and engineer and decided that the automatisation of feeding the furnaces was needed. This process was a huge step forward for the industry as a whole and made the expansion of the company possible. Then came another major step in 1985: The first batch plant for float glass. In the beginning of the 1990s, energy consumption was already a big concern, so Zippe started with the development of the first cullet preheaters. The inaugural cullet preheater had been installed previously in 1984. One of the first batch plants overseas was built in Nigeria, in the 1960s, which proved to be a success in developing the market for Zippe products in different parts of the world. Today Zippe has designed, installed and commissioned more than 650 batch plants for the international glass industry. Throughout the last 25 years, Zippe has strongly increased its engineering capacities in Wertheim via the creation of a new engineering and automation centres, which was completed in 2009. In 2018, it further strengthened its setup with the acquisition of the resources of Lahti Glass Technology Oy in Finland. And despite the COVID-19 crisis, this year Zippe has commissioned the largest container glass batch plant project ever built for Wiegand-Glas in Germany. Dr Zippe said: “There is no one certain secret that makes everything possible. It is like a puzzle of several parts playing together. Everyone has to play their part. We have great employees who are very competent and loyal. “We are always on a learning curve. There are many great companies out there from which we are trying to learn from. “At the end it all comes back to doing a good job. Only when we have done that the customer will come back to us.”

Looking to the future Despite the 100-year anniversary celebrations being put on hold, Zippe feels it still has a lot to look forward to in the future. Dr Zippe said the company has to ‘adapt its organisation, portfolio and its capabilities for new market demands’.

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Zippe anniversary

He continued: “Only if we achieve that, we have a justification for the next decades, but I am sure glass has a bright future.” With lockdowns across the world coming and going and sometimes returning in places, Zippe has changed the way it helps its customers. Meetings that would take place face-to-face are now had through online conferencing, while employees have also started meeting online with certain departments now working from home. Zippe can manage certain customers machines virtually, without the need of a Zippe engineer on site. Dr Zippe would like this to be more common place even when restrictions have been lifted. He explained that for the bigger jobs, engineers would still need to be on site to help, but for the smaller more maintenancefocused jobs, these could be done virtually with the help of a customer employee already on site. Dr Zippe is confident that the container glass industry will bounce back despite the tough times endured by industry at present. He said: “We have a very bright future. We work in an industry that is not extremely fast growing, but that is stable and sustainable.” But for now, it is all about working towards what will now be the 101st-year anniversary celebrations. Dr Zippe said: “At the moment it is still a bit unclear what awaits us in the next months, so we are not making fixed plans for any future festivity yet. We will see what the next months bring and when we are able to make definite plans. “But in any case, I am very much looking forward to shaking some hands and meeting many of our business friends and customers again. “So, I wish that all our customers as well will master these times in a healthy way so that we can cheerfully meet again.” �

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*CEO, Zippe, Wertheim, Germany www.zippe.de

+44 (0)20 8940 6691

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T hi si snotas ol arecl i ps e

Wi r eEdgedet ect i on

wi t hz er ocompr omi seby

Handling

Optimising container glass handling analysing the ‘bottle experience’ Aleksander Broda* discusses how using data from throughout a bottle’s lifetime can improve efficiencies for both glass manufacturer and filler.

movements, can also be measured. However, time has come to use such systems regularly in order to diligently prevent issues from happening, communicate remotely regarding the performance of bottles, and base this communication on data. In fact, measurement results can be shared between the glass suppliers and their customers and used by the: � Glass supplier – to remotely monitor real line/handling influence on their containers, to proactively manage technical services, and to engineer optimised bottles; � Filler - for regular process control, efficiency increase (implement line speeds without risk), elevating line operator skills, cost reductions and sustainability aspects; � Both – to solve issues, to agree on realistic specifications, implement proper enhancements to the process – e.g. new designs, lightweighting, machines.

Data as basis for specifications In industrial advancements, further lightweighting trends, Industry 4.0, environment - data replaces assumptions, estimates and general conditions – as these typically are adjusted to the weakest areas of each process. Imagine a well set, high speed filling line, where measured impacts do not exceed 25 IPS. This introduces the opportunity to work together on a new, lighter bottle design, while the commonly used 35 IPS impact specification can be lowered without risk. As a matter of fact, instead of implementing one impact level specification for all used bottle formats (like the aforementioned 35 IPS), all involved parties would benefit from individually tailored criteria for each bottle type, depending on their sizes, shapes, weight, in relation to the filling Continued>>

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hat would our bottles/jars/ vials tell us about the way they are handled on each stage of their lifecycle? How can we use the ‘bottle experience’ information in optimising handling, increasing filling line efficiencies, monitoring transport, reacting to breakage problems, redesigning or lightweighting our bottles, establishing correct criteria and specifications in agreements between the glass manufacturers and the fillers? ‘Shock loggers’ are known in the industry and have been implemented in a variety of filling facilities. Sensors by Masitek Instruments are inserted into acrylic replicas of the chosen bottles (jars/vials) and register actual impacts (IPS) experienced by the glass containers, throughout the filling line and other handling areas, transport, trade, etc. Other parameters, such as vertical loads and scuffing resulting from squeeze pressure forces and bottle

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line/trade conditions. Agreeing on such bottle-specific approaches is a step forward and certainly not a complicated process. The key is accurate measurements of real impacts in handling. After the impact rating is chosen, the glass manufacturers would make sure their bottles resist the given load levels. The fillers, on the other hand, optimise their lines and through regular measurements, ensure they do not expose the bottles to impacts exceeding the agreed maximum.

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Communication Data from real bottle experience, e.g. impacts measured in IPS, are therefore the best ‘language’ for communication between brand owners filling into glass containers, and their suppliers of bottles/jars/vials – both in reactive troubleshooting and in proactive optimisations. While the direct IPS calculation, visible in real-time, provides the user with important data pinpointing areas of issue on the line, the new ‘Shock-loggers’ offer further advancements in reliable technology unlike anything the industry has seen in previous iterations. For example, new features implemented recently by Masitek, allow for even better communication and common understanding of bottle performance. One of them is the ability to use the camera to record a video of the sensor-bottle moving through the line. At playback, the impact events are being shown along the video progress. This way, one can exactly see at which point, in which situation did a high load occur – and share the video/result with ones responsible for improving the handling. The data generated by these devices is of interest at many levels of organisationsmarketing is interested for feedback on glass designs, management needs to make sure that quotas are achieved and overall processes are improved, and the engineering group wants to have their projects run smoothly with data driven decisions. With Masitek’s systems the measurement data is automatically

uploaded to the individual user account in the cloud. Thus, results, graphs, videos and notes can be accessed from any computer, just by entering the right password. Reports summarise how many impact events have been registered and which exceed our specified control or acceptance limits. All data can be presented in a visualised report and exported graphically or into an Excel sheet. Especially nowadays, in the times of travel restrictions, such real-life data of what the bottles ‘felt’ can improve communication, thus shorten getting to the root-cause of issues and solving them. It is also frequently the case that bottles get damaged in transport. Therefore, the systems can be used in a transportation mode, placed in cases and/or pallets and logging shock, vertical load, squeeze events for many days. Data is later retrieved and analyzed. Imagine placing the sensor in a truck with bottles – it will return to us with numerical information, adding so much more to what was earlier a go/no-go experience.

Share the benefits The Masitek system can be acquired by either the filler or the glass supplier.

Or even jointly, based on a mutual agreement, which can include specifics of sharing the data from future measurements. The model of the system and the individual container replicas would be based on the range of bottle/jars/vials and reflect specific needs/priorities. Key are the benefits that glass suppliers and their customers can share when using the ‘bottle experience’ data: � Learn, set and keep the real maximum filling line speeds and equipment performance to ensure efficiency without the risk of breakages � Guide fill line operators to optimal settings, validate after job changes + establish best practices. Data can be used to evaluate and grow staff performance. � Assure and provide evidence that regular line checks show proper line handling. � Use the real-life criteria when working on designing new bottles, Finite Element Analyses, redesigning and especially when lightweighting. � Evaluate scuff levels to plan the life of returnable bottles. � Identify potential issues with too high loads (breakage, damage of glass or label/sleeve, equipment wear), pinpoint exact areas of problem, solve and recheck after modifications. Use videos, pictures and notes correlated with data, to efficiently present/ communicate, without need of meetings, specialist travel, etc. � Check loads applied by new equipment on the bottling line to choose the best machines and best settings. � Use measurements to evaluate protection of bottles by secondary packaging like cases, cartons, crates, etc. in transport, handling, trade. Our glass bottles, jars, vials, carry messages from the heat

The “bottle experience” data provides quick payback through a number of value-added applications, important to various departments - both at the Fillers as for the Glass Manufacturers:

� � � � � � �

Production and filling line operators – to optimize line efficiencies Quality assurance and Customer Service – in quick identification of issues Sales and Purchase – who use the data as criteria to build business specifications R&D - for optimizations of bottle and technology, Logistics managers – to learn how each transport method/route influence the risk of bottle damage HR – speeding up the learning curve of operators who adjust the lines, perform job changes, etc. Marketing – bottle design testing and selection, and to reduce the time to market on new containers

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� Synchronized video recording and impact measurement progress: • left – sensor moving along with other bottles – no impact. • middle – sensor prior to impacting previous bottles – 32 IPS. • right – sensor being impacted by following bottles – 33 IPS

of production, through the cold end, transportation, to filling, distribution and trade. The key message is how the container performs in delivering the product (beverage, food, cosmetics, pharma) to the end consumers. Reading these messages and reacting to them assures the market receives only good news. �

* Glass Industry Contractor & Consultant, working with Masitek Instruments and American Glass Research www.masitek.com

� A Masitek data run graph

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Energy efficiency

The HyGlass Project: Decarbonising the Glass Industry with Hydrogen

uch of the global efforts of decarbonisation have been focused on the power sector in recent years, and advances have been made. But other sectors also contribute to global GHG emissions, among them energy-intensive industries like the glass industry. To achieve the goals of the 2015 Paris Accords, these industries will have to rethink the manufacturing processes, but at the same time maintain their high standards in terms of product quality. In principle, there are several options for reducing GHG emissions from hightemperature manufacturing processes. Increasing efficiency is an obvious choice, and thus should be the aim of any process optimization. However, the glass industry has already been very successful over the last decades to reduce their overall energy demand with a variety of measures, as Fig 1 highlights for the European container glass industry. Further increases in process efficiency are unlikely, as the specific energy demand has plateauing slightly above the theoretical energy requirement in recent years.

Making glass is an energy-intensive process, and this energy has to be provided somehow, without emitting GHG (Fig 1). Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is one approach. The CO2 contained in the flue gas of a conventional gas-fired furnace is removed and then stored in geological formations. CCS was originally proposed to reduce GHG emissions from coal-fired power plants, but could also be used for large industrial sites. There is a variety of issues though, ranging from economic aspects to societal acceptance. One advantage of CCS would be that it can remove not CO2 from process heating, but also CO2 emitted by glass melting itself. These process emissions are substantial: in 2018, almost 20% of the German glass industry’s CO2 emissions were process emissions. “Green” electricity is another option. All-electric melting furnaces are an established technology [2], primarily for smaller plants. Heat production on-site would be completely carbon-free, but process emissions will still be a concern. Also, the continuous availability of

sufficient amounts of “green” electricity is still an open question, especially as there is a push to electrify different sectors as well, e. g. transportation. It should also be kept in mind that today, actually obtaining “green power” is not exactly easy: even in Germany with its large share of renewable energies in power generation (> 40 % in 2018), the specific CO2 emission is at about 500 g CO2/kWh. Natural gas, the dominant energy source in the glass industry has a specific CO2 emission of about 230g CO2/kWh. This value includes CO2 from combustion, but also additional CO2 from upstream processes, e. g. gas transport and production as well as related methane emissions [3]. Thus, even a relatively bad combustion process (assuming a thermal efficiency of 50%) with natural gas produces lower CO2 emissions per energy unit than a perfect electric heating system with the current German power mix. Considering the sophistication and high efficiency of combustion processes in glass melting furnaces, the overall CO2 Continued>>

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Jörg Leicher and Anne Giese*, and Johann Overath** discuss the HyGlass project, which aims to investigate how hydrogen can help decarbonise the glass industry.

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Energy efficiency

� Fig 1. Evolution of the specific energy demand and crown temperatures in

� Fig 2. Laminar combustion velocities sL as functions of the equivalence ratio

the European container glass industry [1]

(=1/λ) for methane, hydrogen and methane/hydrogen blends. Source: GWI

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balance is even more in favour of natural gas. Of course, this balance will shift with even higher shares of renewable power, but at the same time, gas will become greener, with increasing injection rates of carbon-free or carbon-neutral gases like biomethane, synthetic natural gas or “blue” and “green” hydrogen. In this context, “blue” hydrogen refers to hydrogen produced by conventional methods in combination with CCS, while “green” hydrogen is hydrogen that was produced via water electrolysis with “green” electricity [4]. If “green” hydrogen is to be used, then the question about the availability of sufficient amounts of renewable electricity arises again. The use of renewable gases for process heating is then final option to decarbonize energy-intensive industries, and is generally considered to be particularly well-suited to high-temperature processes [5] . The objective of the “HyGlass” project

is to investigate how the combustion of hydrogen, either in a blend with natural gas or pure, will affect combustion processes in the glass industry, with a focus on its application in North RhineWestphalia.

Hydrogen There are two ways how hydrogen could be used in the glass industry for decarbonization. The first way is that a glass manufacturer decides to produce hydrogen on-site to reduce a plant’s carbon footprint, e. g. with an electrolyzer, powered with green electricity. Pure hydrogen could then be directly used as a fuel or blended with natural gas before being burned. But even if a glass manufacturer has no interest in decarbonization, they may still be confronted with hydrogen soon. The European gas industry is pushing forward ambitious projects to inject hydrogen

directly into the gas grids to reduce the CO2 footprint of natural gas. Currently there are already several research projects and field tests underway to assess how different end-use applications respond to various levels of hydrogen in natural gas, e. g [6], [7]. Chemically speaking, hydrogen is very different from natural gas, with significantly lower densities (-86 %) and lower calorific values (-70 %), but higher adiabatic combustion temperatures (+150 °C) and laminar combustion velocities (+444 % at stoichiometry, cf. Fig 2). Blends of natural gas and hydrogen will fall somewhere in between these extremes, depending on the hydrogen concentration. The impact of these changes on industrial combustion processes has yet to be investigated in detail (Fig 2). Continued>> 31

� Fig 3. CFD analysis of the impact of different levels of hydrogen in natural

� Fig 4. Comparison of CFD simulations and measurements at an industrial

gas and different combustion control strategies on an industrial burner) [8]

glass melting furnace. Source: GWI

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Energy efficiency

28<< Continued To prepare the glass industry in North Rhine-Westphalia for these challenges, the HyGlass project was initiated to analyze how hydrogen (blended with natural gas, or pure hydrogen) will affect the various combustion processes in the glass manufacturing process, like melting furnaces, feeders or lehrs, using computer simulations (CFD) as well as experimental investigation with semi-industrial burner test rigs. The project is planned to last 18 months and will be carried out by BV Glas – The Federal Association of the German Glass Industry and Gas- und Wärme-Institut Essen e.V., an independent research organization focusing, among other things, on combustion systems in thermal processing industries. In previous studies [8], [9], GWI already started investigating the impact of hydrogen admixture on industrial burner systems (cf. Fig 3). It was found that while the admixture of hydrogen does have impact on industrial combustion processes, many of these effects can be mitigated using advanced combustion measurement and control systems. One objective of HyGlass is therefore to find appropriate technological solutions for the specific conditions and applications of gas combustion in the glass manufacturing process. Additionally, GIS analyses (GIS: geographic information systems) and gas grid simulations will be used to investigate how grid-level hydrogen injection may affect glass manufacturing sites in NRW or where to identify locations where local glass manufacturers could best use locally available green electricity to produce their own hydrogen for decarbonization purposes. �

References [1]

Pont, R.S., “History and Evolution of Clean Efficient Firing

Techniques for Glass Melting Furnaces”,10th International Conference on Industrial Furnaces and Boilers (INFUB10), Porto, Portugal, 2015. [2]

Meuleman, R., “The efficient future for the glass industry is‚ all-

electric”, 14th International Seminar on Furnace Design, Velke Karlovice, Czech Republik, 2017. [3]

20 – 22 OCT 2020

> Top speakers from throughout the glass industry > Trends and developments in the glass production, glass processing and glass finishing sectors, as well as glass products and applications > Web sessions and virtual showrooms from our exhibitors

“Vorkettenemissionen von Erdgas”, Zukunft ERDGAS / DVGW,

Berlin, Germany,2019. [4]

VIRTUAL

> Networking in the global glass community

Barth, F., “CertifHy - Developing a European guarantee of origin

scheme for green hydrogen - Definition of Green Hydrogen”, 2016. [5]

Friedmann, S.J., Fan, Z., Tang, K., “Low-carbon heat solutions for

heavy industry: sources, options, and costs today”, Columbia University - Center on Global Energy Policy, New York, USA, 2019. [ [6]

virtual.glasstec-online.com

“THyGA - Testing Hydrogen admixture for Gas Applications”, 2020.

thyga-project.eu. [7]

“GRHYD”, 2020. grhyd.fr.

[8]

Nowakowski, T., Leicher, J., Giese, A., “Untersuchungen der

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Auswirkung von Wasserstoff-Zumischung ins Erdgasnetz auf industrielle Feuerungsprozesse in thermoprozesstechnischen Anlagen”, Gas- und Wärme-Institut Essen e.V., Essen, Schlussbericht IGF-Vorhaben Nr. 18518/1, 2017. [9]

Leicher, J., Nowakowski, T., Giese, A., Görner, K., “The Impact

of Higher Hydrogen Concentrations in Natural Gas on Industrial Combustion Processes”, ICG Annual Meeting & 32nd Sisecam Glass Symposium, Istanbul, Turkey, 2017.

*Gas- und Wärme-Institut Essen e.V., Germany, www.gwi-essen.de ** BV Glas – Federal Association of the German Glass Industry, Germany, www.bvglas.de

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Energy efficiency

A waste heat recovery solution Sabrina Santarossa* discusses how Organic Rankine Technology is a particularly effective technology solution for waste heat recovery and can help glass manufacturers meet the sustainability challenges they are facing.

lass factories are undergoing sustainability improvement especially in terms of energy efficiency. Process optimisation and energy efficiency to reduce emissions are more important then ever for all glass producers. Nevertheless still today, 30-35% of the energy input in glass production is lost in the off-gas. This waste is an economic loss and it can be leveraged using proven technologies, such as Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC), to benefit glass producers and the environment. In the last 10 years Turboden, in the

WHR working principle Heat contained in the exhaust gas is typically transferred through heat recovery exchangers directly or indirectly (typically using thermal oil as intermediate fluid) to the organic fluid inside the ORC plant.

In the ORC, the organic fluid is heated and vaporised in the pre-heater and evaporator thanks to the external heat source (gas or thermal oil). Organic vapour expands into the turbine producing mechanical power that can be transformed into electricity through an electric generator or used to drive a compressor thus producing compressed air. After the expansion in the turbine, organic vapour is firstly cooled in the regenerator and then condensed in the condenser. Once again in the liquid form, the organic fluid is pumped into the regenerator and then in the pre-heater,

Fig 1b.

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Fig 1a.

frame of environmental sustainability, has proposed and installed successfully several Waste Heat Recovery (WHR) systems, based on ORC technology, to recover the thermal power available in the waste gas at furnaceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s outlet and valorise it producing electricity or compressed air.

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Energy efficiency

Direct exchange versus Indirect exchange The direct and indirect schemes of WHR solution are shown in Figs 1a and 1b. On a direct exchange configuration, the main advantage is the lower investment cost because there are less components (no thermal oil circuit). The solution is more compact and the net power output is higher since there is no thermal oil pump. Direct exchange solution is suitable for single heat source (e.g. heat recovery after the filtration system).

Turboden has designed a standardised solution for power output in the range 400-800 kW and it is possible to optimise the solution with few adjustments based on exhaust gas characteristics. On the other hand, indirect scheme is suitable when multiple heat sources (e.g. multiple gas lines, heat recovery before and after the filtration system) and gives advantages of layout flexibility and easier regulation in case of variable heat source. This scheme is used for medium-large plants (above 1 MW).

Power produced through WHR, not only electricity Turbine mechanical power can be exploited to producing electricity and/or compressed air. The compressed air, needed in the process, could be produced by a compressor driven by turbine shaft. In such way global efficiency rises since generator and motor efficiency are avoided and 100% of mechanical power is transformed in compressed air. Other advantages are related to the easier authorisation process (no grid connection needed). Hybrid solutions are also possible and

� Fig 2 Hybrid solutions are already available.

� Fig 1 a and b (far left). Direct and indirect schemes of Waste Heat Recovery solution.

� Pics 1 and 2 below Turboden ORC generator.

are already in operation in Saint-Gobain Italy. In this case the turbine is connected to a double shaft generator that is connected to the compressor. About half of mechanical power (500 kW) is transformed into electricity, while the rest is used to produced 80 Nm3/min at 7 bar(g) (Fig 2).

ORC technology ORC is a mature technology commercially available since the ‘70s, originally for geothermal energy exploitation and more recently – since the ‘80s and ‘90s – also for power production from biomass combustion, solar and heat recovery from industrial processes. Turboden has more than 40 years of experience in the ORC field and several steps ahead have been taken to improve the technology. Today, there are currently about 370 Turboden ORC plants in operation and further 30 plants are under construction. The average availability of the operating fleet exceeds 98% and more than 15.000.000 operating hours have been reached. Several benefits of ORC technology: � No negative impact on industrial process: WHR plant is installed in by pass to the main gas duct. � Completely automatic system: selfregulating operations with no need of supervision personnel. � Increase sustainability of the process and contributing to decarbonisation goal given to the industry. � Decrease energy cost: production of electricity exploiting exhaust gas heat wasted into the atmosphere. Increase of competitive advantage while reducing energy cost guaranteeing a low Levelized Cost Of Electricity (LCOE) for the whole WHR life. � Possible configuration with no water consumption. � High availability, higher than 98% on a statistical basis. � Minimum maintenance requirements and cost during the whole life of the plant (more than 25 years) With regard to the heat recovery from glass production process, several are the successful references projects deployed: � AGC Cuneo plant. A 1.3 MWe Turboden ORC unit has worked since 2012. In 2018 the glass furnace was rebuilt and no modification to the existing WHR were needed. Continued>>

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thus closing the thermodynamic cycle. Recovering the heat from a float glass 600 t/day furnace leads to an electric power of 1.2 – 2.4 MWe, while in the typical size container glass plant the possible power production is in the range of 0.5-1.5 MWe depending on furnace numbers and size. Summarising, there are two ways to recover heat from the glass production process exhaust gas: directly and indirectly and there are two possible use of turbine mechanical power: electricity production or compressed air production widely used in container glass process.

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Energy efficiency

� Container glass in Italy. A 0.5 MWe ORC started up in 2015. � Duzce Cam – Duzce plant, Turkey. A 6 MWe ORC unit is working since 2018. � Saint-Gobain Chennai plant, India – a 1.2 MWe ORC unit started up in 2019. � Saint-Gobain Pisa plant, Italy – a 1 MW hybrid (electric power plus compressed air) ORC unit started up. From an economical point of view WHR feasibility is driven by energy cost, local incentives and initial CapEx. Glass furnace works for 8760 hrs/year thus helping in decreasing payback time. Bigger WHR plants have a lower specific cost, while for small ORC direct exchange solution can be the best solution to decrease specific cost.

Conclusion Sustainability of glass process is becoming more and more important for glass industries. On this regard WHR is one option that better exploits available energy actually wasted allowing to decrease also energy cost. The ORC technology - thanks to its ability to recover heat at medium

low temperatures, together with good electrical efficiency, high flexibility and minimum operation and maintenance cost– is the ideal technological solution for effective and profitable implementation of systems of heat recovery in glass processes. Finally, there is a continuous

commitment in finding new technical solutions with the aim to improve economical results of WHR plants. �

*Sales Application Manager - Industrial Heat Recovery, Brescia, Italy www.turboden.com

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FIC SGT advert 2020 AW_FIC-Society advert 2019 27/01/2020 16:29 Page 1

Society of Glass Technology Join the worldwide network of interests centred on making glass great The Society of Glass Technology exists to serve people who are interested in the production, properties or uses of glasses, whether from a commercial, aesthetic, academic or technical viewpoint. It is a non-profit making organisation serving a worldwide membership publishing journals and text books, organising meetings and conferences on glass related topics. You can now join the SGT by going to www.sgt.org and selecting your journal choice and appropriate package. You will also be able to see the comprehensive history and activities of the society.

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Printing on glass

Printing glass is also possible! Printed glass can be used in many applications, which is why it is worth investing time and money into research states Martina Scherbel*.

lass is becoming ever more popular in building architecture as it is deemed a modern and elegant material. The growing demand for large and custom glass façades which can take on additional functions is spurring on designers. Glass fronts must not only be aesthetically appealing, but also securely installed and durable, as well as being able to permanently withstand the enormous loads they are under. However, visible joints and load take-up points disrupt the image of a homogeneous, transparent façade. In general, attaching the panes requires holes to be drilled in the individual elements, which harbours the risk of damaging the glass and thereby reducing its strength. Another option is to use adhesives to join components, but this has the disadvantage that the adhesive materials can age quicker than the joined parts due to UV radiation. A further aspect is that joined elements with different mechanical and thermal properties are used for both drilled and glued joints. Using glass from a 3D printer as a joint material, for example for point fixing, results in two identical materials with the same properties being joined together. This avoids different heat expansion factors between the materials, and the risks inherent with using drilled holes or adhesives are no longer a factor. The Glass Competence Center (ISM+D and MPA IfW) at the Technical University of Darmstadt is conducting research on how to create a substanceto-substance bond on float glass using additive manufacturing (3D printing), while simultaneously increasing its

rigidity. The scientists here are testing fused deposition modelling, amongst other approaches. Their aim is to enable glass panels with an area of up to 3.25 x 20 metres in the future. Two important factors are the process temperature and the viscosity of the glass. To create a joint between a pane and a glass structure, the pane must be heated significantly beyond the transformation temperature of glass at the join. If insufficient heat is applied, the structures will not join together, while if the temperature is too high, unwanted deformation can occur. Internal tension in the joint reduces its strength and ability to support loads. Brittle material behaviour and a combination of individual process and material parameters can also have a significant impact on the result. It is, however, absolutely possible to manufacture a homogeneous joint in a desired geometry with an appealing and transparent appearance using 3D printing. The scientists at TU Darmstadt also hope to find an answer for the question of how to convert this procedure into an automated process. Visitors to glass technology live at glasstec 2021 can also look forward to a further research project, as the scientists are planning to exhibit a 3D printed glass staircase with glass brackets.

When comparing the material properties, environmental impact and raw material properties of glass and plastic, glass comes out on top across the board. Unfortunately, melting glass is both complex and expensive, which is why the industry prefers plastic in part. The general methods used to process glass have hardly changed over the centuries, with the most common being grinding, polishing or etching. Glassomer GmbH develops materials and technologies which first enable the shaping of polymer nanocomposites at room temperature, before they are subsequently converted to glass at temperatures between 700°C and 1300°C. Glassomer is a silicate nanocomposite, which enables highly pure quartz glass to be manufactured from a solid, paste or liquid state (Pictured left). Liquid Glassomer can be used to duplicate components at room temperature through casting or stereolithography. Solid Glassomer can be structured using traditional subtractive techniques such as drilling, milling and turning, or even with a knife. Thermal polymer transformation technologies such as nanoimprinting, thermoforming or rollto-roll replication are also possible. Glassomer components are chemically and physically identical to commercial quartz glass. They have comparably high optical transparency in the visible, UV and infrared spectra, as well as equal thermal and chemical stability and mechanical strength. Additional solids in the starting material help prevent the glass from shrinking during manufacturing. It is also possible to manufacture components with threads. Simple technologies, such as casting, enable uncomplicated replication, and smaller components can be created using simple 3D printers. More complex tasks require high-resolution microstereolithography. Using this procedure, extremely fine structures with diameters of just tens of micrometres can be created without transitions. Glassomer is the first product to enable the structuring of high-quality quartz glass using polymer processing Continued>>

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Just like glass

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Printing on glass

technologies. The replication is accurate right down to just a few micrometres and the resulting glass has a surface roughness of a few nanometres, which meets the demands of both optics and photonics applications. Users can create voids in bodies using sacrificial templates and extremely fine structures in bulk materials.

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The Günter Köhler Institute for Joining Technology and Materials Testing (ifw Jena) in Jena collaborated with FH Aachen University of Applied Sciences to analyse laser powder bed fusion (L-PBF) of borosilicate and quartz glass powders within the process chain of 3D printing. This procedure has benefits including free geometric shaping, low production costs in small and medium-sized production runs and comparable component properties of the glass bodies. The scientists characterised the glass powder classes based on their geometric, thermal and mechanical-physical properties, and analysed how they can be processed at different laser wavelengths in the L-PBF process. To this end, the plant technology was adapted to the conditions of processing glass using CO2 laser radiation. The effort is worth it, as glass meets requirements in glass equipment or chemical plant construction that metal cannot. Glass has a high temperature resistance, thereby requiring a high energy input to melt, and is a poor conductor of heat. Scientists wish to investigate how they can overcome this factor and the poor absorption at the wavelength of 1,064 μm. They were already able to prove that it is generally possible to process glass powders and define process parameters, such as laser power, scan strategy, powder coat thickness, chamber heating and much more. Researchers manufactured test specimens made of borosilicate and quartz glass and subsequently assessed their quality. The parameters were strongly dependent on the geometric shape of the specimen due to the heat agglomeration. Tempering can help improve the quality of the glass components. Further experiments aim to test the porosity, roughness and density in relation to the L-PBF parameters and clarify the possible application areas for the components. The thermal and chemical resistance inherent to quartz and borosilicate glass have resulted in them becoming proven materials in glass equipment construction, microfluidics, microelectronics, optics and medical technology. A further research project at ifw Jena aims to develop an additive process based on laminated object manufacturing (LOM) with the goal of enabling additional industrial applications. In this project, complex glass components – for example with interior cavities – are constructed which could not be manufactured using conventional fabrication technologies. The procedure is intended to combine laser cutting and diffusion welding. Aside from quartz glass, CO2 laser cutting (λ = 10.6 µm) causes the glass composition in the area of the cut edge to change, the thermal expansion coefficient to shift and a bead to form. The research goal is to define process parameters for the respective glass in order to remove these effects. �

*Communication Officer - Construction - Equipment and Plant Engineering, VDMA, Frankfurth am Main, Germany www.glass.vdma.org If you have any questions contact Gesine Bergmann, Technology Consultant at the Glass Technology Forum (+49 69 6603 1259 or gesine. bergmann@vdma.org)

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www.zippe.de

Thank you to all our customers, staff and suppliers for the loyalty and the trust that you have placed in us. It has been a privilege to serve the glass industry for the last 100 years and we will continue offering future-driven, people-oriented and customer-centric products and services true to our promise:

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Furnace ignition: O-I Veauche

O-I unveils €30 million Veauche, France furnace investment � Mr Robert Gachot, O-I General Manager for Southwest Europe, at the furnace ignition.

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O-I

Glass has completed a rebuild of one of its two furnaces at its Veauche, France manufacturing facility. The upgrade also included the installation of a new machine in the hot end and the modernisation of several production sectors. After six months of work, with more than 300 people contributing to the upgrade, the plant has increased flexibility as well as capacity, and is now able to produce 16 million additional bottles per year. “The first bottles that came out of the oven were a reflection of the plant’s project: very high quality,” says Robert Gachot, General Manager for Southwest

Europe. “The Veauche plant is the group's most flexible in France. Thanks to this investment, we have further increased this flexibility, which is key for our customers in the growing French market for premium wines and spirits. “Consumers increasingly value personalised, sustainable and recyclable packaging solutions, and we are very pleased to be able to support our customers' growth in this direction at Veauche.” The furnace’s Godparents are Julie Rochas, purchasing manager at O-I’s customer Pernod Ricard, and Gilles Combe, the plant’s Continuous Improvement Manager and Machine

Project Coordinator (pictured above right). Throughout his career, Gilles continuously trained to be at the forefront of hot sector machine technology. The ‘furnace 3’ project is the third machine project in a row piloted by Gilles in Veauche, and has therefore benefited from his expertise. The increase in industrial capacity and flexibility at the Veauche plant benefits the premium wine and spirits market, while strengthening the region's circular economy. The furnace has a cullet rate of up to 87%, and the cullet is sourced from a processing approximately 20km away.

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Furnace ignition: O-I Veauche

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INTRODUCING Dimensional measurement system for glass containers

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Inspection

� This Gawis4Glass offers a simple, conﬁgurable and easy to understand user interface.

� High pixel density camera components along with telecentric optics and lighting are incorporated in the Gawis4Glass to achieve a high level of dimensional precision and repeatability.

Gawis4Glass measurement system for glass containers A

gr International has unveiled its latest development, the Gawis4Glass. This all-in-one dimensional measurement system is designed specifically to improve the efficiency and testing throughput of the glass containers quality control laboratory. The Gawis4Glass automates a number of critical bottle measurements into a single operation and performs a complete dimensional analysis in a matter of seconds. This totally new laboratory test system provides an unmatched level of measurement capabilities to support the design, process and quality management of glass containers.

Continuing the legacy Agr International has a long history of providing high-precision dimensional gauging and measurement systems to the glass container industry. Agr’s Dimensional Sampling Gauge and OmniLab products are well known within the industry for their high precision and automated measurement capabilities. These systems are relied upon by a number of bottle manufacturers and amply fill the need for at-the-line or nearthe line sampling and measurement. However, in addition to at-the-line testing and measurement, there is still a need for similar capabilities in the laboratory, yet in a format more compatible with the size

and style of laboratory operations. The Gawis4Glass was designed specifically to fit this need. With a footprint of 1metre2, the Gawis4Glass can fit in laboratories with limited space. The size of this system however, does not diminish its precision and measurement capabilities. The Gawis4Glass directly addresses the challenges that the dimensional measurement of bottles presents to laboratory personnel. This system incorporates features and functions specifically oriented to simplify this timeconsuming task, while providing highly repeatable and accurate measurement Continued>>

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David Dineff* introduces the Gawis4Glass, an all-new, high-precision dimensional measurement system for the glass container industry.

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Inspection

results. To achieve this, the Gawis4Glass uses the latest optical gauging technology, in combination with automation and advanced, intuitive operational software, to simplify container measurement operations while maximising testing throughput. As a result, this system can provide broad measurement capabilities on a range of glass containers with unmatched accuracy, repeatability and operational throughput.

Ease of job setup One of the biggest challenges with measurement systems of this type is the preparation and programming of the device to perform the desired measurements. The Gawis4Glass offers tools that are available to simplify this

Built upon a completely new measurement platform, this system incorporates advanced features and capabilities including: � Large, customizable and intuitive user interface, with swipe and zoom capabilities � Powerful yet simple job creation and editing tools incorporating Agr’s patent-pending AutoJob - automated job setup � Precise finish gauging and body measurement capabilities utilising high resolution, USB 3 camera technology, optimised lensing and telecentric optics with 360º imaging � Performance to exceed all relevant international standards � Industry 4.0 communication protocols

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Advanced Vision Technology A major design emphasis for the Gawis4Glass was to provide measurements with a level of precision and repeatability that not only can document dimensions of production containers but can also be used to qualify and manage moulds. The vision measurement technology incorporated in the Gawis4Glass utilises high pixel density camera components in combination with enhanced telecentric optics and lighting. Cameras are fixed with zero movement, eliminating any potential errors from vibrations or camera movement. Telecentric optics ensure every measurement is accurate and repeatable regardless of container size, shape or distance from the camera. This combination provides a crisp edge shadow, making it possible to achieve the highest dimensional precision and repeatability, as well as a low percent of process variation for individual measurements. Further, images are captured at 1 degree intervals and the entire bottle is scanned, achieving 100% full-bottle capture to facilitate efficient dimensional processing.

process and minimise the time required to edit jobs. Operators can use AutoJob to automatically identify finish measurements, build a job from individually selectable measurement routines or choose from a library of industry standardised finish templates. Gawis 4D also enables an operator to select a single measurement or combination of measurements for a particular job. All job setup methods are straight forward and intuitive, yet provide the versatility to enable an operator to customise tests for the application.

AutoJob

� The imaging system on the Gawis4Glass provides a crisp edge shadow, making it possible to achieve the highest dimensional precision.

� The Gawis4Glass features AutoJob, a tool to simplify job setup by providing automated recognition of key finish measurements.

AutoJob is a patent-pending feature on the Gawis4Glass designed to simplify job setup by providing automated recognition of key finish measurements. With this feature, the operator simply selects the AutoJob mode and the work of locating and identifying finish features is performed automatically. The Gawis4Glass scans the sample, identifies the standard finish measurements for that sample and incorporates them into the job within seconds. The operator can adjust the selection, add control limits to the selection and incorporate additional measurements as necessary. This feature greatly accelerates job creation, saving hundreds of labour hours through the course of a year.

Industry 4.0 communication Industry 4.0 standard communication protocols have also been incorporated into the Gawis4Glass to improve communications and support Industry 4.0 objectives. This capability facilitates advanced communication with other devices, to share data, support remote job change and interface with factory robotic handling systems without operator intervention. Agr offers a complete line of products for the measurement and testing of glass containers. Agr products are designed to assist container producers, converters and fillers stay competitive, while meeting the increased quality demands of today’s changing world. �

David Dineff, Director of Marketing, Agr International, Inc., Butler, PA, USA. Email marketing@agrintl.com www.agrintl.com

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Energy Efficiency

Latest Quality Control before Delivery to Customers In the production process, pallets are the last step for produced articles. Obviously, it is in glassmakers’ interest to carry out careful and precise operations regarding controls on pallets. A supervision system such as SIL brings high efficiency and reliability in the essential process of carefully controlling articles on pallets. This is the warranty for a high end customer satisfaction.

ontrols on pallets are the last chance for glassmakers to control the quality of their production before delivery to end customers. This opportunity should certainly not be missed, and controls need to be carefully achieved! These controls can be carried out according to different methods that can be implemented in SIL, as for high efficiency a full traceability over these processes is required.

Supervising controls on pallets SIL is a complete Manufacturing Execution System supervising production everywhere in the plant. Pallet management is one of its numerous options. Like a lot of features in the

system, this functionality is made of an operator interface on one side and a manager interface on the other side. The manager is entitled to select the way controls should be carried out among possible configurations.

Controls based on Acceptance Quality Levels Traditionally in SIL, Acceptance Quality Levels are defined in line with international standards. Then, pallets are accepted or blocked in consequence. This process is totally reliable and suits to any kind of glass production, especially for cosmetics for which demands are particularly high. By achieving quality controls on

pallets with Acceptance Quality Levels, glassmakers can send pallets to end customers in total piece of mind: pallets are in compliance with customer’s specifications.

Controls based on operator’s choice The pallet blocking mode is a brand-new feature in SIL, and is totally flexible. It can be activated or not; it can be activated for some users and not for others; it can be activated for some productions and not for others. This is up to glassmakers to use this feature on the basis of their needs, their production orders and/or management style. Continued>>

� Keep the full traceability of good

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or blocked pallets.

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Handling

With this feature activated, operators can quickly select if pallets are accepted or blocked. Operators enter the pallet status in the system for each pallet. Should it be necessary, pallet status can be easily changed. Full flexibility and full traceability are then guaranteed!

Supervising the resorting process For some pallets, a next stage may intervene. In some cases, blocked pallets can be resorted. Using a supervision system such as SIL for this process is also highly recommended, as it ensures a full traceability. Reject causes can be accurately analysed in the view of continuous improvement on the whole production process. Thanks to the data collected during the process, resorting real costs can be used as starting point for financial analyses.

Collecting data to manage teams and productions Like any other SIL application, the Pallet Audit feature aims at supervising production â&#x20AC;&#x201C; in this case with a focus on

pallets. By collecting data, traceability is guaranteed all over the process, and analyses can be carefully achieved. ďż˝

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CONNECTING THE INTERNATIONAL GLASSMAKING INDUSTRY Published ten times a year, Glass International brings you a wealth of valuable information on the hollow, container, flat, and speciality glassmaking industry

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Energy efficiency

Advantages of modular dust collection with ceramic filter systems Alessandro Monteforte* and Garrett Ruess** discusses the advantages of ceramic filter systems for glass manufacturers, which include not only improved CAPEX but pollution control too.

he Covid pandemic and the resulting global economic slowdown, combined with continued regulatory legislation to spend more on improving production practices, has increased the pressure on manufacturers.

As a result there is more focus on the competitiveness of so-called nonproduction improving equipment, such as air pollution control technologies. This is expounded for air pollution control in the glass industry, where

deterioration of furnaces over the life of their respective campaigns creates wide flowrate and temperature design windows. In an effort to maintain the high quality of equipment while keeping as

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ďż˝ Pic 4 A modular system on container glass.

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Energy efficiency

� Pic 2. Treatment line and performances.

� Pic 1. A modular system – on container

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glass, ready for further expansion

competitive as possible, Tri-Mer suggests as a technical solution to an economic problem, the utilisation of ceramic filter systems alongside the further modularisation of flue gas handling equipment and the delayed installation of the modules (and most importantly, delayed CAPEX) over the duration of the campaign (Pic 1). This strategy not only optimises the financial impact of this ‘necessary evil’, but concurrently creates process advantages that result in a higher quality installation overall. Increased modularity if designed with intention from the beginning, increases the operational safety, flexibility, and maintainability of the emission control system while still capitalizing on the delayable expandability of the modular system. This strategy in conjunction with ceramic filter systems also prepares glass manufacturers for the further reduction of permitted emissions (pic 2). It is a common and accepted practice to install three exhaust fans in parallel, each design to manage 50% of the total furnaces flow rate, yielding a complete redundancy of the equipment while only installing a total capacity of 150% of the process. The strategy for ceramic filter housings would be similar. For example, five housings could be installed with 25% each, resulting in a fully redundant system while only needing to install a total capacity of 125%. For a typical container glass ceramic filter installations, more than 20% of the initial air pollution control equipment investment can be delayed until later in the furnace campaign as the flow rate increases and the additional modules may be installed, immediately prior to their requirement and started online, without affecting production or compliance.

� Pic 3 Preassembled modules on a truck.

All of the realisable advantages of a modularised ceramic filter approach to air pollution control are described below: The main advantage is the delayed CAPEX for systems that have increased air flow over time. Gradual capacity increase of air handling system is possible with minimal process interference during expansion construction. Relatively, there is a low cost difference between multiple small modules and single large system for systems designed to the same specification. Of course, there is a finite cost increase for extra insulation and the steel separating modules but it is typically offset with expedited installation and minimised onsite work. If certain process equipment, such as the ID Fan, are designed for maximum capacity from the beginning, additional ceramic filter housings or even DeNOx SCR modules in parallel will have an insignificant cost difference whether installed in year zero versus year five. Next and equally as important, operational safety is improved significantly. Zero downtime installations become possible without having 100% redundancy but rather an optimised amount of extra equipment. Pollution control system shutdowns or worse, production losses for maintenance, become virtually unnecessary, regardless of bypass allowance time since individual modules can be isolated and maintained without affecting the greater package. Internal equipment issues can also be resolved without requiring maintenance personnel to physically enter the process equipment and without special tools. Put simply in a metaphor, with the tools we have available today its simpler to replace the telephone inside of a telephone booth without entering than it is to replace the telephone in an apartment under the same restriction. Modularised systems also allow for more careful planning of

maintenance. Allowing maintenance personnel to isolate non-functioning equipment, order replacement parts, and execute the fix without requiring emergency responses (Pic 3). Finally, smaller modules allow for higher quality production of the equipment. Smaller workshops closer to the ultimate installation location are able to fabricate and preassemble, maintaining competitiveness while allowing for more stringent quality control procedures to be possible, such as factory acceptance of an operational system. This allows for acknowledgement and resolution of problems before arriving to site, optimising the cost associated with delivering an acceptable system for the supplier, and minimising the time that glass production personnel are spending on plant construction projects rather than their speciality, producing glass (Pic 4). In conclusion, capitalising on the strategy modularising a ceramic filter system can not only result in reduced CAPEX at the initiation of furnace campaigns, which is typically when the upgrade of pollution control systems occurs, but it can also yield additional advantages in operation without requiring significant additional investment. This strategy is seen as beneficial for both buyer and supplier as a higher quality technology can be delivered and implemented while still maintaining a competitive price over the life of the investment. This same strategy can also be applied when the sizing for a furnace changes, giving flexibility not only to the pollution control design, but even to glass production. �

*Business Development Manager, **Process Engineer, Tri-Mer Global Technologies, Gorgonzola, MI, Italy www.tri-merglobal.com

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Sustainability: Glass for Europe

Flat glass increases its green credentials, despite Covid Despite the problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, maximising the ﬂat glass sector’s contributions to climate neutrality is the way forward, according to Glass for Europe. George Lewis spoke to Bertrand Cazes* about its plans for the future.

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urope has to transition to become climate neutral by 2050 and European flat glass manufacturers are committed to enable this massive societal transformation thanks to its products and manufacturing technologies. Glass for Europe is Europe’s flat glass trade association. It brings together companies across Europe including manufacturers AGC Glass Europe, Guardian, NSG and Saint-Gobain, along with national partners to represent the entire building glass value chain. While Europe sets for itself the objective of becoming climate neutral in 2050, Glass for Europe supports the sector in navigating the transition and in developing low carbon solutions. 2020 has been a tough year for the flat glass sector. Construction and renovation of buildings had to be paused during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in many European countries. Most car assembly plants in Europe stopped for several weeks during Spring 2020. Demand for glazing and windows and of automotive glass fell dramatically. Bertrand Cazes, Secretary General at Glass for Europe, mentions that automotive industry experts expect the automotive sector will witness a

20%-25% decline in 2020 compared to last year, while he expects a 10%-15% decline in the construction industry on the previous year if no support measures are put in place by governments across Europe.

Sustainability Mr Cazes said: “The industry has an impressive track record in environmental protection and sustainability.” Among the sustainability concerns is the need to reduce CO2 emissions globally. Glass

“The way to have economic survival is a big push towards carbon neutrality as this is what creates the business and the market for ﬂat glass

”

products.

� Bertrand Cazes has been Secretary General of Glass for Europe since 2009.

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Sustainability: Glass for Europe

unveiled its new vision entitled ‘2050 Flat glass in climate-neutral Europe’ on the occasion of a dinner debate in presence of high-level European Commission officials, Members of the European Parliament, the Presidency of the Council of the EU and senior managers of flat glass manufacturers. Glass for Europe wants to support the industry’s efforts, but it refuses to define a common pathway which would lock the industry in one direction or another.

Instead, it identifies the different routes to lower emissions in manufacturing and to maximize flat glass products contributions. It leaves it up to the companies themselves to choose what they believe are the most promising routes and to develop them. If cooperation is important, emulation and competition is equally important in this domain. Glass for Europe believes there are four main avenues to reduce emissions in flat glass manufacturing. These are: 1. Incremental improvements e.g. improving currently existing manufacturing techniques to reduce emissions further, possibly by embracing more Industry 4.0 principles and digitalised technologies. 2. More cullet use: this can reduce emissions significantly but not enough to fully decarbonise flat glass manufacturing. 3. Alternative energies e.g. hydrogen, electricity or biogas. 4. Carbon capture storage or carbon capture utilisation, which may help reduce CO2 emissions on an even larger scale. According to Glass for Europe statistics from 2019, the use of cullet has increased from 20% in the 1990s to approximately 26% across Europe during the last decade (as percentage of cullet in the batch), with some countries above 30%. Moving from 20% to 26% of cullet has created a 6% reduction of CO2 emissions in Europe’s plants. Glass for Europe believes the maximum percentage of recycled glass introduced in the batch that could be reached if all building demolition and deconstruction waste glass were to return to flat glass manufacturing would be an average of 37%. This would mean an increase of 40% in absolute quantity of glass cullet use and the creation and scaling up of waste infrastructure to capture this stream. Initiatives have been launched by manufacturers to increase the amount of cullet for end of life glass. Saint-Gobain Glass UK has designed glass crushing machines that can be taken onto a construction site and the glass crushed in the correct way, before being taken back to Saint-Gobain Glass to be remelted into new glass. Mr Cazes says that “in a closed loop way of thinking, end of life flat glass must end up back in flat glass, as if it ends up in another industry it is lost for building glass forever”.

Another route to increase glass collection is to look at extended producer responsibility schemes. This would mean that a levy on flat glass products is paid to finance a collection and recycling stream for end-of-life products. This is happening in the container glass industry yet this may not necessarily always work in the flat glass sector because most flat glass products have a long life span and because glazing is attached to and deconstructed with other building materials. An initiative has already witnessed some success in the Netherlands and legislation is being set up in France to have an initiative put in place for all construction materials. The industry is therefore active on the topic to see how adequate solutions can be designed. Glass for Europe also believes that optimised transportation of flat glass can reduce CO2 emissions along the value chain and it is also looking at the use of renewable energy sources when manufacturing glass.

Automotive sector The automotive industry has been badly hit by Covid. With more people working from home and insecurities about their own jobs, it meant car sales have fallen dramatically. Automotive assembly plants were stopped for at least two months throughout Europe. Some staff have not returned, with Pilkington Automotive laying off 117 in August, while one of the two ﬂoat furnaces at AGC Glass Europe’s site in Boussois, France is also due to be closed. A rebound in the construction sector has already started, with projects that had been put on hold now restarted or completed. Despite the positive news that work on projects across Europe has once again began there does not seem to be many future projects being commissioned. He said: “This is worrying for the mid to long term, as there seems to be very little new construction permits being issued in Europe. How the window retroﬁtting / renovation market evolves will therefore be key.” The European Commission is due to release its Renovation Wave for Europe plan mid-October, which intends to set out policy direction to achieve doubling or even tripling building renovation across Europe. Continued>>

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for Europe and its members set out the first glass industry vision in this domain in 2011 when it issued its publication ‘The flat glass sector in a competitive low carbon economy’. Ever since, work has gone on and Mr Cazes indicates the industry is already stepping up its efforts to reduce emissions. For example, the sector already manufactures net carbon avoidance products, which help save more carbon during their lifetime than the carbon emitted when first produced. It is Glass for Europe’s role to make sure legislation across Europe supports the market uptake of these glazing solutions. Altogether, to become climate-neutral, the EU will need to consume more high-performance glass. Glass for Europe highlights that in the past 25 years the amount of CO2 per tonne of flat glass manufactured has reduced by 43%. Yet Mr Cazes suggests the industry needs to do things at a higher pace to reach the new EU targets. In January 2020, Glass for Europe

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Sustainability: Glass for Europe

Countries such as Italy and France have already put support packages in place to restart their economies. In both cases, support to building renovation is in prominent place and the ﬂat glass industry hopes to get its share of support with dedicated measures on window replacement. Studies commissioned by Glass for Europe show that if the window renovation rate is doubled in the next 10 years with the installation of high-performance glazing that is readily available, energy consumption by buildings can be reduced by at least 14% by 2030. That is why Glass for Europe wants to make sure carbon neutrality remains top of the agenda with the Renovation Wave approaching. “The way to have economic survival is a big push towards carbon neutrality as this is what creates the business and the market for ﬂat glass products.”

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There is regular dialogue between Glass for Europe, the container glass association FEVE and all other glass stakeholders to discuss common challenges. The reduction of carbon emissions right across the glass industry is one of those. If the container glass industry makes any future breakthroughs to reduce carbon emissions with a largely electrified furnace, it will be an interesting project for the flat sector to investigate, Mr Cazes believes. He added: “In the flat glass sector, furnace size is bigger, melting temperature and quality requirements are higher but there could be interesting learnings, so we wish FEVE success with its project”. Projects investigating alternative fuels for glass furnaces are also ongoing in the flat glass sector, such as the use of hydrogen as a glassmaking fuel and more use of electricity. Mr Cazes is sure that decarbonisation and the EU climate neutrality ambition are here to stay and could fundamentally transform our society and business. Despite COVID, work in this area must be intensified and Glass for Europe will do its bit to help the flat glass sector in this (r)evolution. �

*Secretary General Glass for Europe, Brussels, Belgium www.glassforeurope.com Glass International October 2020

15/10/2020 11:11:15

History

Prof. John Parker

Hows's tricks? Prof John Parker discusses novelty glass items made over the centuries.

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ne of my childhood memories is visiting my piano teacher, a spinster whose house remained as her parents had left it. She was a family friend and we occasionally visited for tea. One day she took from a cabinet a magical glass cup two thirds full of red ‘wine’ and invited me to drink. Holding it to my lips and tipping it back left my palate decidedly unsatisfied. I dipped a finger in, something that left my parents aghast, and it emerged completely dry. Eventually I realised the beaker had two layers and the red liquid was contained between them. But trick glasses can be more sophisticated. Three or even four centuries ago, particularly among high society in Germanic countries there was a fad for trick wine ‘glasses’ with whimsical shapes that displayed the glassmaker’s skill and the owner’s deep pockets. Their purpose was to be as difficult as possible to drink from. As the glass emptied, liquid in the several attached tubes and bulbs would suddenly pour out, drenching the drinker. This amused the onlookers while embarrassing the drinker. In competitions, anyone who spilled wine was required to begin again with a full glass. Large glass museums such as the Corning Museum of Glass (CMOG) and the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (V&A) have examples. Some originate from Venice while others were made in the ‘Façon de Venise’ but came from glass-making regions such as Bohemia, Spain, Russia and even the Islamic world. (https://www.cmog.org/ artwork/trick-glass). They were made by combining blowing with hot working. A common design format was a horned animal. Selected tubes connecting the drinking cup to the added bulbs had small holes which could

be sealed with the fingertips; stopping the correct holes was the secret to avoiding a dousing. Others had an extended lip with two separated folds both of which had to be in the drinker’s mouth to avoid leakage. Another variant had two compartments each holding a different liquid, often wine and water. Diluting wine with water before drinking was commonplace and at least extended the time before inebriation for the inexperienced drinker but a skilled user was able to control the ratio of the two components. A different form of trickery, common in Germany and the Czech Republic from the mid-16th century to the late 19th century was stretchable glass. A spiral crack ran from near the rim to just above the base of a beaker. The natural elasticity of the glass allowed extension, but the lack of plastic flow meant that the beaker returned to its original shape once the stress was removed and could again hold a liquid. Cracks were created by first inscribing a surface mark and then developed using thermal shock, as described in the literature of the period for making glassware for pharmaceutical or chemical equipment. A few still exist in museums but inevitably often only in peices (Glass News, 2019, Issue 45, Ingeborg Krueger, who is seeking other examples) Another novelty, the table fountain apparently showed water flowing uphill. Patented by Englishman Joseph Storer, they were made in England from 1870. A year later James W. Tufts bought the patent rights for their manufacture in the USA. In an 1877 trade catalogue (Boston Public Library) Tuffs wrote that his "perpetual" fountain operated on "a simple law of hydrostatics, practically applied.” “The extreme novelty of its operation,” he continued, “with the apparent absence

of motive power, adds very materially to its attraction as an ornament, and excites general surprise and wonderment." The device had two hollow glass spheres held one above the other in a framework of pipes rotatable about a horizontal axis. Above the spheres was the fountain nozzle in the middle of a dish. It was fed by a pipe from underneath the higher sphere. The dish collected the water and a pipe fed it to the lower sphere, compressing the air inside; flow ceased when the internal pressure matched that of the water column. Inverting the spheres meant the pressurised water was ejected as an 8” plume, the vertical separation of the spheres. It ran for up to 15 minutes. These novelties were displayed in ice-cream shops (another business of Tufts), chemists or theatres, or privately in the parlours, drawing rooms and conservatories of mansions of the ‘Gilded Age’. Tufts suggested perfuming the water and making air purifiers for sick-rooms. Following the 1893 depression, Tufts, writing to the Trade quoted Motley the historian, "Give us the luxuries of life, and we will do without the necessities". His fountains certainly qualified as luxuries. Their starting price, $15 was a fortnight’s pay for a labourer. Nevertheless, sales stalled and manufacturing ceased. Only around a dozen have survived (Jane Spillman, former Curator at CMOG). (http://www. nbmog.org/ParlorFountPage.html). Another novelty in Victorian times was to fill hollow glass balls with fine feathers for a ‘clay pigeon’ shoot. A successful hit gave the illusion of a bird strike. �

*Curator of the Turner Museum of Glass, The University of Sheffield, UK www.turnermuseum.group.shef.ac.uk j.m.parker@sheffield.ac.uk.

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