Glass International December January 2019 by Quartz Business Media

WWW.GLASS-INTERNATIONAL.COM

December/January 2019â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Vol.42 No.1

COMPANY PROFILE: STEKLARNA HRASTNIK/SIEMENS COUNTRY PROFILE: INDONESIA BRITISH GLASS FOCUS WINNERS A GLOBAL REVIEW OF GLASSMAKING

Glass International December/January 2019

Crystall ccll ear Crysta soll utions so for all types of g l ass production

GI Cover dec jan.indd 1

lass G t a o Fl

s as Gl re Fib

Th in Gl as s

Con taine r G lass

Tableware

I N T E R N A T I O N A L

13/12/2018 15:28:57

Air Products is blazing a new trail for oxy-fuel burner technology . . . Boost your performance and productivity for better glass with the Cleanfire® HRx™ burner! Upgrading your oxy-fuel burners, adding burners to boost production, or converting your air-fuel furnace to oxy-fuel? The patent pending Cleanfire HRx burner offers you expanded functionality and flexibility with unmatched performance. It can deliver: • Increased flame radiation for high fuel efficiency • Ultra-low NOx emissions • Foam reduction capability for higher-quality glass • Enhanced productivity • Optional remote performance monitoring feature This burner is the latest innovation in the long line of industry-leading Cleanfire® burners for the glass industry. Contact us to learn more or to schedule a demonstration in our state-of-the-art combustion lab.

To make glass better, put Air Products in the mix.

Americas +1 800 654 4567 (code 10868) Asia +021-3896 2000 Europe +44 800 389 0202

tell me more airproducts.com/HRx

Contents

www.glass-international.com Editor: Greg Morris Tel: +44 (0)1737 855132 Email: gregmorris@quartzltd.com Editorial Assistant: Sheena Adesilu Tel: +44 (0)1737 855154 Email: sheenaadesilu@quartzltd.com

December/January Vol.42 No.1

Sales Director: Ken Clark Tel: +44 (0)1737 855117 Email: kenclark@quartzltd.com Sales Executive: Manuel Martin Quereda Tel: +44 (0)1737 855023 Email: manuelm@quartzltd.com

Editor’s Comment

International news

Company proﬁle: Steklarna Hrastnik Embarking on a digital journey

Digital glassmaking: Siemens A digital consultancy for glassmakers

US Overview: The Silica Chronicles Glass recycling in the United States

Country proﬁle: Indonesia Indonesian glass is thriving

Company proﬁle: Tata Chemicals Europe Tata’s successful transformation

Lubrication: Xpar Vision BlankRobot: a step towards full forming process control

Lubrication: Graphoidal A modular lubrication system

Events review: British Glass Focus Awards The winners

Country overview: British Glass British Glass CEO’s insight into the UK glass industry at GPI

Conference review: Glass Focus A focus on digital glassmaking

Digital printing: O-I O-I Expressions: A digital printing method

Environment: BV Glas The glass industry is geared up for the circular economy

Lubrication: Condat Exciting forecast for lubricants

Lubrication: futronic Swab cycles monitored automatically

History: Prof John Parker Helium in glassmaking

John Henderson: Glass diversity

Managing Director: Steve Diprose Chief Executive Ofﬁcer: 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

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 2018 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.

54 Plus ﬁnd us on Linked-In and Twitter.

@Glass_Int © Quartz Business Media Ltd, 2018 ISSN 0143-7838

www.glass-international.com

Designer: Annie Baker Tel: +44 (0)1737 855130 Email: anniebaker@quartzltd.com

1 Glass International December/January 2019

Contents.indd 1

14/12/2018 11:02:15

International News

2018 DIARY

GREG MORRIS, EDITOR

January

FRONT COVER IMAGE: www.eme.de

March

www.glass-international.com

Best of British

Regular readers will know that I have droned on (and on) about digital glassmaking for years now. In this issue we interview a glassmaker which has decided to go digital. Slovenia’s Steklarna Hrastnik worked with its digital partner, Siemens, to conceive a five-year roadmap which encompasses an Industry 4.0 strategy. The first stage of this development has already been implemented and a further six projects are planned until 2022. Steklarna’s General Manager, Peter Câs discusses the results so far while we also speak to the glass team at Siemens which also talks about its digital consultancy offering. Digital was also the theme of the British Glass Focus event recently. Delegates heard from a variety of speakers about how glassmaking is expected to evolve in forthcoming years. The event concluded with an awards evening which celebrated the best of innovation in UK glassmaking. One of the highlights was the high quality of the submissions by all those companies which submitted entries. Entries ranged from improving mental health to bird safety and proved that innovation is strong in UK glass manufacturing. Due to a quirk in our publishing schedule, people reading this issue digitally will see the issue before Christmas, while those reading the printed issue will view it after Christmas. I wish you all a successful 2019.

30-31 Glassman Asia Combined exhibition and conference focusing on the latest developments in the container glass industry. Jakarta, Indonesia www.glassmanevents.com/ asia/

Frigoglass Nigerian investment

13-14 Celsian Redox-ﬁning-quality Training session dedicated to understanding (the link between) redox, fining and glass quality. Manchester, UK www.celsian.nl/subscribe/

April

2-5 Mir Stekla Annual exhibition for companies involved in all aspects of glassmaking. Moscow, Russia www.mirstekla-expo.ru/en/

May

Frigoglass will invest €25-30 million to expand furnace capacity at its Beta Glass Guinea plant, located in Agbara, Ogun state in Nigeria. The investment will increase capacity at the plant by 35,000 tons per year. It includes a new furnace which will replace an existing one that has reached the end of its life, an additional production line, upgrades to existing production lines, as well as new inspection equipment to strengthen the plant’s capabilities. It said the investment will drive growth in the company’s glass business across the West African region. The new furnace, with an expected productive life of more than 12 years, demon-

strates its commitment to customers across West Africa. The plant will also pioneer the use of Narrow Neck Press and Blow (NNPB) technology, which will enable production of lighter weight non-returnable glass bottles for the first time in West Africa. The project is expected to become fuly operational in 2020. Darren Bennett-Voci, Glass Division Director of Frigoglass and Managing Director of Beta Glass, said: “This new 300t/day furnace secures the livelihoods of our existing employees in Agbara, and creates not only additional jobs but also shareholder value and contributes positively to the development of the local community.”

Be ﬁrst with the news!

VISIT: www.glass-international.com for daily news updates

14-15 Glassman South America Combined exhibition and conference focusing on the latest developments in the container glass industry. Sao Paulo, Brazil www.glassmanevents.com 22-25 China Glass China Glass covers almost all fields pertinent to glass production, representing contemporary development of the industry. Beijing, China www.chinaglass-expo.com

June

05-06 Furnace Solutions Training day and conference. Stoke-on-Trent, UK www.furnacesolutions.co.uk 09-14 25th International Congress on Glass The International Congresses on Glass provide opportunities for glass scientists and technologists. Boston, USA https://ceramics.org/event/ icg2019

2 Glass International December/January 2019

december news.indd 1

18/12/2018 14:54:31

International News

NEWS IN BRIEF

Teco website

Container glassmaker Crown Mexico has invested in a turn-key vacuum system from Pneumofore. Pneumofore designed a dedicated centralised vacuum system based on a tailored vacuum pump, mod. UV24, which was supplied to Crown Vichisa. UV24 is now part of the standard range of the UV Series and has 37kW nominal power for up to 1.589 m3/h capacity. It has been designed to fit the specific vacuum lev-

el required by IS machines in glass manufacturing. The vacuum pump is equipped with a control system and a newly designed cooling system. For Crown Vichisa, Pneumofore supplied a centralised vacuum system made off its UV24VS45 vacuum pumps, with one pump used as a backup unit. The machines were delivered in their Hot Climate and Variable Speed version. The company also offered a turn-

key solution which included: the entire vacuum system engineering, room layout, piping design and installation. The system enables a smart operation, delivering variable capacity according to the real request from the production. Pneumofore also supervised the on-site start-up phase. The UV24 pumps were painted in white: customised colours are an option for Pneumofore customers.

O-I acquires Mexican glassmaker Owens-Illinois (O-I) has acquired nearly half of Mexican container glassmaker Empresas Comegua in a €119 million deal. O-I said it acquired a 49.7% interest in Empresas Comegua from Fabricación de Màquinas (FAMA), a Vitro subsidiary. Empresas Comegua is a manufacturer of glass containers for the Central American

and Caribbean markets. The business serves many of O-I’s global strategic customers and various segments including food, soft drinks, beer, spirits and pharmaceuticals. Operations include two glass manufacturing facilities one in Costa Rica and another in Guatemala. Andres Lopez, O-I’s chief executive officer, said: “The

Comegua transaction builds off the acquisition of O-I Mexico in 2015 and complements our existing footprint across the Americas which now extends from Canada to Argentina. “With this move, O-I is expanding into new and growing glass markets in Central America and extending its market presence in the Caribbean.”

Cristalerias Toro invests in Horn Chile’s Cristalerias Toro has appointed Horn Glass to supply a melting furnace for a new production line. It plans to build a completely new production line in Lonquen. Horn will supply a 300 tonne per day furnace on three forehearths. The supply includes the planning and delivery of the refractory materials

as well as the equipment for heating, measuring and control, boosting, the batch charger for the furnace, distributer and forehearth. The project is due to start next year with the first glass set for production in 2020.

Forglass all in one

Polish company, Forglass, has completed a complex expansion and modernisation of a batch house, furnace and forehearths for its client. The scope of the project included technological solutions and civil works to increase melting capacity. Forglass delivered an additional mixer and two bucket conveyors, providing the redundancy of batch delivery with two independent lines. It also did a complete rebuild of the furnace together with forehearths and relocated two IS forming machines together with their support structure and utilities.

Ardagh cullet event

Cullet plays a hugely important part in Ardagh Group’s daily glass manufacturing operations. It enables the company to meet the market need for glass bottles and jars that contain a high percentage of recycled glass. Ardagh Group held its third Cullet Conference, bringing together suppliers and customers to discuss the future requirements of glass cullet quality and availability. With more than 95% of Ardagh Group’s cullet suppliers present, Johan Gorter, CEO of Ardagh Glass, opened the conference with the company’s strong views on sustainability. The key messages were: ‘Glass is the best packaging option for resource efficiency’, and ‘together we must collect more glass and recycle it into high-quality cullet to be reused in our furnaces’.

www.glass-international.com

Crown Mexico invests in Pneumofore vacuum system

The Toledo-based TECO Group, a specialist in glass plant projects, has unveiled a new website. The www.teco.com website has been re-worked to provide the visitor with attractive, regularly updated content, developed and written for those interested in learning more about its expertise and capabilities in glass furnace and batch plant design.

december news.indd 2

18/12/2018 14:54:34

International News

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, www.glass-international.com/news � 1. Ardagh’s Cullet Conference addresses the future of glass recycling � 2. Forglass provides all in one package � 3. Sevam glassmaker sold to French beverage producer � 4. Ardagh Glass selects Xpar Vision for inspection enhancement project � 5. British Glass CEO showcases technology in America � 6. Stölzle launches range aimed at rum market � 7. Life Optimelt project update � 8. Management acquires majority control of glassmaker � 9. Coalitions to host webinar on glass recycling � 10. British Glass seminar explores future energy options for melting

Introducing the Cleanfire® ThruPorte™ burner A prescription for aging regenerators Undergoing regenerator repairs or having difficulty maintaining full production in an aging furnace? Turn to Air Products’ new Cleanfire® ThruPorte Oxy-fuel burner for an onthe-fly heating solution to avoid downtime or extend your furnace campaign. This patented and commercially-proven technology, installed from the underside of your port, allows you to add heat where and when its needed. Key features: • Tandem water-cooled oxy-fuel burner and oxygen staging lance • Proven durable design that can be easily installed in an existing port, while the furnace is running • Adjustable flame length and angle for optimal heat distribution and surface coverage • Remote, wireless and continuous online monitoring of burner performance • Available for rapid deployment To make glass better, put Air Products in the mix.

tell me more

800-654-4567, code 9091

Sevam sold to brewer Moroccan container glassmaker Sevam has been sold to a French brewer. Its owner, Moroccan investment fund Al Mada, sold it to the domestic subsidiary of the French group Castel, reports the Africaintelligence.fr website. The Castel subsidiary, Brasseries of Morocco, is a specialist in the pro-

duction of beverages and wines. The acquisition will allow the brewer to produce its own glass bottles for the packaging and sale of its products. The shareholders of Société des boissons in Morocco decided to diversify the company’s activity during a general meeting of shareholders a few

months ago. The brewing and malting company will soon be marketing food products and providing payment services in Morocco and other European markets. Société des boissons du Maroc recorded a growth of 3.3% in its ‘beer’ business in the 2017 financial year.

Ardagh selects Xpar Vision Xpar Vision has recently completed a project at Ardagh Group, Glass – North America, which was undertaken as part of Ardagh’s investment in enhanced quality and inspection equipment. The partnership between Ardagh and Xpar Vision began 15 years ago. Camiel van Dijk, responsible within Xpar Vision for customer relations with Ardagh Group, said: “We continuously work on improving our software to support container glass production efficiency and product quality. “A lot of the improvements are based on cus-

tomer feedback. “The latest added functionalities enable detecting crucial defects, triggering a signal or alarm, and long-term image storing of all bottles produced. “Other relevant software developments are: IR-D connection with CE

equipment and implementation of Artificial Intelligence to incorporate root cause indication for operators.” Xpar Vision’s Infrared Dual camera system (IR-D) analyses every single bottle at the hot end in real time.

Glass International December/January 2019 40538_AP_Glass_International_73x297mm_glass_ad.indd 1

december news.indd 3

3/10/17 11:12 AM

18/12/2018 14:54:38

WE inspect WHAT THE OTHERS CANNOT Introducing Volcanoâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;our newest inspection technology that makes it possible to locate defects in dark and multi-colored glass, non-round shapes and intricately textured surfaces. The future is here. Sales@appliedvision.com

AppliedGlass.com

AppliedVision_GlassInternational_Nov_Dec 10-23-18.indd 1

10/23/18 4:07 PM

International News

NEWS IN BRIEF

Vidrala Masitek launch

Spanish container glassmaker Vidrala has partnered with MMAAZZ to launch the Vidrala Impact Index (VII) and measurement capability using smart in-line sensing technology. Eduardo Albaizar, Process Scientist at Vidrala, said: “To provide a single number representing the severity of the impacts received throughout the whole filling line or within a portion of it, it seemed reasonable to develop a weighed sum approach accounting for the different impacts where the weighing factors were based on the relative risk of breakage.”

Sisecam symposium Sisecam Group organised the 33rd Annual Sisecam Glass Symposium in Istanbul, Turkey. A total of 525 delegates attended, including glass industry representatives and scientists. The topic of discussion was the future of the glass industry and new technologies. Prof Ahmet Kirman, Vice Chairman and CEO of Sisecam, opened the day: “Scientists and industrialists who work continuously to expand the boundaries of the glass industry state that this century will be the age of glass.”

www.glass-international.com

Reckmann appoints Graphiteglass

German thermocouple producer, Reckmann, has entered a partnership with Graphiteglass in Mexico. The partnership hs created a direct market presence in Mexico for Reckmannn with a special service for customers. Graphiteglass was founded in 2012, and has more than 25 years experience in the glass container business in Mexico, Central and South America. It is focused on customer needs, providing the best solutions and the product brands. Its aim is to give customers technical and commercial support.

Piramal Glass deploys Microsoft technology Indian packaging and pharmaceutical glassmaker Piramal Glass has deployed Microsoft’s Azure IoT platform to digitally transform its manufacturing operations. Piramal Glass has implemented the solution, Real-Time Manufacturing Insights (RTMI), on 46 production lines across its four plants at Kosamba and Jambusar in Gujarat, India, Sri Lanka and the USA. The plants have an overall capacity of 1375 tonnes per day, with 12 furnaces and 60 production lines, all of which run on a 24/7 basis. Piramal Glass has used IoT to get real-time visibility into its line manufacturing operations and to analyse production line

losses at various stages. Microsoft helped Piramal Glass acquire data from sensors on production lines to identify quality parameters at each stage and get insights on line efficiencies in real-time. This resulted in improved production efficiency and cost reduction up to 70% as compared to a glass industry man-

ufacturing execution system (MES). Vijay Shah, Director, Piramal Glass & Executive Director, said: “Glass manufacturing is a complex process with many interactive variables. Combining digital technologies with precision high-quality glass manufacturing, has helped us fortify our accelerated growth path.”

Life Optimelt project update In support of Libbey’s sustainability strategy and alignment with the European carbon reduction roadmap, the L1 project goals were to use top grade furnace technology to improve productivity, reduce energy consumption and to diminish emissions. As a consequence, the L1 project has positioned the Leerdam location as first class for

the sustainable production of premium tableware products. The startup of the Optimelt system at Leerdam was the last step of a comprehensive project to modernise and increase Libbey’s tableware production in Leerdam. Throughout the Leerdam furnace design stage countless CFD models were completed at Praxair to test out the sys-

tem design and to adjust the furnace temperature profile to the syngas combustion system. The placement of the syngas port and the associated oxygen lances were optimized to fill the furnace adequately with the large flame without any signs of flame attachment or overheating of the crown or sidewalls.

Vetropack plots Italian glassworks Swiss container glass manufacturer Vetropack plans to build a facility in Italy. It has signed a preliminary purchase agreement to buy a plot of land in Boffalora sopra Ticino to construct a new glassworks. It will replace the existing plant in Trezzano by the end of 2021. Vetropack plans to invest around €200 million in

the next three years. Vetropack Italia, the latest subsidiary, was acquired in 2015 and is based in Trezzano sul Naviglio. In the future, however, the plant will no longer be able to meet the increasing demand and technical requirements, as well as the planned growth targets. “We have therefore decided not to upgrade the existing fa-

cility at the end of its furnaces’ service life in 2021, especially as the size of the plot would not support further expansion,” said Johann Reiter, CEO of the Vetropack Group. “We have looked for a larger site for a new plant nearby. We have found one in the industrial area of Boffalora sopra Ticino.”

6 Glass International December/January 2019

december news.indd 4

18/12/2018 14:54:38

&RQVLVWHQW HQG WR HQG GLJLWDOL]DWLRQ HQVXUHV ODVWLQJ VXFFHVV

95*6 $

*HQHUDWH DQG FROOHFW RSHUDWLQJ GDWD HIIHFWLYHO\ Â² DQG XVH LW IRU EXVLQHVV VXFFHVV

VRGS-A10005-00-7600 Anz_Glas_Digitalisierung_A4.indd 1

,Q RUGHU WR VXVWDLQDEO\ UHGXFH RSHUDWLQJ FRVWV LQ WKH JODVV LQGXV WU\ SODQWV PXVW EH WKRURXJKO\ RSWLPL]HG 8VLQJ D GLJLWDO WZLQ V\VWHP FRPSRQHQWV FDQ EH WHVWHG EHIRUH FRPPLVVLRQLQJ DQG WKH HQWLUH SODQW VHFWLRQV RSWLPL]HG ZKLOH LQ RSHUDWLRQ 7KLV HQDEOHV \RX WR PDLQWDLQ \RXU OHDGLQJ PDUNHW SRVLWLRQ ZKLOH ERRVWLQJ WKH SURGXFWLYLW\ DQG DYDLODELOLW\ RI \RXU SODQW IRU WKH ORQJ WHUP /HW 6LHPHQV DFFRPSDQ\ \RX RQ WKH SDWK WRZDUG D GLJLWDO IXWXUH Â² DV \RXU SDUWQHU

VLHPHQV FRP JODVV

04.07.18 14:32

Company profile: Steklarna Hrastnik

Embarking on a digital journey Slovenian premium glassmaker Steklarna Hrastnik recently completed an €11 million investment in a plant upgrade. A key focus was on digital glassmaking. Its General Manager Peter Câs tells Greg Morris that this is only the first step in a five year plan.

www.glass-international.com

remium Slovenian glassmaker Steklarna Hrastnik recently completed an €11 million company upgrade at its site. The glassmaker is a manufacturer of packaging and tableware glass and the investment included a new 8-section IS machine which increased capacity by 22%. But just as noteworthy was the €5 million of the investment directed to automation and digitalisation of the company. It decided to make its glassmaking process more automated and in 2017 and 2018 digitalised three lines. Its inspection machines and palletizing machines were also revamped with robots now used for palletising. It means production work is now a lot less manual. General Manager Peter Câs said: “We decided to embark on the digital route because we are special in the business, we are a high quality glass producer. With the flexibility and all of different process parameters that we have to have under control, digital is the best way to help and have process parameters under control. “It means all the parameters are fixed to enable us to become a more efficient glassmaker. “I think it is the perfect solution for us to gain on quality, efficiency and to gain on reputation in the final stage of the market.” The company had an unprofitable mould blowing production unit and used the opportunity to close it down and offer the workers from the unit jobs in other areas of the business. The offer was accepted, which meant there were no lay offs during the investment. He said: “We’re very connected to the community and it is important for us to stay connected to the community. We explained to staff what the situation was and they were very receptive. “The workers are now more high-tech. Each worker could decide to stay and take a job in packaging. Each was trained for four months to be more skilled and independent. During the programme we mixed the older, experienced guys

with younger guys who had more knowledge of IT and there was a real exchange of knowledge between old and young.”

Digital strategy The company appointed Siemens to prepare for its digital strategy. Siemens spent three weeks at the glassmaker’s plant in Hrastnik to develop a digital roadmap which included a schedule, technical recommendations and return on investment data. Siemens staff spent time at the plant and also shuttled the glassmaker’s employees to its own sites to boost their training. The outcome was that Steklarna identified 10 projects to undertake until 2022 in order to become a smart factory. Some have been undertaken already while a further four projects will be completed by the end of 2019. Peter Câs said: “It was a great experience to work with Siemens. They provided good support and were willing to work hand in hand with our guys. It was not just a Siemens or a Steklarna Hrastnik project, it was a common project. “I learnt that I have very motivated employees who are willing to change to keep pace with the industry changes.” The future projects will connect each of its machines so they can ‘talk’ to each other. The company will create a network to connect each of its machines to allow them to talk to each other. It means all the data from the machines will be kept in one place which can be calculated and evaluated in order to be a more efficient glassmaker. A further six, more detailed projects will take place between 2019 and 2022 but have to be discussed in the future. “The data will be used to optimise our process. We also plan to add some Artificial Intelligence to use that data which will enable the machine to learn in future projects. It sounds futuristic but it is the way the world is moving now.”

� Its palletising line was completely automated during the recent project

� It counts Tiama among its technology partners.

Continued>>

8 Glass International December/January 2019

Steklarna company profile.indd 1

14/12/2018 11:04:55

Company profile: Steklarna Hrastnik

“We are always searching for new ideas and suppliers, we always want the competition on the purchasing side

”

Flexible The company is 158 years old and has two plants in the town of Hrastnik. It manufactures 200t/day of ultra-white flint glass and serves 55 countries. A total of 97% of its production is exported. The company is focused on niche markets and manufacturers high end premium perfumes, spirits and tableware products. “What differentiates us from competitors is our flexibility,” stated Mr Câs. “We can produce up to five products on one line so we are very flexible. “If you want to find your piece of cake in this market you have to be flexible. Our skilled operators have to have the knowledge how to quickly change from product to product. They have operational excellence, they are used to dealing with short job times and reducing process losses. It’s not just the

� Mr Peter Câs.

knowledge of glassmaking there is also knowledge about operational excellence. “We provide all the support to customers and support them in the design, mould, engineering and production phases. If they need accessories such as closures and decoration we will support them. “Customers want to have the complete product and decoration is the vertical integration of our products.” While it is still too early to publish the results of the changes so far, Mr Câs has noticed a difference internally within the company. “We have ony just started this project but the whole thinking within the company has changed regarding operational excellence and that has Continued>>

www.glass-international.com

to get the best solutions

9 Glass International December/January 2019

Steklarna company profile.indd 2

14/12/2018 11:05:07

Company profile: Steklarna Hrastnik

improved us. With digitalisation we expect another step in improvements.” Mr Câs hopes that the glass plant will be regarded as a pioneer within the glassmaking community. “I hope the glass world does see us as a good example of a digital plant and follows our lead. We are small in the glass world and this gives as a more adaptability and flexibility. Because of that we can adopt new things more quickly. ” The company has six production lines in total and counts Emhart, Bottero, Tiama, Iris Inspection Machines and All Glass among its technology suppliers. Mr Câs stated that the company is always looking for development in innovation from its technology partners. “We are always searching for new ideas and suppliers, we always want the competition on the purchasing side to get the best solutions.” Mr Câs has been with the company since May 2017 and has a background of managing industrial-focused companies. He liked the values of the company such as respect, passion to work and openness to discuss problems “I really like working for this company. I feel that I have great support and that people support the idea of where we are going. At the start some were afraid of what would happen with new management, but we coped with this issue. I brought some new people to the company and mixed them with former management and we have been successful to build a prosperous company ready for future challenges.” With a further six projects in the pipeline Mr Câs is already looking beyond 2022. “We see the potential for us on the market. We are present in 55 countries but the world is much bigger than 55 countries. “There are opportunities for us on the market, the market needs high quality glass. There is also a sustainability drive away from plastic to glass so there is a requirement for more use of glass and an opportunity for Steklarna Hrastnik to grow.” �

www.glass-international.com

Steklarna Hrastnik, Hrastnik, Slovenia www.hrastnik1860.com

11 Glass International December/January 2019

Steklarna company profile.indd 3

14/12/2018 11:05:16

Environment Digital glassmaking

A digital consultancy for glassmakers A digital consultancy service provided by Siemens outlines the path a glass manufacturer should take on the road to becoming a smart factory. Greg Morris spoke to Philippe Thiel and Steeve Baudry.

lovenian glass manufacturer Steklarna Hrastnik is currently making headlines in the industry. The premium glassmaker has embarked on a digital path and plans a series of investments over the next few years, which will see its Hrastnik site become a smart factory by the year 2022. But how exactly does a glassmaker embark on a digital plan? Where does it start and what route should it take from being a manual glassmaker to a digital one? It has to be sure it is making the right long-term investment. This is where Siemens comes in. It provides a digital consultancy service to glassmakers and has recently completed a successful project within Steklarna Hrastnik.

Reactive Siemens Senior Manager for Glass Industry, Philippe Thiel, states that the idea was well received in the glass industry because the sector is more reactive to the demand for digitalisation. “The glass industry is not as consolidated as some other industries where there are big players and almost nothing else.

“Siemens was perceived as a trendsetter in Industry 4.0 and many customers were asking us about digitalisation and industry 4.0. They were asking ‘what does it mean for me’? “This is when our management decided we needed to do something. A team brainstormed the topic and decided to create a new offering to our customers: moving away from the one size fits all, portfolio-driven approach commonly seen on the market, and focus on customer needs and their strategies. “We set up a team and an offering to support those customers who are a little lost and who wanted to know what digitalisation means for them.” Siemens Digitalization Consulting head, Steeve Baudry states: “Due to the nature of our Process Industry and the life-cycle of the assets, the digitalisation roadmap has to take into account the existing automation and IT systems, and specifically how to introduce new technologies in an existing environment, how to benefit from the latest technologies but without changing everything, in other words how to include the new technologies into the existing IoT landscape.

� The Siemens team with Sterklarna Hrastnik General Manager Peter Cas (front right), Axel Lorenz, Head of Sales & Vertical / Solutions, Engineering & Consulting (in the middle) and Bernhard Saftig, Head

www.glass-international.com

of Glass Business (front left).

“We focus on a roadmap over the next five years, this gives an acceptable horizon for investment and satisfy the CFO community while keeping the digital road at a manageable complexity level because such a roadmap involves many projects that are technically interconnected. This includes cyber security and automation networks, or MES and Document Management systems for example. “Keeping the roadmap within a thre to five year horizon results in proposed traditional modernisation projects, while looking at a 10-year roadmap will be more a ‘picture of the future’ rather than a concrete roadmap. “To guarantee that we deliver, concrete and actionable results, we follow the same approach. We investigate with customers what they want to achieve with digitalisation – do they want to achieve improved time to market, improved quality, increased energy efficiency? Then we investigate the existing systems that are in place. Do they have any ERP system, how is the automation layer developed, how is the automation network connected? What is its cybersecurity strategy? In other words, we try to reconciliate the top-down approach with the bottom up view from the field. “Once we have a clear view on the strategy and the existing IT and OT landscape, we identify the most important projects that need to be implemented. “We then calculate the investment for a specific plant, taking into account the existing assets and projects already in place, because a facility might already have some pieces of the solution under development or have plans to invest. We finally assess how we connect these new solutions to the plant and how much it costs.” While Steklarna Hrastnik was its first Continued>>

12 0

Siemens.indd 1

18/12/2018 09:44:39

Digital glassmaking

s � The digital consultancy

customer in the glass sector, Siemens had already worked with several pharmaceutical and chemical companies to help them with their digital transformation. “We observed a growing interest from Pharmaceutical and chemical industries in digitalisation, and it might be due to the heavy competition and regulation in these markets, but we predict that this is now arriving in glass industry as well.”

glasstec Siemens already highlighted its digital strategy at glasstec in 2016 and then introduced its consultancy offering in 2018. It noticed a change in customer thinking towards digital glassmaking at the latter event. “Two years ago at glasstec nobody really understood the benefits of digitalisation, but now we have noticed a change in customer mentality,” states Mr Thiel. “We have had many questions about what is required. Many understand that they have to go digital, they have seen their competitors go that way and realise they have to start. “There are savings and benefits to be gained from digitalisation and glassmakers are willing to move, at least from the discussions we have had at the booth.”

Case study Steklarna Hrastnik General Manager Peter Câs provided a good example of how an SME implements Siemens’ digital strategy. “Mr Câs knew he had to do something, he was aware of the benefits of digital but he wanted some support, some guidelines, a framework and expertise to proceed. Within a few weeks he had changed from digital sensitive to digitally ready.” “Our customers know they have to digitalise their supply chain and reduce

their time to market, but how do they do that? They all have good ideas about digitalisation but they don’t know where to start. “The value we provide is to translate these strategic visions into an implementable roadmap where we tell them, okay, here’s the main projects, the implementation timeline and the cost, and this in a vendor-neutral way. “At the end of that consulting project, they have a concrete roadmap, with a concrete investment plan with which they can go directly on to the market and ask suppliers to give quotations for the projects with these specifications. “This set up, combining methodology, with IT/OT and glass expertise, is unique and allow us to provide a concrete, tailor made and immediately implementable roadmap. We have seen a lot of interest from customers because of that set up,” states Mr Baudry. A project could last four to six weeks, and of that Siemens will usually spend three weeks on site with the customer. It will lead workshops, interview staff, investigate the maturity of the systems and their interconnections, build a map of the process and of their IT and Operational Technology (OT) landscape. Mr Thiel states: “You can’t do this from the office, this is done with the customer, in complete immersion in his organisation. You have to collect the information from the field before putting it into perspective.” During previous workshops they noticed it was common for departments not to communicate with one another while working in the plant. The batch house operator did not talk with the furnace operator for example. “The Siemens workshops helped to address this. “Sometimes during a workshop

you would see people starting to discuss together and to discover they have the same issue. We have a team that can moderate the discussion and translate and we discovered staff have the same problems but are not talking the same language. “Having us in the middle of the team, empowered by management, we first have to build credibility with the people because we come from outside. So we first check if we speak the same language and as soon as we have that then we can really moderate the discussion and bring them value.” When asked if there is much resistance from staff, who may see the consultancy as the first steps towards redundancies, Mr Thiel, pictured above, admits there can be some resistance at first, particularly from the production side. “For a glass manufacturer, deciding to go digital is nothing else than applying change management to its organisation, and resistance is part of this process. These guys are all experts in glass manufacturing, we need to convince them first and that is why it is critical, our consultants are also engineers and experts, and therefore speak the same language. “Once we really listen to them through the workshops and we translate their pain points into strategic action, handed over to the management, then they can see the value we bring to their problems and can overcome this scepticism.” Continued>>

www.glass-international.com

offering.

13 Glass International December/January 2019

Siemens.indd 2

18/12/2018 09:44:52

End of the road for ‘cat-scratch’ cord drains Almost 200 PSR Cord Dispersal Systems installed Money-back guarantee Pay-back time measured in weeks

WE HAVE THE BETTER SOLUTION www.parkinson-spencer.co.uk

� Steeve Baudry and Philippe Thiel discuss the consultancy offering with Greg Morris. Steklarna Hrastnik staff were fully committed to the project. “From the beginning the people were wholly committed for the entire project because the CEO had told them about the goal and that it was not about cutting headcounts,” states Mr Thiel. “This internal communication from the CEO beforehand was important for the people to buy in. At the end, the inputs were delivered by the people from the various departments. If they had not played the game it would have a huge impact on the quality of the end

five years and for several millions, it is better to have the insurance that they will go for the right projects, in the right order. What we deliver is the insurance that their money will be invested in the most efficient way over the next few years,” said Mr Baudry. “With this digitalisation consultancy offering, we give them the insurance that their investment will be maximised,” concluded Mr Thiel. �

Siemens Vertical Glass, Karlsruhe, Germany www.siemens.com/glass

3/h

•

Siemens.indd 3

result. So the success also comes from the commitment to the project.” The resonance of the market at glasstec proved that this consultancy service meets a real demand of the glass industry and Siemens is now in discussions with other glassmakers about similar future projects. Whichever glassmaker decides to use the consultancy, both managers are clear that it is worthwhile: “If you have an expensive car you want to insure it, when a customer has an investment plan for digitalisation over

•

18/12/2018 09:45:01

Tiama: your co-pilot on the way to the Smart Factory Introducing YOUniverse, unique to Tiama and further proof why we are the leaders in business intelligence within the glass manufacturing industry. YOUniverse has been specifically developed with YOU and your needs at its core. Utilizing flexible and automated “plug and play” systems YOUniverse makes the inspection process smarter and capable to adapt to any changes.

From batch plant to the warehouse, YOUniverse creates a maximum flow of information to enable as many machines as possible to “talk” to each other to improve efficiency, productivity and profitability. With its open information interchange, this revolutionary system allows machines from any manufacturer to be linked to the YOUniverse. Welcome to the future – yours and your factory‘s.

Take your first step towards Smart Factory technology by visiting youniverse.tiama.com

Intelligence

Monitoring

Traceability

Inspection

Service

Real-time Process & Quality Controls

US Overview: The Silica Chronicles

Glass recycling in the United States

� The Balcones Resources facility in Austin, Texas.

(Photograph provided courtesy of Balcones Resources, 2018)

or many, glass recycling is a social good. Glass is a product that can be reused through recycling and kept out of landfills. It’s good for the environment. Without a business underpinning, though, glass recycling collapses. That appears to be what has been happening in a number of communities throughout the United States. Many municipalities and many recycling firms no longer collect or accept glass products for recycling. “We have seen a number of cases where waste haulers find collecting glass to be unprofitable,” stated Mr Angus Crane, General Counsel of the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association. “Some of these waste haulers attempt to re-write their contracts with local governments to have glass collection removed from the contracts. “Some even suggest that there is not a market for cullet.” Reading news articles, you would see that several officials blame China and its policies. Not everyone agrees with that assessment.

“China has not impacted our recycling operations,” stated Ms. Laura Hennemann, Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Strategic Materials. “The actions of China are forcing many in the recycling industry to re-evaluate how to process recycled products,” stated Mr. Kerry Getter, Chief Executive Officer of Balcones Resources. “The reality is that the sale of recyclable products – mostly non-glass products – to China through the years camouflaged a lot of poor decisions in the recycling industry. The strong market vitality for many years meant that many could be pretty inefficient and still make money.” Not anymore. To understand glass recycling, one needs to understand the process.

Recycling process There are typically three or four layers between a glass product that could be recycled from a residential property and that glass product being transformed into cullet to be re-used as a new glass product.

The first layer includes the local governmental entities, including municipalities, counties, and parishes, that regulate trash collection in their communities. It is these local entities that typically either collect trash directly for their residents or mandate the collection of trash by private haulers. In many cases, it is these local entities that regulate whether recycling is possible or mandated through the pickup of residential trash. Sometimes, these local entities are following the regulations of their respective states and commonwealths that may mandate recycling of certain products. The second layer includes the haulers that pick up trash at residential properties. These trash haulers may be divisions of local governmental entities or they may be private businesses. The trash haulers determine how to have the potential recyclable products actually recycled. The third layer includes the general recycling facilities that separate the Continued>>

www.glass-international.com

In his latest dispatch from the United States, Richard McDonough investigates the US glass recycling business and suggests there needs to be a shift in thinking to a more business-oriented model if recycling levels are to improve.

17 Glass International December/January 2019

Richard McD.indd 1

17/12/2018 12:03:24

Environment US Overview: The Silica Chronicles

� Glass cullet.

www.glass-international.com

recyclable products from the trash that is not recyclable. These recycling facilities may be operated by local governmental entities, by private businesses that haul trash, by non-profit organisations, or by private businesses that focus on recycling. While some of these general recycling facilities have the specialised equipment required to remove contaminants from glass products, many of the general recycling facilities do not have those pieces of equipment. The fourth layer includes the recycling facilities that focus on specific types of recyclable products, like glass. These recycling facilities typically have the specialised equipment needed to remove contaminants from glass products as well as separate glass by type and colour. Please note that the processes for glass recycling from commercial sources is similar, though not exactly the same as for residential sources of glass. For glass recycling to work, there must be an economic value – financial gain

to be earned – by each layer within the system. If not, the glass recycling system collapses. In some cases, the costs to recycle glass are more than the costs to landfill the products. So, even though glass might be able to be recycled, the system will encourage a landfill option rather than a re-use option.

Capital investment If the capital investments have not been made in the equipment to separate glass from other recyclable products and to then separate glass from any further containments, the system also collapses. Recycling glass because it’s good for the environment – because it’s ‘green’ – is not a viable way to look at the glass recycling industry. Actual out-of-pocket costs are important to consider, but so are cost avoidance expenses – the costs that are avoided by not hauling recyclable

products to landfills and the expenses that are avoided by not paying landfill usage fees. Single-stream recycling has become commonplace throughout the United States. Through this process, residents place all of the types of products that can be recycled – cardboard, paper, plastic and glass, among other products – in one container. There are at least two major benefits to this approach: One, it makes recycling easier for the residents by encouraging them to put everything recyclable in one container. Thus, it is presumed that residents are more likely to recycle because the process is simple. Two, it reduces the capital costs as well as operational costs by using one vehicle to pick up all potential recyclable products rather than having separate vehicles that are specialised for the hauling of each specific type of recyclable product. While single-stream recycling can appear to be the most efficient option, it may not actually be the most efficient system in reality, particularly for glass products. By saving those costs upfront, the costs to separate specific types of recyclable products from each other is pushed into the back end of the recycling operations. The problem is that not all recycling facilities have the capability to sort glass from other products. In most cases, only clean glass – glass free from contamination of other trash – is the cullet used by businesses that use recycled glass.

Continued>>

� A Ripple Glass collection bin. (Photograph provided courtesy of Ripple Glass)

18 0 Glass International December/January 2019

Richard McD.indd 2

17/12/2018 12:03:26

FIC ads 2018-3_Layout 1 30/01/2018 09:17 Page 2

, Tomorrow s Technology Today

The formula for glass is as simple as the formula for success...

SiO2+ Na2O+ CaO+ FIC=

The only electric glass melting company which can supply all of your needs l e-glass l Container glass l Float glass l Display glass l Electric furnaces www.fic-uk.com +44 (0) 1736 366 962

, The World s Number One in Furnace Technology

FIC (UK) Limited Long Rock Industrial Estate Penzance, Cornwall TR20 8HX United Kingdom

GLASS SERVICE

A Division of Glass Service

Environment US Overview: The Silica Chronicles

www.glass-international.com

High and low value Within the cullet industry itself, there are both high value and low value uses of the product. The high value uses include cullet being transformed into new glass products. For example, using cullet to manufacture beer bottles and other glass containers. The low value uses include cullet being utilised as a component in a non-glass product. For example, using cullet as landfill daily covers and in road base for highway construction. There does not appear to be much of a market for cullet between the high and low value uses. Because of that, there is a significant difference between the revenue earned for cullet utilised in high value uses versus low value uses. As such, glass recycling firms are not likely to make the needed capital investments or operate facilities in markets that do not have purchasers seeking cullet for high value uses. An example of such a business is Strategic Materials, the largest recycler of glass in the United States according to several reports. “Strategic Materials focuses our operations on the high value uses,” explained Ms. Hennemann of Strategic Materials. “It is not financially worth it for us to focus on the low value uses.” When a customer that purchases cullet for high value uses leaves a market, there are few alternatives available for the affected glass recycling firm. Such a situation affected Strategic Materials in Massachusetts. Ardagh Group closed its container glass manufacturing plant in Milford, Massachusetts, in March 2018. The Milford plant had been the largest customer of Strategic Materials in New England. The firm’s recycling facility in Franklin, Massachusetts, provided cullet to the Milford plant “We closed our Franklin facility in June 2018 primarily due to the closure of the Milford facility,” said Ms. Hennemann. “Our Franklin site was in operation to meet the demand of Ardagh Group in Milford. That site was one of the highest users of cullet in the industry. We had an annual capacity of more than 100,000 tons of cullet at our Franklin facility. The glass was sourced from throughout the region and used by Ardagh Group to manufacture beer bottles in Milford.” Strategic Materials was not able to find alternative customers that could use that level of cullet production in New England.

In addition to the closure of the Franklin site, Strategic Materials also closed a second facility in Rhode Island in the months after Ardagh Group closed its Milford plant. Ms. Meg Morris, Past President of MassRecycle, a statewide non-profit coalition of governmental entities, private businesses, and others, said: “Board members believe that the closings of both the Strategic Materials processing facility in Franklin and the Ardagh Group glass bottle production plant in Milford have left a major gap in glass diversion.” “Even before the closings, Massachusetts’ materials recovery facility (MRF) operators viewed glass as problematic. “Glass containers are heavier and thus more costly to transport, and MRFs struggled to recycle the glass due to low commodity values driven by limited processing and end markets in New England. “With the closings, MRFs now generally can only send glass for a lower beneficial use than recycling – alternative daily cover at landfills and for road and construction projects.”

� The Ripple Glass facility in Kansas City, Missouri (Photograph provided courtesy of Ripple Glass, 2018).

Fiberglass An alternative to such low value uses is the use of cullet to create fiberglass insulation. “Our member firms use cullet to create a number of fiberglass products,” stated Mr. Crane of the North American Insulation Manufacturers Association (NAIMA), a trade organisation representing North American manufacturers of fiberglass and mineral wool insulation products. “Among the products are insulation for use in houses and commercial buildings, insulation for use in household appliances like ovens and dishwashers, and insulation for commercial pipes,” he said. The fiberglass industry is one of the largest users of cullet. For Strategic Materials, businesses in the fiberglass

insulation industry are among its largest customers. According to NAIMA, member firms of the trade association used more than 1.9 billion pounds of recycled glass in the United States in 2016. “On average, cullet represents about 40% of the glass content of the products manufactured by our members,” Mr. Crane continued. “In some cases, cullet represents up to 65% of the glass content of certain products. We need a steady supply of cullet. “Cullet has to be clean to be able to be used within the fiberglass,” Mr. Crane continued. “Otherwise, it creates major problems for our furnaces.” There are benefits to the use of cullet by the fiberglass insulation industry. Among those is the reduction in the need to use raw materials, including sand and soda ash, to produce fiberglass. According to NAIMA, energy usage is reduced, and furnace lifespans increase by up to 30% due to the decreased melting temperatures and use of less corrosive materials. The fiberglass insulation industry is also able to use a variety of cullet. “We’re one of the few industries that can use cullet made from green glass bottles,” stated Mr. Crane. “We can use car windshield glass. Other than ceramic glass and computer screen glass, we’re able to use most types of cullet to manufacture fiberglass.” Ripple Glass is another recycling firm that supplies cullet to the fiberglass insulation industry and glass container industry. The group, based in Kansas City, Missouri, focuses only on glass recycling. The company noted that single-stream recycling programmes don’t work well for the recycling of glass. It instead works with firms that have hauling routes that are dedicated to only glass pickups as well as collection bins located throughout several Midwest metropolitan areas. “When [glass] is mixed with other recyclables, broken glass degrades and contaminates those materials, reducing their utility and causing them to be discarded or ‘downcycled’ into lowerquality products,” according to a statement from Ripple Glass. “What’s more, in most curbside programmes in which glass is collected along with other recyclables, up to half of the collected glass is unsalvageable, and ends up in the landfill. This leaves two options: sorting Continued>>

20 0 Glass International December/January 2019

Richard McD.indd 3

17/12/2018 12:03:27

FIC ads 2018-3_Layout 1 30/01/2018 09:18 Page 5

, Tomorrow s Technology Today

The worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading glass companies come to FIC with their electric boost/heating projects E-glass Installations up to 3,500kW in oxyfired furnaces for extra tonnage, improved glass quality and no strand breakages.

Container glass Various installations in flint and coloured glasses, up to 2,500kW, for increased output and quality.

Float glass Boosting installations, from singlezone 1,000kW to 3-zone 6,000kW designs, to increase clear output, maintain tinted output, save energy and reduce emissions. Multiple bubbler installations.

Display glass

, The World s Number One in Furnace Technology

www.fic-uk.com +44 (0) 1736 366 962 FIC (UK) Limited, Long Rock Industrial Estate, Penzance, Cornwall TR20 8HX, United Kingdom

Numerous installed power projects, up to 1000kW for TFT/LCD glasses using tin oxide electrode blocks for exceptional glass quality.

Electric furnaces New designs for most glasses, including opal. Complete technical back-up for melting quality improvement - from raw materials through to forehearth and all operational problems. Troubleshooting service on all existing furnace designs.

GLASS SERVICE

A Division of Glass Service

Environment US Overview: The Silica Chronicles

� Recycling processing equipment at Balcones Resources in Austin, Texas. (Photograph provided courtesy of Balcones Resources, 2018) and segregating glass in existing recycling trucks or running dedicated routes for glass. Collecting glass separately like Ripple Glass does results in an up to 98% recovery rate.”

www.glass-international.com

Business model Ms. Michelle Goth, General Manager of Ripple Glass, said the company sources glass from nine surrounding states, and its end users are within 250 miles of it as well. Among its local customers are Owens Corning that uses cullet to manufacture fiberglass insulation and Ardagh Group that uses cullet to manufacture new beer bottles. “I’m impressed by the Ripple operations,” stated Mr. Crane of NAIMA. “Its glass collection system is excellent.” Another recycling firm, Balcones Resources, based in Austin, Texas, works with upwards of 15 types of recyclable products, including glass. One of the techniques used by Balcones Resources is dealing with glass at the front end of the recycling process within its facility. “By taking the glass out of the recyclables in the beginning of the process, you create a product that has monetary value because you minimise the contamination of glass,” stated Mr. Getter of Balcones Resources. “We made the capital investment for the necessary equipment that could sort all types of recyclable materials, including glass,” continued Mr. Getter. “The specific piece of equipment that included the mechanical removal process

for glass cost us $400,000.00. We built that cost into our pricing structure for cullet.” Mr. Getter explained that the financial side of recycling is critical to the success of recycling. “We build our pricing based on a market basket of potential recyclable products that come from a specific customer.” “This market basket includes the percentages of about 15 types of products - cardboard, paper, plastic, glass, and other products. Each of the recyclable products has a specific value, so we create a weighted average based on the level of recyclable products coming from each specific market area.” Mr. Getter noted that waste streams in each community are different so the market baskets vary from community to community. He also noted that you have to have economies of scale for glass recycling to work well and that glass recycling is difficult to do if you don’t produce enough volume of recyclable products within a market area. “The glass recycling industry is based on high fixed costs with a variable revenue stream,” stated Mr. Getter. “To deal with this situation, our contracts are written so that we have our operating costs covered through a processing fee and a variable cost structure for the items that are subject to market fluctuations.” “We share any revenue we generate when we sell recyclable products to other businesses,” Mr. Getter continued. “The generators of the recyclable products receive the lions share of that revenue. They also bear the variable costs if we

do not generate revenue from specific commodities. We also have some fail safe mechanisms built in to deal with down markets. In all of our years of operation, we haven’t had to renegotiate an existing contract.” Using this business model, Balcones Resources has been able to recycle all of the products that arrive in its facility in Austin. “We have not had to landfill any product,” stated Mr. Getter. While a number of recycling programmes in the United States no longer collect or accept glass for recycling, others have found glass recycling to be a profitable enterprise. Overall, there appears to be great potential to increase the level of recycling of glass within the United States. To do so, though, will require a shift from looking at recycling of glass as a social good to one that is based on pure business motivations – making capital investments in efficient processing equipment, implementing contracts that cover fixed costs and account for variable revenue streams, fulfilling market needs for additional cullet in high-value markets, and potentially developing new mediumvalue markets for cullet. �

Do you have questions about the glass industry? Governmental regulations? Company operations? Your questions may be answered in future news columns. Contact Richard McDonough at thesilicachronicles@gmail.com.

22 0 Glass International December/January 2019

Richard McD.indd 4

17/12/2018 12:03:28

studiobrand.it

www.bdf.it

BDF Industries (all season) Collection Our best experience for your Glass Industry

More than 100 years of tradition and more than 60 years of experience in Glass Industry, always in continuous research in new technologies and innovations to improve your production performances. The enthusiasm makes us truly unique because it is a passion that never fails. BDF Industries has everything you need to â&#x20AC;&#x153;dressâ&#x20AC;? your Glass Plant: from Furnaces to Forehearths, from IS Machines to Variable Equipment, from Automation to Controls, to Energy management and recovery. BDF Industries. The perfect Partner who always knows how to put itself in your shoes.

Excellence. Your Industrial Partner in Glass

FURNACES | FOREHEARTHS | IS MACHINES

ADV_bdf_2018_ARMADIO.indd 1

09/10/18 14:02

ENDTOEND Full-Process Excellence

Welcome to the digital age...

NIS and BIS cover the complete ware range with full servo technology. Future glassmaking is now complete. Emhart Glass SA - Hinterbergstr. 22 6330 Cham - Switzerland - Phone +41 41 749 42 00 - webmaster@bucheremhartglass.com - www.bucheremhartglass.com

Country profile: Indonesia

Indonesian glass is thriving Ahead of the Glassman Asia event in Jakarta in Indonesia next month, Seema Gahlaut highlights the main flat and container glassmakers in the country.

teady growth in the Indonesian glass industry in recent years has made the country one of the largest glass producers in the South East Asia region. With steady economic growth, increased consumption, infrastructure development, and the increased purchasing power of a vast section of the population, the Indonesian glass industry in container and flat glass is expected to grow.

For the automotive sector, the Indonesian Automotive Industries Association (Gaikindo) is targeting domestic car sales of 1.1 million units in 2018, providing opportunity for float and automotive glass producers. The Auto Replacement Glass (ARG) segment has the opportunity to continue to grow and has considerable market potential for automotive glass producers.

Economic growth

PT Asahimas Flat Glass

Indonesia is the most populated country in South East Asia and its largest economy. It is a member of the G20 and classified as a newly industrialised country. It is the 16th largest economy in the world by nominal GDP and the seventh largest in terms of GDP (PPP). Economic growth, supported by the food & beverage, pharmaceuticals, construction and automotive industries, which are all key glass consuming segments, has boosted the domestic glass manufacturing industry. In 2018, the weakening of Indonesia’s currency, the rupiah depreciation, made it positive for the country’s glass exports. The depreciation also resulted in higher prices for imported raw materials for the glass industry, but the overall impact has been positive. On the negative side, for Indonesians the rupiah being beyond the IDR 15,000 per US dollar level is a sensitive issue that brings back memories of the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s. For the first time the rupiah is back at the same level as in 1998.

PT Asahimas is the largest float glass producer in Indonesia. It has an installed capacity of 670,000 tonnes per annum and operates three float glass production facilities in Indonesia. Located at Jakarta, Cikapek and Sidoarjo, these float glass lines have installed capacities of 120,000, 210,000 and 340,000 tonnes per annum, respectively. The company is in the process of constructing a new float glass line at Cikapek with an installed capacity of 210,000 tonnes per annum. This is expected to be operational by June 2019 and the company will cease production at its Jakarta production line. PT Asahimas is also installing a magnetron coater at its Cikapek facility. With a designed capacity of 3.6 million m2, the coater is due to be operational by December 2018. The technology supplier for the coater is AGC Glass Europe. The offline coating machine offers the company energy-saving glass products with colour variants and more complete performance. This investment also supports the Green Building policy that has been proclaimed by the Government related to environmentally friendly technology to the material used for the building. According to PT Asahimas management: “These investments are undertaken because the

Flat glass

Continued>> 2013 Population (millions)

2014

2015

2016

2017

249

252

255

259

262

3,672

3,532

3,369

3,605

3,876

GDP (USD billion)

914

891

861

933

1,015

Economic Growth (in %)

5.6

5.0

4.9

5.0

5.1

Consumption (annual variation in %)

5.4

5.1

5.0

4.9

Investment (annual variation in %)

5.0

4.4

5.0

4.5

6.2

Manufacturing Growth (in %)

4.4

4.6

4.3

Retails sales growth (in %)

12.9

14.5

13.3

11.0

2.9

GDP per capita (USD)

Source: World Bank

� Table 1. Indonesian economic indicators in the past five years.

www.glass-international.com

The Indonesian flat glass industry is almost triple the size of its container glass industry. Catered by two major producers (the country’s third float glass producer PT Tossa Shakti has not operated since early 2017), the sector has a total installed capacity of 1,265,000 tonnes per annum. By June 2019, this is set to exceed 1.3 million tonnes per annum when PT Asahimas new float line becomes operational. The construction sector, which is the main consumer of flat glass, has registered steady growth in Indonesia in recent years. Its construction market ranks number one in ASEAN and fourth in Asia after China, Japan, and India. For 2018, the Indonesian government has set a target to increase investment in the sector to IDR370 trillion. Its contribution to Indonesia’s GDP was 10.38% in 2017 or ranked fourth after the industrial, agriculture and trade sectors.

25 Glass International December/January 2019

indonesia Company profile.indd 1

18/12/2018 15:02:52

Country profile: Indonesia

growth during the year. According to the Indonesian Packaging Federation (FPI) the pharmaceutical industry is of overwhelming importance to Indonesia’s packaging market, second only to the food and beverage industry. Considering the sheer size of this sector, high quality, sophisticated packaging is increasingly needed in the country in the fight against counterfeited pharma products. Glass packaging, as the highest quality packaging among all other alternatives, is expected to gain considerable share in the pharma packaging market. company believes that the growth trend of flat and automotive glass will continue to increase in the future, in line with the growth of property and automotive demand in the country.” Its net sales in 2017 were Rp. 3.89 trillion, up 4% compared to 2016, but still 6% below the sales target it set. The company attributed the weakening of demand in value-added glass products from the middle and upper class segment of the property in the domestic market. Its flat glass unit recorded net sales of Rp. 2.60 trillion in 2017, an increase of around 4% over the previous year. Meanwhile, the automotive glass business unit recorded net sales of Rp. 1.29 trillion or an increase of around 6% compared to the year 2016, when it recorded net sales of Rp. 1.22 trillion.

PT Mulia Glass (Flat Glass division)

www.glass-international.com

PT Mulia Glass was established in 1989 to produce flat glass in the country and is the second largest flat glass producer in Indonesia. With an installed annual capacity of 595,000 tonnes of float glass, the company produces plain and coloured float glass (dark gray, dark blue, bronze, euro gray, light green, gray) and low-e glass with thickness of 2 15mm. The automotive safety glass division was established in 1997 with an installed production capacity of 120,000 car sets per year. In 2017, the company registered a sales volume of 521,213 tonnes of float glass. 65% of the total sales went to the domestic market, while the remaining 35% was exported. The sales volume of automotive safety glass increased by 8.8% year-on-year to reach 644,882 m2 in 2017, supported by the introduction of new brands and models of cars in the country during the year.

Hollow and container sector Continued to be catered by four major container glass producers, which have an aggregate installed capacity of more than 425,000 TPA, the Indonesian container glass industry is still dependent on imports for about 20% of its glass needs. Turnover of the overall packaging industry in Indonesia was IDR 79 trillion (approx. US$5.1 billion) in 2017, growing by 5.2% compared to a year earlier. Glass packaging, which comprises 19% of the total packaging has also registered

PT Mulia Glass PT Mulia Glass is a subsidiary of PT Mulia Industrindo that was established in 1989 in West Java, to produce glass products such as float, container, safety and block. Its container glass unit has a 40% share of the domestic market. Its container division has an installed capacity of 460 tonnes/day and has two furnaces and seven production lines. The company produces flint glass bottles for food and beverage segments. Mulia supplies glass containers to domestic food and beverage companies such PT Heinz-ABC Food Co; PT. Sinar Sosro (Tea bottle producer), PT.CCBI (Coca Cola Beverage Indonesia), PT. Indofood; PT. Unilever. Mulia is also an exporter of container glass. Some of its overseas customers are Coca Cola Amatil bottling plants in Australia, RC Cola in Philippines and Bangkok Glass Industry, Thailand. The sales volumes of glass containers declined by 1.8% year-on-year to 128,872 tonnes in 2017. It said: “Staying faithful to our strategy to continue developing various product types and expand both domestic and export markets, we would continue increasing sales of lightweight bottle, using narrow neck press and blow technology, as well as green coloured bottle, consumed by the alcoholic beverage industry.”

O-I Indonesia O-I has operated in Indonesia since 1973, when it was established under the name PT. Kangar Consolidated Industries (KCI). At the time, it consisted of one furnace and four production lines that produced glass bottles and tableware. A second furnace was installed in 1980 which tripled its capacity. O-I’s Jakarta plant consists of two furnaces and six machine lines, which produce around 2.3 million glass bottles per day for some of Indonesia’s food, beverage and pharmaceutical brands. Its customers include Multi Bintang, PT Asia Health Energy Beverage, PT Djojonegoro, PT Supra Ferbindo Farma and Ultra Prima Adadi. It has a one third share of the domestic container glass market and its product portfolio Continued>>

26 Glass International December/January 2019

indonesia Company profile.indd 2

18/12/2018 15:02:55

Country profile: Indonesia

is complemented by another two container glass manufacturing plants in neighbouring Malaysia and Vietnam (Berli Jucker Public Company Ltd; O-I BJC Glass Malaysia and O-I BJC Vietnam Glass).

PT Iglas State owned PT Industri Gelas (PT. Iglas) once had a 35% share of the domestic market but has struggled in recent years. The company is the oldest container glass producer in the country. Based at Surabaya, Iglass has produced container glass since 1958 and has a capacity of 340 TPD. Once, one of the dominant producers of container glass in Indonesia, PT Iglass has become a loss making unit. In 2017, its assets shrank to Rp. 119.869 billion, debt burden of Rp. 1.097 trillion, equity minus Rp. 977.459 billion, revenue of Rp. 824 million and net loss of Rp. 55.456 billion. The company is also struggling with labour issues and relocation outside city limits.

PT Schott Igar Glass PT Schott Igar Glass, the Indonesian subsidiary of German multinational glassmaker Schott, has an installed annual capacity to produce 700 million vials, ampoules, pipettes and special articles for the pharmaceutical industry. Its production facilities are located at Bekasi. Globally companies such as Roche, Aventis and

indonesia Company profile.indd 3

Pharmacia and domestic companies such as Biofarma and Harsen are among the its customers. The German company entered Indonesia in 1996 by establishing a joint venture with a subsidiary of pharmaceutical maker PT Kalbe Farma called PT Igar Jaya. In 1997, Schott purchased Kalbe’s 51% stake in the venture and consolidated the Indonesian company under Schott International. Within a few years, Schott moved all its production from Malaysia to Indonesia, to produce for the domestic market and to export as well. About 60% of its products are sold locally, while the rest is exported to about 20 markets in ASEAN, the Middle East, India and Pakistan. �

*Glassman Asia takes place at the JI Expo Centre in Jakarta, Indonesia between January 30 and 31. www.glassmanevents.com/asia PT Asahimas Flat Glass - www.amfg.co.id/ PT Mulia Glass ( Flat Glass division) https://muliaindustrindo.com/en/business/float PT Mulia Glass (Container Glass Division) https://muliaindustrindo.com/en/business/container O-I Indonesia – www.o-i.com PT Iglas - www.bumn.go.id/iglas/application PT Schott Igar Glass – www.schott.com

18/12/2018 15:02:55

Company profile: Tata Chemicals Europe

Tata’s successful transformation

Soda ash manufacturer Tata Chemicals Europe has undergone a radical transformation at its facilities in Northwich, UK. Greg Morris met with Phil Davies and Craig Thornhill to discover how the company forged a bold plan to deal with doubled energy costs.

t is not just glassmakers who have to face the challenges of changing energy costs. Suppliers also have to juggle the demands of energy costs that all too often only increase. Tata Chemicals Europe’s UK operation in Northwich was faced with the challenge of its energy costs doubling in price overnight due to a change in methodology of its energy contract. It hatched a make or break plan to take ownership of its energy supply. Not only is it a reliable supplier of soda ash to UK float and container glassmaking plants it has diversified into sodium bicarbonate production and is also an energy provider to local industry as well as the UK National Grid. Phil Davies, General Manager, said: “We’ve achieved something significant here and it’s given us a platform to go onto other things as well. “If we had not made the decisions that we made back then the future of the business looked very bleak. Doing nothing was not an option.”

History

www.glass-international.com

� Phil Davies.

� Craig Thornhill.

As any glassmaker knows soda ash is a crucial ingredient in the production of glass. Blended with other elements such as limestone and cullet, it is a key raw material in the batch to produce high quality glass. Soda ash was first manufactured in 1874 in Northwich by Tata Chemicals Europe’s first incarnation, Brunner Mond. The company was founded by Sir John Brunner and Ludwig Mond and produced eight tonnes of soda ash in its first year. The company thrived and was a founding member of the global chemical company ICI in 1926. It was acquired by Tata Chemicals in 2005. The history of Northwich, in the county of Cheshire, UK has been based around salt. Salt is a Continued>>

28 Glass International December/January 2019

Tata Chemicals Co profile.indd 1

14/12/2018 09:47:54

Company profile: Tata Chemicals Europe

raw material of soda ash. Cheshire lies on top of a salt strata formed thousands of years ago when the area was under sea. The Wich of Northwich and other towns in the area is a Roman derivation of salt. TCE employs 400 people in the region and its operations in the area include the Winnington plant close to the centre of Northwich and Lostock, (pictured previous page) located 5km away. It also operates the British Salt plant nearby.

fives times larger than that of Lostock. The Lostock site was more compact and easier to operate than Winnington. In February 2014 the Winnington plant closed after 140 years of operation with the loss of 220 jobs. It was understandably an emotional time. “We tried to make everyone understand that it was not really a choice but an absolutely necessary decision that had to be taken to ensure the sustainability of the whole business going forward. “In terms of looking after the people we did as much as we could in terms of voluntary redundancy. We also tried to bring many people across to our other sites at Lostock and our British Salt operation.”

Heat and power plant

Sodium bicarbonate Key to Project Hercules was diversification. TCE then set about diversifying by expanding its sodium bicarbonate business. Bicarbonate is a derivative of soda ash and is less exposed to the economic cycle and has more applications. TCE reconfigured its Winnington bi-carb plant so when the Winnington soda ash facility ceased

� Lostock secheurs area.

to produce kiln gas it brought in liquid CO2 and made configuration changes to the plant. Since 2014 it has been the only standalone sodium bicarbonate production facility that imports CO2. This brings advantages in terms of the consistency of the product and quality benefits. It has helped TCE gain certifications in the higher end of bi-carb such as pharmaceutical, haemodialysis and food applications. TCE was mindful of the potential impact the loss of a soda ash facility may have had on its customers. So it set up an import facility in Immingham near Hull, to bring in products from other Tata locations to continue to supply UK glass manufacturers. “The key message to customers is that we are here for the long term. Closing a plant sends a shock wave but we have spent time with customers telling the same story and explaining about the Continued>>

www.glass-international.com

Just like glassmaking, soda ash manufacturing is energy intensive and requires huge amounts of steam in its production. In the early 2000s TCE replaced its coal-fired power stations with that of a gas-fired combined heat and power plant (CHP) owned and operated by energy provider E.ON. The CHP was responsible for providing the steam and electricity requirements for Winnington and Lostock. TCE had entered into a long term power supply agreement with E.ON based on a process set to a market index and not the price of gas. The 20-year agreement stipulated this would switch in 2015 to that of a price related to one based on the current price of gas. “For the duration of that pricing system, we weren’t taking the market risk of gas prices, which had been rising for years,” states Mr Davies. “So it was good for a period and we benefitted from better-than-market pricing on steam which helped us to be competitive.” Mr Davies joined the company in 2011 and TCE had already started to investigate how it could deal with the change. “At that point, with the gas price we were modelling, it was likely to double our gas prices in 2015 when the new pricing methodology kicked in. As a business that was not a sustainable position to be in.” The company formulated a plan – called Project Hercules – to reduce its energy costs. The project required the involvement of a number of stakeholders, including E.ON. E.ON agreed to bring the contract to an early end and for TCE to acquire the CHP plant. The agreed day was September 2, 2013. “That date was the sweet spot when it made sense for both companies to do this. E.ON was losing money on the supply contract at that point so it was a benefit to get out early. Equally it gave us the time and resource to do essential rebalancing of the CHP plant,” states Mr Davies. TCE agreed that it would take ownership of the plant and then outsource the operations and maintenance to E.ON. While TCE had more control of its own energy cost base it still had the issue of high energy demand. It decided to close its older Winnington soda ash facility which, as the larger of its two plants, used 60% of energy and had a footprint

29 Glass International December/January 2019

Tata Chemicals Co profile.indd 2

14/12/2018 09:47:54

Company profile: Tata Chemicals Europe

We have supplied some of them for many decades and the industries have grown together so we have had a relationship for a long time.” While TCE has given up some market share as a result of the closure of the Winnington site, demand for soda ash remains buoyant and it is committed to the market. About £6 million has been spent on the Lostock site (pictured below) to future proof and improve plant performance.

Future

www.glass-international.com

The structural elements of the turnaround were achieved by the end of 2015 and since then TCE has focused on marching the business forward. This includes providing on-time, in full delivery of the lowest possible cost soda ash to its customers. decision and the sustainability of the business.” One thing is for sure: it will continue to keep � Lostock control room. In the same period the group also built a £5.5m producing soda ash. While it has diversified into turbine in the CHP plant, to enable it to generate sodium bicarbonate and salt manufacture and more electricity and to provide electricity supply from its CHP, lower cost energy to its chemical soda ash remains fundamental to operations. the business. The turbine enables TCE to sell “For many purposes we treat The Solvay process excess power to local industrial soda ash and energy as one firms through its old ICI network, because the purpose of the energy There are two methods of soda ash as well as to the UK’s National Grid. business is to supply the lowest production: the Trona based one and the The turbine helps keep energy cost steam and energy to the Solvay process. costs down as well as contribute chemical business. But without The Trona one is based on mining and to the company’s bottom line via the chemical business the energy reﬁning the mineral Trona. electricity generation. business cannot exist,” states Mr The Solvay process, as used by TCE in the “The CHP gives us more control Davies. UK, is a synthetic process that requires raw over our energy use and gives us a “Our business fundamentally materials to produce different types of soda partial hedge over rising gas prices. relies on soda ash because ash: light and heavy. But we are still an energy intensive without it there is no bicarbonate It was developed during the 1860s by business and remain exposed to production and there is no energy Ernest Solvay. The ingredients required for input energy costs, particularly gas business. There is no point having this process are salt brine and limestone – prices. a CHP plant that produces 50% two ingredients readily available close to “At the moment input gas and steam and have nowhere to use Northwich. electricity prices are a headwind for it.” � energy intensive industries, even Tata Chemicals Europe, Northwich, UK those like us who have taken strides www.tatachemicalseurope.com in being as energy efficient as possible. People aren’t talking about energy prices, but they have more than doubled in 18 months.” Project Hercules was a huge undertaking. In a matter of a few months the company had acquired the CHP power station, left a long-term energy contract, closed a soda ash plant, and commissioned and started to run a standalone sodium bicarbonate plant.

Soda ash Soda ash for the glass industry is now entirely produced at Lostock. The site produces 400kt a year of soda ash, and of that approximately 160kt a year is for the UK glass sector. TCE’s Craig Thornhill, Head of Sales for Soda Ash, said glass manufacturers appreciate the consistent and reliable supply of the raw material. “Customers value having an indigenous producer of soda ash. Some customers only source from ourselves and that brings a big responsibility.

30 Glass International December/January 2019

Tata Chemicals Co profile.indd 3

14/12/2018 09:47:56

Expect more.

Stephan Meindl CEO + MD

Get more. HORN has been in the furnace nace business for over 130 years, the last 23 of which I have had the privilege to be part of. From From the outset, we expected more: more quality quality,, more e innovation, mor more efficiency and, in turn, more e satisfied customers. We We had a bold vision that HORN would be one of the major international international play players in furnace design and manufacture. I am proud to say that this has become reality and would like to thank all our loyal customers for this. I hope you feel that your loyalty has been rewarded. If you are new in the furnace business and would like to know more about the way we work, design and manufacture please contact me or visit us at www.hornglass.com

C ON TAIN ER GLAS S • COS METIC GL AS S • F I B R E GL AS S • F L AT GL AS S • F L O AT G L A S S L I GHTING • PHARMACEUT ICAL GLA S S • S O DI UM-S I L I C AT E GL AS S • TAB L E WA R E • T U B I N G

TRADITION ADVANCED Leading Refractory Concepts for Crystal Clear Results

RATH is a leading manufacturer and supplier of refractory materials up to 1,800 Â°C. For the glass industry in particular, RATH offers proven concepts for a wide variety of applications across the entire glass manufacturing process. Over the past 20+ years, we have delighted customers with the supply of high quality refractories, service and know-how in over 400 projects around the world. Learn more at www.rath-group.com/glass

Tableware

Handling / Assembly

Container Glass Beverage Processing

Bulk Materials We are your partner for innovative and customized solutions in automation technology.

futronic GmbH | Tolnauer StraĂ&#x;e 3- 4 | 88069 Tettnang Tel. +49 7542 5307- 0 | info@futronic.de | www.futronic.de

automation in a new dimension

Lubrication

BlankRobot: a step towards full forming process control Paul Schreuders* discusses Xpar Visionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s BlankRobot swabbing concept which reduces the swabbing frequency and offers further opportunities for container glassmakers.

ďż˝ The BlankRobot in

par Vision has led the development of hot end sensors for improved glass container glass forming for 20 years. After four years of co-operation with swabbing robot supplier Novaxion from France, Xpar Vision has launched its own BlankRobot equipment. As its name suggests, the BlankRobot is designed not only for swabbing but for other applications as well. For swabbing, by applying a special lubricant together with a precise application, the frequency is reduced to once every three hours, leaving enough time for the robot to perform other functions. As will be indicated within this article, reducing

the swabbing frequency from once every 10-20 minutes to once every three hours will open up opportunities for the glass container industry.

Forming process stability With years of experience in developing and actively assisting customers to apply such hot end sensors as the InfraRed Dual camera system (IR-D), automated Gobweight Control (IGC) and GobAssist and Blank side Temperature Control systems (BTC), Xpar Vision provides an accurate and real-time insight to the glass container forming process and its daily disturbances such as variations

in cullet quality, homogeneity of glass, viscosity, ambient temperature, deterioration of materials and swabbing. These disturbances negatively affect glass forming process stability and ultimately cause defects and glass distribution variations in the bottles produced. Reducing disturbances to the forming process to a minimum and consequently dealing with disturbances when occurring is the main recipe for a stable forming process and a crucial precondition for efficiency improvement, weight reduction and/or speed increases. Continued>>

www.glass-international.com

operation.

33 Glass International December/January 2019

L xpar lubrication.indd 1

14/12/2018 09:48:39

Environment Lubrication

� Fig 1 Swabbing performance effects.

www.glass-international.com

Swabbing: Remedy or enemy? For many decades, the swabbing of blank moulds, neck rings, blow moulds, bafﬂes, deﬂectors etc has been adopted as a standard operating procedure in all glass container factories. The largest and most dominant disturbance at the blank side is the swabbing of blanks and neck rings. For each production run, a scheduled swab frequency is needed to keep the sections running. A carbon layer on the inside of the blank profile keeps the friction between glass and blank low and prevents the hot glass sticking to the blank moulds. At the same time, it optimises the contact between glass and blank surface in order to optimise the heat transfer to ensure proper forming of the parison. Due to the high frequency of swabbing required, the number of different people involved (multiple groups/shifts) and the brush method used, it is one of the most discussed standard operating procedures in the glass container industry. It is obvious it is difficult to get everybody aligned to perform the swab in an identical way. At the same time, health and safety is at stake and an ever-growing concern. IR-D measurements show the actual impact of the way each operator swabs the blanks. Even the swab interval (frequency by SOP) is precisely shown. In other words, with the IR-D swab performance can be followed at any time. Fig 1 provides an example that shows the (a) frequency, (b) impact, (c) how long it takes before the process stabilised again, (d) how many bottles are affected or should be rejected and (e) the effect for glass distribution in the bottle. The impact of swabbing to the quality of a glass container is strongly correlated. From the example given, it is obvious that

swabbing is destabilising the forming process to a great extent, e.g. that the so-called swabbing impact easily lasts for five minutes or more. With a swabbing interval of 15 minutes, this means that the forming process is destabilised 33% of the time due to swabbing. Therefore, it should be concluded that swabbing is more an enemy than a remedy.

Swabbing robot Swabbing robots have been available to the glass container industry for more than five years. In contrast to manual swabbing, with robot swabbing at least the variation due to different operators executing the swabbing task is eliminated. The advantages are obvious: � Better product quality due to consistent and uniform lubricant application; � Savings on swabbing oil; � Less time swabbing; operators can focus more on other tasks; and � Improved working conditions, with better air quality and increased work safety.

its own BlankRobot (Title picture). One of its functions, developed in exclusive co-operation with Lubriglass of Germany, is blank mould swabbing and neck ring swabbing. A patented lubricant is precisely applied in extremely small amounts, leading to a swabbing frequency of once every three hours, with almost no swabbing impact. In comparison with traditional swabbing robots, the BlankRobot hardly uses any lubrication (from 100% manually to 25% by swabbing robot to approximately 2% by BlankRobot). Consequently, there is barely any pollution and thus the working environment is much healthier and safer. Furthermore, because of the extremely low swabbing frequency and low impact by applying very small quantities of lubricant, there is minimal disturbance to the glass forming process. As a result, other hot end sensors will see other process disturbances such as changing glass conditioning, mould wear and ambient temperature much more easily and accurately. This improvement/ dedication of measurements will lead to effective feedback loops and logically has a huge positive impact on the effectiveness of forming process automation. And of course, there will be a positive impact on the lifetime of (mould) material, as well as the operator time made available for other tasks. The BlankRobot also has time to perform other tasks between swabbing, including bafﬂe and deﬂector swabbing, automatic alignment of delivery and insection diagnoses.

Next steps

A true revolution

As with any innovative technology, the current installations at launching customers provide the initial proof of concept, which means that the BlankRobot concept is more than an idea. Market introduction is planned for early 2019. If you are interested about this revolutionary step forward towards fully integrated forming process control contact Xpar Vision (details below). Also if you are interested in the ongoing developments of Hot End sensor technologies, keep following the www. xparvision.com website and subscribe to the newsletter. Or send an email for a personal response. �

The disadvantages of currently available swabbing robots, together with the known potential of a patented lubricant, were reason for Xpar Vision to develop

*Chief Executive Ofﬁcer, Xpar Vision, Groningen, The Netherlands. www.xparvision.com

Despite these obvious advantages, the swabbing robots currently available are not more than an automated form of manual swabbing. The swabbing frequency itself has not been touched. Still every 5-20 minutes, forming process stability is disturbed. In addition, due to the fact that the robot needs to pass all sections every 5-20 minutes, accessibility to the IS machine without disturbing the swabbing process is extremely limited.

34 0 Glass International December/January 2019

L xpar lubrication.indd 2

14/12/2018 09:48:39

• Glass Melting Furnaces • Batch Plants • Engineering • Project Management • Turnkey Projects • Lehrs

D&Co. | www.dandco.it

Excellence Made in Italy

www.refel.com

For more than 70 years HFT has provided world class engineering, procurement and construction services to the global glass industry. Our leadership, experience, quality focus and attention to details have given HFT a highly respected reputation worldwide.

The professional approach to Glass Melting Furnace Heat up Services Worldwide, Under the leadership of Mr. Tony Kirkham • Controlled Furnace Heat Up & Supervision of adjustments for Refractory Expansion. • Rapid Cullet Filling using Specialized Equipments. • Controlled Furnace Cool Down & Supervision of adjustments for Refractory Contraction and Rapid Cooldown by using Specialized Equipments. • Thermal Decongestion Regenerators.

SUCCESS GUARANTEED We have a track record of 100% Successful Completion

Engineers and Contractors to the Glass Industry

3009 Washington Road McMurray, PA 15317-3202 USA

+1 724 941 9550

Fax: +1 724 941 3479

info@hft.com

www.hft.com

of more than a thousand projects.

Choked

• High Speed Glass Draining using High Pressure Pump & Specialized Equipments. • Drilling Hot / Cold Condition for Installation of Thermocouple / Bubbler / Electrodes. • Supply and Commissioning of Combustion Equipments for Various Glass Furnaces. • Glass to Glass - Turnkey Project including Drain, Cooldown, Demolition, Rebuild, Heatup, Cullet Fill.

Heat Applications India Pvt. Ltd. 801, Iscon Atria - 1, Opp. GEB Training Centre, Gotri Road, Vadodara - 390 021, GUJARAT, INDIA Tele/Fax:0091- 265 - 2324340 / 2326064 • Mobile : 0091- 98255 05750 / 98255 11685 E-Mail:hal@heatapplicationsindia.com • www.heatapplicationsindia.com

Lubrication

A modular lubrication system Carl Singleton* discusses the latest development to Graphoidal’s multizone lubrication system for IS machines, which adds flexibility and reduces costs.

urther developments of the Graphoidal lubrication equipment bring additional benefits with the introduction of its latest modular lubrication system. The system builds on the benefits of the Graphoidal Multizone lubrication system by reducing the initial installation cost and adding further flexibility to the equipment configuration options. The benefits of multizone lubrication systems are well known within the industry and it has been witnessed by Graphoidal customers that the return on investment is delivered in a relatively short period of time. But how could it improve on that for its customers? It believes the Graphoidal Modular Lubrication System delivers the improvements required. The Graphoidal Modular IS Machine Lubrication System comprises of two main components. The first of those is what we refer to as the Pump and Tank unit (PTU). This is configurable to have up to three different oil types within the system. We are then able to configure up to two pumps on each oil tank; this gives the option of splitting the demand for lubrication zones which may have relatively high frequency of operation. Also contained within the PTU would be the optional high pressure electronic flowmeters. This option allows customers

to monitor and trend the overall consumption of oil and to also attribute flow to each lubrication zone (Fig 1). The second component of the system is the Remote Valve Unit (RVU). This is a frame upon which we mount the solenoid control valves and the pressure sensors for each individual lubrication zone. This unit is installed close to the IS machine. The remote valve unit is configurable to suit the number of lubrication zones on each IS machine, typically between 4 to 8 lubrication zones per machine. Having the RVU and in particular the solenoid valves closer to the machine has a number of benefits. The centralised lubrication system requires the customer to install a length of pipe for each lubrication zone. This would require the customer to install up to 24 different sections of pipework. With the Graphoidal Modular system the number of pipes is drastically reduced. If the customer took the maximum option of three different oils and two pumps per oil then a total of six pipes would be required to the RVU. With just a short length which is then required between the RVU and the machine manifold. This reflects a substantial saving in time, effort and installation cost. By locating the pressure sensor closer to the IS machine it also ensures that the pressure required to operate the lubrication valves is available

at the machine. Having the valve control at the machine enables us to disable the channels and then mechanically isolate locally. Having the solenoid/ control near to the machine also allows us to have an optional feature which we call ‘Fire Stop’. By making a connection with the machine control system we are able to automatically disable the valve operations in the case of a machine stop or potentially a fire incident. This functionality is carried out by employing positively guided safety relays to ensure the solenoid cannot be energised when the ‘healthy’ signal is lost from the IS machine. The Graphoidal Modular Lubrication System is equipped with a number of features which allows monitoring of closed valves, leaks on the machine pipework and leaks in the pipework supplying oil to the RVU’s. Each zone is capable of being operated manually with a simple button click on the HMI screen. Each zone can also be operated in a maintenance mode which allows a preset timed operation rather than using the pressure sensor. In the unlikely event of a PLC failure the system has an internal watchdog which will operate the pumps and solenoids using a simple backup Continued>>

� Fig 1. A typical installation REMOTE VALVE UNIT

REMOTE VALVE UNIT

www.glass-international.com

REMOTE VALVE UNIT

37 Glass International December/January 2019

L graphoidal lubrication.indd 1

14/12/2018 09:49:19

Environment Lubrication

www.glass-international.com

� Figs 2 to 6 show a selection of HMI pages. timer operation while repairs can take place. Having worked with our PLC partner, Siemens, we have been able to select a PLC capable of running the increased load and advanced functionality that the distributed IO requires. Using the operator interface, it is easy to navigate through the various screens as well. The layout and navigation has been designed to be intuitive in much the same way as using a mobile device which we all use on a daily basis. The screens are icon based with very little text. The HMI has additional screens which trend the consumption of the oil up to 365 days. The system is also able to automatically save the settings to an SD card or USB stick. In the unlikely event of a screen failure or even a PLC failure the settings can be retrieved, reloaded and the system can be up and running in a few minutes. A simple diagnostics page indicates the network status to help identify any potential network issues. Figs 2 to 6 show the HMI pages. In line with the latest Industry 4.0 requests we are also able to offer remote connectivity to the systems enabling both Graphoidal and the customer to remotely assist with the system operation and help diagnose any potential problems using

the Siemens SmartClient application in conjunction with an industry leading VPN connection using an eWon Flexy. We are also able to supply various data points that allow the customer to import that data and can connect in to their SCADA/Cloud system using OPC-UA, Profinet & MQQT (other protocols can be supported if requested). Please check the Graphoidal Youtube channel for a video ‘Flexy Demo’ demonstrating the remote connectivity option. https://youtu.be/_jbreozNgtU

Summary of beneﬁts Flexible configuration approach, Reduced ROI time scales, Ease of use for operators, Configurable outlet names, Integrated alarm handling, Flowmeter Options, Remote connectivity Option, Plant SCADA Option, ‘Fire Stop – Enable’ Option. �

*Operations Director, Graphoidal Developments Limited, Chesterﬁeld, UK. www.graphoidal.com � Remote Valve Unit (RVU).

� Pump And Tank Unit (PTU).

38 0 Glass International December/January 2019

L graphoidal lubrication.indd 2

14/12/2018 09:49:48

Events review: British Glass Focus Awards

British Glass Focus awards – winners

he British Glass Focus awards celebrated the best of British glassmaking. The event was an opportunity to highlight innovation in glassmaking in seven categories, as well as an opportunity to network with fellow

glassmaking professionals. Judge Dr Nick Kirk, Technical Director of the organisers and hosts British Glass, praised the quality of all the entries and said it was difficult to decide the winners. “All the entries were excellent. There

were many intriguing and beautiful designs, and amazing ideas, and we could clearly see that the sector’s businesses believe strongly in developing their people for the future.” Winners in each category were:

COMPANY OF THE YEAR — NIPPON ELECTRIC GLASS FIBRE Bird’s Accident Ratio triangle showed that it was missing opportunities to reduce accidents by focusing on the reporting of Near Misses and Unsafe Conditions. The Near Miss reporting process was rebranded to Hiyari Hatto with communications on noticeboards, monthly newsletters, digital signage and group discussions to educate employees ahead of the launch. All employees were challenged to submit one report per month of a Near Miss, Unsafe Act or Unsafe Condition (Hazard spot). The electronic reporting log was updated to allow anyone with access to a computer to input a report and for anyone without access to a computer, Hiyari Hatto post boxes were installed and reports were collected by security and added to the log. Although the initial plan of all employees submitting a report has not yet been achieved, over 50% of the employees are now engaged each month in submitting reports. It has had an excellent response from the employees with nearly 1700 reports year to date in nine months compared with a typical annual figure of 300 to

400 reports. It believes it has impacted the accident statistics positively in key production areas and improved employees understanding on how they can positively impact the sites Health and Safety performance. The process was also incorporated into this year’s furnace rebuild project and likewise it encouraged all contractors to participate in reporting Near Misses and Unsafe Conditions so that action could be taken immediately. It strongly believes that the introduction of this led to the most successful rebuild ever with only six minor First Aid cases in over 85,000 work hours on the project. Dave Dalton, Chief Executive of British Glass, visited the Nippon Electric Glass plant in Wigan, UK and said: “I was impressed with the company’s work and its ethos. Nippon Electric Glass strives to build a brighter future for the world by uncovering the unlimited possibilities of glass for more advanced creative manufacturing. The ‘Near Miss’ Hiyari Hatto entry is a clear example of its consistent drive to improve health and safety conditions.”

Continued>>

www.glass-international.com

In its 2018 business planning process Wigan-based Electric Glass Fibre wanted to look at engaging more employees in the Near Miss reporting process in line with Nippon Electric Glass in Asia. The process was rebranded to Hiyari Hatto (Japanese for Near Miss) and it challenged all employees to submit one report per month of a Near Miss, Unsafe Act or Unsafe Condition (Hazard spot). The change in the process was to not only engage employees but to educate and gain input to reduce risk and ultimately reduce accidents. During the 2018 business planning process towards the end of 2017, the management team reviewed the EHS performance of the site. Although the facility had changed from PPG to Nippon Electric Glass (NEG) and was still undergoing its transition, it was clear that the Health and Safety performance had remained stagnant and needed a refocus. Likewise, Near Miss reporting was expected mainly from staff but was not at a level in relation to the amount of accident reports. Referencing the site’s Health and Safety performance to the

British glass Events review.indd 1

18/12/2018 09:57:26

Events review: British Glass Focus Awards Environment

HEALTH AND SAFETY IN ACTION — ARDAGH GROUP

www.glass-international.com

Ardagh Group’s Doncaster, UK glass plant tackled the subject of mental health through five off-site Inspire Days for all colleagues. Sessions were tailored to be particularly relevant to shift working, which can cause healthy-eating and sleep-related issues. The impact was outstanding. Colleagues feel able to openly address mental health issues without stigma and understand how to offer support to each other. During a 2018 review of reasons for absence at Ardagh’s Doncaster plant, mental health conditions ranked highly. Often a taboo subject in a male-dominated industry, managers felt that colleagues needed a greater understanding of mental health and created a plan for an effective approach to managing, supporting and promoting better mental health at the plant. Five off-site ‘Inspire Days’ were developed, inviting all 384 colleagues to take part in seven sessions:

1. Health and Safety Following an increase in minor accidents when shift workers returned to work, Health and Safety Manager, Mick Cookson, discussed how to apply mindfulness to Health and Safety. He encouraged colleagues to think about safety before they arrive at work and to believe ‘the safe way is the only way’, reducing complacency and distractions, focusing on surroundings and potentially

hazardous situations.

2. Mental Health Workshop Stress, anxiety and depression are the biggest causes of sickness absence, and suicide is the most common cause of death, in men aged 20-49 in England and Wales. As the workforce is predominantly male, this session raised awareness of the importance of mental wellbeing. It covered how to deal with stresses such as workload, family and conflict, plus tips on staying mentally healthy e.g. keep active, talk about feelings, eat well, drink sensibly and accept who you are.

3. Leadership by Durham Business School Designed to inspire potential leaders at the plant, the group discussed Confidence in Leadership; Team Authenticity: considering multiple perspectives when making tough decisions and role modeling authentic behaviour to develop a Leader Identity. Groups completed a Leadership survey which the Business School will use to produce a fully transparent report on feelings around leadership.

4. Occupational Health Doncaster’s Occupational Health Manager, Melanie Bennett, discussed Health Surveillance: monitoring colleagues’ health so they can carry out

their roles optimally. Melanie tested for safe glucose, cholesterol and blood pressure levels. Nickel testing, hand/arm vibration, and hearing are assessed at the plant. Colleagues checked synthetic testicles and breasts to try and find cancerous lumps. Glasses to simulate vision after drinking alcohol gave a startling reminder of how alcohol can affect judgement and balance.

5. Leeds Rhinos Foundation The Foundation discussed ideal portion sizes; eating more protein to feel fuller and regularly achieving 30 minutes of heartpumping activity to stay physically and mentally healthy. Colleagues were challenged to estimate how much sugar is in everyday foods and drinks, and how to check food labels for sugar, fat and salt content. Nutrition advice was tailored to shiftworkers, giving practical ideas on how to eat well around working patterns.

6. Wind down: A session on sleep, relaxation and mindfulness Shift-working can make sleeping difficult, which makes a regular bedtime routine even more important. The group discussed the mental effects of several sleepless nights and longer-term medical conditions that could result in: obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure and diabetes.

40 0 Glass International December/January 2019

British glass Events review.indd 2

18/12/2018 09:57:29

Events review: British Glass Focus Awards

Mindfulness can give your busy brain a rest: paying attention to the present moment, giving you a different perspective and a greater sense of focus, calm and clarity. The session ended with colleagues experiencing Progressive Muscle Relaxation, which can be repeated at home to help achieve deep relaxation and promote sleep.

7. Team event: Vision for the Future In groups, colleagues created a future vision of the plant considering their department, new technology, continuous improvement, competitive advantage, customers and people. They also gave examples of their values and beliefs, linking these to Ardagh’s

Core Values of Teamwork, Trust and Excellence, so the plant can develop a Personal Culture. Outstanding feedback has been received from all departments. Colleagues appreciated that everyone, including senior management, participated as delegates, demonstrating that mental health matters can affect anyone. The plant is also experiencing significantly improved camaraderie and communication. Colleagues dealing with mental health challenges particularly valued the experience, feeling they could open up, knowing they would be understood. One person shared their challenges and was overwhelmed with support from group members. Following the Health and Safety session,

accident rates involving returning shift workers are being monitored - initial results show colleagues are more mindful and focused on safety. Occupational Health are delivering more Health Surveillance checks and six people with high blood pressure are being followed up with the plant’s physician. Following the Mental Health Workshop, some colleagues have volunteered to become Mental Health First Aiders. The measure of this event is more significant than purely statistical or financial. Results will evolve, creating new norms within the plant, generating organic and more authentic return on investment through a happier, healthier and higher performing workforce.

SUSTAINABLE PRACTICE — ARDAGH GROUP Ardagh Group’s Irvine plant in Scotland runs 24/7 producing millions of glass bottles and jars for major consumer brands. However, it is an area that experiences intermittent power failures from the national grid, which can slow down or stop production. A reliable source of energy was needed, and investigating this provided the opportunity to reduce the plant’s carbon footprint at the same time. Ardagh worked with ESB Smart Energy Services to install a hybrid battery storage system which provides green energy, giving backup during peak energy consumption, and

feeding energy to the grid when demand is low. It taps into various renewable energy sources such as solar and wind rather than diesel, and reduces CO2 production by over 400 tonnes annually. The pioneering technology has transformed the way energy usage is managed at the plant and supports the company’s commitment to environmental responsibility and sustainable manufacturing processes. The battery was manufactured by Tesla and GridBeyond owns the gridoptimising platform that delivers energy back to the national network. Continued>>

www.glass-international.com

Ardagh Group’s Irvine glass plant needed a reliable source of energy to support its continuous production of glass containers. A hybrid battery storage system was implemented to increase resilience and energy security at the plant, providing a reliable supply of back-up green energy during peak energy consumption and delivering energy to the grid when demand is low. The pioneering technology has transformed the way energy usage is managed at the plant, providing a secure, resilient and reliable supply of green energy.

British glass Events review.indd 3

18/12/2018 09:57:32

Events review: British Glass Focus Awards Environment

STRENGTHENING BUSINESS THROUGH PEOPLE — SAINT-GOBAIN subsequent coaching as to possible ways forward. The task team leaders met weekly, sharing learning, exploiting areas for integration and communicating to the wider business. Every employee received interactive training as part of the 2018 company launch. So far, visibility and communication between disciplines has massively increased. New KPI’s demonstrate performance and adherence allowing respect for their colleagues’ challenges and a willingness to work together. The stage and gate process (new product management) was streamlined (now > 80% OTIF from < 50%.). Forecasting, previously a ‘wishful guess’, is now looking forward 24 months, at SKU level for 12 months allowing for revenue and margin calculation and decision insight. Forecast accuracy is measured as a business metric with manufacturing departments now accountable to a plan (95% schedule adherence) detailing output requirement and when to support OTIF customer delivery. Despite exceptional market forces and multiple manufacturing issues this has enabled strong decision making, higher levels of customer satisfaction, lower stocks and a much calmer, in control mood in all corners of the business. A suite of new key performance indicators are continuing to be introduced driving further action and change. Early wins include: A world class Customer Satisfaction Index and Net Promotor Score indicator were seen following its Annual Customer survey. (Highest within Saint-Gobain

Glass and best in the UK group of SaintGobain companies); Stock availability on first request has increased by 40%; and OTIF delivery is the highest of any SGG company at 98.7%. On the high added value coating line at Eggborough, UK it has seen an improvement from 67% to 97% (first eight weeks of project to most recent eight weeks) in the measure of ‘line schedule adherence’; the benefit to planners, logistics and warehouse have enabled numerous benefits to end customers around product availability and lead times. Customer claims in 2018 as a ppm are less than 50% of the best previous year and best in SGG in Europe. Next steps include external accreditation of the significant changes implemented – Supply Chain recognition (as well as WCM). Enhanced training is ongoing and the organisation will change structurally to recognise the required competence in supply chain delivery and customer experience (eg analytical skills for demand control). In addition there is an opportunity to roll the integrated business planning concepts to our internal and external customers, creating partnerships to further enhance the accuracy of forecasts and forge even strong customer relationships. A current priority is documentation of the new processes to allow faster integration of those coming into the business. Continued>>

www.glass-international.com

Saint-Gobain UK’s entry focused upon the people-led upgrade of its business processes, particularly its supply chain management re-organisation to compete and differentiate in a testing business environment. In 2016 Saint-Gobain realised that while its commercially differentiated supply chain management service was profitable and praised by customers, it was difficult to maintain. There were more complex products, more combinations of products, and shorter lead times. This was stretching parts of the workforce, particularly planning and logistics, both at a human and business level. It commissioned a review of its business processes and set about empowering local teams to build their best vision of the future to equip it for the servicedriven delivery it had committed to, bringing ideas from current and previous workplaces enhanced by external training sessions. A total of 1,306 hours of combined training & coaching with 57 people occurred. It worked with the Oliver Wight organisation but it was made clear that its role was to coach (just one day a month for the year) and that the work would only have credibility if it was completed/ owned by Saint-Gobain UK employees. The work was done by specific Task Teams, 35 people chosen not by rank but on the basis of expertise by area. The teams went through detailed supply chain education then documented the way things currently work, visioning the ideal situation and then simply empowered to work from A to B. Monthly progress reports were delivered plus

42 0

British glass Events review.indd 4

18/12/2018 09:57:34

Put your batch plant in your pocket. ZIPPE solutions for a smart factory. As a manager, you need relevant information to take the right decision promptly. B-ZMART® by Zippe fulfills this need by placing real-time batch plant reporting at your fingertips – anytime, anywhere. The B-ZMART® concept is local, remote or cloud based and delivers instant live information regarding your plant’s runtime and performance. All you need in our NEW easy, user-friendly app for laptops, tablets or smartphones. So that you, quite literally, stay in touch.

ZIPPE INDUSTRIEANLAGEN GMBH Alfred-ZIPPE-Str. 11 97877 Wertheim

Tel.: +49 9342 - 8040 Email: zippe@zippe.de Web: www.zippe.de

Events review: British Glass Focus Awards Environment

INNOVATIVE SOLUTION — PILKINGTON Pilkington developed a product called Pilkington Avisafe to prevent bird collisions with glass. A patterned UV enhanced coating is applied to the glass, making it more visible to birds while remaining aesthetically appealing and less visible to humans. When tested it outperformed the best solution in the market today. Bird collisions are a growing challenge for the glass industry. Millions of birds die each year when they hit glass in houses, offices, bus shelters and motorway noise barriers. One solution proposed is to simply reduce the glazed area of the building. It’s becoming a consideration for architects and specifiers too. There are guidelines for architects in Europe, such as ‘Bird-Friendly Building with Glass and Light’ and many North American cities’ and states’ building guidances now includes bird safety recommendations. There are two reasons why birds fly in to glass. The first is ‘reflection strikes’, when birds fly towards something reflected by the glass such as sky or vegetation, and the second is ‘fly-through strikes’ when birds fly towards something that they see through the glass. Reflection strikes

are the main cause of impacts on glass buildings and the strategy for the product development was to develop a product that addressed this particular issue. Existing products on the market have relied on adding visible shapes and decorative patterns to the glass. Printed dots, for example, are known to be an effective solution, but they significantly reduce the transmission of the glass and the view from inside the building. Pilkington assembled a cross functional, cross regional team to develop a product that would prevent bird collisions. A driving force behind the project has been Simon Slade, an employee based at Pilkington R&D Technology Centre in the UK, and a keen ornithologist. The innovative part of the product development centred on research that compares human and avian vision. Birds are able to see light in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum, as well as the visible. Pilkington Avisafe is a patterned coating with enhanced UV reflection. It makes the glass more visible to birds while remaining aesthetically appealing and less visible to humans. Throughout the development of the product, real life testing was conducted by

Martin Rössler at Hohenau bird ringing station in Austria. The test worked by releasing a bird through an opening at one end of a long tunnel. The other end appears open, but is divided between two different products. The bird flies towards the other end of the tunnel and will attempt to exit in the direction it perceives as least obstructed. A mist net stops the birds from colliding with the glass. Pilkington Avisafe passed the WIN test, a measure of bird impacts from reflection and was the best non-frit product ever tested. This product will make a tangible and significant contribution to the glass industry, because it will reduce the number of bird collisions whilst maintaining a high transparency and aesthetic appeal. It solves the problem whilst ensuring that glass remains the material of choice. While the product has not yet been commercially released, it has been successfully manufactured in the UK on jumbo plates of glass. It will be possible to combine the product with other functionalities including, but not limited to solar control, safety/security, and noise control.

www.glass-international.com

Continued>>

44 0 Glass International December/January 2019

British glass Events review.indd 5

18/12/2018 09:57:37

WE ARE GLASS PEOPLE

NEXT LEVEL INSPECTION

SMARTLINE 2 STARWHEEL INSPECTION MACHINE COMBINING FLEXIBILITY AND SPEED Flexible inspection options Fast job changes Full connectivity Reliable and robust design High compatibility with existing tooling sets

Events review: British Glass Focus Awards Environment

DESIGN OF THE YEAR — O-I this was a premium gin. Wildcat had a strong back story, taking its cue from London’s illicit gin trade in the eighteenth century, which was carried out under the sign of the black cat by its originator, Captain Dudley Bradstreet, who hung the cat on a key symbol over his door and let it be known that three knocks and placing money in the cat’s mouth would see the dispensing of a generous measure of gin. The Cat on a Key motif is at the heart of the packaging – embossed on the container and repeated on the label. Whyte and Mackay project and brand personnel worked with O-I’s design, NPD and forming teams to achieve the desired result within the time constraints for the launch. The trust enabling this complex project to proceed was built upon the success of previous NPD projects, such as John Barr. O-I’s commitment to the design challenge was shown by the company’s production of six different sample designs, for Whyte and Mackay to market test. On design approval, O-I undertook a final bulk sampling to prove the process and container integrity. Whyte and Mackay knew glass was the only packaging material capable of creating the radical shape desired for

the brand’s launch in the UK on and off premise market. The clear glass pack is highly sustainable, using 35% cullet and a journey of 18 miles from O-I Alloa to the filling plant in Grangemouth. The main technical challenge was to create the highly defined splines engraved in the neck. Combined with the wide capitals at either end of the cylindrical body, the tall, slim container echoes the classical columns popular on the entrance porches of Georgian buildings. The cork stopper accentuates the height of the bottle and adds another premium touch. O-I achieved this by undertaking a manufacturing first. For the first time ever, the company engraved both blank and blow moulds. The engineering and design excellence required to facilitate this radically different forming technique was appreciated by the customer’s team. Some of O-I’s most experienced forming personnel from the UK and overseas were involved in ensuring the dual engraving would be a success. Very bold embossing emphasises the Captain’s message – ‘Knock Once, Knock Twice, Knock Thrice’ – which is picked up in the label, shaped like a Georgian door knocker.

www.glass-international.com

In the fast evolving gin category one launch stood out: Wildcat Gin. The O-Iproduced bottle used a radically different forming approach to create a Georgian column embossed with bold graphics. The bottle tells the brand story from its origins in the illicit, night-time gin trade of the 1700s, when gin was literally sold under the ‘sign of the cat’. Whyte and Mackay required a distinctive, premium glass design for its new premium gin, Wildcat. Gin is a booming category for the UK, with sales increasing to £1.3 billion while whisky and vodka sales were flat. Unlike whisky, gin also has no specific design tradition; the variation is enormous – from elegant, pastel-coloured bottles like Silent Pool through to chunky, black apothecary styles like Hendrick’s to the tall but heavily embossed Jenever brand Hooghoudt. Gin and associated niche spirits are the fields in which most packaging innovation is taking place – internal embossing, unusual colours and wraparound graphics. Nothing is off limits for the category. Against such a diverse background, the packaging for Wildcat had to convey far more than simply communicating that

46 0 Glass International December/January 2019

British glass Events review.indd 6

18/12/2018 09:57:40

Events review: British Glass Focus Awards

APPRENTICE OF THE YEAR — O-I and monitor their log book entries. The log books are records of the jobs carried out by the Apprentice, including all the safety information and task information they have to plan and complete. Throughout his apprenticeship, the standard of Gareth’s log book entries was exemplary to the extent that the other Apprentices often referred to him as a point of reference and guidance. Within his first few months in the mould department, Gareth was identified by Paul Jack, mould shop manager, and the team for showing great initiative and having a fantastic work ethic. He spent some time working with the department’s CNC Operator and quickly picked up the required skills. He was then identified as a potential candidate for succession planning into the role of CNC Programmer/Operator in the department. The role is technical and requires great attention to detail as mistakes can be costly to the business. O-I Alloa is the only glassmaker in the UK equipped with a CNC mould-milling machine. It enables the plant to make adjustments to current mould equipment on site and to manufacture its own sample heads if necessary. Therefore, the role is not one for which O-I can easily recruit from outside. Building on his aptitude, O-I identified additional modules for Gareth to study

with MetTech. These will provide Gareth with a Level 2 qualification. It will be the intention to further develop this on completion of his apprenticeship. Gareth has grabbed the opportunity with both hands and is working through the additional modules. Gareth also went to the Plant Maintenance Department as part of his rotation and was part of a team doing a major annual repair. The log book entry he generated was to such a standard it has been used as a Standard Operating Procedure for furnace repairs. The Supervisors in the Mould Shop are all positive about Gareth and he is already recognised as a vital member of the team. He has a great attitude and is keen to learn all areas in the department on top of the additional CNC work he is doing. If all continues to go to plan, Gareth will complete his fourth year in the Mould department, working towards his HNC on day release with MetTech. Gareth exemplifies the kind of young employee who will develop into one of the Master Makers of the future – adding fresh insight and technological innovation to the encyclopedia of knowledge which has sustained mass-produced glass as the consumer’s preferred packaging for well over 100 years.

www.glass-international.com

Halfway through his four-year apprenticeship, O-I Alloa apprentice Gareth Owen has already been identified as a candidate for succession planning into the role of CNC Programmer in the Mould Department, working on the only CNC mould-milling machine in a UK glass plant. Gareth Owen is about to start his third year of four and is working in the Mould Shop at O-I’s Alloa plant, making and servicing moulds for some of the world’s most famous and prestigious spirits brands. At the halfway point of his apprenticeship, Gareth’s qualities have already been appreciated by supervisors and colleagues, who have identified him as a potential candidate for succession planning into the role of CNC Programmer/Operator in the Department. In his first year, Gareth completed six months at MetTech, an external training provider, learning basic safety and engineering skills as per the first phase of O-I’s programme. He then returned to the plant to begin his rotation through the four engineering departments – electrical, mechanical, mould shop and plant maintenance. During the apprenticeship MetTech assessors attend the plant to carry out reviews with the Apprentices

47 Glass International December/January 2019

British glass Events review.indd 7

18/12/2018 09:57:43

Country overview: UK

British Glass CEO’s insight into the UK glass industry at GPI

www.glass-international.com

British Glass CEO Dave Dalton recently returned to UK soil following an insightful trip to America. The head of the Sheffield based representative body took in a number of visits, which included the Glass Problems and the Glass Packaging Institute’s (GPI) events.

It’s always a pleasure to be invited to a conference as a key speaker and this was certainly the case when I received the offer from GPI to head out to California for its annual conference. At the GPI conference in Sonoma, I was asked to speak in front of 50 container glass executives about the problems facing manufacturing workforces in both the UK and the US, and how solutions fashioned in the UK might help tackle burgeoning problems in the US workforce. Both regions face similar as well as specific challenges and are on the cusp of significant change in terms of employment issues. The UK faces problems related to access to EU nationals following Brexit, and the US is dealing with a further liberalisation of access to drugs with the legalisation of cannabis. These challenges sit alongside the evolving issues with mental health management and support as our realisation of over one in four are dealing with less than perfect mental health at one time. On both sides of the Atlantic, there are problems with slow growth in productivity, which harks back to origins in the recession of 2008; slower than average uptake in new technologies and techniques like robotics, augmented reality (AR), and artificial intelligence (AI), and an ongoing skills shortage in key areas of engineering, sciences and technology. Both nations face their own individual problems on top of this, with Brexit and its ongoing stagnation of investment for the UK and the trade wars being created by the Trump administration in the US. These and other core problems need to be addressed sooner rather than later to keep glass in the ascendency during this window of opportunity for glass packaging materials created by the negative PR of plastic pollution in our oceans.

We need to respond positively and so give the workforce a fighting chance at growing in capability and sustainable productivity to ensure we are fit for the future, not left lagging behind. To do so, we must be proactive as employers and

Continued>>

48 Glass International December/January 2019

D Dalton country overview.indd 1

14/12/2018 10:00:42

Country overview: UK

plan ahead, developing new schemes and ideas to stay ahead of a changing landscape. With digitalisation and robotics will come a shift in the labour market requirements and skillsets of our workforce; job disciplines will change and we need to make sure we are ready for this shift in manufacturing sector needs. Here in the UK, we are using collaborative platforms to learn more about the specific issues like developing appropriate apprenticeships, reducing CO2 and introducing digital technologies. We need to work together to develop effective tools that can be used to not only increase productivity but tackle the other issue around H&S, investment in R&D, training and staff loyalty/ reward, currently affecting our industrial performance. We are beginning to use progressive training methods and development principles, such as the VR training system developed by Glass Technology Servicesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; partner company VRMT that Chris Sorsby, Commercial Director at GTS, and I showcased during our visits in the US. These tools help ensure the workforce is trained appropriately. It allows the acquisition of necessary skills to continue to progress and develop capability needed for a successful future. That means offering professional and personal development, from lifelong learning support to understanding mental health care, to not just fill the skills shortage gap but also to understand the psychology and ethos of the workforce, which in turn can then be used to ensure staff retention, commitment and loyalty within our sector. Also, by integrating research and development, innovation and training from apprenticeship to professional qualifications internally within a company, it can be shown to improve staff belief in the employer and, if they also feel supported at the personal level as well as professionally, this will improve productivity. Therefore, if we truly invest in the people within our companies, we can facilitate growth not just as individual businesses but across the industry as a whole. However alongside this personal focus, we must move towards demonstrating a more empathetic leadership scheme, whereby staff can easily see and appreciate the commitment management is making towards the workforce. This, if done well, will create productive followership and truly get the best performance and output from all those engaged across the workforce. To make this a reality and keep glass manufacturing strong, we must first make sure that we collaborate and share ideas and good practice at this pre-competitive level. Only then can we learn and adopt the best techniques, the best training methods and technologies in order to create a space where we as an industry sector can have a much more solid and capable future for glass manufacturing. All in all, it was an interesting and fruitful trip with a range of good experiences that should help to forge stronger and more active relationships between the UK and the US. I look forward to continuing this newly heightened dialogue and hope that it is the start of a closer collaboration between our two nations.ďż˝

British Glass, Chapeltown, ShefďŹ eld, UK www.britglass.org.uk

D Dalton country overview.indd 2

14/12/2018 10:00:46

Environment Events review: Glass Focus

Conference focuses on digital glassmaking The British Glass Focus 2018 event included a conference on digital technology. Sheena Adesilu attended. � Graham Hillier’s presentation.

www.glass-international.com

he afternoon conference provided informative talks from industry experts to discuss the use of digital technologies in glass manufacturing. Graham Hillier, Strategy and Futures Director at the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI) explored the idea of ‘Resource efﬁciency and digital manufacturing: will they help our productivity?’ (pictured above). Chris Sorsby (right), the Commercial Manager at Glass Technology Services (GTS) discussed ‘Virtual reality in glass manufacturing.’ This was followed by a panel discussion, which featured Mr Hillier, Dave Dalton, CEO of British Glass, and Alan Norbury, CTO for Siemens UK industrial activities (overleaf). The conference concluded with closing remarks from Mr Dalton. Mr Norbury talked about digitalisation and why we should implement it into the manufacturing process. He said: “It’s always difﬁcult for someone to break the mould and step forward as a leader in digitalisation rather than a follower. It’s a mentality. It’s an attitude. The impact of productivity is becoming more and more to do with digitalisation. Now it’s not just about

� Chris Sorsby.

technology but investment.” Manufacturers are entering the digital age and are increasingly looking to technology to help the manufacturing process in new ways. Digitalisation is becoming important in the glass industry. Digital manufacturing has the potential to transform every step of the

manufacturing chain, from research and development to sales and marketing. Businesses must take a look at their speciﬁc goals before beginning to digitise manufacturing processes, while keeping their individual core values intact. He continued: “I think that customisation in the future will be relevant across all sectors. We’ve got a long way ahead and we need to start putting those things in place. We need to work on projects such as Glass Futures and innovation centres, as well as have an open mind – some great things in other sectors could translate into glass sectors.” Mr Dalton discussed Industry 4.0 and its beneﬁts to the future of glassmaking. The British Glass CEO said: “Someone’s got to set the trend with Industry 4.0. I think that Industry 4.0 needs to be more visible and project what we need to be doing. We need to work together to do the right things. For example, Glass Futures is the platform where we have captured the imagination of the government on how we can start to solve our environmental issues, improve productivity and Continued>>

50 0 Glass International December/January 2019

Glass Focus conf.indd 1

14/12/2018 10:04:08

� Panel discussion with (left to right) Graham Hillier, Dave Dalton and Alan Norbury.

international competitiveness. And we need to capitalise on that and drive the material that is glass into the psyche of the public, government and decision makers.” The range of data available to manufacturers can be used in a variety of ways, from increased productivity to customisation options, which in turn can only push the glass industry further into the future and secure a place in the modern manufacturing world. Mr Dalton said: “Glass is a fantastic material. We need to take the idea of digital. There is a huge opportunity in digital. There are elements of Industry 4.0 that we are already deeply interested in. The Internet of Things is an early technology for us. I think Industry 4.0 is something that needs to be better solved. It is really down to leadership. We were originally expecting companies who make devices to come in for our services. But all the companies that come in are data companies because they’re desperate to get hold of the data to inform their software. I think we do really well at gathering the data but we don’t talk the same language as the people who analyse the data.” Mr Hillier discussed the beneﬁts of sharing information within the industry and glass as a packaging material. He added: “I think that meetings like this and the idea of sharing information with people who have more knowledge and experience than we have is really good for the industry to listen to and hear from. The new relationships and contacts will lead us into a future of possibility. It is important to ﬁnd out what we can do with our data to turn our process control plants into Industry 4.0 plants.” Glass manufactures have an opportunity to be proactive, exploit new ideas and processes, as well as be at the forefront of technological change in the industry. During this time, it’s important to continue to work together across a common platform, in order to harness the revolutionary digital potential and to continue to be a progressive force in manufacturing. He continued: “In addition, glass as a packaging material is brilliant and it’s much better than plastic. The plastics industry is on the defensive at the moment. This is because glass is relatively recyclable. There’s got to be opportunities in that.” The awards ceremony consisted of a drinks reception, a three-course Gala dinner, the winner’s presentations and an entertainment segment (see this issue). The Glass Focus Awards was an opportunity to meet fellow delegates from across the glass industry and to demonstrate how digital technology could be incorporated into the future of manufacturing productivity. It showcased the innovation and excellence of glass, which demonstrates the industry’s contribution to the economy, society, its customers, staff and stakeholders. �

British Glass, Chapeltown, Shefﬁeld, UK www.britglass.org.uk

Glass Focus conf.indd 2

14/12/2018 10:04:10

Environment Digital printing

O-I Expressions: A digital printing method Owens-Illinois (O-I) has launched O-I Expressions, a digital printing method that transforms the way custom-made and personalised glass bottles are designed by sculpting glass into multi-dimensional artwork.

www.glass-international.com

nown as O-I : Expressions, the method is designed to give higher visibility to the brands of design agencies, packaging professionals and food and beverage marketers. This technique allows late-stage design by bringing together the integral benefits of glass and a marketing-focused capability. It will also enable customers to develop brand engagement, improve consumer satisfaction and offer greater value. O-I: Expressions also offers benefits such as flexible volume, industrial speeds and a wide range of colour and design possibilities. O-I said brands will be better equipped to respond to growing consumer demand for personalised and ‘made for me’ products. O-I’s chief of sales and marketing officer Arnaud Aujouannet said: “OI: Expressions is a valuable step in our continuous commitment to be relevant and agile in meeting the needs of customers and consumers. “This innovation is an exciting outcome of O-I’s strategic growth agenda and reflects our vision to emphasise high-value segments by leveraging new technology and product innovation along with new attractive customised and flexible service offerings.” Brands will also have the ability to develop packaging to support short campaigns, including seasonal promotions to mark significant events. The innovation is claimed to be sustainable as it uses organic ink and helps curb waste through lower inventories. The company expects to bring the new concept to European markets by mid-2019, followed by a commercial launch in the US.

Vitaliano Torno, President of O-I Europe said: “Europe accounts for 24% of the global personalised packaging market and at the same time Europe is a core market for O-I, so it is ﬁtting that the ﬁrst step of our journey will take place here. We see the desire for individual retailers to provide unique promotions gaining momentum and brands are increasingly using personalised promotions to differentiate themselves. To execute these types of programmes requires fast design and approval cycles with prompt

execution. O-I : Expressions makes all of this possible.” To bring this new service to market at an industrial scale, O-I is making an initial investment in two direct2glass digital printing industrial lines, enabling contactless direct printing, through a Drop-on-Demand process, which only generates an ink drop when it is required for printing. The use of UV inks enables fast and reliable curing, while the CMYK model opens the door to the spectrum of Pantone hues. �

52 0

OI expressions.indd 1

14/12/2018 10:06:21

Celebrating 50 years of quality UK manufacturing

All Pennine Conveyor Chains : 100% UK manufactured 100% European steel

â&#x20AC;&#x153;see us at Glassman Asia, Jakarta Stand D04

NEW! lightweight sprocket castings www.pennine.org

PENNINE 16 apr.indd 1

sales@pennine.org

+44 (0)1484 864733

04/12/2018 12:11:10

Environment

The glass industry is geared up for the circular economy Sheryl Webersberger* highlights the important role of glass in the circular economy and discusses a recent study which investigated the recyclability of all the materials in glass packaging.

www.glass-international.com

t’s unusual for the packaging industry to be constantly in the news, but there isn’t a single day that goes by without new headlines about microplastic being found in human digestive systems, or the ever-increasing volume of plastic debris in our oceans. Waste – and how to avoid it – have become mainstream issues. The European Commission recently published a draft directive that envisages banning products such as cutlery, cotton buds, straws and thin plastic bags from the market. In its Circular Economy Package, the European Commission had already proposed a more circular approach in product manufacturing and use, maximum resource recovery and the avoidance of waste and, as a result, these issues have taken on new political significance. Even though most of the proposals relate to the avoidance and more effective recycling of plastic, the various laws and initiatives that make up the Circular Economy Package also affect the glass industry. Two of the most relevant ones are the amendment of the Waste Framework Directive and the Directive on Packaging and Packaging Waste. Packaging plays an important role in our highly industrialised society. It protects contents and extends the shelf life of food products, thereby contributing to preventing food waste. There is no standard legislation on waste disposal effective in all EU Member States. Since

� The author, Sheryl Webersberger.

54 0 Glass International December/January 2019

BV glas.indd 1

14/12/2018 10:08:21

Environment

recycling again (see illustration). Glass packaging is therefore the best example of an environmentally sustainable product with two loops that make an excellent contribution to waste reduction.

because, from 2019 onwards, it requires the dual systems in Germany to link their license fees to the recyclability of packaging, as well as its content of recyclates and renewable raw materials. In the past, license fees have been based on material and mass. A minimum standard has been published on the assessment of recyclability by a team of experts which included BV Glas representatives. In fact, it was BV Glas’s suggestion that blue bottles should continue to be categorised as recyclable – because they can easily be recycled in conjunction with green glass.

New packaging legislation In Germany the European Packaging and Packaging Waste Directive is translated into national law by the Packaging Ordinance (Verpackungsverordnung), which will be replaced by the Packaging Act (Verpackungsgesetz) in 2019. EU-level policies are therefore already reflected in German legislation. Although there are no direct obligations for the glass industry, the Packaging Act includes many provisions that BV Glas believes will highlight the benefits of glass as a packaging material. One in particular the higher recycling target for licensed glass - has been welcomed by the entire glass industry. The initial increase from 75% to 80% of licensed glass is effective from 2019 onwards, followed by another increase to 90% in 2022. Section 21 of the new Packaging Act is also associated with opportunities for the glass industry

BV Glas study Glass experts know that glass is a material which can be recycled multiple times without any quality impairment. But does the same apply to glass packaging? After all, packaging includes materials other than glass that have to be taken into account in any assessment of recyclability. BV Glas decided to find out the answer and requested the cyclos-HTP Institute to conduct a study on its behalf. The glass packaging products investigated in the study were selected to provide a Continued>>

� There are around 300,000 bottle banks in Germany.

www.glass-international.com

1991 in Germany manufacturers and distributors have been required by law to take responsibility for the whole process from production to the disposal of the packaging that has been put on the market. This requirement gave birth to Duales System Deutschland (DSD), a system which organises the collection and recycling of consumer packaging waste. Now the EU intends to introduce the separate collection of (glass) packaging in all Member States by the end of 2025. In Germany, glass packaging has been collected separately since the 1970s and there are around 300,000 bottle banks across the country where consumers can dispose of waste glass. Once it has been processed at the cullet treatment plant, cullet is available as an input material for the production of new glass containers. The average cullet content in new glass containers is 60% and it can be as high as 90% in green glass containers. Germany’s glass recycling rate is high and stable. It was 85% in 2016. The European Commission will increase the glass recycling rate to 75% by the end of 2030. Currently it is 74% (2016 figure). However, the EU is also planning to introduce a new method for the calculation of recycling rates that is adapted to realistic fraction recycling conditions. What does that mean? In the past, the recycling rate was the sum total of all collected packaging – including contaminants and non-recyclables. In the future, it will be calculated on the basis of post-processing volume rather than post-collection volume. The Federal Environmental Agency in Germany assumes that approximately 10% of the volume of glass collected comprises of contaminants and non-recyclables. This means that the recycling rate will be downwardly adjusted when the new legislation enters into force. According to the Federal Association of the German Glass industry (BV Glas) the adjustment won’t pose any problem in Germany because glass collection and recycling rates are already extremely high.

Two loops for glass packaging Germany has a double closed loop for glass packaging. The first one involves the bottle banks and recycling facilities and the second – mainly used by the segments of water, beer and to a lesser extent yoghurt - involves refilling. Glass is the ideal returnable packaging material because it is practically inert. It can be refilled up to 50 times before it enters the

55 Glass International December/January 2019

BV glas.indd 2

14/12/2018 10:08:31

Environment

THE DOUBLE CLOSED LOOP

CONSUMERS

RETAILERS

GLASS INDUSTRY

Returnable bottles that can no longer be used

New returnable bottles

RETAILERS

representative sample of all available glass packaging products in the market, and it covered the segments of beverage bottles, jars for foodstuffs and glass packaging for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Four criteria in particular played a decisive role in the assessment of recyclability. First of all the percentage of recyclable materials in each of the surveyed glass packaging products was ascertained. This was necessary because packaging components, such as metal lid, closure, plastic, paper and ceramic parts, also have to be taken into consideration in the assessment. The glass and the metal lid of glass packaging are categorised as recyclable, whereas the other materials are not recycled via the glass recycling path. Glass also has to satisfy certain criteria so that it can be returned to the loop. It undergoes a visual check with an optical sorter and transmittance measurements are used to identify contaminants. Anything that is not

RECYCLING

FILLING PLANTS

identified as transparent by the detectors is removed from the glass flow by air jets. The metal parts are identified on the basis of their magnetic properties and electrical conductivity. If they meet those two criteria they can easily be separated and recycled. The study results show that glass packaging generally has a high level of recyclability and glass packaging with pure metal closures is actually 100% recyclable. BV Glas has therefore obtained the first scientific evidence confirming that the infinite recyclability of glass also applies to the majority of glass packaging.

Other elements Companies in the glass industry have long been applying closed loop principles in the glass packaging production process. For example, they recirculate water in a

closed cycle to reduce consumption of fresh water/ ground water and recover the energy used to melt the glass via a heat exchanger, which uses the hot flue gas from the melting process to pre-heat the combustion air.

Summary The properties of glass meet all the requirements for the implementation of the Circular Economy Package. The glass recycling rate is already very high. Even though the Circular Economy Package primarily targets plastic, which hasn’t been recycled to a large extent in the past, it also affects other packaging materials. The glass industry will have to continue closely monitoring developments with regard to their impacts on glass. �

*Product Policy Advisor, BV Glas, Dusseldorf, Germany www.bvglas.de/en/

� The average cullet content can be as high as

www.glass-international.com

90% in green glass containers.

56 0 Glass International December/January 2019

BV glas.indd 3

14/12/2018 10:08:33

LTT_ad.pdf

11/06/2018

15:56

We keep the Aim and the Spirit of the Age of Discovery

CMY

With a network of more than 30 subsidiaries and partners, from America to Japan, the Groupâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s industrial services cover the construction and maintenance of industrial furnaces, the design, construction and maintenance of industrial chimneys, supply of materials for the thermal industry and other technical services.

Your projects are our projects

anniversary edition

Av. Almirante Gago Coutinho, n. 56 - 10th, 1749-041 Lisbon / Portugal Tel. + 351 218 429 270 / Fax. +351 218 409 412 marketing@lizmon.com / www.lizmongroup.com

Following in the footsteps of fourteenth-century Portuguese navigators, the LIZMONTAGENS THERMAL TECHNOLOGIES Group, based in Lisbon, Portugal, has expanded its industrial services worldwide over the past four decades, becoming the global leader in glass furnace construction and one of the leading references in heat containment for industry.

FIVES TECH + FIVES TEAM FIVES’ COMBUSTION SYSTEM, PRIUM® PLANARTEK, MAKES YOUR GLASS TEMPERATURE HOMOGENEOUS. A NEW INNOVATIVE APPROACH FOR WORKING ENDS AND FOREHEARTHS. The Prium® PlanarTek combustion system is designed to suit your production requirements and when combined with our patented flat flame burner block enhances glass conditioning performance with reduced gas consumption. Prium® PlanarTek combustion system, which is the result of the Fives’ Glass experts innovation, can be readily integrated with a bespoke heat recovery system to further increase energy and operational efficiencies. Trust Fives professionals to enhance your plant’s performance and competitiveness and to optimize your investment.

glass.fivesgroup.com

Visit us at GLASSMA 30-31 Janu N ASIA 2019 ary, Indone sia Jiexpo Kem ayoran - Ha ll B3 Booth No C 32

Exciting forecast for lubricants Condat’s company policy is to offer long term lubricant solutions. Its R&D and engineering teams research new formulation solutions to drive the industry towards safer and greener products for employees and the environment. Condat has developed coolants for the flat glass industry called Condaglass FA. These coolants address increased demand for boron free products in the flat glass sector. Without mineral oil, they are free of hazardous ingredients (DEA, nitrites, formaldehyde-releasing bactericides). They are not classified as irritating or skin sensitive. The high lubricity properties assures quality grinding and quick removal of fine particles. It also prevents burns and black marks, resulting in a smooth and clean surface. Condaglass FA addresses productivity and quality constraints while still providing an EHS friendly environment for plant personnel.

Condaglass 367 SF (Sulphur Free) grease will meet customer requirements and can result in double the production time of current brass mould.

IS maintenance Condat also addresses maintenance needs with its lubricants.

Sulphur-free swabbing mould compounds With experience in grease production, development and research since 1854, Condat has swabbing mould solutions for blank, neck ring and blow moulds. After the success in 2017 with its sprayable greases for robot swabbing, the company has dedicated its efforts this year on a new sulphur-free lubricant to increase the life of bronze/brass moulds and to improve overall glass container quality. When removed during job changes, moulds are cleaner and have little to no ‘checks’ (Fig 1, overleaf).

and IS machine OEM’s, this lubricant has performed with the following benefits: low evaporation, high thermal stability, low oxidation and excellent lubricating properties. Lubricant consumption can be reduced by up to 50% compared to a standard mineral oil. Glass HTS 250 is free of heavy metals, chlorine and solvents and can also reduce fire risks. It specifically targets keeping a lubricating budget under control with lower cost and emphasises production floor safety without compromising productivity. This product is available with a fluorescent dye that reflects easily under a UV light. This allows maintenance to detect machine leaks quickly and consequently lower lubricant consumption.

Expertise

Thanks to its expertise in high temperature fluids, used for example in the steel and aluminium industries, the company understands the challenges and issues encountered in an extremely hot work environment. Its new Glass HTS 250 is a 100% synthetic oil dedicated to central lubrication of the IS Machine with high flash points. Already approved by both glass plants

Condat strengthened its position in the glass industry with the acquisition of the Renite company in October 2017. The acquisition was an opportunity for Condat to expand its business partnerships in North America. The challenges of the past year have been to restore the direct, on-site customer service support regarding any existing and future Renite opportunities in North America with the help of the Continued>>

www.glass-international.com

Boron free coolants

59 Glass International December/January 2019

L Condat lubrication + futronic.indd 1

17/12/2018 10:50:57

Lubrication Environment

local manufacturing support at Condat Corp in Saline, Michigan, USA (pictured next page). The team has worked hard on the Renite manufacturing and production transfer with the main objective on enhancing quality control measures and providing optimum service and delivery.

Difficult designs Chek-No-Mor (CNM) is an anti-check compound that eliminates the defects on the glass and ensures perfect releasing of engravings. It is suited for difficult designs and engravings that require high quality lubricants. It has to be used with a ‘dry swab’ on finish moulds. CNM reduces or eliminates checks when applied to the bottom plates on IS machines. It is effective on hot-running equipment and is useful when applied to the area corresponding to the knurled area around the bottom of the bottle. Condat’s R&D team reformulated the product to meet the new productivity requirements with a concentration on improving the cleanliness of the bottles and moulds and increasing the lubrication swab frequency.

Its thinner consistency reduces consumption, but still remains in place exactly where it is swabbed (tops, bottoms and even shoulders).

Swabbing neck ring and tableware parts Renite H is used for brass/bronze moulds and especially for tableware and has more than more than 20 years on the market. It is the original scientifically formulated high temperature neck-ring mould swab used around the world for many decades. When applied to a hot metal surface, the graphite boils off cleanly to leave a silvery-black, solid lubricating film. This film reduces friction, prevents hot gobs from sticking, and protects the surface from oxidation. Renite H is a sulphur-free compound dedicated to

address neck-ring challenges.

Clean conveyors Renite S-24 is a coating for lehr mats and belt/cross conveyors, which can help eliminate bottom checks and rust pick-up as the ware travels through the annealing oven. It is also useful as a coating for other areas where the finished ware contacts metal, as on star wheel paddles and transfer plates. The Renite S-24 belt coating formula has been improved by the R&D team so that this water-based graphite contains no ammonia. Because it is mixed three parts water to one-part concentrate, most plants now use only one or two drums a year. �

Condat, Chasse-sur-Rhône, France. www.condat.fr

www.glass-international.com

Swab cycle monitoring system

futronic has launched its Swab Cycle Monitoring System (SCMS), which was developed in cooperation with technicians from Verallia. The SCMS monitors the swab cycles automatically and provides visual and acoustic warnings indicating when, and on which section, the next cycle is due.

The goal is to support machine operators with this routine task and help avoid errors. The SCMS consists of an LED timer display connected to the FMT24S. A specially developed add-on for the FMT24S firmware controls the counter, resets it at the end of the swab interval and starts the next cycle.

The different job-dependent swab times are stored and managed centrally in the MCT database. The SCMS has a robust industrial LED display and the necessary FMT24S software upgrade. �

futronic, Tettnang, Germany www.futronic.de

60 0 Glass International December/January 2019

L Condat lubrication + futronic.indd 2

17/12/2018 10:50:59

ASIA 2019

WHERE THE HOLLOW GLASS INDUSTRY MEETS TO DO BUSINESS

REACHING THE ASIAN MARKET Glassman Asia will be the ideal opportunity to network with industry professionals from around the world whilst learning about the latest products and services on the market. The container glass industry is becoming more prevalent in Jakarta and surrounding areas in Indonesia. With

We are looking for producers, manufacturers and service providers within the following fields to exhibit their products and services: • Raw materials

• Processing machinery

• Batch Plants

• Laboratory services & analytical equipment

• Melting furnaces • Combustion equipment

companies such as O-I, AGC and Horn heavily investing in

• Refractories

sites around the country, there’s been an unprecedented

• Feeders & forehearths

boom in production over the last few years. This investment

• Hot end handling materials & systems

in technology and innovation in the region makes it an ideal meeting place for the regional industry, to gather, learn and

• Annealing & decorating lehrs • Cold end handling materials & systems

share ideas on the future of glass making.

• Decoration materials & equipment • Instrumentation/process control systems • Turnkey plant construction services & technical assistance & training • Software providers

• Tempering/laminating plants

TO FIND OUT MORE CONTACT: Ken Clark, Sales Director t: +44 (0)1737 855117 e: kenclark@quartzltd.com Manuel Martin Quereda, International Sales Executive t: +44 (0)1737 855 023 e: manuelm@quartzltd.com

WWW.GLASSMANEVENTS.COM/ASIA Organised by:

Join the Glassman Group

GlassmanAsia19_1p_Ad.indd 1

Official media partner:

@glassmanevents

11/09/2018 13:20

COMPANY PROFILES

Fives Stein Ltd, 4A Churchward Southmead Park, Oxon, OX11 7HB

STAND CO2

STAND B 23 HORN Glass Industries AG Bergstrasse 2 95703 Ploessberg Germany www.hornglass.com

Nikolaus Sorg GmbH & Co. KG Stoltestrasse 23, 97816 Lohr am Main Germany www.sorg.de

STAND BO1 F.I.C. (UK) Limited Long Rock Industrial Estate Penzance, Cornwall, TR20 8HX, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1736 366962 general@ﬁc-uk.com www.ﬁc-uk.com

Tel: +44 (0)1235 811 111 web.glass.ﬁvesgroup.com

STAND C32

KAMMANN GmbH

DIGITAL / SCREEN PRINTING HOT STAMPING FULLY AUTOMATIC UNIVERSAL DECORATING MACHINES Bergkirchener Straße 228, 32549 Bad Oeynhausen, Germany kammann.de

3009 Washington Rd. McMurray, PA 15317 USA

+1 724 941- 9550 www.hft.com

info@hft.com

STAND C20 ISIMAT GmbH Siebdruckmaschinen Rindelbacher Strasse 36-40 D-73479 Ellwangen Germany Tel: +49 (0) 7961 886 0

www.isimat.com

STAND EO2

Advertising in Glass International Magazine will help you reach your potential customers. Contact us today to discuss your requirements:

KEN CLARK 01737 855117 kenclark@quartzltd.com

www.glass-international.com

BOOK YOUR ADVERTISING

63 Glass_Intl_Sales_Ad_Half-Page.indd 1

profile page dec.indd 1

14/06/2018 13:46

Glass International December/January 2019

18/12/2018 15:14:27

History

Prof. John Parker

Helium in glassmaking Prof John Parker highlights how helium helps in glass science and manufacturing.

www.glass-international.com

elium is hardly the first element that springs to mind when thinking of glassmaking. It has played a variety of roles though. A Frenchman first noticed the chemical signature of a previously unknown element in the emission spectrum of the sun’s atmosphere during an eclipse in 1868. This led to its name, derived from the Greek Sun God, Helios, daily driving his four-horse carriage from East to West across the sky. It later turned out to be the second most abundant element in the universe after hydrogen. In 1895 a British scientist isolated helium gas emitted from naturally occurring radioactive minerals and showed it had the same light emission fingerprint. As they decay, radioactive elements such as uranium and thorium emit α particles - helium atom nuclei - and so low concentrations of helium are continuously generated in the earth’s crust. As the second lightest gas after hydrogen, helium can escape the earth’s gravitational pull and so is also being lost continuously. The equilibrium atmospheric concentration is five parts per million. Pure helium is costly to produce because gaseous contaminants are removed cryogenically - oxygen and nitrogen condense on cooling before helium. Being an inert element, it is chemically unreactive and is odourless, tasteless and non-toxic. Its relevance to the glass industry is a consequence of its physical characteristics. The first one of note is its solubility in and diffusion through silica glass matrices. This caused problems for early electronic equipment manufacturers who required a vacuum for the proper operation of their glassencased components. One issue was the manufacture of photomultiplier tubes. Over time atmospheric helium diffused through the glass walls of their photomultipliers. Once inside fastmoving electrons could ionise it and

create an undesirable false pulse after a short delay due to the slower velocity of the charged ions relative to electrons. Many studies in the mid-1900s focused on developing glass that prevented helium ingress. Tailored glass networks containing modifier ions to block the transport of helium atoms offered an effective solution. More recently Corning Glass patented an approach to glass refining which relies on the fast diffusion of helium through the melt. The glass melt is fused in a substantially helium-free atmosphere; helium is then blown into the molten glass and diffuses through it into any remaining seeds. These seeds grow, and so rise more rapidly through the melt being finally eliminated at the surface. A similar concept has been used in studying glass chemistry where high purity helium gas streams have been used to purge melts in the study of sulphur redox equilibria. Gases evolved from the sample were initially flushed out by an air stream. The analysis gave the temperature dependence of the evolved amounts of CO2 and SO2. The residual sulphate content in the melted glass samples was determined using helium extraction followed by gas chromatographic analysis of evolved gases. It has also been used as an effective heat transfer medium. Being monatomic and light while carrying as much energy as the much heavier oxygen and nitrogen molecules helium atoms move at a higher velocity. Convective heat transfer coefficients are almost an order of magnitude higher than for air. Optical fibres are now pulled at 2000 metres/sec. The necessary cooling can be completed much more quickly in an inert environment using helium and hence over a much shorter distance so reducing the need for costly tall towers and greater ceiling heights. The adoption of this approach in industry caused a significant

price hike, supplies being limited. Helium is also used in small amounts as a component of the carrier gas during the manufacture of the optical fibre preforms. Not surprisingly given its high diffusion coefficient in silica it does not lead to bubble formation. Helium has also played a significant role in studying glass structure. For example, in early studies its diffusion coefficient through the glass transformation range was measured for various glass compositions to compare their behaviour. Investigators finally concluded that completely annealed glass would show no discontinuity although in practice they found variations linked to relaxation. This gave an insight into the structural changes occurring. A more sophisticated study has used Raman spectroscopy to study changes in the bond angles in the silica ring structure as it is stuffed at high pressure with helium. The silicon-oxygen-silicon bond angles around the rings showed significant and quantifiable changes. A variety of spectroscopic studies require equipment (e.g. superconducting magnets) or samples at liquid helium temperatures. Low sample temperature has helped to unravel complex behaviour by removing the effects of thermal disorder (low energy vibrations) on the patterns observed e.g. in Fe2+ and Fe3+ coordination state studies using Mössbauer spectroscopy. You Tube viewers may also have seen a party trick involving helium in a glass. One video purportedly shows two women drinking glasses of helium-infused wine. They break into fits of uncontrollable giggles as the helium imbibed makes them sound like Walt Disney cartoon characters. �

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

64 Glass International December/January 2019

History.indd 1

14/12/2018 10:46:12

()*+,-/*0(1231//*/45+6),3+17 012345578902 41 28 12 012 43 5 45 849 2 7 4 3 483 789 841 7 8

2 7 48 8441 8 47 5789 7554 41 52 417 178 42 5 5 7 87 52 285 21 4 755 89 5 1 12 5 7 2 71 4 12 43 5 432 41945 8 787 4 48 45 8 85 7 7 28789 32 55 28 8 75 4 757 4 4178 42 541 34 4 4 7 144 48 5 25 21 4 4 3 3 42 2 15 5 4 43 7 49149 8978 328 12 5 17 4 45 21 1234552 7 28789149 34992 8 4 841 57 8 2 415 52 285 217178 42 7 37 2855 3 75 7 8 47 8 7894 43 1 3 225 8 5 5 4 5 7 773! 5 28789787 35 21 483 71" 8 4 $3 483 12 4 48 149 3 4 7 8 48783478914 21 8

4 45 4 5452 285 7 4 2 8 4 %0 &789'0 & 4 $ 8 2 1 5 5 7 87 71 4 5

Technical Topics

John Henderson Henderson Technology

Glass diversity

www.glass-international.com

significant majority of the glass industry as it now exists melts and forms soda-lime-silica based glasses into products. These products are dominated in almost all quantitative measures by flat glass, containers and tubing. Public perception of glass is generally based on their interaction with one or more of these forms and it tends to become ubiquitous. In other words ‘people’ tend to think of glass (if they think about it at all) in terms of windows, bottles and drinking. This may always be the case but as an industry we should all be keen to promote glass in all its forms to the general benefit of glass as a whole. For instance, how many of the millions of mobile device users realise that the screen uses one of the most technically advanced glasses in the world? Often known generically as ‘Gorilla’ glass because this is the trade name of the Corning product that is the most widely publicised (compare ‘Hoover’ and ‘Sellotape’ which are also brand names but widely used a the name for all products of that type.) The glass used for these screens is an engineered alkali aluminosilicate which gives it strength and durability in thin section. The toughness is further enhanced by chemical tempering in a molten potassium salt bath. Other manufacturers have similar products and further improvements are in development to make thinner and more flexible glass. What would we do without oven to tableware? The glass used for this type of product is a borosilicate generically known as ‘Pyrex’. However, as before this is a brand name licenced to Corning who ‘discovered’ and patented this particular formula in 1915, although the first documented appearance of a borosilicate of this type was in the 1890’s made by Otto Schott and known as ‘Duran’. There are many different formulations which are described as borosilicate and they typically have an expansion form

30 to 60 (x 10-7) and B2O3 concentrations from 12% to 24%. Borosilicates are still made today and used for products which need toughness, durability and thermal shock resistance; this can include windows, containers, glass to metal seals and chemical pipeline. Boron is not only a glass modifier it is a glass former in its own right and borate glasses have found widespread use. Two that spring to mind are a barium borate based glass and solder glass. The barium borate glass was modified with alumina and calcium giving it a very low viscosity when molten and very high resistance to hot sodium metal vapour. What particular application could have needed these rather exotic properties? The product was visible over most the world but probably never given a second thought by those who saw it. That product was low pressure sodium lighting and the barium borate glass was on the inside of the discharge tube which was soda lime to protect it from the metallic sodium vapour carrying the discharge producing the light. The other borate glasses were a series of solder glasses with low softening points that are used for sealing two or more pieces of glass together (usually in the electrical or electronics field) at a temperature that will not distort the glass articles. These borate based glasses are modified with zinc and/or lead and in one particular case vanadium. Who knew that glass was used for dental and medical applications? These glasses collectively known as bio-glasses were initially discovered (invented) in the UK at the Laboratory of the Government Chemist. Certain promising formulations were commercialised for dentistry. As befits a dental product the glasses were heavily laden with fluoride and a nightmare to melt as the time and quality of the melting had a direct influence on the ‘activity’ of the fluoride component

when formulated into the tooth filling material. The huge benefit of these glass ionomer materials was that they were white with a modest translucency which made them suitable as a more cosmetic filling which partially toned in with the colour of the tooth and the fluoride in them helped prevent further decay. The use of bio-glass for medical applications such as reconstructive surgery followed on from these initial developments. The glasses, first introduced by Larry Hench in 1969 were synthetic hydroxyapatites based on calcium phospho-silicate with significant levels of sodium. These bioglasses mimicked natural bone and thus were accepted by the body and were eventually incorporated into the natural bone structures they were attached to. Recent applications of bioactive glasses include coatings for orthopaedic metallic implants, bone replacement, periodontology, scaffolds for bone tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Borate and phosphate glasses have their own international conference series dedicated to them and it was held in the UK in 2017 under the auspices of the SGT. I hope these examples of the diversity of glass illustrate the impact glass can have on the human world. I have only scratched the surface (something that does not happen to ‘Gorilla’ glass) of the subject of glass types and their uses in the modern world. Windows and bottles are civilisation changing products but it is the diversity of glass which will inform the future. Those of us with a passionate interested in glass, be it technical, historical or aesthetic should promote, and encourage others to promote, the cause of glass in all its forms. �

Henderson Technology, Sheffield, UK www.hendersontechnology.com

66 Glass International December/January 2019

John Henderson left.indd 1

14/12/2018 10:46:44

CLASSIFIEDS

COMBUSTION

COMBUSTION EQUIPMENT

ANNEALING LEHRS

SYSTEMS/BURNERS

ANNEALING & DECORATING LEHRS for Containers and Tableware

TEMPERING LINES ON BELT / SPINDLES for Tableware and Stemware

INDUSTRIAL GAS ENGINEERS

I NDUST RIAL G AS E NGINEERS UNIT D2, BRO O KSID E BD2, U S Brookside I N E S S P ABusiness R K , G R EPark, E N G AGreengate, TE,C H AD D ERTO N, M24 1G S, ENG LAND Unit Chadderton, T E L E P H O N E : 0 1 6 1 - 6M24 5 4 71GS, 7 0 0 UKF A X : 0 1 6 1 - 6 5 5 3 8 1 2 Tel +44 (0) 161 654 7700 Fax +44 (0) 161 655 3812 E-MAIL: S A L E S @ M O N T S E L A S . C O . U K WWW.MONTSELAS.CO.UK Email sales@montselas.co.uk www.montselas.co.uk

AIR

Low-Emission Oxy-fuel Solutions GAS

MANUFACTURERS AND SUPPLIERS OF SELAS SQUARE PORT GAS & AIR VALVES contact us

vidromecanica@vidromecanica.com www.vidromecanica.com

ELECTRIC HEATING SYSTEMS

• Oxygen & oxygen flow control equipment • Global oxygen enrichment applications • Cleanfire® oxy-fuel burners • Start-up services

Inerting Applications

GLASS LEVEL MEASUREMENT

HEAT-UP SERVICES

• Hydrogen, nitrogen & other gases • Enabling flow control equipment 800-654-4567 (code 344) gigmrktg@airproducts.com airproducts.com/glass

Electrical melting in perfection - Engineering and modelling

Global Combustion Systems

for boosting systems

- Water-cooling Systems

Total Support

for electrode holder

- Electrode holder

Unit 43, Evans Business Centre, Easter Inch, Bathgate EH48 2EH, Scotland, UK

for bottom / side / top

- Power regulation / Transformers

Tel+44 (0) 1506 657310 Fax +44 (0) 8704 799975 Email Sales@globalcombustion.com Web www.globalcombustion.com

Special services - Hot drilling - Change of electrode holder Bock Energietechnik GmbH Gösen 15 92685 Floss Germany

Tel: 0049 9603/1295 Fax: 0049 9603/2995 info@bock-energietec.de www.bock-energietec.de

HOTSheppee ENDClassified WARE advert.pdf HANDLING

INSPECTION

Ware Handling Made Easy Complete intergrated Ware Handling package 2 & 3 Axis Servo Stacker Advanced Lehr Cross Conveyor Ware Transfer units for ALL types of production Adjustable pocket Pushbars Worldwide service and support team Dedicated to resolving your Ware Handling problems

CMY

LUBRICATING Classified Ad1.pdfAND 1 03/02/2016 COATING SOLUTIONS

1 04/02/2016 10:34:15

(39101)

Airﬁeld Business Park, Elvington, York, YO42 4AU, UK Tel: 0044 1904 608999 Email: sales@sheppee.com Web: www.sheppee.com

TIAMA ZA des Plattes, 1 Chemin des Plattes, 69390 Vourles, France

Tel +33 (0) 4 37 20 15 00, Fax +33 (0) 4 78 07 94 50

Email: marketing@tiama.com Website:www.tiama.com

Lubricating and Coating Solutions for the Glass Container Industry Graphoidal Developments Ltd, Broombank Road, Chesterﬁeld, S41 9QJ, England

13:53:19

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

CMY

Tel: +44 (0) 1246 266000 Fax: +44 (0) 1246 269269 Email: sales@graphoidal.com Website: www.graphoidal.com

SCREEN PRINTING

KAMMANN GmbH

RAW MATERIALS

Rio Tinto Minerals 2 Eastbourne Terrace London W2 6LG, UK Tel +44 (0) 207 781 1450 Fax +44 (0) 207 781 1851 Email: simon.cook@riotinto.com Web: www.riotintominerals.com

CLASSIFIEDS.indd 1

ASIA 2019

DIGITAL SCREEN PRINTING HOT STAMPING FULLY AUTOMATIC UNIVERSAL DECORATING MACHINES

For details of the next event visit: http://www.glassmanevents.com/asia

Bergkirchener Straße 228, 32549 Bad Oeynhausen, Germany kammann.de

14/12/2018 10:47:26

53035 MONTERIGGIONI (SI) ITALY - Strada di Gabbricce, 6 Tel +39 0577 304730 ifv@fonderievaldelsane.com

www.fonderievaldelsane.com

Etv oi l Ă ! Youri nspect i onmachi ne i snowequi ppedwi t hNEOI nt el l i gence.

NEOi nt el l i gencei nsi de

Pack ed wi t hi nnov at i ons,NEO I nt el l i gence pr opel sy ouri nspect i on machi nei nt ot he4. 0er a. YourEVOLUTI ONmachi nei snowi nt el l i gentand connect ed.Def ectr ecogni t i on,easyset t i ngs,hotendal er t sandt r end anal y si sar eal l newf eat ur esf r om whi chy ourpr oduct i oncanbeneďŹ t . Al lexi st i ng I RI S machi nescan beupgr aded wi t h NEO I nt el l i gence. Cont actust oupgr adey ourmachi ne.