Stara Glass & Glass Futures
Stara Glass appointed with Glass Futures furnace contract
At the core of the Glass Futures Global Centre of Excellence being built in St Helens, UK is the 30 t/d R&D furnace. We hear from Ernesto Cattaneo* and Peter Liggett** about this major milestone.
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lass Futures, the UK non-forprofit organisation being created to construct a Global Centre of Excellence in St Helens has appointed Italian glass engineers Stara Glass to design its 30 tonnes per day experimental Research & Development furnace. Stara Glass, based in Genoa confirmed it will now be joining Glass Futures as an Affiliate Member to begin looking at its technology development. Glass Futures is aiming to create a facility to connect the glass industry and academia to deliver exportable R&D and innovation, as well as training and up-skilling opportunities, ensuring glass making’s future is built on sustainable, recyclable, carbon-zero products. We hear from both sides to understand more about the project, and why Stara Glass was chosen.
Why was Stara Glass chosen to be awarded the Glass Futures furnace design contract? Peter Liggett (PL): Following a rigorous procurement process, Stara were short listed during the technical evaluation by Glass Futures and our design partners with the submission of a comprehensive engineering package that scored highly when compared to our evaluation criteria. When the technical short list submissions were reviewed by our technical steering committee Stara Glass had the right attitude and provided good value for money. Stara Glass is a good fit with Glass Futures having familiarity with R&D activity. We particularly liked their approach to collaborative working and preparedness to share their expertise with us and our partners.
How proud are you to have won the contract to design the furnace for Glass Futures? Ernesto Cattaneo (EC): Extremely proud, however we are overall excited to be able to study such an extensive project. I have been in glass furnace R&D since 2007 and an experimental furnace has always been an unrealisable and unreasonable dream. Stara Glass craves innovation, the day we have been informed about the Glass Futures project, we obviously wanted to participate, and when the opportunity arose to run for the design tender, we knew we wanted to do a superb job and design this furnace.
� Ernesto Cattaneo has been at Stara Glass for over 14 years and heads up the design, modeling and research projects team.
18 0 Glass International May 2021
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17/05/2021 06:28:41
