Glass march 2015

March 2015 | Vol. 38 No.3

VERALLIA FRANCE PROFILE RECYCLING RUSSIAN OVERVIEW

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Contents

March 2015 Vol.38 No.3

10

March 2015 | Vol. 38 No.3

VERALLIA FRANCE PROFILE RECYCLING RUSSIAN OVERVIEW

2

Editor’s Comment

3

International News

www.glass-international.com

Company profile: Verallia France 10 Verallia France lights up the room Glass International March 2015

Company profile: Iittala 14 Finland’s 50 shades of grey

14

17 20 23 25 28

Recycling Glass recycling in Mexico Glass beads from cullet Seeing a value in South Africa’s glass Giving new life to old resources Rescuing Holland’s waste sheet glass

32 History Exchanging your silver

Front cover image courtesy of EME (member of SORG Group) www.eme.de

33 British Glass Due diligence - what it means for glass 34 Technical topics Glass in the year of light

17

Safety 36 Safety products in the workplace Glass forming 38 Energy-saving in glass pressing Toughening 39 Mouth-blown UV glass: A world first

Plus find us on Linked-In and Twitter.

@Glass_Int

45

Energy efficiency 41 Intelligent façades: Building of the future Coatings 42 Large area magnetron sputtering Events and report 45 Russian industry stays positive ahead of Mir Stekla 2015 48 Glass manufacturing industry report

www.glass-international.com

www.glass-international.com

Plant performance 40 Simotion kits: Maximising performance

1 Glass International March 2015

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Editor’s comment

Greg Morris

www.glass-international.com Editor: Greg Morris Tel: +44 (0)1737 855132 Email: gregmorris@quartzltd.com Editorial Assistant: Sally Roberts Tel: +44 (0)1737 855154 Email: sallyroberts@quartzltd.com Designer: Annie Baker Tel: +44 (0)1737 855130 Email: anniebaker@quartzltd.com

Green remains the theme for the glass industry

www.glass-international.com

W

elcome to the March 2015 issue, where green is the theme.

Inside are a number of articles dedicated to glass recycling and the number of ways in which it is re-used.

The prevailing theme is that glass is an immensely sustainable resource. The articles highlight its infinite environmentally-friendly properties and the benefits it brings.

The features have been submitted from all around the globe from countries including South Africa, the Netherlands and Mexico.

Among those to contribute articles is the UK’s Allglass Reprocessors, which discusses glass beads in cullet and the developments that have been made in cullet processing. Thanks to a series of partnerships, thousands of tonnes of waste glass have been recycled that otherwise would have ended up in UK landfill sites.

Staying in the UK, Viridor talks about its recently unveiled £25 million glass recycling hub in Scotland, which will be one of the most advanced of its kind and will recycle glass from 17 authorities.

The recycling segment begins with an article from Mexican container and flat manufacturer Vitro. The company leads the way with glass recycling domestically and perhaps internationally too.

Its ‘Embracing a More Transparent World’ recycling programme is a huge logistical effort. It involves a number of

partnerships with organisations ranging from hospitals to commercial establishments, all to ensure that as much glass as possible is collected and re-used. In 2013 it recyled 229 million glass container pieces, saving enough energy to light a fluorescent bulb for 186,923 years. This is a magnificent achievement and an example to the rest of the industry.

It is this type of hard, largely unheralded work that should receive more promotion in the campaign to promote glass ahead of competitor materials.

Mexico will be under the spotlight for the next few months: the Glassman Latin America exhibition and conference takes place September 22-23 in Guadalajara and a number of industry suppliers and manufacturers have already given their support to the event.

Glass International will organise the conference that runs alongside the exhibition and has already made a call for papers. If your company is interested in submitting a paper please get in touch with me via email.

We aim to organise as strong a conference as possible and hope to include manufacturers, leading technology suppliers, associations and consultants.

For more information vist www.glassmanevents.com/latin-america Greg Morris Editor gregmorris@quartzltd.com

Quartz Glass Portfolio

Monthly journal for the industry worldwide

Directory 2015 Annual international reference source

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Sales Director: Ken Clark Tel: +44 (0)1737 855117 Email: kenclark@quartzltd.com Sales Manager: Jeremy Fordrey Tel: +44 (0)1737 855133 Email: jeremyfordrey@quartzltd.com Productive Executive: Martin Lawrence Subscriptions Tel: +44 (0)1737 855023 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 Glass International annual subscription rates including Glass International Directory: For one year: UK £159, all other countries £224.

For two years: UK £285, all other countries £403.

Airmail prices on request. Single copies £44.

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

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

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 173180437.

Glassman specialist exhibitions rotate between America, Asia and Europe © Quartz Business Media Ltd, 2015 ISSN 0143-7838

2 Glass International March 2015

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International News

O-I takes over Bennu Glass

NEWS IN BRIEF

Heye safety workshop planned prior to Glassman Europe

Technical Directors and Plant Managers from the international glass container community will meet in Lyon on 5th May 2015 – the day before the Glassman Europe exhibition takes place – for a workshop devoted to the critical subject of safety: ‘Safety in the plant – Safety for consumers’.

Organised and hosted

by Heye International, this invitation-only meeting will emphasise the importance of safety for glass plants, as well as their customers.

tant craft beer market,” noted O-I spokesman Ryan McCarthy.

The Kalama plant was first established in 2008, but closed in 2009. It was purchased by Bennu Glass in 2010 for more than $60m, and a further $35m was invested in equipment and machinery.

At this point O-I has not announced how much it acquired the business for, although it has said that the plant will be renamed O-I Kalama and will continue to be run by its current Manager, Dwayne Wendler.

O-I and Ardagh to speak at Glassman Europe conference Owens-Illinois, Ardagh, Stoelzle and Bormioli Rocco are the glass manufacturers due to speak at Glassman Europe.

They will join a line-up of speakers that includes associations, suppliers and federations at the event in Lyon, France in May. The two-day conference takes place alongside the Glassman Europe exhibition at the Cité Centre de Congres, Lyon, France on May 6 and 7.

Speakers confirmed include Ardagh’s Group Head of Sustainability & Environment, Steffen Seehausen, discussing Ardagh’s Sustainability Strategy. Stoelzle’s NPD Manager,

Leandre Lasfargues, will talk about Innovation & Decoration while Bormioli Rocco’s Health & Safety Manager, Roberto Gentilini will discuss the company’s health and safety record.

Other speakers include Feve’s Secretary General, Adeline Farrelly, who will give a paper titled European Glass Packaging Industry - Competitiveness, challenges and opportunities.

Jean-Philippe Martel, General Manager of the Container Glass Alliance, will discuss The Glass Alliance – Provider of Container Glass Solutions while Jane Muncke, Manag-

ing Director of the Food Packaging Forum, will talk about Food Packaging and Health: A Science and Policy Update.

Marguerite Morrin, Senior Director, Chlor-alkali/Soda Ash at IHS Global, will give a paper titled Global Soda Ash Outlook with a focus on Europe, while Stephane Leroux, of the European Federation of Glass Recyclers will also speak.

Companies who have also confirmed they will participate include Siemens, Heye-International, BDF and Pneumofore.

More information at www.glassmanevents.com

Ferro Corporation has bought laser-marking company TherMark for $5.5 million.

TherMark is Ferro’s largest partner in the marketing of laser marking materials.

TherMark’s technology uses lasers to fuse marking materials to ceramics, glass and other hard surfaces.

The process creates highcontrast, high-resolution marks for purposes of decoration and identification.

Gerresheimer achieves all targets in 2014

Gerresheimer brought its Financial Year (FY) 2014 to a successful close, boosting revenues by 1.9% and achieving all its financial targets despite a curb in sales for glass pharmaceutical packaging.

The company is also set to do well in 2015, benefitting from global megatrends in the pharmaceutical industry.

Revenues for FY2014 were boosted by 1.9% to €1,290.0M. The company achieved this increase largely with plastic pharmaceutical packaging as well as products for the administration of medicines, such as insulin pens, asthma inhalers and pre-fillable syringes.

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

www.glass-international.com

Owens Illinois (O-I) has acquired Bennu Glass and its wine bottle plant in Kalama, Washington.

The plant primarily produces wine bottles, as well as 22oz beer bottles. “The acquisition enhances O-I’s capabilities in the growing wine market on the West Coast and the impor-

Ferro buys laser-marking company for $5.5m

3 Glass International March 2015

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International News

Stölzle has developed an illuminated limited edition 1.75L bottle for Ciroc Ignite, predominantly aimed at night clubs.

Ciroc Ignite incorporates an LED light which is attached to the base for maximum impact in night clubs.

It enhances the luxury cues of the bottle and further increases Ciroc’s visibility.

The illuminating effect comes from a spray coat with fluorescent lacquers.

It was launched in October 2014, exclusively for the UK market.

Stölzle Flaconnage, the British production site of the Stölzle Glass Group, carries out both production and

decoration of Ciroc bottles.

Stölzle Glass Group has six European production sites for both custom design and standard glass containers for

Perfumery & Cosmetics, Prestige Spirits as well as Healthcare & Consumer.

The UK plant in Yorkshire mainly produces Prestige Spirits bottles and containers for the Perfumery and Personal Care markets.

It offers in-house decoration techniques such as hot foil blocking and multi-colour spraying.

Stölzle also offers sprayed metallisation, mask-spray, UV cured spraying or printing, digital printing, printing with special inks (fluorescent under UV light, phosphorescent-glowing in the dark, and colour changing), mirror inks, embossed lettering, and IPET.

Central America boosts Emhart sales Bucher Emhart Glass saw net sales rise by 12.3% in financial year 2014 to CHF389.2 million ($420 million).

Compared to the previous year its order intake rose by 3.6% to CHF367 million ($396 million).

The regional differences were considerable, with particularly lively activity in

Central and South America.

Although the business with new machinery stagnated overall, glass container manufacturers invested in the maintenance of existing installations.

This led to an expansion of the spare parts and service business which was also underpinned by the cooperation

with Owens-Illinois (O-I).

As already announced in mid-year, individual sub-projects relating to the realignment of the company will be delayed by 12 months.

Bucher Emhart Glass said this was because of the excessive workload resulting from the implementation of the cooperation with O-I.

Glassman Latin America 2015 Glassman Latin America returns to Mexico on the 22nd and 23rd September 2015, this year held at the Expo Guadalajara.

For over 25-years Glassman

has provided a dedicated platform for glass packaging and container manufacturers and suppliers to meet, do business, network and learn about latest technology and techniques.

5

22 & 23 September 2015 Expo Guadalajara, Guadalajara, Mexico

This year, the show returns to Mexico and its bustling glass industry.

If you are interested in finding out about how you can exhibit then contact one of the team now: Jeremy Fordrey: jeremyfordrey@quartzltd.com Ken Clark: kenclark@quartzltd.com

http://www.glassmanevents.com/latin-america

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

BDF secures African contract

BDF Industries has secured a Melting and Forming contract with Frigoglass of Nigeria.

Frigoglass’s Nigerian plant, Guinea Glass will once again be equipped with BDF Furnace and IS lines.

The complete rebuilding of the 210 TPD Furnace 1, the four Forehearths GTFS – including all automation control systems and new Forming lines, will be commissioned in the Spring of this year.

An additional overhaul of classes on the remaining IS lines will complete the scope of the work.

ANH Refractories changes name

ANH Refractories Company, has changed its name to HarbisonWalker International.

It made the decision following a reserach in which one of its legacy brands, HarbisonWalker, returned the highest positive awareness and perception.

Russian plant reconstruction

Russian container glass manufacturer United Glass Enterprises has invested RUS300 million ($5 million) in the reconstruction of its Luga plant furnace.

The plant, in the St Petersburg region, has doubled its production capacity to four million bottles per month and serves the wine and champagne industries.

Company CEO Fyodor Krepak said the company acquired the plant in 2003 and that a furnace reconstruction was required every eight to 10 years. The company also plans to upgrade its Borisov container glass plant with a RUS300 million investment.

Beatson Clark vist

House of Lords Deputy Chief Whip Lord Newby OBE paid a visit to the UK’s Beatson Clark in Rotherham to look at the glass manufacturer’s £12m investment programme.

www.glass-international.com

Stölzle bottle lights up UK clubs

NEWS IN BRIEF

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International News

Furnace Solutions 10

 Erik Muijsenberg of Glass Service accepting the Michael Garvey Award for the best paper at last year’s Furnace Solutions 9 conference.

The Society of Glass Technology’s annual Furnace Solutions will this year be held on the 4th of June, at Lucideon in Stoke-onTrent, preceded by a training day on the 3rd.

The 10th Furnace Solutions event (FS10) preliminary programme includes speakers such as Richard Hulme of Guardian; Joaquin de Diego Rincon of Praxair; Gerry Miller of MGM; Erik Muijsenberg of Glass Service; Alain Grangeret of AG Gas London; Mark Pudner of Glass Technology Services; Neil Simpson of Simpson Combustion and Energy; and Andries Habraken of CelSian in collaboration with Fives.

The third Training Day focuses on ‘Glass Quality: From raw materials to furnace operations.’ Speakers for that day include: Prof. John Parker; John Henderson; John Osborn; Geoff Evans; Nick Kirk; Les Gaskell and a paper by Alan Reynolds presented by Nicola Johnson.

Neil Simpson, Chair of Melting Technical Committee, advised, “This is our tenth year of Furnace Solutions so we are well ahead of schedule with several confirmed delegates to both events and many major sponsors. The Training Day originally came through the request of glass manufacturers.

This year all speakers

have a long experience in the glass industry and should be of interest to anyone involved in the glassmaking process, glass furnace designers and raw material suppliers.

For anyone wishing to attend both days it is worth noting that the discount will pay for their SGT subscription, which will enable all the benefits of membership of a Society in its 99th year!”

As in previous years, SGT FS10 will be supported by sponsors and exhibitors.

These include BOC, Calumite, DSF, Eclipse, FIC, Fives, Fosbel, Glass Technology Services, Global Combustion, IRE, PSR and Tecoglass/Zedtec in addition to the Institute of Materials (IoM), the hosts Lucideon, and of course Glass International.

The cost of attending each day is £120 + VAT with a 50% discount for Society of Glass Technology (SGT) members.

Further information on attending or sponsoring the event is available at http://www.furnacesolutions.co.uk/ or contact Christine Brown, christine@sgt.org

Arc International agrees €60 million investment plan French tableware group Arc International has agreed a €60 million investment plan from investor group Peaked Hill Partners (PHP).

PHP will provide €60 million in new capital and support the company’s turnaround.

The injection of new capital will help finance the restructuring of the

group and the modernisation of its main production site at Arques, Nord-Pas-deCalais, France.

The Ibled-Durand family, which controlled the company for more than 100 years, will invest €2 million to retain approximately 20% of the company.

The bidding agreement

provides for PHP and its investors to repurchase all existing bank debt, reducing Arc’s financial costs and providing new flexibility to manage the company in the future.

As part of the agreement, PHP has agreed to maintain production at Arc’s flagship French site in Arques.

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International News

NEWS IN BRIEF

New Chairman for DGM

Dr. Roland Langfeld of Schott has been named as the new Chairman of the DGM (German Society of Material Science).

The Schott Research Fellow will serve as head of the DGM for two years.

The designated Chairman will focus on supporting young researchers in technical and scientific disciplines, and achieving even stronger international networking between science and industry.

“I am really looking forward to the challenging task of serving as Chairman of the DGM”, noted Dr. Langfeld.

“It’s important to optimise the structures to make the organisation more international, and bundle scientific expertise more effectively than in the past, and thus make it more accessible to the industry,” he said.

GPS management change

Rolf Themann has taken over the post of General Manager of GPS Glasproduktions-Service from Wolfgang Korzak, as of 1st February 2015.

Mr Themann received his MBA at the European University in Zug and Geneva, Switzerland.

He has years of experience in the glass industry with a focus on IS machine engineering and development.

His last post was as Technical Director and Executive Director at Sklostroj, based in the Czech Republic.

www.glass-international.com

Encirc Beverages appoints new GM

Encirc Beverages has appointed John Hawkins as General Manager, to oversee operations and develop customer relations at its plant in Elton, Cheshire.

Mr Hawkins has more than 20 years’ experience in the beverages industry and joins Encirc from soft drinks manufacturer, Refresco Gerber, where he spent six years as Contract Manufacturing Director.

Vidrala in record-breaking furnace reconstruction

Spanish group Vidrala has published a video of a record-breaking glass furnace

reconstruction.

The reconstruction of a furnace at its Crisnova Vidrio

plant in the town of Caudete took place in a record time of 59 days.

Good practices in prevention and safety resulted in zero accidents.

Equipment used included 3600 tons of refractories, 200 tons of iron, 15 kilometers of electrical cable, 700 metres of conveyors and almost 30 trucks to equip the cold end.

A total of 35 international suppliers and more than 400 workers were involved.

The video is available at http://bit.ly/hornoVidrio

Reader comments Do you have any comments or observations about an article we have featured? This month, Ashok Chakrabarty, Director of DeltaPlus India, got in touch to discuss ‘The use of furnace slag in glass’, a Raw Materials feature that apppeared on p.26 of our November 2014 issue. If you would like to contribute to the discussion contact Greg Morris at gregmorris@quartzltd.com

This is in the context of the subject article that appeared in the November issue of Glass International.

Indeed it makes sense to try and use blast furnace slag in glass melting , thus addressing the issue of energy conservation (furnace consumes less fuel), as well as environmental management (reduction in usage of dolomite, feldspar etc).

However, based on my experience of slag usage in glass melting, there are some flip sides which the author has not addressed and I believe these issues are mandatory to highlight and discuss before one decides to use slag in the glass melting furnace .

The major issue I encountered was in the quality of float glass produced. The redox of the glass melt started fluctuating and eventually it affected the seed count and blisters in the final glass.

We did one simulation using the GTM model, and it was proved that using slag had indeed influenced the glass redox and it was totally out of control.

The real culprit was the sulphide content in the slag with no consistency from one batch to another. We were unable to make adjustment in the fining zone and finally we had to stop using slag, after producing a huge quantity of cullet .

My suggestion to the aspiring user of slag would be to employ the froth floatation technique and then use the refined slag, in order to get rid of the fining problem in the furnace .

We had successfully developed the floatation technique for slag.

Regards, Ashok Chakrabarty Glass Technologist

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

8 Glass International March 2015

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Company profile: Verallia France

Verallia France lights up the room Ahead of Glassman Europe in Lyon, France, Sally Roberts spoke to Verallia France’s Karim Boussabah*, to find out about the company’s operations and its latest developments in terms of bottle design.

How many plants does Verallia have in France, and where are they situated?

Verallia France has six industrial sites in France, and 14 furnaces in total. They are located all over France: in Châlon-sur-Saône, Cognac, Lagnieu, Oiry, Saint-Romain-le-Puy, and Vauxrot.

Verallia also holds 100% of the VOA company, whose industrial site is located in Albi (one plant, two furnaces) and has a decoration activity (Saga Décor) in Pont-Sainte-Maxence.

 Verallia France has developed fluorescent glass, which appears transparent in daylight and then transforms under blue light.

How many people do you employ?

Verallia France combines its manufacturing facilities with its local sales and marketing network and is operated by 1870 employees.

How many bottles does Verallia France produce annually?

Approximately 3.5 billion glass bottles and jars are manufactured by Verallia France each year.

What segments does Verallia France produce bottles for, and which is the most dominant sector?

All market segments are covered by Verallia, and the most dominant sector is wine (still, sparkling and Champagne). Verallia France offers products tailored to our customers’ requirements, spanning 50ml bottles to 15L, in more than 10 colours.

www.glass-international.com

Does Verallia France specialise in any unusual or particularly challenging bottle types?

Verallia France demonstrates expertise in complex forms and innovative customisation techniques.

As an example of its expertise, Verallia France produces the most prestigious Champagne bottles: The big bottles. During exceptional production campaigns, the Oiry plant, near Epernay manufactures 9-litre (Salmanazar), 12-litre (Balthazar) and 15-litre (Nebuchadnezzar) bottles.

This feat is primarily technical – the big bottles are manufactured in a semi-artisanal manner, with moulds that are up to 20 times larger and heavier than for a 750ml bottle. The glass composition

Continued>>

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Company profile: Verallia France

also has to be adjusted to permit a slower pace and forming under the best possible conditions.

Regarding its latest innovations, Verallia France has just developed fluorescent glass, a first in the glass industry. This appealing, ultradifferentiating glass targets the night-life segment and is designed to light up the coolest bars.

Completely transparent in daylight, surprise, surprise, the bottles suddenly turn fluorescent under blue light.

Also, last November Verallia France received a special prize [Oscar de l’emballage], for the Bling Bottle, which is the first bottle with internal embossing.

with efficient communication tools, the centre provides a space for collaborative work in real time that optimises the design-to-production time. CREATIV’LAB is based at the site of Verallia’s integrated partner, Saga Décor, in Pont Sainte Maxence, just 30 minutes from Charles de Gaulle Airport, making it even easier to develop close working relationships with our international customers.

Secondly, Verallia has recently launched Virtual Glass, a free app that enables its customers to create, customise, view in augmented reality and share their own bottle creations. Available on the Appstore, the app is convenient for customers and agencies that would like to give life to their ideas, see what will look like their projects, and share them with a lot of people in real-time.

Since 2009 Verallia France has organised an open design contest, which enables students from French design schools to show their bottles and jar projects to a panel of designers and professionals. This contest is a great opportunity for Verallia France, its clients, and the experts involved to pull ideas, detect trends and think outside the box. It is all the more interesting that winning projects are sampled in an industrialised perspective. A great bottle of the winemaker Gérard Bertrand emerged from this design contest (2013), as the prize laureate ‘Soirée à rosé’ became the foundation for its Côte des Roses range.

How involved does Verallia France get with the design process for its bottles?

Verallia France’s expertise provides effective support for customers throughout the design and industrialisation process. Firstly, Verallia has two design centres: r Research and Development Technical Centre in Châlon-sur-Saône : This engineering and design department helps customers through the creative process for their customised model. Our engineers use its computer-aided design (CAD) systems and 3D printers to work directly with our customers throughout the entire process from design to manufacturing. These services enable Verallia to shorten its time-to-market and to boost its ability to fully meet its customers’ expectations. r CREATIV’LAB (Pont Sainte Maxence) CREATIV’LAB is a creation centre that brings together experts in glassmaking and premium decoration techniques to design new glass packaging and decoration projects. Equipped

Does each plant focus on producing bottles for one particular segment, or for a variety of segments? z Karim Boussabah, Marketing Director of Verallia France.

x Verallia France manufactures a complete range of Champagne bottles, right up to 15 litre capacity.

Most of Verallia France’s bottles can be technically produced in several plants, yet favouring the plant that is the closest to its customers is one of Verallia’s commitments to sustainable development. For instance, Cognac bottles are produced in the Cognac glass plant and Burgundy wine bottles are produced in the Châlon or StRomain plants.

Our business is mainly local and proximity to our customers is key.

As France has a mature glass market, sales have been relatively steady over the last years. Some trends are to be noticed, namely, rosé wine is becoming increasingly popular amongst French and foreign customers, and, related to this, the demand for big capacities (from 1,5L to 15L) is increasing. Also, glass is becoming trendy in particular segments or niche markets, such as organic food, premium water and premium olive oil.

Continued>>

www.glass-international.com

How are the market conditions in France? Has Verallia France noticed a rise/fall in sales in recent years?

11 Glass International March 2015

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Company profile: Verallia France

How important is France to Verallia?

France is the first country in terms of activity and workforce for the Verallia group. Its headquarters are located near Paris, where Saint-Gobain is based.

What contribution does Verallia France make to the Verallia group in terms of revenue?

In 2013, Verallia achieved sales of €2.4 billion and an operating income of €266 million (excluding Verallia North America). Verallia France, as the biggest unit of the Verallia group, accounts for a lot of this result. Approximately 20% of the bottles and jars manufactured each year globally come from France.

How important is sustainable development to Verallia France?

Verallia France has turned four commitments into priority actions: r Develop solutions that create value for our customers along the product life cycle.

As an example, Verallia France has developed the ‘ECOVA’ range in 2009, a packaging that minimises the ecological footprint to the maximum (‘ECO’), while maximising the value (‘VA’) of content perceived by consumers.

Throughout the range, Verallia France confirms its commitment to sustainable development that combines the valuation of the product’s image and an eco-responsible approach.

“Verallia France has just developed fluorescent glass, a first in the glass industry... [it] is designed to light up the coolest

”

bars.

This includes reduction of environmental impact throughout the entire supply chain with a product that is 100% recyclable, and respect for traditional aesthetic and technical standards. r Reduce the environmental footprint of our sites. To illustrate this commitment, Verallia France has set up an R&D team dedicated to the industrial process, that constantly works on energy efficiency. r Contribute more to the economic and social development of the communities and be a reference of circular economy. Among many projects, Verallia France tries to increase the post consumers’ glass collection.

Responsible sourcing is also one of the cornerstones of the commitment, and so is the measurement of the local contribution where Verallia France operates. r Empower our employees to transform our commitments through daily actions. Through its Health and Safety policy, Verallia France employees get involved in the global CSR policy.

To better involve its clients, the Jars team of Verallia France has developed a training concept, ‘the Glass Schools’, to educate its clients to the specificities of our material, through site visits and presentations. r

*Marketing Director, Verallia France Verallia France website: http://fr.verallia.com/en Glassman Europe website: www.glassmanevents.com

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Iittala company profile

Sally Roberts met with Mikko Aromaa* at Finnish glass manufacturer Iittala’s factory, to learn more about the company’s recent investments and the techniques used to create the range of coloured glass for which it is famous.

F

amed for its stylish and colourful home-ware, Iittala has specialised in creating handmade glass pieces since 1881. Based in its namesake town of Iittala, Finland, the glass home-ware manufacturer has been an integral part of the Finnish design scene for more than a 100 years and exports its products all around the globe.

Production is divided between traditional glass blowing and a fully automatic process, with different colouring techniques used for each type of glass.

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Investment In 2007 the company Iittala was bought by the Fiskars Corporation. Founded in 1649 Fiskars is Finland’s oldest company, with recorded net sales of €748 million in 2012, and some 4,100 employees in more than 20 countries. This year, the company consolidated the group’s two existing glass manufacturing plants into its site at Iittala. The expansion of the factory to incorporate this, along with the new batch house, is the largest production investment Fiskars has made in several decades, each costing several million euros.

With the investments completed just this summer, the enlarged working area and annealing ovens for mouth-blown glass in the refitted factory have been designed in collaboration with the glassblowers and a new space for the melting furnaces has been added. The new sand warehouse and the plant’s fully automated batch house have been integrated into the manufacturing process to add flexibility to the factory’s processes and speedup reaction times.

As part of the extension a viewing deck was also built, which allows visitors to observe the glassblowers at work as they craft the individual pieces destined for sale either at home or abroad.

“It’s a Finnish brand but it’s worldwide”, notes Mikko. “We have sales in Asia, some in Europe and some in North America and the Americas”.

Has the hand-blown design company noticed the same growing demand in Asia as the rest of the glass manufacturing industry, or is the decorative home-ware market still to reach Asia’s expanding

Finland’s 50 shades of grey “

The red colour we make is tricky, because you have to form the ingredients that we use so that it’s clear, then during the cooling process the colour is formed - and that’s what we do the best in the world. It’s a trade secret.

”

middle class? “Asia is a growing market,” notes Mikko. “If we talk about Fiskars, they recently purchased Royal Copenhagen, and that’s really big in Asia. We have several stores in Asia and Iittala glass is popular there”.

Batch vs forehearth The factory has two furnaces, one for mouthblown/semi-automatic glass and one for the fully automated line. For the hand-made pieces the colouring is done by pot furnace, as Mikko explains: “It is all clear glass in the furnace, then the guys start forming the piece. Then we have batch furnaces to add the colour”. When the piece has slightly cooled it is dipped in the batch furnace to obtain the colour, which sits on top of the clear glass. “As it cools you can see the colour develop. Because it’s not fully coloured, the colours for handmade pieces have to be a little bit more intense, a bit deeper, because it’s just a thin layer”.

The glass is then blown into the mould, another layer of clear glass is applied, and then the finishing mould is used before the piece is finally cooled.

For the fully automatic pieces, Iittala uses forehearth colouring using a furnace that holds around 40 tonnes of molten glass at 1450˚C. This is then cooled to 1200˚C for the colouring process: “We have the clear glass and in the Continued>>

14 Glass International March 2015

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Iittala company profile

Colour As well as this, it is during the cooling that much of the chemistry occurs and many of the colours develop to show their final hue. As Mikko explains, some colours are easier to achieve than others: “The red colour we make is tricky, because you have to form the ingredients that we use so that it’s clear, then during the cooling process the colour is formed – and that is what we do the best in the world. It’s a trade secret. We’ve been working on this for ages. The window where we can make it is really narrow, so we do several tricks with the cooling process to form the best red colour. The components are a little bit more expensive than regular raw materials, and we do the red glass for all our shapes”.

Perhaps the most striking aspect of Iittala’s designs is the varied range of coloured glass it offers, with various shades of colours available in each design. “For example, we have millions of different shades of blue, 50 shades of grey… We can produce all the colours in the world” explains Mikko. “Some of the colours are in production, some are not, but we have the recipe for all of them. We try to have something new all the time, so at the moment we are developing a couple of new colours for next year”.

And how does the company decide which colours to produce? “We have an artistic director, and his team follow what the trends are, and then they have a pantone map, and say ‘we want this’.

And then we [the chemists] make it happen”.

Other factors are also taken into account when deciding on new colours to develop, in terms of technicality and finance: “We discuss what could be manufactured; what is too expensive to manufacture; what’s technically possible. Also, another factor is that we use a company that supplies the chemicals to us – we want something, and they give us options. They send us samples and we see what their components look like in the glass”.

Chemistry and know-how The exact chemistry behind the range of colours is a closely guarded secret, but in general the colours are all attained by the standard formula of mixing the clear glass produced with around 1-2% metal oxides: “We have some colours where

 The journey of an Alto vase, from mould to final finish (pictured left), in the distinctive red that Iittala prides itself on. Blown as clear glass and cooled to red, the chemistry behind the colour is a closely guarded secret.

it’s even 0.2% and some colours that have 3% or so; it depends on the colour and the intensity of the irons that are in the ingredients”.

It also depends on how the chemicals behave within the specific glass mass: “Each and every glass factory has its own glass mass – so what works here might not work somewhere else.

It’s chemistry. There are some components that always react with others, for example cobalt blue: If you add cobalt, then the glass will be blue”. But then, conversely, there are colours such as the trademark red colour: “It’s not easy but we know how to make it, it’s our know-how”, notes Mikko.

“However, if you take the same recipe to another factory with their glass, because it’s so much to do with chemistry and physics, it may not work and [the glass] will remain clear. The colours that need the chemistry and need the tricks and reduction, oxidisation, those are the tricky ones”. Shrugging, Mikko concludes with a smile: “Some colours are tricky, some are not.”

Tricky or not, with the recent investments

by Fiskars the glass manufacturer has obviously weathered the recent financial recession and is set to continue to promote Finnish design throughout the world. “Fiskars invests a lot in our brand”, agrees Mikko. “We want to continue to produce the pieces here, and be famous for Finnish handcraft”. r

*Glass Chemist, Iittala, FiskarsHome.

Iittala, Finland www.iittala.com Continued>>

www.glass-international.com

channel where it comes out of the furnace we mix metal oxides and other substances into the clear glass, and stir it in.”

Following this, as with the handmade pieces, the glass is sent through a cooling furnace, a crucial factor in both the structural and aesthetic properties of the pieces: “The cooling is to remove the tension; depending on the thickness of the product it can take a couple of hours or several days. If it weighs 10 kilos it takes a really long time to cool down”.

15 Glass International March 2015

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Iittala company profile

We spoke with Per-Henrik Hagberg, Director of Glass and Ceramics Factories for Fiskars Home, the parent company of Iittala, to find out a bit more: How much did the recent investments at Iittala cost in total?

The new investments have been very significant in size, worth millions of euros, and we prepare to continue future investments to the Iittala site.

What is Iittala’s largest export region?

Iittala is one of the three international brands of Fiskars group, which is a global consumer designed goods company. Iittala operates in the global market through its own sales office network, and key areas for us are Scandinavia, Central Europe, and Asia.

What is Iittala’s best-selling piece?

Iitttala was established in 1881, and in our current portfolio we have classics that date back to the 1930’s. Over the years the Alvar Aalto vase [from this period] has become one of the most iconic pieces of Finnish glass design.

Our other classics and most popular items are, for example, ceramic Teema tableware by Kaj Franck in 1952 and the Kastehelmi glass item range by Oiva Toikka, from the 60’s.

We do have modern classics as well that are well received by the international audience, such as Taika tableware by Klaus Haapaniemi/ Heikki Orvola. Iittala’s electronic glass lamps, for example, have been popular with consumers. r

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Glass recycling

Glass recycling in Mexico V

200

itro is a Mexican glass manufacturer with more than 100 years experience.

Founded in 1909 in the city of Monterrey, Mexico, Vitro has subsidiaries across the Americas and offers products and services to meet the needs of two businesses: Glass containers and flat glass.

The Vitro companies produce, process, distribute and market glass articles that are part of the daily life of thousands of people.

Vitro offers solutions for the food, beverage, wine, liquor, beer, cosmetic and pharmaceutical markets, as well as architectural and automotive. The company is also a supplier of raw material, machinery and equipment for industrial use.

Sustainability model As a socially responsible organisation, Vitro works on several initiatives aligned to its Sustainability Model. The company aims to create a positive influence in the economic, social and environmental aspects relevant to its stakeholders, in a responsible corporate management framework. Vitro contributes towards sustainable development as glass is 100% recyclable and can be fully reintegrated to its own industrial process.

The company is committed to continuing its flat and container glass recycling programmes, which represent the most important logistical effort of its kind in Mexico. Since these products do not share the same chemical composition, they must be collected and

181,438

192,506

191,373

112,334

113,128

80,172

78,609

2011

2012

182,552

150

152,133 126,535

65,190

50

100

109.022

0

43,832 2006

119,604 90,008

65,590

112,334

61,330

60,945

58,274

2007

2008

62,125

2009

Flat glass Containers Total

z Fig1. Levels of glass recycled by Vitro in Mexico.

80,172

2010

91,680 90,872

2013

sorted by type and colour.

“In 2013 we recycled 91,680 tons of glass containers, approximately 229 million pieces. This figure represents savings of 116,413 gigajoules, enough energy to light a fluorescent bulb for more than 186,923 years,” said José María Castellanos Arriaga, Recycling Manager at Vitro.

Vitro understands that recycling is an activity that requires the active participation of different stakeholders, therefore it has strengthened and created recycling alliances with educational institutions, hospitals, non-profit organisations, customers, municipalities and commercial establishments.

The company implements its container glass recycling campaigns with these groups through the programme ‘Embracing a More Transparent World’.

Vitro’s collection centres recover and reprocess glass containers, thus enabling the company to take responsibility for its products and contribute to the welfare of communities by generating direct economic benefits to the participating groups and fostering a culture of conservation and environmental friendliness.

Continued>>

www.glass-international.com

Itzel Villareal Maldonado* outlines Vitro’s sustainability strategy and how the Mexican manufacturer is leading the way with recycling in the country.

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Glass recycling

z Vitro operates a number of recyling schemes throughout Mexico and, thanks to its help, the amount of glass recycled in the country has steadily increased.

“Through this programme, Vitro has benefited more than 18,000 students, 66 non-profit organisations, five health institutions and 27 municipalities with more than two million inhabitants,” explained Castellanos Arriaga.

In 2011, ‘Embracing a More Transparent World’ was recognised as one of the Best Practices in Corporate Social Responsibility by the Centro Mexicano para la Filantropía (Cemefi) for the project’s consolidation of environmental and social benefits.

The recycling programme is divided into four geographical regions, each one with a recycling centre established and managed by a promoter. Recycling trends differ among these regions, according to their economic activities and particularities.

www.glass-international.com

Western region This region includes the states of Aguascalientes, Baja California Sur, Colima, Jalisco, Nayarit, Sonora, Sinaloa and Zacatecas.

The state with the greatest tonnage collection in this area is Jalisco as a consequence of the presence of the recycling plant located in Guadalajara, and due to the promotion of glass recycling in industries such as tequila.

The western area collects glass from areas such as schools, neighborhoods, municipalities, bars, restaurants, hotels, bottling companies, and recyclers, who are the main allies. As a result of their constant participation, the recorded volume of collected glass bottles has remained stable over the last three years.

“Our work as promoters is to establish a constant communication with suppliers and constantly search for new organisations interested in contributing

to glass recycling,” stated Carlos Saldaña Romero, Recycling Promoter in the western region.

The trends in the region show there is an increased desire from municipalities to recycle. It is clear that society is demanding it, stimulating cooperation between the private sector and authorities.

Within Vitro’s recycling strategy, the company provides society with information related to the characteristics and benefits of glass, for purposes of promoting its properties.

“We develop action plans to promote recycling in the area and increase the amount of retrieved glass. As a company that aims for the sustainable development of its communities, we will continue to focus our efforts on consolidating a glass recycling culture and involving more participants in the western area of Mexico,” concluded Saldaña Romero.

number of participants has expanded each year to today’s total of 168 suppliers.

As well as support from schools, businesses, government agencies, civil and private organisations, there are now more hotels, bars and restaurants identified. As a result of ensuring that empty containers are recycled, Vitro has helped to prevent the distribution of tampered drinks which jeopardise the health of consumers.

In 2009, Vitro and Fundación de Investigaciones Sociales, A.C. (FISAC) joined forces to tackle these matters as well as promote responsible consumption.

“We will continue working with the authorities and the community to succeed in the areas of opportunity. Our goal is to spread the recycling culture in all of our daily activities, to deliver a more transparent world to future generations,” said Velázquez Melo.

South-central region

Bajío region

“We, the glass recycling promoters, have the privilege of increasing recycling through the development of suppliers and by actively participating in the creation and application of new programmes in each one of Mexico’s different geographical zones,” explained Rubén Velázquez Melo, Recycling Promoter in the south-central region.

The south-central zone concentrates the activities of 12 states of Mexico, including Distrito Federal, Estado de México, Puebla, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Morelos, Oaxaca, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Yucatan, Campeche and Tabasco.

The ‘Embracing a More Transparent World’ programme began collecting cullet in the region in 2005, in partnership with educational institutions from Distrito Federal and Estado de México. The

One of the main responsibilities of glass recycling promoters is to encourage the recovery of glass containers at the end of their lifespan.

This can be done through direct purchase at solid waste disposal sites and/or through recovery projects with customers, authorities and civil society organisations.

The Bajío region includes the states of Guanajuato, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Michoacán, Querétaro and San Luis Potosí. Vitro began promoting the glass recycling culture in the community 34 years ago, although most of the collection was carried out through the collectors in the area.

Continued>>

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Glass recycling

It wasn’t until 1992 that the first formal project with the authorities in the state of Querétaro was born. The Basic Education Service Unit was interested in promoting an environmental care culture by recycling glass in the state and promoting the benefits that it offers.

Today, collections are on the rise due to other participants in the community. Society is outstanding in its commitment to glass recycling, and the economic conditions of the region and environmental awareness have benefitted from the return of this material.

In four years the collection has almost tripled from 8,000 tons in 2009 to 22,000 tons in 2013. The vast majority of collected glass for recycling is recovered at the final disposal sites, and comes from discarded household waste.

“This leads to a problem, because some of these glass providers lack the documentation declaring them as formal taxpayers.

Authorisation from the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit for first hand purchases has enabled us to buy recycled glass from them,” said Rubén Nieves Pérez, Recycling Promoter for the Bajío region.

“Our efforts are ongoing, and we will continue to seek alternatives to work jointly with the authorities so that they grant the recycling programmes the importance they deserve, as well as to convince them of the benefits to society and the environment,” concluded Nieves Pérez.

Northern region Glass containers have been recycled by Vitro in this zone since 1993. It includes the states of Chihuahua, Durango, Coahuila, Tamaulipas, Nuevo León and parts of San Luis Potosí and Zacatecas. Compared to other regions the groups that participate in the programme are more diversified.

For example, four hospitals in Monterrey have joined with Vitro to recycle seven tons of glass containers in 2013.

Neighbourhood associations have also contributed, with the participation of 1,418 households. Even though their participation is not the largest of the region, they have consistently collected glass.

“Enhancing a recycling culture in the community has not only helped us diminish the environmental impact of our products, it has given us the opportunity to innovate our approach to reach new potential recyclers and change our paradigms of who should participate and how,” said Pascual González Moreno, Recycling Promoter in the northern region.

Vitro has established partnerships with different government departments to prevent glass from domestic consumption going to landfill. In the state of Nuevo León it has a close relationship with the solid waste separation plant, Simeprode.

“Bottling companies are an active stakeholder of the programme, they have understood that being part of a value chain means sharing and embracing the responsibility of their products. Collaboration among different sectors and industries is the best way to achieve it,” concluded González Moreno.

As with the western zone, the long distances between the region’s states can increase the cost of recycling. Nevertheless, Vitro works every day to overcome this challenge, and to continue to improve glass recycling in the northern states of Mexico. 

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Glass recycling

Glass beads from cullet The Allglass bead manufacturing plant in Scotland

Fig 1. Glass beads magnified by 20:1.

Fig 2. Glass beads are used in road markings, to help reflect light to drivers.

Geoff Crutchley* discusses the manufacture and use of glass beads. Made from recycled cullet from both the container and flat glass industries, it is used in a variety of applications, including road markings.

www.glass-international.com

J

ust over 100 years ago, technicians were working on an experiment when they found a glass bead in the residual ash. This was not the intended result of their work, but they started to think about how making a glass bead in this way could be useful. The technology to create glass beads at that time was similar to the manufacturing process used to make lead shot, where molten material was sprayed into droplet form and rapidly cooled using water. The technicians found that a grain of glass had been misplaced in the heating medium they were using, which then transformed itself from a granular form into a globular, near spherical shape.

This inspired an idea as to how grains could be made into beads and how those glass beads could be used. Today hundreds of thousands of tonnes of glass beads are used worldwide each year (Fig 1). The vast majority of glass beads are used in the road marking industry, within and on the surface of the thermoplastics and paints that make up the lines on the roads (Fig 2).

Others are used for blasting processes on metals to give them the finish and surface characteristics necessary for some items. Such metal products include aeroplane engine turbine blades, and further examples of the potential of glass

beads can be found in their use as fillers in plastic components and flooring.

Glass beads are used in the white lines on roads as a reflective medium, where they use their spherical shape to absorb the beams of light from motor vehicle headlights and reflect some of the light back to the driver. All drivers will appreciate the difference between the best and worst in road marking lines: Once the lines and beads wear away, the lines tend to disappear. The beads act like small cats eyes within the line and the bead sizes are generally within 100 and 800 microns, 0.1 to 0.8mm.

The manufacturing process It was the use of a grain of glass that was intriguing: Something new could now be achieved by furnacing sized glass grains to produce sized beads. It also created the need to process glass to its granular form, and this allowed the use of reprocessed and recycled glass to generate the beads.

Recycled glass beads are manufactured using special gas furnaces where a stream of burning gas is drawn upward through a steel tube approximately one metre in diameter by five metres in length.

The sized glass grains are then fed in around the circumference at the lower end of the tube. These grains, after initially falling for a small distance, are

swept away in the burning gas stream during which they reach melting point.

Here, they transform themselves into a stress free spherical shape.

As they travel upwards they reach a cooler part of the process within the uptake of the furnace, thus reducing their temperature and solidifying as spherical glass beads. Depending on the size of the glass grains, the time in the burning gas stream is between 0.3 and 1 second.

Cullet The technicians had discovered that the feedstock to manufacture glass beads could now come from the recycled glass market. Once the material was cleaned and processed, beads could be made from lower valued materials and required relatively less energy to be produced.

Within the UK today around 50,000 tonnes of recycled glass are used to manufacture beads for the UK, European and worldwide markets.

The glass used in glass bead manufacture is flint, the majority being flat glass from the glazing industry and container glass from the drinks industry.

This clear cullet is collected, sorted and processed by cullet merchants (Figs 3 and 4).

Continued>>

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Glass recycling

Processing The recycling process removes the majority of contamination prior to the cullet becoming feedstock for the bead manufacturing process. The contaminants include other materials found within double glazing units, plastics and rubbers, as well as paper and glue from the unfilled containers.

Over the years there have been many developments in cullet processing, the use of colour sorting and specialised systems for the removal of metal and plastic. This has led to great improvements in the quality of materials available for users of recycled cullet.

The glass bead market itself requires low levels of contamination so that its products reach the levels required within the various standards for both highway beads and industrial beads. Testing is completed at all stages by Allglass from the receiving of feedstock materials to the dispatch of finished glass beads to its many customers.

Companies are now using equipment such as XRF analysers for testing for the presence of heavy metals, which include lead, antimony and arsenic. They also require the minimum presence of carbon-based products, plastics and papers, which affect the cosmetic appearance of the beads, particularly when used in white road markings and light-coloured plastics and floor coverings.

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Figs 3 and 4: Glass beads are made from container glass cullet (left) and cullet from the flat glass industry.

The glass bead has come a long way in the last 100 years and the rewards include improved road safety and the processing of waste glass that could well have finished up in landfill.

The Allglass plant at Linwood, Scotland is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year. It started as a cullet re-processor and went on to add value to the glass grains by converting them into beads.It has now grown to become the largest supplier of highway glass beads to road lining material manufacturers in the UK. To ensure that it completes its own recycling, Allglass has been working with Glass Technology Services and the support of Zero-Waste Scotland to use all its own fine waste glass within new products. These products include a alternative feedstock material that can be used by glass container and glass fibre manufacturing companies within the UK. This material has been developed so that it can be handled through mechanical handling plants and will require less energy to process into a molten state. This will stop fine glass material going to landfill, and also reduce CO2 emissions within the UK.

* Commercial Manager Allglass Reprocessors (UK) www.allglass.org.uk

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Glass recycling

Glass recycling: Seeing a value in South Africa’s glass

 Shabeer Jhetam, CEO

The Glass Recycling Company

of The Glass Recycling Company with waste glass

The Glass Recycling Company is South Africa’s national organisation facilitating the recovery of waste glass for recycling. In the eight years that the company has been operating, it has increased the South African national glass recycling rate from 18% to 40.6%.

T

he Glass Recycling Company (TGRC) was established following a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Department of Environmental Affairs in 2005. The company’s strategic objectives focus on the promotion of glass recycling and refillable bottles; entrepreneur development and job creation; capacity building; and the development of synergies with all levels of government and industry bodies. It is a voluntary industry initiative supported by 22 shareholders, including South Africa’s glass packaging manufacturers Nampak and Consol, and the majority of food and beverage brand owners who package their products in glass. TGRC is funded exclusively by the voluntary levies paid by the brand owners for each ton of glass purchased from the glass manufacturers.

The shareholders support this initiative in line with the Extended Producer Responsibility agreement. As part of this, the glass manufacturers have made a commitment to buy back all cullet or

waste glass that is collected for recycling.

South African market overview South Africa does not currently have punitive legislation in place that makes separation of recyclables at source (homes, offices, restaurants or bars) mandatory.

Due to this, it is the responsibility of organisations such as TGRC to make the process of recycling as simple as possible and to assist the manufacturers in the retrieval of cullet for processing. TGRC does so in two ways: r The development of ‘buy-back centres’ where collectors of glass can sell the glass that they retrieve. The glass is then ultimately purchased by the glass manufacturers. r Through the placement of glass banks as shopping centres, schools, garages and other public spaces for the recycling of post-consumer glass.

TGRC’s efforts are further strengthened by marketing and communications to raise

TGRC’s focus is to develop and increase the glass recycling rate in South Africa through the education of our youth, nurturing a recycling habit among all South Africans through effective communication; and establishing a solid national glass collection infrastructure.

While TGRC does not physically recycle the glass, the company strives to ensure that as much glass as possible is diverted from landfill.

awareness of glass recycling, including television advertising, social media, billboards and streetpole adverts. TGRC faces a high level of apathy from the higher income groups regarding the importance of recycling, and this has become a focus of TGRC for 2015: To ensure this group also sees the value of glass.

The placement of glass banks is one of TGRC’s objectives in terms of capacity building and infrastructure development.

As South Africans become increasingly environmentally conscious the demand for glass banks has increased. TGRC now has almost 3,000 glass banks located nationally which makes it easier for the public to recycle its glass.

Entrepreneurship In many developing countries an informal ‘collector market’ has evolved, whereby recyclables are collected by individuals to generate an informal source of income.

This includes individuals who both Continued>>

www.glass-international.com

for recycling.

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Glass recycling

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Environmental benefits As glass can be infinitely recycled without ever losing its clarity or purity, bottles and jars manufactured in South Africa contain at least 40% recycled content. In South Africa particularly, glass fully meets the formal definition of a ‘closed loop system’ whereby material is recycled into the same product (i.e. a bottle becomes a new bottle or jar).

All packaging glass recovered in South Africa goes back into making new glass bottles and jars, and as a result the maximum environmental benefits are achieved. In the UK, for example, less than one third of recycled glass packaging is used to manufacture new containers, and thus the full impact of the environmental benefits from bottleto-bottle recycling are not realised.

Recycling glass has huge environmental benefits: It saves landfill space and raw materials, lessens demand for energy and reduces CO2 emissions.

Consol Glass and Nampak Glass have both invested in the development of high level cullet processing plants.

45% 40%

39.5%

40.1%

40.6%

35%

35% * Glass recycling rate %

collectively or independently retrieve recyclables from home or business waste and sell to the buy-back centres.

A high proportion of the glass recycled in South Africa is collected through this stream: Based on independent research, approximately 50,000 South Africans earn an informal source of income through this method.

The TGRC team continually endeavours to establish these entrepreneurs throughout the country.

TGRC offers business advice and assistance, as well as glass collection infrastructure such as large volume bags, gloves, goggles and scales, to new entrepreneurs. Once established, these drop-off facilities give glass collectors a place where they can sell their glass.

The brand aims to encourage young consumers to ‘recover, reuse and recycle’.

It is vital to build enthusiasm among youths regarding recycling, and TGRC hosts a recycling competition for schools annually. Since the competition’s inception in 2012 large volumes of glass have been collected. Schools with the highest collection volumes receive monthly and annual prizes, and will receive a financial donation for their efforts to encourage recycling. TGRC also supplies curriculum compliant material to enable educators to facilitate a holistic approach to glass recycling.

30% 25% 20%

24% 18%

26%

21%

15% 10% 5% 0%

Before The Glass Recycling Co.

Since The Glass Recycling Co.

* Glass Recycling rate for all glass packaging (includes food and beverage)

z Glass recycling rate in SA.

80%

is saved from entering landfill by recycling, as well as using returnable bottles which are refilled

20%

2.1 million tons of returnable glass

of glass lands up in landfill glass that doesn’t enter landfill glass that enters landfill

3 Million tons of glass packaging used in South Africa each year

Only 660k tons ends up in landfill (dumpsites)

Returnable bottles are continually used and when they reach the end of their useful life they are recycled. South Africa has one of the most sophisticated glass bottle return systems in the world. In comparison to other packaging, South African glass has the highest diversion rate from landfill, and can compare with the best in the world.

z Glass packaging prevented from entering landfills in SA. These include the presence of advanced technology, meaning that consumers do not need to sort glass into colours (amber, green or flint) as this is done at the processing plants by machine. This indicates their commitment to making recycling simple, to encourage recycling in South Africa.

Returnable system South Africans prevent even more glass from going to landfill by bringing returnable bottles back to the store where bottles were bought from. South Africa has one of the most sophisticated returnable systems in the world, spearheaded by its beer, wine and spirit manufacturers. These returnable bottles

are sent back to the manufacturers to be sterilised, inspected and refilled.

Returnable bottles include large beer bottles such as beer quart bottles, glass soft drink bottles and many spirit and liquor bottles.

A remarkable fact is that 80% of all glass packaging used in South Africa annually is prevented from entering landfill due to the dual efforts of recycling and the use of returnable/refillable bottles. Glass is the packaging type that is most diverted from landfill in our country. r

*The Glass Recycling Company Johannesburg, South Africa www.tgrc.co.za info@theglassrecyclingcompany.co.za

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Glass recycling

z Viridor’s Sheffield technology driven recycling plant.

Giving new life to old resources “Y

ou can tell there’s an election fast approaching,” I was told at a conference last week, “when the politicians point to you as an example of good practice.” Well, maybe.

But the recognition is long overdue.

DEFRA’s recent report ‘Resource Management: A catalyst for growth and productivity’ pointed to the UK resource sector as a beacon of success, contributing £6.8bn of gross value added (GVA) to the British economy annually, supporting 103,000 jobs. Resources Minister, Dan Rogerson, acknowledged that “using our rescources more carefully is not only good for the environment, it’s also vital to build a stronger economy.”

Of course, giving resources new life is nothing new to the European glass sector.

The last decade has witnessed a paradigm shift from ‘waste’ to resource, with glass as an early recycling pioneer.

Indeed, many of the first commercial recycling collections in Britain were for container glass. But while glass has remained a steadfast contributor to Britain’s recycling performance, what has changed, fundamentally, is the front and back end applications and the requirements of an ever-evolving sector.

Cultural shift As far back as the 1800s consumers were faithfully returning container glass bottles to manufacturers ready

for re-use. More recently, in addition to deposit-return, consumers were faithfully recycling in colour separated bottle banks in supermarket car parks from Cardiff to Carlisle. However, the triple-whammy of austerity, reduced streetscape and the requirement to roll-out glass recycling to household front doors led, inevitably, to a focus on volume, not value.

The shift to the commingling of glass, either in terms of mixed colours or mixed recycling, has presented fresh challenges for recyclers focused on meeting the increasingly stringent quality specifications of manufacturers such as the Scotch whisky sector.

Continued>>

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Herman Van Der Meij* discusses a major investment for the Scottish glass recycling industry, and how the plant will help drive the UK’s circular economy.

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Glass recycling

z Fig 1: Quality is achieved through various inspection methods and next generation recycling technology.

That cultural shift in collections has necessitated new investment in technology to combat contamination (Figs 1 and 2). More than that however, innovation has allowed glass to shine as a clear example of circularity, with Scotch whisky being a great example.

www.glass-international.com

£25 million Scotch investment This spring will see the environmental credentials of Scotland’s largest export take a huge step forward. Viridor’s latest glass hub – a £25m investment in the UK’s most advanced glass recycling centre at Lanarkshire, Scotland will open its doors, team-tagging with sister-plant capabilities in Sheffield.

The facility, next to the M8 motorway, will be one of the most advanced glass recycling plants in Europe, capable of recycling 200,000 tonnes of glass per year – 150% of all glass packaging currently collected in Scotland.

The Newhouse recycling centre will help drive Scotland’s circular economy, reduce reliance on imported materials for whisky and beverage bottles, and ensure 100% of Scottish packaging glass is fit for use by the Scotch whisky and drinks sectors.

Recycling glass from 17 Scottish local authorities, the facility will recover up to 97% of input materials, importantly achieving up to 99% product purity, exceeding the quality requirements for a Scotch sector focused on high-end product packaging.

Featuring advanced recycling technology from across the globe, the centre will encompass some 15 ‘scientific eye’ optical sorters, x-ray sorters, over ½ km of conveyer belts and 2.5km of electrical cabling across three floors of processing towers.

The latest investment, an example of investment being undertaken across Europe, fundamentally shifts the nature

z Fig 2: Onsite laboratories ensure product purity.

PRN A Packaging Recovery Note is a document that provides evidence waste packaging material has been recycled into a new product.

Packaging Recovery Notes can be issued by accredited reprocessors when they have recovered and recycled a tonne of packaging material.

The accredited reprocessor can sell the Packaging Recovery Note to obligated companies or Compliance Schemes who use the Packaging Recovery Note to prove that a tonne of packaging material has been recycled on their behalf, or their members behalf.

of glass recycling, offering the ability to colour-sort mixed glass back to original streams for a high quality cullet, rejecting material contamination.

The investment, part of a £1.5bn UK programme by Viridor, is big news for Britain’s recycling sector. Zero Waste Scotland Director, Iain Gulland, welcomed what he saw as a “major strategic investment in the Newhouse plant by Viridor, which will bring ‘bestin-class’ recycling technology to Scotland, helping create jobs directly and further down the supply chain.”

He added: “This new investment will help capitalise on the unique opportunity we have here in Scotland for a vibrant, world-leading glass reprocessing industry worth millions to our economy.”

It’s this technology that will, for the first time, offer sustainability to solutions to Scotland’s largest export sector.

In a market where premium products command premium prices, container quality can’t be compromised. The

investment was viewed as a game-changer by the Scotch Whisky Association who noted its sector’s commitment to environmental sustainability.

“By 2020”, an Association spokesman said, “distillers are committed to 40% of their product packaging being made from recycled materials.

“Glass accounts for the vast majority of the packaging of Scotch and we welcome supply chain innovation which advances glass recycling.”

Looking to the future The success of the sector is, however, increasingly being compromised by a double whammy of austerity and a prolonged decline in the value of commodities on global markets.

This is a threat to sustaining the progress made to date and the achievement of 2020 sector targets. Now is therefore the right time to reassess the opportunities and economics of a circular economy. Put simply, we need a new economic realism.

In addition to going back to the future on front-end inputs coupled with investment, we need to join up the value chain and create an economic model that encourages the next wave of investment in recycling technologies.

Britain’s PRN system [Packaging Recovery Note, see box], designed to hasten investment in infrastructure such as Newhouse (not funded through PRN), is today holding it back.

So, with an election fast approaching and opportunities to influence the economic debate, let’s look to celebrate our success, but focus on making the supply chain quality focused and sustainable. Let’s drink to that. Cheers. r

*Director, Viridor Resource Management Strathclyde, Scotland www.viridor.co.uk

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Your success is our focus.

SORG keeps an eye on your processes from raw material delivery through glass conditioning systems. We offer planned maintenance as well as rapid reaction services should they ever be necessary.

Whatever it takes to ensure your success.

www.sorg.de

Glass recycling

Rescuing Holland’s waste sheet glass

www.glass-international.com

What is the aim of Vlakglas Recycling Nederland?

Our mission and aim is to collect as much sheet glass waste as possible in the Netherlands, in order to have it recycled back into the glass industry.

We support the cradle to cradle (C2C) philosophy, and therefore another aim of Vlakglas Recycling Nederland (VRN) is to ensure that 20% of our collected waste sheet glass will be used in sheet glass production. In 2013 the destination of the collected waste sheet glass was as follows: r Sheet glass industry - 13% r Insulation products - 32% r Packaging glass industry - 55%

When was the company founded?

was collected in Holland – however, the collected cullet was mainly production waste (the clean glass streams).

The combination glass (a mix of all types of sheet glass) was normally dumped in landfill along with other waste. This caused high costs. The founders of VRN wanted to reduce collection and recycling costs by using our collection system.

On Table 1 you can see the total glass cullet collected over the last 10 years. We do not have exact figures for how much glass still ends up as landfill, but if you compare the total collected in 2003 and the total collected in the following years, there was a growth in the amount of glass collected for recycling.

VRN is a non- profit foundation founded in 2002.

Who were the founding members of VRN?

How did the idea for VRN come about?

Vlakglas Recycling Nederland was founded in 2002 by the Dutch double-glazing industry, sheet glass manufacturers, glaziers and glass trading

Before VRN’s foundation, waste sheet glass

Vlakglas Recycling Nederland is an initiative originally launched by Dutch sheet glass manufacturers.

Today, this non-profit organisation has evolved to coordinate all the activities associated with recycling and collecting waste sheet glass throughout the Netherlands. Glass International spoke to Cor Wittekoek* about the initiative, and how the company has vastly improved the rate of sheet glass recycling in Holland.

companies united in the GBO (Glass Branch Organisation), to meet their responsibilities as producers of sheet glass.

The GBO is still involved today, as one of the board members. Our system is a voluntary system and is unique in Europe.

How is the company structured?

There are currently six people employed

by VRN. The most important work is the organisation and maintenance of the collection network, providing information about sheet-glass recycling and ensuring receipt of any income that is due.

Operational responsibility is in the hands of the VRN’s Managing Director, with the board having overall final responsibility. VRN now has three board members, who meet three or four times a year to discuss the progress of on-going activities and future policies with the Continued>>

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Glass recycling

z VRN provides collection containers for companies working at demolition sites, as well as providing free-to-use sheet glass collection points (above left and centre).

The cullet is then recycled back into the glass manufacturing process (above right), predominantly into container glass factories.

Year Total tons collected

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

74.821

85.590

89.151

86.000

82.490

73.460

74.044

65.662

61.067

54.572

37.830

Managing Director.

Vlakglas Recycling Nederland is a fully independent foundation and does not receive any funds from the government.

Are you present throughout the whole of Holland?

Yes, we are. We have collection points throughout the whole of Holland to ensure the collection of sheet glass from across the country.

What type of glass do you collect for recycling?

We only collect sheet glass for recycling.

VRN works with three types of sheet glass: Float glass, laminated glass and combination glass.

Combination glass is a mixture of all kinds of sheet glass: Float glass; insulated glass; wired glass; silvered glass; toughened glass; horticultural glass and coated glass, among others.

How is the company funded?

VRN is financed by means of a waste management levy (waste disposal fee).

This amounts to €0.50 for every m2 of insulated glass that is produced in, or imported to, the Netherlands, and every manufacturer and importer is obliged to pay the charge.

The obligation has been imposed by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment at VRN’s request.

This measure is necessary to prevent companies using the system without actually paying anything into it.

Given the confidential nature of the information concerning production figures, the levy is collected by an independent firm of accountants. Even VRN has no access to information regarding the amounts paid by individual manufacturers.

At the moment there are around 245 companies that pay the levy to VRN. In addition, some eight foreign producers pay the fee on behalf of, and as a gesture to, their customers in the Netherlands.

Each year, the accountant selects ten companies at random to carry out a check on their contributions.

If any firm refuses to pay the levy or fails to agree to an inspection, VRN will take legal action to compel such firms to cooperate.

How do you organise the collection of glass for recycling?

VRN has set up sheet-glass collection points at around 359 locations in the Netherlands (2014); these are situated near sheet-glass manufacturers and wholesalers, window-frame factories, municipal waste dumps and container companies, and may be used by anyone for the disposal of unwanted sheet glass, at no charge.

Such waste glass may result from the production and processing of glass, for example, or from buildings that are being renovated or demolished.

Each year VRN also hires out containers to around 400-600 companies for their own use, or for projects involving sheet

glass from renovation work, for example.

These containers do not serve as collection points for the general public.

Furthermore, we also have containers placed in around 179 waste parks.

Waste glass can be collected through our system in various ways: r Ad hoc (projects): VRN can provide temporary containers for renovation or demolition projects. A rental fee for these containers is required. r Storage and transfer stations: A company can deposit waste sheet glass at one of Vlakglas Recycling Nederland’s affiliated storage and transfer stations. A maximum handling fee of €10.00 p/ton is charged. r Collection points: Small amounts of sheet glass can be deposited free of charge at Vlakglas Recycling Nederland’s collection points. These collection points can be found at selected glass resellers and producers, but also at a number of major waste recycling centres. r Container rental: Companies can also hire a container for their own use on site.

Containers are replaced three working days after notification has been received that they are full. The number of containers at each location is based on the quantity of sheet glass that is brought to it. VRN works with a single national transport company, which organises the entire operation on our behalf.

Continued>>

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z Table 1. Collection results (tons).

29 Glass International March 2015

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Glass recycling

The choice of the transport company is based on the outcome of a tendering procedure conducted by VRN. They also supply the containers for the sheet-glass waste and ensure that no other type of waste is put in them, as this could contaminate the sheet glass.

It is important that the waste glass is clean when it is delivered to the collection points: VRN has high acceptance requirements, which the companies and collection points have to follow to ensure that the waste glass is clean.

Have you received any recognition for your environmental achievements?

In 2013 VRN received the Lean and Green award Star from Connekt. This is an incentives programme which encourages companies to increase sustainability in their logistics, by taking measures which not only yield a saving in costs, but also reduce the environmental impact.

VRN transported about 37,600 tons of glass cullet by vessel to the recycler.

This reduces the CO2 emissions and in 2013 we achieved 23% CO2 emissions reduction in comparison with 2008 when we started with this programme.

Do you work alongside any other recycling agencies?

Are you involved with any other projects?

that VRN has set up in the Netherlands is unique and we are willing to share our knowledge to help other countries implement this system. into the separate r Research collection of sheet glass waste during demolition projects: We are working in anticipation of the new European legislation banning the dumping of demolition waste, which includes glass also. r VRN and Maltha Glassrecycling cooperate with AGC Glass Europe in its Flat to Flat recycling project. This project has received a Life+ subsidy from the European Union, and aims to develop and validate an innovative method for recycling and upcycling flat glass. The expected results of this projects are: 12% CO2 reduction, 5% energy saving, and 25% reduction in the use of raw materials.

Based on figures from 2011, about 20,000 tons of waste glass is lost in the Netherlands in demolition each year. r

We are currently involved in some projects which we monitor closely.

Examples of some of these projects are: r Research into setting up collection structure in other countries: The system

*Director, Vlakglas Recycling, the Netherlands www.vlakglasrecycling.nl

VRN works in partnership with two recycling companies in Belgium, as there are no major sheet-glass recycling firms in the Netherlands. The distribution of the tonnage of sheet glass that goes to the recyclers is based on the outcome of a tendering procedure conducted by VRN. The VRN’s haulier then uses the locations of the collection points and the recyclers as the basis for calculating which of the former can most efficiently supply which of the latter.

The recyclers are responsible for recycling the sheet glass and for selling it to the sheet-glass, hollow glass and glass wool industries. However, VRN makes every effort to ensure that as much sheet glass as possible is recycled back in to the sheet-glass industry.

w ter ION AT N ss no egis R E a /r T GIS OP e p m RE OW r fre e.co N you p o or ur p f ane u n m sig ass

l w.g w w

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7 reasons to attend Glassman Europe Entrance is free of charge and by attending you will be able to: 1. Arrange meetings and do real business within this intimate networking event designed specifically for the hollow and container industry

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2. Attend the conference sessions looking at energy efficiency and environmental solutions in the glass industry - free of charge

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3. View the latest innovations and update your knowledge on the issues facing the industry 4. Build relationships and network with industry personnel from all over the world

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Visit the website for more information www.glassmaneurope.com For more details contact: Jeremy Fordrey 01737 855133 jeremyfordrey@quartzltd.com

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30 Glass International March 2015

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History

Prof. John Parker Turner Museum of Glass and ICG

Exchanging your silver John Parker* discusses the chemistry and applications involved with surface modification in the glass industry, starting with the use of silver in glass staining.

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A

rtists first used silver salts to enhance their images on glass windows seven centuries ago. These salts were painted then fired on, but, after removal, left the glass transparent with a yellow hue; other features required opaque black enamels. So, a yellow halo could be added to the black outline of a face, or braiding be given to a cloak.

Longer firing times and/or slightly higher temperatures gave orange, even reddishbrown hues, while staining blue glass yellow gave greens. As a result, windows in our churches and cathedrals are now decorated with amazing images.

Earlier, a related process had given us lustre-ware pottery. Most date its discovery to the 9th century AD in Mesopotamia. It used a higher firing temperature than staining and the resulting silver distribution gave an iridescent appearance.

Glass staining has been much researched, partly because window restorers in our sacred buildings need colour-matched replacements. In the last century technologists have also realised the wider potential of surface modification, particularly since many small and even large monovalent ions other than Ag+ (silver) will exchange (e.g.

Li+, K+, Cu+); even di- or tri-valent ions can be introduced.

One approach to the chemistry of staining/diffusion is to follow the mass increase caused by the 1:1 substitution of light sodium atoms for heavy silver atoms. A square root relationship with time is the norm. Modern analytical tools can also determine concentration profiles, for comparison with the predictions of diffusion laws. Initially, concentrations decay according to the so-called error function (erf), although they become squarer in form if the counter diffusing ions have different diffusion coefficients. The process

temperature dependence is Arrhenius (i.e. exponential). Exchange continues well below the glass transformation temperature (Tg) and silver staining can be achieved at temperatures as low as 300°C, although only over 100s of hours.

Normally processing is carried out just degrees below Tg, typically requiring times of 30 minutes.

The diffusing silver ions (Ag+) are not themselves coloured. Another redox ion, e.g. Fe2+, is needed to generate the metallic state (Ag0). At processing temperatures these atoms agglomerate to produce nanoparticles, which are responsible for adding colour. Stories abound of artists suddenly unable to stain glass, only to discover that their glassmaker has changed to sand with a lower iron content.

Not only the quantity of ions exchanged but also the depth of ion penetration is important for many applications, e.g.

100μm may be needed for mechanical strength. The processing time increases at depth squared; so 20μm takes four times as long as 10μm. Higher temperatures speed the process but encourage relaxation of induced stresses.

Other exchange applications Another application is to modify optical properties such as refractive index.

Thus, using masks, optical waveguiding structures such as Y splitters can be generated in the surface of a 2D glass sheet and can couple to telecommunications optical fibres. Silver nanoparticles can improve the operating efficiencies of rare earth based optical amplifying waveguides because of strong electric fields induced around them.

Another possibility is to modify viscosity. This has the potential to facilitate high resolution surface profiling. Chemical durability can also be enhanced; sulphur tablets (ammonium

sulphate) were once added individually in the annealing lehr to pharmaceutical bottles. They leached out sodium and left a silica rich inner surface, significantly more durable than the initial glass.

Interestingly, chemical attack by aqueous alkaline solutions is also an ion exchange process, H+ (as H3O+) diffusing in and exchanging with Na+, while silver ions in glass surfaces confer significant antibacterial properties.

Changing thermal expansion coefficients can lead to chemically toughened structures. More effective though is to work below Tg and replace smaller Na+ ions by large ions e.g. K+.

This process, known as ion stuffing, creates surface compressive stresses which block crack propagation. Such toughened layers may be 10s of μm thick and can mitigate the effects of deep cracks. Indeed it is possible to engineer the resulting stress profile so that the stresses initially increase with depth. This deflects any growing cracks and gives a much more consistent improvement in mechanical properties. The cost of such processing has limited its use to high value products and artefacts which are too thin to thermally toughen, e.g. touch screens, aircraft and high speed train windshields, hard disk drives, copiers, auto-injector cartridges and wine glass rims.

The float glass tin bath offers particular opportunities for profiling surface chemistry. In the 1980s electric fields were used to drive the process, the tin bath being one electrode. A second electrode could embed various nanoparticles in its surface, creating coloured glass sheet, even some with patterning. r

Prof Emeritus John Parker, Curator of the Turner Museum of Glass at Sheffield University, UK. Email j.m.parker@sheffield.ac.uk www.turnermuseum.group.shef.ac.uk

32 Glass International March 2015

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British Glass

Glass Technology Services

What does due diligence mean for glass?

Food Contact Materials (FCMs) To ensure compliance with legislation for glass food contact materials, under the EU framework directive 1935/2004,

we provide heavy metal content and leachate testing for glass packaging and the test methods used are covered under our UKAS IEC/ISO 17025 accreditations.

The glass heavy metals content is analysed in accordance with the requirements of article 11 of 94/62/EC and framework regulation 1935/2004 - by standard including Mercury, Hexavalent Chromium, Lead and Cadmium content.

Lead and Cadmium content is analysed

by ICP-OES - enabling content to be measured in parts per billion – with other elements also reported upon request.

The European Commission is currently revising Directive 84/500/EEC, which may potentially impact on glass.

GTS is actively involved in this process, reviewing testing requirements and potential limits which could, in the future, require manufacturers and/or suppliers to analyse a much wider range of elements at much lower levels than previously required.

This is a service that some organisations are already requesting on a voluntary basis to report these values to their customers.

Around the world there are different requirements, including state-state variations in the USA, which often stipulate cumulative limits for heavy metals content rather than migration.

Elsewhere, many of the methods follow similar models to the ISO, BS and EN standards with variations in the associated limit values.

There is such a volume of individual legislation involved that we cannot possibly cover these all in this article, but in essence the requirements are to analyse the content and migration, or ‘availability’, of these heavy metals and other specified substances

Quality assessment For glass bottles and jars, we recommend that the client carries out assessment against the published industry guidelines in the British Glass TEC document series.

These documents outline assessments

and physical tests that should be carried out to ensure that correct specifications are met and that items hold sufficient resistance to mechanical tests.

These are performed by companies within the supply chain on a routine basis to ensure product quality is maintained across batches and between suppliers.

Accredited test reports Upon completion of testing or analysis a certificate or technical report is issued to the client. This enables the client to demonstrate their packaging has been independently tested, is fit-for-purpose and can enter the market.

In the case of a failure, it clearly indicates where we have identified concerns or the standard that has not been achieved, together with recommendations to overcome the issue.

Failure Where a failure does occur, either in isolation or widespread, we provide a technical failure analysis service to identify the nature of the failure and its root cause – which may include design features, glass quality, manufacturing or processing issues, material interaction, handling or abuse/misuse by the consumer.

In the case of foreign bodies or contamination found within a food product or the glass packaging, we provide expert support to investigate the material composition, surface features, contamination present and its nature to identify or rule-out potential sources of the foreign body in question.

In cases such as potential product recalls, or where further investigation is required, then the team is able to provide wider diagnostic support through technical consultancy, further laboratory support and historic data. r

Glass Technology Services Website: www.glass-ts.com

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G

lass Technology Services (GTS) is regularly asked the question, ‘What is appropriate due diligence for our packaging?’ and this question comes from those who one might least expect, across a variety of organisations in the supply-chain, including both those new to the market and long-standing retailers, packers, fillers, wholesalers and manufacturers of glass.

In this column, we present an overview of our typical recommendations for both minimal compliance and good practice due diligence when placing products upon the marketplace or supplying for that purpose. It focuses upon the glass product itself, so readers must also remember that routine analysis is also required in regard to glass composition, emissions, raw materials and to support suitable process control, such as annealing schedules, coatings and furnace parameters.

Proper due diligence is a responsibility that must be taken seriously and conducted fully before any product is placed upon the market – and that market itself may determine what those assessments should ensure.

Some requirements are put into place through legislation, others are specified by international or national standards and some are simply down to individual retailer specifications or good practice within an end-market sector.

As a result, requirements can be complicated and we often spend time with clients to understand their target marketplaces, and their in-house and client specifications to determine an appropriate regime of testing for their ware.

In this article we highlight key chemical and physical testing requirements that we would recommend as a minimum for glass food and drinks packaging.

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Technical Topics

John Henderson Henderson Technology

Glass in the Year of Light The United Nations has designated 2015 as the International Year of Light. Here John Henderson examines some of the benefits of glass and its enduring effect on the development of light-based technologies.

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015 has been designated the ‘International Year of Light’ (ILY 2015) by the United Nations.

The full title also includes ‘Light Based Technologies’ but that does not trip off the tongue so lightly (sorry!) so I guess that most people will stick with ILY. Naturally there will be a great deal said about light itself, from the great work on optics by Ibn Al-Haytham through to Fresnel’s theory of light as a wave to the development of lasers.

However, from our perspective it is glass that will dominate our thoughts as the material that made most, if not all, of the practical discoveries possible.

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Ubiquitous material Glass is such a ubiquitous material that many people both lay and scientific tend to take it for granted. We have this year an opportunity to inform, educate and improve public understanding of this wonderful material.

What is it about glass that makes it what it is? Is it the transparency which allows us to see through a window to the stars in the sky? Is it the inertness that allows us to maintain the freshness of food and drink without tainting?

Is it the ‘feel’ that allows us to enjoy a glass of our favourite tipple, admire the tactile quality of a cut glass vase or use a touch screen without marking it? Well, it is all of these things and so much more.

Glass transmits visible light and also a little beyond the visible spectrum depending on the composition. This property has had an enduring effect on

the development and use of light-based technologies; it allows them to prosper.

The development of astronomy as a science would have been impossible without glass for lenses and mirrors.

This development continues with the worlds largest optical telescopes using zero expansion glass-ceramics for mirror substrates.

The development of electric light would have been impossible without the glass envelopes used to contain the filaments in an oxygen-free environment.

Even today with the commercialisation of light-emitting diode packages, glass still plays a large part in lighting technologies. The early development of lasers was possible because glasses that were doped with rare earth element such as neodymium and erbium were developed. It was also these developments that led to the progress in optical fibre communications that has exploded over the last 20 years.

I could go on with examples of how glass has allowed science to explore and develop new technologies that further our fundamental understanding or enhance our well-being, but I must briefly mention the equally exciting field of glass in the public environment.

in but reduce the heat of the sun, or it can let sunlight in but stop regenerated heat from going out. It can reflect visible light but let heat pass through, and it can stop harmful UV but allow beneficial UV through. It can protect us from fire, it can be made stronger than we can imagine, and now it can clean itself.

Thinner, lighter, stronger What about the humble glass container, I hear you ask! Thinner, lighter and stronger than any previously, the modern glass bottle is a masterpiece.

It allows the contents to be seen (mostly), it allows complex flavours (or no flavour in the case of water) to be enjoyed as they should, untainted by the package, and it presents the consumer with a tactile sensation that can speak to the quality of the product contained within.

Not really a Technical Topics column in the truest sense, but this year in particular we should be getting off our ‘derrieres’ and promoting glass in all its forms to the wider public by any means available to us, and supporting any initiatives that aim to do this. We should celebrate glass. r

Flat glass

*John Henderson, Henderson Technology, Sheffield, UK Email: info@hendersontechnology.com Website: www.hendersontechnology.com

Flat glass is all around us in glazing, cladding for buildings and vehicle windscreens and windows.

It is a masterpiece of modern technology and application. In the right form and circumstances it can let sunlight

The SGT-organised conference, Glass Reflections - ‘Glass in the Year of Light’, takes place 7-9 September at Murray Edwards College, Cambridge, UK. www.annualmeeting.sgthome.co.uk

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“Engineering for the Glass Industry” Established in 1887 and worldwide Suppliers of • All Types of Batch Chargers.

• Batch Wetting Equipment.

• Special Purpose Equipment.

• Proto -Type Equipment.

• Tin Oxide Electrodes, Connectors & Associated Connector Systems.

GLASSWORKS HOUNSELL Contact Us: +44 (0)1384 560666 info@glassworkshounsell.co.uk www.glassworkshounsell.co.uk

Safety

Safety products in the workplace Bucher Emhart Glass develops equipment that makes work safe and creates ideal working conditions in the glass industry reports Inge Friberg*.

B

ucher Emhart Glass (BEG) conforms to the Machine Directive 2006/42/ EC, an EU agreement that seeks to unify health and safety regulations among the member countries and specifies requirements and responsibilities for suppliers of machinery. Moreover, BEG meets the Feeder and IS machine standards and designs its machines to meet both European and international standards.

Reducing risk

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When we think about workplace hazards, we tend to focus on risks that can cause accidents such as tripping, pinching, burns and other mishaps.

However, a more common type of injury is that caused by repetitive strains.

That is why BEG focuses on ergonomics, aiming to make it easier and more comfortable to work on its machines.

One of the best examples of an improvement in this area is the conveyor ladder on BEG’s IS machines (Fig 1).

It has been designed to make it easier and safer to service mould halves, blowhead mechanisms, blow-head arms, bottom plates, takeout tongs and takeout head mechanisms.

The ladder itself is robust, housed in an insulated tunnel with a footstep and also fully integrated in the machine conveyor design on the blow side.

z Fig 1. Bucher Emhart Glass’s conveyor ladder.

This design makes access to the blow side simpler and accessory exchange safer and more ergonomic.

BEG has also applied the principles of ergonomic design to its development of a blank side lifting device.

Carrying out accessory exchanges on the blank side usually involves difficult working positions and lifting heavy parts.

Over the long term, working this way can result in repetitive strain injuries.

The blank side lifting device, with a lifting capacity of 125kg, is designed to help the operator avoid heavy lifts and cumbersome working positions.

Safer working near sections Inevitably, the area around a glassforming machine is harsh and hot, which makes visibility critical for safe working.

The better the operator can see the section they’re working on, the less time they need to spend in the hot environment. Bright LED lamps for the blank side overhead panel provide excellent illumination, making it easier to carry out maintenance tasks such as job changes and accessory replacement.

One of the most dangerous times to be near a forming machine can be during a job change, when several technicians are working in and around the machine.

During these periods, it’s essential that nobody can accidentally move a

mechanism by activating an override switch. Bucher Emhart Glass has developed several features that prevent accidental mechanism movement: r A U-shaped channel covers override switches and minimises any unintended activation. The channels are standard on the BEG pneumatic valve block and can be retrofitted to the 26 l EPVB. r Safety flaps on the EVPB valve block also alert the operator on the blank side to the risk of overriding mechanisms without first making sure that no operator is in the working area of these mechanisms. Safety flaps are available in different lengths for retrofit and on the standard EPVB invert/revert, blow head and blow moulds are covered by the safety flaps (Fig 2). r Another risk is activating blow moulds or blow heads by mistake from the blank side, which can cause serious injury to someone working on the blow side. To eliminate this risk, the blow head and blow mould interlock lets the operator on the blow side control these mechanisms. The interlock switches lock the mechanisms in the ‘up and open’ position, and give a clear indication of their status. r Activating the feeder, shear, or gob distributor causes the gob distributor to Continued>>

z Fig 2. Override cover.

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Safety

retract, risking injury to an operator working in the area – either being hit by the mechanism itself, or getting pinched between the mechanism and the beam structure. The gob distributor guard, which Bucher Emhart Glass offers as standard, is designed to restrict access to the danger zone (Fig 3). It can be easily removed and assembled, and affixed with fasteners attached to the guard itself.

Future improvements The improvements described above are already part of BEG’s product portfolio.

The company is also working on further developments that will improve safety on the blank side of machines in its AIS, NIS and BIS lines.

The Blank Side Barrier (BsB) will help to improve safety during operation. During normal operation the barrier is in the UP position, reducing the risk that someone will reach into the operating section.

It also prevents ‘swabbing on the fly’, whereby the operator reaches into the running section to swab the blanks.

In conjunction with a swabbing cycle on the timing system, this helps to reduce risk while swabbing on the blank side by indicating clearly to the operator whether the section is in swab cycle or not.

During normal stop, having the BsB in the UP position also reduces the risk of an operator interacting with the section without activating a maintenance stop – the only stop that allows the operator to interact with the machine.

When the maintenance stop is activated, either on the blank or blow side, the BsB is Down, giving a clear indication that it is safe to work on the section.

When starting the section from the blow side, the BsB will be in the UP position once again, stopping the operator interacting with the section on the blank side.

However, BEG appreciates that technical improvements can only go so far. The best way to avoid accidents and negative health impacts is for operators to understand how to operate the firm’s machinery as thoroughly as possible.

To this end, the firm has training facilities located in Europe and Asia, where customer staff can be trained to operate BEG machinery in the safest, most effective way. r

*Compliance Engineer, Bucher Emhart Glass, Switzerland www.bucheremhartglass.com

z Fig 3. Gob distributor cover.

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Glass forming

Energy-saving in glass pressing Waltec has changed the hydraulic drive technology of its machines to servopump technology, resulting in energy savings of more than 50% in glass pressing machines.

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altec Maschinen is a German company based in Wilhelmsthal, Bavaria.

It is a manufacturer of automated, electronically controlled feeder, pressing, press-and-blow, and centrifugal machines; laser cutters; sanders; and polishers as well as handling and transportation systems for the glass industry. The company was founded in 1889 and is a single-source supplier that, upon request, can deliver complete turnkey glass production plants.

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Savings The task was to equip automated glass pressing machines driven by classic valve hydraulics with an energy-saving servo-pump system.

Waltec was motivated by glass manufacturers’ demand for large energy savings. “The servo-pump system works only as much as absolutely necessary in the respective phase of the pressing process. This results in energy savings of more than 50%,” explained Rainer Wagner, head of engineering and purchasing at Waltec.

Within the servo-pump systems, the pressure and flow rate of the hydraulic system were no longer regulated by the restricting effects of valves, but by the torque and speed of a servomotor.

Consequently, power was supplied only when the hydraulic cylinder really needed it. This increased energy efficiency. In addition, a comparatively small accumulator replaced the oil tank of the traditional hydraulic system, making it possible to install the compact system in the immediate vicinity of the machine.

The system’s short line lengths and low oil volumes minimise pulsations, ensuring high rigidity and control precision.

The processes of the new servohydraulic pressing machines are also controlled by a Simatic S7-300 and operated and monitored with a Simatic HMI unit.

The servo-pump system is independently controlled by the control unit of the Sinamics S120 servofrequency converter and can therefore be integrated into existing plant designs with relative ease.

If regenerative infeed is chosen, the energy released during the braking action of the pressing machine’s ram can be fed back, further increasing energy efficiency.

The servo-synchronous motor, operated with a Sinamics S120 frequency converter, drives two oil pumps that are arranged longitudinally behind each other along the motor shaft and operate in opposite directions.

The direction in which the oil flows is determined by the direction of the motor’s rotation, so no directional control valves are necessary.

The decisive advantage of a servopump solution, however, is that the servomotor only works as much as absolutely necessary for the respective phase of the pressing process.

Tried and tested Waltec glass pressing machines with energy-saving servo-pump systems have been used by manufacturers worldwide since 2012.

They have proven to be practical and efficient even during continuous operation under harsh conditions.

While only single-piston machines were initially equipped with the servopump solutions, they have since been proven to be effective in machines with two and three pistons as well. r

Siemens, Erlangen, Germany http://www.siemens.com/motioncontrol/ glass Waltec, Wilhelmsthal, Germany. www.waltec.de

Control of: Cylinder

Cylinder

Control of:

Position Direction Speed Force Position Direction Speed Force

Oil pumps Servomotor: Variable speed and direction

Asynchronous motor: 50 Hz Oil pump

Energy-efficient Siemens has provided virtually all Waltec machines with automation technology for decades.

To enable this, Waltec uses double rod cylinders with identical flow volumes for both pumps.

The solution can also be used for differential cylinders: The pump sizes are then simply selected in proportion to the cylinder surfaces. In this case, the different volumes were compensated by a compact pressure accumulator that kept the system under permanent tension.

Pressure accumulator 30l Tank capacity 1,000l

Traditional hydraulics system (left), versus the Waltec servo-pump system (right)

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Toughening

Mouth blown UV glass: a world first Demand for UV protective glass for valuable art objects and historical furnishings has increased.

Glashütte Lamberts Waldsassen has developed the first UV protective glass that can be mouth blown, ‘restauro-UV’, in collaboration with Dr. Drexler Glasservice and the IGR Institute for Glass and Raw Materials Technology.

The process The Lamberts glassworks continues the tradition of the ‘Neuen Glashütte’ established in 1906 in Waldsassen.

Today, Lamberts is the only company in

z Fig. 1 and 2. The east window of York Cathedral has been fitted with a protective glazing of restauro-UV. Germany and worldwide is one of three companies that produce mouth blown sheet glass. Its products include coloured antique glass, mouth blown window glass (restauro light and strong), Crown glass, dalle glass and other special types of glass for restoration. As with most coloured glass the restauro-UV was manufactured as flashed glass.

The production of UV protective

glass begins with the gradual mixing of specially selected glass ingredients in a glass batch facility. The melting process is done in a ceramic pot at temperatures of up to 1420°C. One feature of the process is that, in the classic way, i.e. with the help of a glassmaker’s blowpipe, the functional glass is combined with Continued>>

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U

V rays damage organic material such as textiles, wood and paper, but also modern adhesives, which are based on organic materials. Thus, the east window of York Cathedral, UK (Figs.

1 and 2) was fitted with a protective glazing of restauro-UV to protect the adhesives used during the repairs from UV rays. By using restauro-UV, the regular replacement of repair materials and the expensive construction of scaffolding for the 300m² window could be avoided.

Until now the only solutions available were based on organic foil material or a coating of nanoparticles. The coating on the glass was not scratchproof, and over time the foils aged and lost their effect.

Against this backdrop, Glashütte Lamberts Waldsassen developed a glass in which the UV protection was integrated and was not subject to aging. During the development, cooperation was established with Dr. Drexler Glasservice, and the IGR Institute for Glass and Raw Materials Technology, which accompanied the process with metrology and analyses.

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Toughening

another sort of glass to a flash, which is then formed to a larger cylinder.

After scoring and laying open the cylinder, the result is finished glass plates, which are subjected to a defined temperature treatment in a subsequent toughening process step.

After the toughening process the glasses are assembled depending on the size and design.

Mouth blown UV protective restauroUV glass is a new development that allows UV protection to be integrated directly into the glass without any kind of surface coating, whilst offering 100% UV protection (less than 380nm) and an almost 100% protection for short wave, visible light up to 405nm.

In the context of the German norm (DIN 5031-7: UV-range 100–380nm) the glasses manufactured are almost colourless and thus suitable for windows in museums.

If the protective properties exceed the UV range with a tendency towards visible light, then the glasses, for physical reasons, colour slightly yellow.

In comparison to foil solutions, restauroUV achieves a higher colour neutrality.

During production, each sheet undergoes an on-site quality control

before shipment. In addition, samples from each batch are checked for transmission by an independent laboratory.

A successful partnership Dr. Drexler from Dr. Drexler Glasservice, a graduated chemist with years of practical experience in the glass and raw materials industry, contributed his knowledge of process optimisation techniques using six sigma, analyses, raw materials for glass and glass characteristics, and significantly shaped the development of this UV protective glass by optimising the mixtures and accompanying the manufacturing process.

His scientific education and knowhow gained during many successful research projects at renowned industrial companies proved to be valuable.

His knowledge of the transmission spectrums for coloured glasses formed the basis for a systematic report on the correlation between the UV protective properties of the functional glasses manufactured and the relevant parameters in the manufacturing process.

The IGR Institute for Glass and Raw Materials Technology is a neutral service company and has a global focus on the

analytical quality assurance of glasses, raw materials and recycled products - in this case explicitly recycled glass - and has a modern laboratory where the equipment includes REM-EDX, ICP-OES, FT-IR and UV-VIS. The IGR also works on the raw material supply, optimisation of manufacturing processes and the training and education of employees from external companies.

The IGR has made a name for itself in the areas of detecting glass fragments in food, analysis of heavy metals, definition of the origin of glass cords and remnants, as well as Fe2+ analyses.

The development and manufacturing process of restauro-UV was accompanied analytically by the IGR in Göttingen.

The main task was the chemical analysis of the glasses produced with the ICP-OES and the measurement of the UV protection with the UV-VIS. Furthermore, extensive toughening experiments were conducted.

Restauro-UV has been submitted for a European patent and can be purchased from the manufacturer. r

www.lamberts.de/restauroUV www.igrgmbh.de www.drexler-glasservice.de

Simotion maximises performance

Operators of glass container factories are constantly searching for opportunities to maximise plant performance, while reducing downtime. Heye International’s Simotion Servodrive Compact upgrade kits provide a solution.

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A

n easy way to keep pace with rising efficiency pressures is to modernise a glass factory’s manufacturing equipment. Often, mechanical parts are still in good condition, but the electronics are out-of-date. This, invariably, results in long downtimes, especially when spare parts are unavailable.

A solution is Heye Simotion Servodrive, a control concept based on the multi-axis System Simotion from Siemens.

The Heye Simotion upgrade package comes with servo motor, servo inverter, cables and control panel, depending on the specific mechanism.

This technology is used to upgrade equipment such as feeder stirrers and plungers, dual motor shears, gob distributors, machine conveyors, ware transfers, cross conveyors and

lehr loaders. Benefits include: Good usability through visualisation with simplified parameter setting; shorter job-change times; reduced downtime through the rapid replacement of parts and configuration data saved on memory cards; and the use of standard components to reduce spare parts stocks.

Upgrade kits are available for many existing systems. The modular design allows for a simple and cost saving upgrade of existing systems. r

Heye International, Germany, www.heye-international.com

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Energy efficiency

Intelligent façades: Buildings of the future Prof. Lothar Wondraczek* explains how materials scientists at Jena University, Germany, are coordinating an EU-project on intelligent façades that can generate electricity, heat and algae biomass.

LaWin A new international research effort coordinated by Prof. Wondraczek, a materials scientist, is aiming to change this. Through the project ‘Large-Area Fluidic Windows – LaWin’, scientists intend to develop functional façades and window modules, together with an integrated production process to achieve an as to yet unmatched readiness to market. “This requires close collaboration of architects, materials researchers, and civil and construction engineers.

That is why we established a broad, interdisciplinary consortium.”

All in all, 14 participants are taking part in the ‘LaWin’ project: Aside from the academic partners at Jena University, participants from Weimar University, Beuth University of Applied Sciences, eleven industrial corporations from Germany, Austria, Belgium and the Czech Republic are involved. Over the coming three years, the European Commission

will support the project with around €6 million from the European framework programme ‘Horizon 2020’. The partaking industrial partners will be contributing a further €2.1 million.

In Jena the project is located at the Center for Energy and Environmental Chemistry (CEEC).

There, Prof.

Wondraczek and his team will work on new glass modules for building façades, which consist of two joint glass layers: One layer made from a very thin and high strength cover glass and one layer of structured glass.

“This structured glass contains microfluidic channels through which a functional fluid circulates. As an example, this liquid will make it possible to automatically adjust the incidence of light or to harvest exterior heat which will then be transported to a heat pump,” Wondraczek explains. The scientists will conduct detailed tests of such façade  The research effort LaWin intends to develop functional facades for buildings of the future.

and window modules to optimise the materials and their functional interaction.

Real conditions Based on the results of their laboratory findings, the scientists plan to implement the façades within reference buildings in order to test them under ‘real’ conditions.

“The challenge lies in the large size”, Wondraczek points out. “As of today, there is no production process for such large-sized glass sheet with integrated micro structures. Moreover, the new glass façades have to be able to be integrated into conventional window and façade systems.”

They also have to be cost-effective.

After all, a third of all greenhouse gas emissions in the EU and 40% of energy consumption are due to the heating, cooling, air conditioning and lighting of buildings. Investments in energy efficient buildings are hence the most important levers to significantly reduce the carbon dioxide emissions and to reach the climate goals. “This is given by the laws of thermodynamics: To save and to efficiently use energy is always more beneficial than to generate it from whichever source,” the Jena materials scientist stresses.

The topical area of ‘energy efficient buildings’ is therefore one of eight strategic key areas in which the European commission’s Public-PrivatePartnership (PPP)-Initiative sees important possibilities for a sustainable reinforcement of European innovation, and industrial leadership in the global competition. r

*Otto Schott Institute of Materials Research, University of Jena, Germany Email: lothar.wondraczek@uni-jena.de www.osim.uni-jena.de/

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W

indows that change their light permeability at the touch of a button; façades, whose colour can be changed according to the sunlight; façades and window parts in which transparent photovoltaic modules are integrated, or in which microalgae are being bred to provide the house with its own biofuel: This is what the buildings of the future could feature.

“Many of these ideas are certainly within imagination and even technological feasibility today, in particular within the field of façades which may adapt to their environment and thus improve the energy efficiency of modern buildings,” states Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lothar Wondraczek from Friedrich Schiller University in Jena. “But only a fraction of this potential has been tackled so far, as the relevant materials and production processes are still missing,” he further explains.

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Coatings

Large area magnetron sputtering Sputtering has become the process of choice for the deposition of many industrially important coatings. Here Dr.-Ing. Hendryk Richert* and Ma. Sc. Rocco Holzhey** discuss magnetron sputtering in the flat glass industry.

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puttering is used for hard, wearresistant coatings, low friction coatings, corrosion resistant coatings, decorative coatings and coatings with specific optical or electrical properties.

For the float glass industry, magnetron sputtering as a large area coating method is important as it helps to precisely control the properties of the glass[1].

Magnetron sputtering is a plasma coating process where sputtering material is ejected due to bombardment of ions to the target surface. The vacuum chamber of the physical vapor deposition (PVD) coating machine is filled with a process gas, such as argon, nitrogen or oxygen.

By applying a high voltage, a glow discharge is created, resulting in acceleration of ions to the target surface and a plasma coating. The gas-ions will eject sputtering materials from the target surface (sputtering), resulting in a thin sputtered coating layer on the object in front of the target[2].

Magnetron sputtering is somewhat different from general sputtering technology. The difference is that magnetron sputtering technology uses magnetic fields to keep the plasma located directly in front of the target, intensifying the bombardment of ions [3]. So the rest of the compartment is mostly free of plasma.

In the float glass industry, nearly all the layers on single glass sheets to control the wavelength-dependent optical parameters are produced by magnetron sputtering of different target materials.

Cooling water out Cooling water Target tube Magnets Plasma

z Fig. 1 Magnet-Plasma configuration in a rotatable magnetron.

uniformity in magnetron sputtering.

The plasma itself is produced by the ionised process gas. The ionisation of the process gas is done by high electrical power with several Watts per cm² target surface (or W/cm racetrack length).

The frequency (from DC to RF) of the power supply depends on the sputtered material.

The plasma (density) distribution is then defined by process gas flow and the magnetic field distribution.

If the target is uniform, flat and isotropic in mechanical properties, only the plasma distribution defines

Magnetic field distribution For modern magnetrons for rotatable targets, there is an option to change the magnetic field configuration manually during a vent by so-called ‘shimming’. If the magnet bar has a good (homogeneous) intrinsic magnetic field configuration, the change of the magnetic field strength (or flux density) is usually a change in

Plasma control The plasma, especially its density, distribution and uniformity is the main factor for the deposition rate and layer

the interaction with the target material.

Where the plasma is denser (higher speed/number of ions) there exists a stronger interaction with the target surface, more material is hit out of the target.

The plasma region is usually formed by a permanent magnet field configuration (in larger systems known as the racetrack) as shown in Fig 1.

Cooling water flows through the magnet bar and the target tube, transporting thermal energy from the inner target surface and preventing the target and magnetic system from overheating.

For the magnetic part, wellcharacterised permanent magnets form three rows to keep the plasma as homogeneous as possible.

The sputtering process is usually controlled by a local change of the gas flow. The change in gas flow influences the density of the layer in nonreactive processes. For reactive processes the local composition of the layer can change dramatically if only partoxidisation is used. The better approach is the adaptation of the magnetic field configuration during the run or at a vent (production stop), because it does not affect the layer composition.

z Fig. 2 Magnet bar measurement system M-cat for magnetic field control.

Continued>>

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15

0.5

10

0 -0.5

5 0 0

Before shim

z Fig. 3 Single channels (from racetrack) for a certain measurement.

-1 4000 2000 Position [mm] After shim

Delta field

z Fig. 4 Result of a magnetic field shimming shown in the absolute field diagraph. (Source- float

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glass production).

geometry (change in the local position between magnets and target surface).

If the layer thickness and magnetic field distribution is known, it is possible to find a correlation between local magnetic field change and change of layer thickness.

This correlation depends on sputtering material and the environment.

Therefore every compartment with its target material has its individual magnetic field configuration. The overall process and all influences are difficult to simulate but easy to measure with the right equipment.

The change of the layer thickness is usually done by change of the magnetic field geometry in an open loop and the result is visible in the next run.

Due to the fact that magnetic field changes are small and sometimes nonlinear, this method seems of certain risk, especially with the knowledge of effort for change of magnetron configuration in a process line.

The answer for this problem is the measurement of the magnetic field configuration in a closed loop before and after the change of the magnetic field configuration.

The M-Cat (Fig. 2) is a system able to scan the magnetic field configuration of a magnetron in free hanging position with high speed and sufficient accuracy.

The system is equipped with 11 threeaxis Hall sensors which simultaneously scan the entire racetrack width.

Fig. 3 shows the eleven radial field channels where the maximum and minimum are located directly above the permanent magnets. The system directly visualises defective magnets or any field changes due to corrosion processes.

M-Cat scans the entire racetrack within 30 seconds, its magnetic field resolution is in the range of the earth’s magnetic field, and position resolution depends

on the size of the system (for float glass applications with a four-metre system length the resolution is in the millimetre region).

Defects of single magnets can be easily identified. The system allows a direct comparison of different measurements to early identification of changes during the lifetime and helps to find initial magnetic field configurations if a magnetron or a target has to be exchanged. With the M-Cat system it is easy to produce magnetic field copies of well-working magnet bars.

M-Cat in a closed loop process In Fig. 4 the shimming effect for a commercial magnet bar for use in a larger production coater is shown.

Despite the field distribution (here the average over all radial field measuring sensors) appearing asymmetric and not perfectly homogeneous, the bar produces homogeneous sputtered layers.

The U-shape and the asymmetry in the magnetic field configuration correct the influence of the compartment.

With such a configuration in a large glass coater, sputtered layer homogeneity of a few percent can be achieved. To influence the magnetic field and therefore the layer homogeneity the used bar has several tuning positions and the magnetic field configuration could be adapted as shown in Fig. 4.

The green line represents the difference before and after the tuning process. In this case the magnetic field was changed by shimming by maximum 3%.

Fig. 5 shows the magnetic field change as the green line and the corresponding change of the uniformity of a ZnSn oxide layer. The change of the field resulted in a change of the layer uniformity.

Beginning from 1.000mm the correlation between magnetic field and

1.00

5.00

0.50

2.50

0.00

0.00

-0.50

-2.50 -5.00

-1.00 0

1000

2000

3000

4000

Cahnge of layer thickness [%]

1

Change of magentic field [mT]

20

Field change [mT]

Average field [mT]

Coatings

Position [mm] Delta field

Delta profile

z Fig. 5 Correlation between magnetic field change (green) and change of layer thickness (blue) for an adjustable magnet bar. The direct correlation is well visible. (Source- float glass production). layer thickness is very good so that the layer profile can be adjusted as wanted.

But in the first quarter there is no correlation visible, what might be connected with the compartment or change of local gas flow.

Conclusion The control of the sputtering process is important, and can easily be done by use of magnetic fields.

As shown in the article, the M-Cat system helps to understand the influence of the magnetic field on the process, and helps to adjust the magnetic field with a chance to verify the change in the plasma profile. Single defective magnets, the change of field strength due to aging or demagnetisation due to high temperature can be identified and the affected magnetron adjusted, exchanged or reworked.

With the high measurement speed and accuracy the M-Cat system can be used for production purposes during the service time and of course for research work.

Further development of new, challenging layers can be fulfilled by accurate tuning of the magnetic field. r

Bibliography [1] Kelly and Arnell, Magnetron sputtering: a review of recent developments and applications in vacuum, 2000.

[2] Bräuer, Szyska, Vergöhl, Bandorf: Magnetron sputtering – Milestones of 30 years, Vacuum, 2010 [3] Hauzer techno coating, Homepage, 2014 *Matesy, Jena, Germany **Innovent technology development, Jena, Germany. www.matesy.de/en www.innovent-jena.de

44 Glass International March 2015

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Country focus: Russia

Russian industry stays positive ahead of Mir Stekla 2015 Alex Gurov, Glass International correspondent in Moscow, highlights the current Russian glass market ahead of this year’s Mir Stekla, which takes place on 8-11 June 2015 in Moscow.

Hollow glass Domestic hollow glass production in Russia, with more than 60 glassworks, is about 7 million tons/ year (or nearly 12.5 billion units annually). About half the total production capacity is located in the RF Central district. Of the total production of glass bottles, more than 60% is beer containers and about 50% is clear glass. Russia’s main container glass factories use modern equipment (about 20 equipped by modern NNPB technology) sourced from technology suppliers. The list of main

“Domestic hollow glass production in Russia, with more than 60 glass works, reached about 7 million t/y (or nearly 12.5 bn

”

units annually).

suppliers includes Bucher Emhart Glass, Horn, BDF, Botterro, Sorg, Sklostroj, Bowman, Sheppee and Iris Inspection Machines.

Turkey’s RusCam, owned by the Sisecam Group, has with five glassworks in Russia and has a 20% market share of the total glass container market.

The second-largest glass container manufacturer is Russian-American Glass Company (RASKO) with a total capacity of 2 billion bottles per year.

But with a recent domestic trend against hard drinking of vodka and bottled beer, there is an overcapacity of about 40% for glass bottle production against current demand. According to the Russian Brewers Union, sales of bottled beer were down by 7% in 2014.

Flat glass According to StekloSouz, Russia’s flat glass production before 2014 grew steadily. In 2010 flat glass production was 195 million m2; in 2013 it was 225 million m2; but there was no obvious growth in 2014.

The main players in the Russian float glass market are Asahi Glass Company (AGC) with a 30% market share; Salavatsteklo + Saratovstroysteklo (30%); Guardian (20%); and Pilkington (10%).

All products have a good quality under the Russian GOST certification programme, which is unified with EU standards.

Imports of flat glass to Russia over the past few years have fallen from 20% to about 10% of the total consumption. The main flat glass import sources are from China, Poland, Iran, Byelorussia (Gomelsteklo), Kirgizia (Interglass), and Continued>>

www.glass-international.com

R

ussia’s economy is currently going through a hard time, but should return to its former strength supported by high oil prices in the near future. According to recent data from Rosstat and the Russian Federation (RF) Ministry of Industry & Trade, Russian GDP was down in 2014 by 0.5% on a year-to-year basis, while industrial production in Russia grew by 1.5% on average compared to 2013.

There are large variants between industry sectors.

For example, aircraft construction, the processing industry and some parts of the transport sector grew a little in 2014, but other large industrial sectors, including the glass industry, fell.

According to the Glass Union, StekloSouz, there are about 3,000 glass plants in Russia today, of which 500 are large-scale.

The present tendency is towards globalisation and consolidation: Russia has seven powerful glass holdings with about four to six large glass plants, each. Consumption of glass per capita, with the Russian population currently at about 146.3 million, is close to 20m2/pp/yr. In the EU it is about 25m2/pp/yr.

45 Glass International March 2015

Mir Stekla Russia overview.indd 1

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Country focus: Russia

Uzbekistan (Quartz). Exports from Russia were 14 million m2 in 2013, predominantly to Turkey and CIS countries, mostly from Guardian (30%), AGC and Saratovstroysteklo (about a 25% share, each).

According to the Glass Union’s forecast, the flat glass market in Russia may double and reach 500 million m2 in 2020.

Domestic consumption of flat glass in the country has grown in the past decade due to the growth of the residential and industrial construction sectors, as well as the development of the automotive sector.

Russian statistics show that 2013 was a record year for construction, with 258,000 buildings built, including 239,100 housing units. The total investment in the Russian residential and commercial property market in 2013 was US$8 billion. This trend continued into early 2014, but was down in the second half of the year.

International float glass producers AGC, Guardian, Pilkington (NSG Group), Saint-Gobain, Trakaya Cam of the Sisecam Group have all set up float glass plants in Russia over the last decade, overtaking domestic producers.

www.glass-international.com

Recent investments Caspian Flat Glass (CFG) is situated in Daghestan and in 2014 started float glass production capable of a productio of 600t/day of tinted and coated glasses, including reflective and low-e glass.

The project included equipment suppliers from the EU, USA and Turkey and included Horn, Italcarrelli, Stewart Engineers. The company was profiled in the Dec/Jan 2014 issue of Glass International, pg 11.

The SP Glass Holdings subsidiary, RusNano, will open a glass factory with a capacity of 240,000t/ year in 2015. It will be based in the Zavolzhye industrial park outside Ulyanovsk. RusNano is Russia’s nanotech company and its partners are NSG Group, STiS Group and EBRD. SP Glass Holdings already operates a nanocoated glass production site near Moscow and will focus the Ulyanovsk plant on energy-saving glass.

It will have five-to-500 nanometre per layer coatings. While conventional clear glass, even used in a double pane, possesses poor energy-saving properties, the new nanocoated glass is expected to cut the loss of heat in residential or industrial buildings in the cold seasons by an estimated 70%.

In the summer heat, such glass stops a building from overheating. In mass production, the cost of manufacturing insulated glass units with energyefficient glass is only slightly more than that of glass units with ordinary glass.

According to Russian news, there are more projects planned for building float glassworks in Russia, including the Baltic glass company and modernisation of the Vostek plants.

Mir Stekla 2015 The Mir Stekla 2015 (World of Glass), exhibition

“In Russia today there are about 3,000 glass plants, of which 500 are large-scale. The present tendency is towards globalisation and consolidation: Russia has seven powerful glass holdings with about four to six large glass plants, each

”

for glass products, manufacturing, processing and finishing technology is open between 8-11 June 2015 at the Expocentre Fairgrounds, Moscow.

As of last year the tradeshow was jointly organised by Expocentre and StekloSouz. Last year the exhibition had a total exhibition space of 5,700m2, with 247 companies from 24 countries, including 80 Russian companies.

The number of visitors to the Mir Stekla 2014 exhibition over four days was 6,780 people, 94% of whom were professional visitors.

Many foreign and Russian companies took part in the trade fair, among them Sisecam, RHI, Lahti Precision, Glaston, BDF Industries, Landglass Technology, M-Techno, Saint-Gobain Sefpro, Von Ardenne, Zippe, Salavatsteklo, Saratovstroysteklo, KAMI, Yuta, Meran, Brinolli and RuSail.

Italian manufacturers in particular are widely presented at Mir Stekla, by the Italian Association of Glass Processing Machinery and Accessory Suppliers (GIMAV), and the Italian Pavilion, which includes 30 companies.

Many novelties will be presented in different sections of the exhibition: Energy-efficient glass, translucent structures, warm-edge technology, low-emission, multifunctional and solar control glass, as well as the latest technology and materials for glass decoration, including glass containers.

The key event of the Mir Stekla 2015 businessrelated programme is the ‘Glass and Modern Technology – XXI Century’ international forum organised by StekloSouz. A round table discussion on ‘Main Trends in Fighting against Production and Use of Counterfeit Glass Products’ will be an integral part of the forum. The exhibition will include presentations of goods and developments from participating companies.

Media partner Glass International magazine is Mir Stekla’s main media partner. Each year since 2010 it has published a Russian-language issue for distribution to all exhibition visitors via its booth and by post to Russia’s main glass producers and organisations.

Michael Tolkachov said at the official opening of last year’s tradeshow: “We are very happy with the strong international media support of the Mir Stekla exhibition by the UK’s world leading international magazine Glass International, which has exclusively published for our exhibition a special annual issue in the Russian language”. r

www.mirstekla-expo.ru/en/ www.expocentr.ru www.steklosouz.ru

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3/5/15 8:27 AM

Industry report

Glass manufacturing industry report Robert Weisenburger Lipetz, MBA, Executive Director of the Glass Manufacturing Industry Council (GMIC), discusses the council’s latest report which provides business intelligence for many sectors of the glass industry.

GMIC has recently published its Glass Manufacturing Industry Report. What is the reason for publishing the report?

The offices of the Glass Manufacturing Industry Council (GMIC), are constantly approached by those seeking information, such as managers looking for intelligence to guide their strategic and operational decisions, individuals seeking industry contacts, reporters, investors and others.

Unfortunately, in most cases, we can be of little help, since information on the glass manufacturing industry is notoriously difficult to come by.

The Council addressed this need through the GMIC Glass Manufacturing Industry Report.

The report provides industry intelligence that guides the decision making of managers, reduces the risk of investors and provides other information services to the glass industry.

www.glass-international.com

Can you give any details about the content?

The report is organised into three sections.

The first section contains data on the industry; production, sales, market share, capital expenditures, employment, energy use and cost, recycling, inventory turnover, plant utilisation, R&D, operating ratios, and many other metrics.

The data is presented in charts, including trends over the last five years, and future forecasting.

Competitive industries are analysed and profiles are provided for major companies.

How long did it take to coordinate such a project?

We started with extensive industry surveys, to determine what content would be most valuable.

Then, under the guidance of our industry-led task force, contracted experts compiled industry data, contacts,

and analyst reports. By the time the data was organised into the report, we had invested about a year in the initiative.

How is the report organised?

I’ve described the first of the three sections, industry data, whose metrics are organised by the manufacturing segments of float glass, container glass, speciality glass, fibreglass wool and glass fibre reinforced polymers. Metrics are also organised geographically.

The data is presented in charts, including trends over the last five years, and future forecasting. Competitive industries are analysed and profiles are provided for major companies.

One can look at market share, production, and all other metrics, specifically by glass segment.

The second section contains surveys of emissions regulations relevant to glass manufacturing in the US and Europe  The Glass Manufacturing Industry Report is a 135-page document that provides information about many sectors of the industry.

along with recommended best available techniques.

The third section contains contact lists, including US glass manufacturing companies and manufacturing plants, along with contacts for both. Also in this section are supplier lists, organised by product and service.

How is the the container glass industry faring at the moment?

Container glass represents the second largest portion of the US glass market at $5.2 billion in revenue, a 23% share.

Since 2011, container, like other sectors, has displayed modest revenue growth, implying a healthy but maturing industry.

What are the employment figures like in the container and flat glass industries?

The US flat glass segment employed 8,026 in 2014 and the container glass segment 13,871. Since 2011, employment growth has been slow and remains relatively flat across all segments and the glass industry in general. The highest growth rate in the past four years occurred in 2011 when employment in the industry grew at 1.5%.

What trends are we likely to see in the container industry?

Looking ahead to 2017, the container industry is predicted to continue to experience positive growth, although the growth rate will likely be less than fibreglass and flat glass, which benefits from the recovering housing and automotive markets.

Information cited in this interview was sourced in part from US Department of Energy, US Social Security Administration, Ibis World and industry experts. 

The report is available to buy via the Council’s website: www.gmic.org

48 Glass International March 2015

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