Brian D Chambers, current President and Chief Operating Officer at Owens Corning, has been elected to succeed Mike Thaman as Chief Executive Officer, effective 18 April 2019. Mr Thaman, who has served as Chairman since 2002 and as CEO since 2007, announced his retirement as CEO and will remain with the company in the role of Executive Chairman.

“Having served 11 years as CEO and nearly two decades in executive leadership, I feel this is the right time for a leadership change” Mr Thaman commented. “It has been my honour and privilege to serve this great company. I am proud of the people of Owens Corning and the businesses we are building.”

Staged on behalf of British Glass, Glass Technology Services Ltd will deliver a one day training course in Sheffield on 26 February 2019 entitled ‘An introduction to glass packaging’.

Tailored to the retail, food, drink and beauty sectors to help with packaging selection, design, specification and quality control, this course introduces delegates to key glass packaging topics, including a basic understanding of glass manufacture, processing and properties, as well as defects and failure, packaging selection and specification, performance, design, decoration and environmental considerations and recycling.

Glass Technology & Ceramics GmbH & Co KG has been confirmed as Bottero’s exclusive agent for hollow glass business in Germany. This agreement further extends their co-operation, after successful results achieved in the Polish market, following last year’s appointment of GTC as Bottero exclusive agent for Poland.

GTC was founded in 2015 and specialises in technical and commercial support for the glass container industry. With this support and competence, Bottero aims to reinforce its presence in strategic European markets.

Gulf Glass Factory LLC is to build the first glass container manufacturing project in Qatar with Italian company Falorni Gianfranco srl. Qatar Industrial Manufacturing Co (QIMC) owns 50% of Gulf Glass Factory.

The agreement was signed by Abdul-Rahman Abdullah Al Ansari, Chairman of Gulf Glass Factory and CEO of QIMC and Riccardo Scarselli, CEO of Falorni Gianfranco srl. Design capacity of the plant’s first phase will be 200 tons/day from one furnace. A second furnace will be built as part of a second phase, which will increase production capacity to approximately 450 tons/day. Total cost of the first phase of the project is estimated at QR 238 million and is expected to reach QR 300 million at the end of the second phase.

Tecnoglass has taken a minority shareholding in Saint-Gobain’s Colombian subsidiary Vidrio Andino, as a result of which the glassmaker will build a new float line to meet growing regional demand.

Tecnoglass is a leading manufacturer of glass windows and facades in the region. The float plant will be located near Barranquilla and will offer a solid manufacturing base for domestic and export markets.

The Schott technology group is set to invest around €300 million in the next three years in an expansion of its core glass tubing business as the start material for pharmaceutical packaging.

Production capacities will be significantly increased, in Europe and Asia in particular. Strong demand for FIOLAX glass tubing has prompted the company to build a new plant in Jinyun County, Zhejiang Province, which is scheduled to start production in 2020 and will serve the Chinese market.

Germany’s Wiegand-Glas has placed an order with ZIPPE Industrieanlagen for a batch and cullet house, as well as two cullet return systems for the Schleusingen glass container factory. This follows the recent completion of a ZIPPE batch house at the Wiegand-Glas plant in Steinbach am Wald. The batch and cullet house in Schleusingen is designed to supply two melting furnaces.

At the 2019 Consumer Electronic Show in Las Vegas earlier this month, Corning Inc introduced two auto interior glass solutions.

As automakers respond to consumer demand for more integrated and interactive displays, Corning’s Gorilla Glass solutions are designed to address these trends, delivering the highest product performance and superior system economics. “Consumers want a more connected and immersive driver experience in the cockpit” said Michael Kunigonis, Vice President and General Manager, Corning Automotive Glass Solutions.

A recent innovation from AGC Interpane, Planibel Easy self-cleaning glass makes window cleaning easier. The durable pyrolytic coating of the glazing uses the UV radiation in sunlight to break down dirt in five to seven days.

The self-cleaning function has been independently tested and confirmed by the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films (IST) according to EN1096-5. In the rain, the special coating distributes the water especially evenly across the glass and allows it to run off more easily, so that it also dries faster.