The Glass Futures Global Centre of Excellence, a proposed UK research, development and training facility, is already delivering on employment commitments, having successfully recruited for several key positions.

The drive has seen 12 members of staff and secondees appointed in key managerial roles, including a Technical Director along with General, Innovation and Partnerships and Finance Managers, with more positions ready to open up as part of the phase two jobs’ drive that will continue well in to 2021 and beyond.

Schott AG has recently inaugurated a pharmaceutical glass melting tank at its Gujarat facility in India, involving an investment of approximately €25 million.

The latest tank will help to increase the plant’s production capacity by 10,000 tonnes to reach an annual capacity of 40,000 tonnes.

The furnace has been constructed within a year, enabling a 25% increase in the facility’s overall production capacity, to support the pharmaceutical industry, which faces unprecedented demand for pharma packaging products.

The melting tank is a part of the company’s commitment to invest over €47 million at its Indian facility and to double capacity for producing the highly specialised FIOLAX tubing material for both domestic and export demands.

Libbey Inc reports to have successfully completed its financial restructuring and emerged from Chapter 11.

Through its ‘Plan of Reorganization’, the tableware specialist is emerging from Chapter 11 as a new private company, formed and controlled by Libbey Inc's former lenders, Libbey Glass LLC and will remain under the same leadership.

The company has emerged with substantial liquidity, supported by proceeds from a $150 million term loan and a $100 million asset-based lending facility.

The glassmaker claims to have significantly reduced operating costs, strengthened its balance sheet and improved liquidity by reducing net debt to less than $150 million. 

Eight more global Corning manufacturing facilities have recently reduced energy intensity by an average of 13.2%, meeting or exceeding the goals set by the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star Challenge for Industry.

To meet the challenge, industrial sites must each increase energy efficiency by at least 10% in five years or less.

Schneider Electric has collaborated with AVEVA and CelSian to merge model predictive control and process control into a single, integrated, operator-friendly solution.

The combined offer is specifically designed to improve energy efficiency and glass quality.

Bringing together well-respected CelSian rMPC (control based on dynamic computer models) and design expertise, AVEVA APC software for advanced process control and over 50 years of process control experience from Eurotherm by Schneider Electric provides a refined predictive control solution for glass manufacturing end users.

Management systems serve to design organisational structures and work processes in such a way that systematic action can be taken and planned results achieved.

This is certainly the case at the international special glass manufacturer Schott, which is currently looking back on the 25th anniversary of its EHS management system. EHS deals with the topics of environmental protection and occupational health and safety.

In October 1995, the Schott Group bundled its activities in these areas, some of which had been ongoing for many years, into an integrated management system. A binding guideline, standards and an organisational framework were created.

On 1 November 2020, Clemens Eidmann took over as ITEC Managing Director from Robert Üblacker, who founded the German design firm and constructor of glass melting furnaces in 1999.

Mr Üblacker announced his successor on the 20th anniversary of the formation of the company.

At the end of October, SORG Group acquired a share of the business. ITEC GmbH will continue to operate as an independent company.

www.itec-planung.de

www.sorg.de

Winners of the Glass Focus Awards 2020 were announced during the annual showcase’s first ever online ceremony.

Companies from across the glass supply chain gathered (at their computers) last night to celebrate the achievements of the industry over the course of a challenging year with nine awards ‘handed out’ by a panel of industry experts.

Encirc received three awards including Company of the Year and Rising Star while Pilkington also claimed two prizes during the live streamed event.

Other winners included Ardagh Glass, Stoelzle Flaconnage, Stealth Case Oy and Allister Malcolm Glass. 

On 17 November at 14:00 CET Glass Trend will host an online session entitled ‘Circular glass: an honest comparison’ as part of the consortium’s autumn/winter series of TEDx-like webinars for its members.

Presented by TNO’s Tom Lightart the webinar will examine how the environmental performance of glass is mainly determined by its production process due to its energy demand.

Comparing this performance and its circularity of glass products with other products will done by life cycle assessment (LCA) – in the webinar the application of LCA will be explained with a fair comparison.

A webinar focusing on how decarbonisation technologies can help the glass industry to progress towards a more sustainable manufacturing process will follow on 18 November.