Phase one of the Johns Manville glass fibre pipe plant expansion in Defiance, Ohio is now complete.

The US expansion added the first of two production lines, improving JM’s ability to meet demand for Micro-Lok HP and Micro-Lok HP Ultra glass fibre pipe insulation, which is used primarily in commercial buildings.  “The JM team has done an outstanding job growing the business to the point where a capacity expansion was necessary” said Jim Swift, Director of Operations in JM’s Insulation Systems business and leader of the expansion project. “The dedication of the entire team made this project possible, with the common goal of supplying our customer with quality pipe insulation and the service they are accustomed to.” 

The Glass Service Expert System III (ES III) has emerged as a leading supervisory model-based predictive control for furnaces and forehearths, helping to bring Industry 4.0 to life.

Many major float, container and fibre glass producers have implemented ES III as their standard for improved furnace control. It provides stability and improved quality, aiming for 2-3% energy cost savings, plus CO2 and NOx emission reduction, with a return on investment of about six months.

During the current Covid-19 pandemic especially, with low operator and engineering personnel in attendance, the ES III has contributed to keeping all systems running in optimal automatic mode, without risk of exposure to the virus.

Ramsey engineers in the USA have developed special side links that make connecting Sentry chains considerably quicker and easier. As can be seen from figure 1, the aperture in the link is circular and completely open.

This makes it possible for the pins to slide in and out easily. A washer is then positioned to hold the pins in place.

As illustrated in figure 2, the centre of the link is the same depth as a standard wear protected link. However, the sides of the link are narrower to allow space for the washers without making the overall depth of the link too thick.

This special link is attached to one end of the Sentry two pin chain for easy hook-up. The rest of the side links on the chain are Ramsey’s wear protected links.

F X Nachtmann has been producing hand- and machine-made goblets and gift articles since 1834. The company, which now has over 1200 employees and a turnover of around €80 million in 2018, offers the finest crystal glass from Bavaria, with all kinds of drinking glasses, vases, plates etc being part of the extravagant range.

In October 2019, HORN received an order to construct furnace two for the plant in Weiden, an all-electric furnace with seven production lines, which produces up to 25 tonnes of tableware per day.

The melting furnace represents a special feature, as the heating is carried out electrically by means of  tin oxide electrodes, as well as by means of an oxygen gas mixture.

As the pursuit of successful vaccines to control the spread of the global Covid-19 pandemic intensifies, demand for specialist pharmaceutical glassware to package these critical vaccines has required glass manufacturers throughout the world to create or boost their manufacturing capacities accordingly.

Few industrial sectors have such stringent quality requirements as the pharmaceutical industry and to meet these exacting specifications, IRIS Inspection machines and its innovative ware inspection technologies are available to support the world’s specialist pharmaceutical glassmakers to meet these challenges.

Erik Muijsenberg, Vice President of Glass Service Group, has been invited by the Ceramics Society of Japan to be a keynote speaker at the upcoming 12th AFPG 2020 meeting on 8 December. Due to Covid-19 restrictions, this meeting has become an online event that can be attended worldwide.

Mr Muijsenberg has been asked to talk about ‘Recent trends in the European glass industry’. He will explain how Europe is handling CO2 reduction requirements with strong investments into renewable energy and how the first offered Horizontal Hot Top Electric Hybrid Melter (H2EM) presented by GS and FIC in 2018 can help the industry achieve those goals. GS sister company FlammaTec already has hydrogen burners available to add to this concept.

The European glass container industry unveiled a glass hallmark this week, designed to highlight the environmental and health benefits of choosing products packaged in glass at a glance.

The hallmark is now available for licensed use on all glass packaging. The packaging symbol serves as a visual tool for brands and retailers to better communicate health and environmental credentials of glass to consumers, backed by growing consumer preference for products in glass packaging.

Following success in the Sustainability Awards in October, Ardagh Group has collected a World Beverage Innovation Award and a British Glass Glass Focus Award for its recycled glass briquettes project.

This is a method of producing remeltable briquettes from the fine particle glass rejected during the recycling process. 

“Receiving these industry awards is such amazing recognition of the effort put into the project by everyone involved, to prove the concept of remeltable briquettes produced from glass cullet fines, closing the glass loop” said Brendan O’Meara, from Ardagh’s European Glass Cullet team, who spearheaded the project.

www.ardaghgroup.com