The Johns Manville plant in Richland, Mississippi, has started making non-woven filtration media that will be used to create much-needed face masks to help stop the spread of Covid-19. “Our high performance non-woven material is designed to provide high levels of filtration for various types of face masks” Mary Rhinehart, President and CEO commented “and Johns Manville is in a unique position to serve a market that is fulfilling a great need across the world.”

Most non-woven production of face masks was abandoned in the USA many years ago and was transferred to Asia.

The latest production expansion at one of China’s leading beer bottle producers features three swabbing robots and Press Duration Control PDC equipment sourced from Germany’s Heye International GmbH. The swabbing robots are the first to be installed by Heye in the country.

Shandong Jingyao Glass Group Co Ltd has invested strongly in the high speed production of lightweight bottles in recent years. As well as supplying bottles for China’s iconic Tsingtao beer, the company has emerged as an important source for such global brands as AB InBev, Carlsberg, Heineken and Snow Beer.

The glassworks in Linyi City, Shandong Province features four melting furnaces and 16 high speed production lines, with a combined nominal capacity of 1000 tons/day.

Glaston Group has closed a deal for two insulating glass lines from French window manufacturer TRYBA. The B’VARIO TPS insulating glass line is an individually configurable production line for insulating glass units, equipped with Thermo Plastic Spacer TPS.

Specialising in windows, doors, verandas and pergolas, TRYBA occupies a strong position in the French market. Already familiar with Bystronic glass products for more than two decades, the company was looking for a solution that automates and simplifies production and reduces stocks of components used in the manufacture of insulated glass units. In addition, a flexible solution was needed in response to customer demands, as well as delivering further improvements to product quality.

Germany’s GTC has recently commissioned a 200 tonnes/day glass container plant in Tur, Poland. Construction of this brownfield project was initiated in 2019 on behalf of glass decoration specialist Dekorglass Dzialdowo SA, with GTC responsible for project management.

The furnace is designed to produce an extra flint composition, while simultaneously reducing NOx and CO2. It serves three lines for the production of high quality liqueur bottles.

The IS machines were specially designed by GTC to match the customer’s requirements. The same goes for the cold end, including the latest technology in terms of camera and star wheel inspection machines. All equipment originates from Germany and Italy and is described as state-of-the-art technology.

It is with great regret that the Society of Glass Technology has announced the death of Miss Rosemary Sales on 19 April 2020, after contracting Covid-19.

A member of the SGT since 1950 and a stalwart of the Yorkshire Section, serving as Secretary for many years, Rosemary will be sadly missed by friends and colleagues in her glass family.

A full obituary will follow in the July/August 2020 issue of Glass Worldwide. 

www.sgt.org

EuroCities, representing governing bodies of more than 140 of Europe's largest cities and over 45 partner cities at the European level, has joined ‘Close the Glass Loop’, the multi-stakeholder circular economy partnership for glass packaging.

Close The Glass Loop is currently composed of FEVE, FERVER, EXPRA, UNESDA and Municipal Waste Europe. EuroCities and Close the Glass Loop will work together to improve post-consumer glass packaging collection and recycling in urban areas.

Stoelzle Glass Group has turned to technology supplier Forglass to design, fabricate and install a system for handling cullet at the group’s Köflach plant in Austria. The challenge is to increase the capacity of cullet transport, while also reducing its overall footprint.

The Forglass system is designed to handle the unloading of PCR cullet brought in by truck or bucket loader, storing it in three silos and dosing it directly onto belt conveyors.

Poland’s Forglass will also design and construct a steel-framed building for the entire system, which will be attached to the existing batch plant.

Trade associations representing the USA’s glass, aluminium and plastic (PET) industries have joined together to emphasise the critical role that the recycled bottles and cans redeemed and returned through the country’s 10 beverage container deposit programmes play in the supply chains of essential packaging.

Federal guidance issued by the Department of Homeland Security’s CISA Division, along with dozens of state Executive Orders, have long recognised the food and beverage industries, along with their packaging and supply chain partners, as ‘essential’. Recycled bottles and cans, similar to raw materials and other inputs, are part of this supply chain for food and beverage packaging commodities.