Amber jars and bottles are mainly used for packaging medicine and light-sensitive food. To produce these jars, a brown colour carrier is mixed into the glass batch. Up to now, this mixture has been melted in a tank furnace heated with gas. A purely electrical heating of the tank is not yet feasible according to the current state of the art, especially with regard to the stability of the colour.

At the Institute for Glass and Glass Technology of TU Bergakademie Freiberg, researchers are investigating the parameters that influence the amber colour in an electric pilot melting plant. “Once we have identified these parameters, we can specifically optimise the conditions in the glass melt. To this end, we are also investigating alternative raw materials for the formation of the brown colour body,” explains Dr. Khaled Al Hamdan, Research Associate and Project Coordinator. “The aim is to ensure consistency of colour, a bubble-free glass and stabilisation of the so-called cold batch blankets on the melt, which is important for mitigating radiation losses as well as evaporation of volatile components.”

The research project will be organised and funded by the project management organisation AiF-IGF-Forschungsvereinigung for the next two years. The research results will benefit supplier companies in the field of glass melting systems and plant technology (mostly small and medium-sized enterprises in the project-accompanying committee) as well as glass manufacturing companies.

tu-freiberg.de

Image: Amber glass bottles made entirely by electric melting are a challenge for glass makers.