Empakglass presents Quality Control & Cold End Equipment at Glasstec 2016

Empakglass will be presenting at GLASSTEC exhibition, which will take place at the Dusseldorf Messe in Germany, from the 20th to the 23rd of September 2016, in Hall 13 stand D10, a new partnership with the Italian company: Parmacontrols.

Parmacontrols - established since 1992 - has been carrying out its activity in quality control systems for food packaging, canning, bottling, pharmaceutical and chemical industries, being the sole EMEA full distributor for CanNeed Instrument Ltd.

Empakglass will show on its stand CanNeed equipment dedicated to the quality control of glass bottles and jars. This equipment is dedicated to the standard tests of the Glass Container industry, performed in the daily operations of a glass plant:

• CanNeed-BPT-400: Ramp Pressure Tester

• CanNeed-VLT-100: Vertical Load Tester

• CanNeed-GIT-100: Glass Bottle Impact Tester

• CanNeed-SFAT-100: Static Friction Angle Tester (Tilt Table)

• CanNeed-MBT-200: Thickness Gauge

Besides the mentioned equipment, that will be in display, we will be offering a complete range of industry standard test equipment at a very competitive price.

With this partnership we will be providing to our customers a reliable and attractive alternative to current options, presenting some new equipment features.

We invite everyone to pass by our Stand which will be located on Hall 13, D10, to talk face to face with our several Specialists and see what we have been doing and what we intend to introduce to the Industry. Looking forward to meet you in Düsseldorf.

Glass Compositions & Color Changes Software

Empakglass’s Software Division will present during Glasstec 2016, the Glass Compositions & Color Changes Software.

Developed in close junction with the Technical Services from Empakglass and tested in real case situations, its goal is, besides the obvious glass composition thermal and physical properties, to:

• Determine the target gob temperatures (not just the Log 3.0) according to the weight, cavity rate, type of cooling system;

• Suggest all the delivery system, from the orifice ring up until the deflectors;

• Optimize and predict colour change patterns;

• Pinpoint where the issues occur;

• Keep it simple for the user.

As an example, on this particular colour change, which caused several sulphate blisters, by simulating the actual steps taken, it is possible to verify, where the problems start to arise and the reason for it. On this case, it is a combination between SO3/SO2 solubility in the glass with the specific REDOX of the colour change in the same timeframe.

By adjusting the previous steps, it is possible to predict and even to correct in a faster way such outcome and bring back the glass quality into the Acceptance Limits.

Other features available in this software is the integration of the actual Glass Composition physical and thermal properties, with the real gob temperature as well to provide the IS Production team, the required data in terms of:

• Intended Cavity Rate, Gob temperature, Orifice ring and delivery system dimensions for the intended article to produce according to the actual glass composition used.

The thermal data simulated on this software, both in terms of conduction and radiation, for each particular glass composition in the IS production process thermal range, can also be used in other commercial Forming softwares available in the market. With this, you may tune up your simulation results in terms glass thickness profiles, prior to any real trial on the IS machine.

We invite everyone to pass by our Stand which will be located on Hall 13, D10, to talk face to face with our several Specialists and see what we have been doing and what we intend to introduce to the Industry.

Looking forward to meet you in Düsseldorf.

The future of the B&F department inside a Glass Plant?

Two years ago, I wrote this little memo in our Linkedin Page and received very interesting feedback.

As we are approaching Glasstec 2016 where Empakglass will present several software packages, ranging from Forming Simulation to Glass Properties & Colour Changes, we decided to place it in our new Website’s Blog, to bring back some highlight and focus on a very important contribution for Glass Companies results, often left to oblivion.

"Although not as visible as the IS Production and Mould Design departments, when we take in consideration the global process to produce glass, the Batch & Furnaces Operation becomes paramount. Taking this into consideration and having worked with several plants all around the world, I found a common trend when it comes to the approach to this specific Department and its importance on the overall process. On one hand, several plants look at this department in a way based on: “If it isn’t causing problems, let’s not change anything, we have bigger issues…” – leaving little room for continuous improvements;

And on another hand, I came to realize that the Human Resources philosophy regarding this department (hot, dusty and routine work, so the most vibrant people in the industry don’t want to do it, preferring instead for example, the IS production) the know-how of the staff in some cases as really fallen, making it extremely hard to have a continuous improvement working method.

Not helping on this situation is the fact that the majority of the companies, for financial reasons, are only hiring people at the last moment to substitute the staff that is retiring, leaving little time and motivation for the built in knowledge over the years to be passed to the new generations.

So, although, technologically we see that there has been advances across the years, either in the engineering or even control software, on the other hand, the staff that operates and decides these “mega investments”, aren’t technically so well prepared to handle them in order to maximize the furnace lifetime and the specific consumption, and translating financially into lowering the amortization costs and the cost per ton of produced glass across the years. ​Due to the specificities of this particular step in the glass production process, both in terms of raw materials, energy consumption and installation amortizations, it is the major contribution to the total specific cost of producing a ton of glass, make it decisive when talking about a Glass Plant being competitive or not in the market that it moves and for the full period of a campaign, which is roughly around a decade.

So, if this is so important, why don’t glass companies have a sensibility for considering the B&F operations critical for the future of the Organization? Won’t it financially pay off afterwards?”

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We invite everyone to come to our 2016 open training workshops, to meet and talk face to face with our several Specialists.

Remember, these are seminars developed by professionals to professionals, on the glass packaging industry.

This year our Batch, furnace and glass conditioning training will be held between October 17th - 21st, in Lisbon. During this seminar Simulations for Colour Changes, Glass Properties and Operation Optimization (cost reductions) will be made with Empakglass's developed Software.

If you need more detailed information on the fees, dates and target audience, you can download our brochure here.