Emphasising the Simplest Glass-Saving Secret Ever! (Making Glass Containers for FREE)

(Newsletter Written By?Peter J Firth M.Sc.)

Hello and welcome to the January 2023 Newsletter.

So Happy New Year!

You will recall that after issuing the first newsletter last month, I changed the title of the Newsletter. I changed the word 'Insight' to 'Secrets'.

Why?

Well, I think the information we will discuss here and in subsequent newsletters is more worth in value than a mere 'insight', for sure there is more value in a 'secret'... even if it is an open secret to some.

For those who don't know about some of the topics I will present in the newsletter, then those topics might as well have been a well-kept secret. That is because you may go through your glass-working-life and were never aware of the information, not to mention the value it can bring to your part in the glass container-making process.

What I am about to present here in this Newsletter is going to give you a means of access to some of the latest equipment in the glass container industry you should be aware of. Not only that, but I will appraise the equipment from the point of view of a true "glass man" and point out the benefits that might not be immediately obvious. That said, let's get into the body of this second newsletter...

Last month I reviewed one of Konatic's products which is their Gob Shape Monitoring and Weight Control System, Called the SMART GOB. I went out to see this in operation at a glass plant and got feedback from the staff there who were using it to improve quality, as well as save glass at the same time. The photo in this newsletter was taken while I was on site, looking at the details of the operation of the system.

A link to the article I wrote after the on-site visit is here in case you want to read it to understand the opportunity the system offers glass plants with this equipment.

LINK to the Article on the Konatic SMART GOB System

I am repeating the mention of this here because there was a Post by Ardagh on LinkedIn that reminded us of how far we have come with the lightweighting of glass containers since the 1960s. Of course, in that period we have had the introduction of the NNPB process, which is largely responsible for considerable weight reduction steps. That also challenge those who could only make in BB due to bottle design, and in turn, there was a lightweight BB approach (LWBB) which uses all possible means to get the lightest BB bottle.

I commented on the post to the effect of the statements above and then went on to remind people that there are still fine-tuning that can be done to the existing (already-light-weighted) jobs to save even more glass. This seems to be a very well-kept secret, as not many people do it. The idea here is that for any container you run, run it to the lowest end of the glass weight specification whilst fulfilling all other quality performance criteria. If this is only 2% lighter than the nominal weight specification, that means you get to make a free bottle every 50 bottles.

Well, you don't need to ask me to know how many extra bottles you will make for free and sell at the normal price over a year! It runs into making hundreds of thousands of dollars extra in value. That goes straight to the bottom line profits. I know because I did it. I did it using NNPB where we carefully assigned the displacements of blanks to bring a 200g job to a working blank displacement that worked at 196g. So saving 4g for each bottle produced.

Note that for many years we produced the same bottle at 204g, simply because we did not control the displacement of the new blanks closely enough. Imagine the saving in raw materials over the year... or free bottles produced, whichever way you wish to look at it. Well, that is easy with NNPB, but on BB and Wide Mouth PB you can also do the same.

The trick is how to control the weight to the lower end. That is where the Konatic system comes in as it does it by visually monitoring the gobs and calculating the weight from the image. In effect, it checks every bottle and can adjust the tube in the spout to hold the weight you want.

Conventionally, BB and sometimes WM PB , the weight is controlled by the operator and needs a wide operating window because of that. What the Konatic system does is allow you to set the weight lower and hold that but without going out of specification at the lower end.

The payback on these systems is less than a year if used correctly, and more like 3 or 4 months if it gives you a large step forward. Partly that is because the system is not so expensive, and partly because the savings on weight are considerable if set up correctly.

In addition to this, the system offers other features that I mention in the article. Those other benefits are perhaps harder to assign savings or benefits to, but nonetheless, they come as a bonus. I wanted to repeat this message in this second newsletter because I think it is important the whole glass industry sees the potential.

There should be NO glass plant not having a focus on this in some way. Otherwise, we have a hole in our pocket and money is just flowing away. Not to mention the benefits to the environment.

Of course, you have to put things in place to maintain all the other quality criteria such as glass thickness and capacity control. But in some cases, it helps with quality such as holding steady weight on jobs with a lot of glass in the base (like on cosmetics). In this situation, the depth of the push up is easier to hold steady. This gives the added bonus of fewer rejections for out-of-specification push up depths.

I can of course offer consultancy on this topic if you need any help getting started. Just message me direct on linked in from my profile you can access by clicking my name here, Peter J Firth M.Sc.. There are details you need to be aware of, but most glass plants will already recognise what those are and can work just with the principles mentioned in this Newsletter. Others may want help.

Finally, to lay the foundation for future support of the offerings of new technology from other great companies, I am reminding you that I have created a place where my equipment reviews can be accessed easily. Even though these are still on LinkedIn, I have added a domain name to the link so it is easy to remember whenever you might want to go there and see who has been added.

The domain name for the link is?www.Meet-The-GUYS.com

If you go to this domain name link right now, you will just see Konatic and SEI Inc. featured, but in the coming months, other GUYS will be added. On the links provided, you can check out some of their other products that offer glass plants some distinct advantages.

If you don't know the background to 'Meet The GUYS' (and would like to know about it), here is a link to the Glass International article I wrote on the topic:

LINK to The GUYS and the GIANTS of the Glass Industry Article

I hope you enjoyed reading this newsletter and you took a few 'secrets' to heart.

I look forward to seeing you in the next edition of this Newsletter.

• Peter J Firth M.Sc.