UG are part of the Owens-Illinois Group and are now operating as O-I, under the parent company name, and are part of the worlds leading manufacturer of glass packaging and glass making technology.

The visit was hosted by Paul McLavin, Development Manager, and the Factory tour and facility presentation given by Bob Marshall, Factory Manager and Mark Eldridge, Quality Control Manager. An opening presentation on glass recycling and manufacture was given by Jim Powell, Recycling Development Manager for British Glass Recycling.

It was explained that The British Glass Recycling Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of O-I and supplements the infeed of raw materials of sand, limestone and soda ash into the batching plant with recycled glass, 79% cullet for green, 30% for amber and 40% for white flint. Raw material preparation is an important part of the operation and Jim explained that cullet is accurately weighed and foreign objects removed particularly Ceramic objects which are detected using laser equipment as these could cause furnace damage.

The site has three furnaces for White flint, Amber glass and Green glass;

No.1 White flint up to 250 tons per day.

No.2 Amber glass up to 150 tons per day.

No 3 Green glass up to 250 tons per day.

All furnaces together produce a daily average of 650 tons of glass per day, and, operate at a temperature of around 1100°C, and this temperature controlled to an accuracy of ±1.0°C. The process at Harlow is specifically designed for production of one trip lightweight bottles, for beer and FAB production.

On our tour of the plant we had the opportunity of seeing controlled gobs of molten glass being dropped into blank moulds and pressed into a blank shape by a plunger and then transferred to a blow mould and blown by air into its final bottle shape. This process is known as the Narrow Neck Press and Blow method, and during our tour a detailed explanation of this process was given by Bob Marshall when sample parts of the Blank moulds, plungers and blow moulding equipment were laid out in the workshop for demonstration purposes.

On completion of the blow moulding process we saw bottles being fed into a high capacity annealing oven (called a Lehr) where they are reheated to remove stresses. Bottles are given a Tin Oxide treatment at the hot end of the Lehr are then cooled under carefully controlled conditions and when reaching the cold end are spray coated on the outside with a polyurethane based substance all designed to give the container added strength, and a degree of lubricity, allowing lightweighting and resistance to abrasion. Bottles are then fed to palletisers on open bottle conveyors.

Inspection of bottles is carried out on the conveying system by feeding bottles into automated bottle inspection machines which carry out a video inspection on every bottle, looking at all areas of the bottle, to detect any flaws or imperfections. Further volume checks are also carried out in the laboratory but as Bob Marshall explained, the advantage of the Press and Blow method is to give a consistent glass distribution during the moulding process thus ensuring subsequent high standards in container dimensions.

As a further indication of high standards at Harlow, pallets of finished bottles are stacked 10 layers high and strapped between cardboard layer pads with a top board to ensure full pallet stability and despatched to a recently redeveloped warehouse to accommodate the necessary buffer stocks for their customers.

The factory operates 24 hours per day 7days per week and employs 215 team members on continuous shifts. Its customers for lightweight beer bottles include Coors, Anheuser Busch and Interbrew, Scottish Courage and Beverage Brands.

The visit was rounded off by a buffet lunch during which John Yates, National Chairman, on behalf of BBI members, congratulated our Hosts on the high standard of the visit and also expressed thanks for the very interesting presentations and tour of their fascinating blowing plant and production facility.

Submitted by: Brian Gibbs, Southern Section Coordinator,

The British Bottlers’ Institute