Explore the exhibition

PANEL 08

THE CIRCULAR JOURNEY: PRODUCTION

FEVE is the Federation of European manufacturers of glass containers for food and beverage and flacons for perfumery, cosmetics and pharmacy markets. It’s members produce over 80 billion glass containers per year.

Glass is designed for the environment: glass bottles are 30% lighter today than 20 years ago while maintaining product preservation, recyclability and innovative design. Also, the energy use required to produce glass packaging has been reduced by 80% in the last 50 years.

THE CIRCULAR JOURNEY: PRODUCTION

FEVE is the Federation of European manufacturers of glass containers for food and beverageand flacons for perfumery, cosmetics and pharmacy markets. It’s members produce over 80 billion glass containers per year. Glass is designed for the environment: glass bottles are 30% lighter today than 20 years ago while maintaining product preservation, recyclability and innovative design. Also, the energy use required to produce glass packaging has been reduced by 80% in the last 50 years.

STAGES OF GLASS PRODUCTION

FUSION

The manufacturing process for glass containers starts by mixing raw materials (silica
sand, sodium carbonate, limestone) with the empty container from recycling (clean and crushed) to feed the fusion furnace, where tempratures reach over 1,500ºC. These furnaces function 24 hours a day, 365 days a year throughout their useful life of some 12 to 15 years.

FORMING

After melting and refining (elimination of blisters), the
molten glass, now at around 1,000ºC, is cut into gobs with a weight equal to that of the final container, which are put into the different moulds in the manufacturing machine. There, through a set of processes of pressing and blowing (blow and blow, or press and blow techniques), the new containers are shaped.

ANNEALING

Once the glass bottles or
jars have been made, still
at a high temperature
(around 500º C) they are
placed in an annealing
oven or lehr to prevent
internal tensions forming
because of rapid cooling.
They are reheated by
passing slowly through a
tunnel, which then cools
them in a controlled manner. In this way, the glass becomes more resistant.

INSPECTION

Lastly, an aligner distributes the containers on the different quality control lines, for their subsequent packaging and transportation.
A set of electronic machines control all the containers and highly specialized staff perform other control functions. Containers that fail to meet the foreseen quality demands are taken off the line to be recycled in the production cycle.