Senior

Production - Making Container Glass

Container glass is made of simple natural ingredients. The most common virgin materials are silica sand, soda ash and limestone*. These materials are mined all over North America, and there is a plentiful supply available. The following pie chart illustrates the basic list and the minor ingredients required for container glass:

Silica Sand Soda Ash Salt Cake Alumina-Silicate Limestone Minor Ingredients
An energy and cost effective alternative when making container glass is the addition of a variable percentage of crushed furnace-ready recycled container glass or cullet. This can be added to the material batch to reduce the amount of virgin raw materials used. The percentage of cullet used varies based on the consistency and quality of supply. Glass furnaces prefer a stable blend. The use of recycled container glass conserves virgin materials, while at the same time reducing solid waste by diverting glass containers from going to landfill. Also, as cullet has a lower melting temperature than virgin materials there is an energy savings when recycled container glass is used to make new glass container.
* Virgin materials refer to newly mined ingredients whereas raw materials includes cullet.

Container glass can be produced in many different colours. The most common being, flint (clear), amber (brown) and various shades of green and light blue.

The raw materials required to make the different colours of glass are classified as minor ingredients in the pie chart. Specifically, the materials for each colour are:

Amber: Green: Light Blue:

Iron Sulphide Iron-Chromite Cobalt

Flint: is colourless glass, also called clear.

Each colour of glass serves a specific function for the companies that buy and fill the glass containers with food, beverages and other products. The colour choice is made by the company buying the package, not the manufacturer of the glass container. A certain glass colour may be used for marketing purposes to make the product look more appealing to the consumer. Flint, or clear container glass, may be preferable to enable the consumer to view the product inside. Another colour may be chosen for technical reasons. For example, the brewery industry tends to use amber glass to protect beer against damage by ultraviolet light. Too much exposure to light can make the beer go skunky, meaning that it loses the quality of its taste. Something to think about: Container glass is a reference to the material whereas glass container is a reference to the package. Glass container manufacturing is unique among packaging materials as the making of the material and the manufacturing of the package is one continuous process.

The glass container manufacturing process begins when virgin materials required for the manufacturing process are received and stored in huge silos. These materials are then transferred through a gravity feed system to a weigher and mixer to ensure homogeneous melting, where they are mixed with cullet (crushed furnace ready recycled glass containers). The mixture is conveyed to a batch storage bin where it is held until dropped into the feeder to the furnace where it is melted. The furnace most commonly used is a continuous regenerative furnace capable of reaching temperatures in excess of the 1500C. This high heat is needed to melt the ingredient materials, producing between 100 and 400 tonnes of glass containers per day. As the materials melt together container glass is formed; it passes to the front of the furnace and eventually flows through a throat leading to the refiner. In the refiner, the molten glass is heat conditioned for delivery to the forming process; at this point the container glass is a fluid substance, flowing like lava. Once the glass is shaped into a container, it is fed to a lehr oven for annealing, which is the removing of any unwanted stress areas in the glass container. It is then inspected and prepared for shipment to market. Any damaged or defective glass is transferred back to the batch plant to be used as cullet. The flowchart diagram below summarizes the glass container manufacturing process.

Raw Materials

Melting Furnace

Glass Forming

Annealing

Inspection

Cullet Crushing

Packing

Ship to Market*

* The market refers to the company that fills the bottle or jar with product. It is then shipped to stores where your involvement starts.