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Verallia North America

Industry	Glass Production
Founded	1842
Headquarters	Muncie, Indiana
Products	Bottles, Jars
Number of employees	4,400
Website	http://us.verallia.com/

Verallia is the glass packaging brand of the multinational company Saint-Gobain. Verallia has 12 divisions separated by country, their North American division produces more than nine billion glass bottles and jars from thirteen plants located throughout the United States. Verallia North America is headquartered in Muncie, Indiana.

History

Verallia

Verallia North America can trace its roots in the United States back to 1842 when Joesph Foster started a glass factory in Stoddard, New Hampshire. This factory later grew into the Foster-Forbes Glass Company. In 1886 the Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company became the Ball Corporation. In 1995, the two U.S. glass companies merged to become Ball-Foster Glass Container Company and formed a joint venture with Saint-Gobain. With in one year Saint-Gobain had acquired the remaining interest in the joint venture. Ball-Foster Glass Container Company was renamed Saint-Gobain Containers in 2000. In 2010, Saint-Gobain Packaging launched the Verallia Brand name worldwide.

Saint-Gobain

Main article: Saint-Gobain

Verallia's parent company Saint-Gobain was founded in October 1665 with the original name Manufacture royale de glaces de miroirs. during this time they created mirrors and other flat glasses. Saint-Gobain maintained a monopoly over glass products in France until the nineteenth century when new competitors fueled by the industrial revolution entered the market. In 1918 the company expanded its manufacturing to bottles, jars, tableware and domestic glassware.

Production

Worldwide Production

all divisions of Verallia production combine to produce 25 billion containers annually, from 60 industrial sites in 13 different counties. These locations employ 15,000 people.

Verallia North America

accounts for 4,400 of these employees, 9 billion containers, and 13 factories.

Glass Plant Locations

• Dunkirk Indiana, 1889
• Port Allegany Pennsylvania, 1900
• Sapulpa Oklahoma, 1912
• Seattle Washington, 1931
• Lincoln Illinois, 1942
• Dolton Illinois, 1954
• Henderson North Carolina, 1960
• Burlington Wisconsin, 1965
• Ruston Louisiana, 1968
• Madera California, 1970
• Milford Massachusetts, 1973
• Wilson North Carolina, 1977
• Pevely Missouri, 1981

How Glass Containers are Made

Main article: glass production

Glass Production can generally be broken down into three stages of production: Batch, hot end, and cold end.

Batch

The batch is the combination of raw materials that will be melted down to produce the glass. Batch is generally made up of silica (SiO₂), sodium oxide (Na₂O), calcium oxide (CaO), cullet, and a variety of other minor ingredients to determine color and properties. Cullet is recycled glass and can make up large percentages of the batch mix depending on the glass being produced. The components of the batch are usually stored in large silos, often referred to as the batch house, that can contain days worth of production. In this stage of production metal detectors are used to find bits of metal such as jar lids and bottle caps that may have been found their way into the batch. If metal enters into the furnace it can cause damage to the furnace and defects in bottles.

Hot End

In the hot end the batch is feed directly into the furnace. The furnace will reach temperatures between 1400°C and 1600°C in order to melt the batch into molten glass. Next the molten glass travels though a forehearth to above the forming machines. In the forehearth the glass' temperature is monitored and can be adjusted by built in heating elements. Once the the glass reaches the forming machines a continuous stream of glass is dropped down, while falling industrial shears cut the molten glass into gobs. These gobs then flow into a robotic arm that will continuously redirect gobs to empty moulds. Once in the mold the gob will then go through one of two processes to be formed into a bottle, blow and blow or press and blow. Blow and blow consist of the gob being subjected to pressurized air to be partially formed then moved to a second mould where more pressurized air will turn the partially formed gob into a fully formed bottle. In the press and blow model a gob is directed to a first mould where a plunger pushes into the gob to make a partially formed gob, then like blow and blow it moves to a second mould where it is blown by pressurized aire to its final shape. After the containers are formed they are moved to the Lehr to go through an annealing process. During this annealing process the glass travels though the lehr which allows the glass to slowly cool. Uneven or rapid cooling of glass can compromise the structural integrity of the glass and make it brittle.

Cold End

While still hot to the touch, once the glass leaves the Lehr it is now considered in the cold end of production. In the cold end each bottle will travel though a series of quality control inspections that are usually preformed by automated machines. However in addition to the automated machines, people can use what are referred to as light box to visually inspect the glass. These inspections are used to find defects in the bottles and remove them from production, often sending them to become cullet for later batches. Common defects are checks, stones, blisters, and tears. Once the glass passes the quality inspections it is next sent to packaging. The glass can be packaged either by bulk pallets or boxed pallets. With bulk pallets the bottles are laid directly on the pallets and are held in place by shrink wrap. With boxed pallets the glass is first placed into boxes containing determined amounts of containers, then those boxes are stacked on a pallet and shrink wrapped in place. Once the glass is packaged it can either be sent directly to the customer or placed in a warehouse to be sold on a later date.

Sustainability

Glass is 100% recyclable and can be recycled without lose in quality or purity. Recycled glass is referred to as cullet, and is used in production of glass to reduce the amount of other materials used and reduce amount of energy required. Cullet usually makes up 25% to 60% of the batch. Verallia North America has set a goal to make cullet account for 50% of all batch used in their production by 2013. Verallia North America has started the Captain Cullet and little Gob O'Glass campaign to spread awareness of glass recycling to children. This is an interactive way to educate the younger generation about the importance of recycling, and includes activities such as a Virtual Education Program and animated cartoons.

See also

• Saint-Gobain
• Cullet
• Glass Packaging Institute
• GlassProduction