Container Glass & its State-of-the-Art Design Motivating Manufacture Supply

An inorganic product-glass-is produced by melting a mixture of soda ash, silica sand, and limestone along with desired metallic oxides which serve as coloring agents. Four principal segments of glass industry comprise of container glass, fiber glass, flat glass and specialty glass. Container glass stands out as the most pervasively used end-user products in daily households.

Leading container glass manufacturers possess state-of-the-art design expertise along with systems which can be integrated with design house concepts, thereby designing a container meeting the requirements of manufacture, branding, filling and distribution under good manufacturing practices and procedures.

Glass has for long been the packaging choice for over-the-counter attributed to potency, purity, transparency and weight. The over-the-counter pharmaceutical industry is fueled by the shift from uninformed and passive patients to an educated and eco-conscious consumer. Meanwhile, when it comes to biotech sector, the value chain is rigorously involved to provide a dynamic business model integrating a total control of packaging interaction, a sophisticated process capabilities and cost-effectiveness. These segments will witness robust growth and will present opportunities for the packaging sector. Container glass, as such, will be instrumental as a market differentiator not only in the roll out of new products, but also in offering functionalities such as anti-counterfeiting, convenience and safety.

When it comes to biotech sector, challenges glass packaging will have to combat are: the capability to maintain drug integrity from production to final delivery; ensure flexibility to pharmaceutical companies and to validate process capabilities by entire supply chain. With respect to reducing maintenance cost and capital expenditure, the high-quality level expected by biotech companies is destined to shape new products and services in years to come.

Glass Container in Food & Beverage Industry

A range of foods packed in glass containers are, included but not limited to:

• Dairy products;
• Instant coffee;
• Processed baby foods;
• Spices;
• Sugar preserves;
• Fish & Meat products;
• Spirits;
• Wines;
• Mineral water;
• Soft drink;
• Vegetables;
• Syrups.

Within these categories of food and beverages, the products range from granules and dry powders to liquids, some of these are products which are heat sterilized and carbonated and packed under pressure.

The emotional bond between consumer and brand is supremely valued by food and beverages consumers. To add, the innate ability of glass to be formed into distinct shapes with a range of decoration techniques, it is vividly evident as to why glass is sought after by designers, too. Meanwhile, the glass container has an advanced profile with unique advantages, incorporating the following:

• Transparency: To be able to see the product brings forth transparency into play having an edge for the purchaser.
• Quality Image: It is unhidden that consumers have innate, high quality perception when it comes to glass packaged product, inevitably, they are even prepared to pay a premium; for products such as liqueurs and spirits.
• UV Protection: While green glass can provide partial UV protection, amber glass provides UV protection to the product.
• Strength: Despite of glass being a brittle material, container glass possess high top-load strength, making it easier to handle in the course of distribution and filling. Though unfavorably, the weight factor of glass is compared with plastics, significant savings can be made in distribution and warehousing costs. Container glass can withstand high-top-loading minimal secondary packaging. Through even distribution of glass in the course of container manufacture, impact resistance is enhanced.
• Environmental Benefits: Aptly designed glass containers are reusable and returnable with minimal degradation in performance. Besides, the glass in glass containers can be recycled through using it in glass furnaces, and a new glass containers can be made subsequently. Through technical advances in manufacturing, design and handling, considerable savings in container weight can be made, thereby saving resources used to make and use the glass.

To reiterate, consumers have linked glass-packaged products with a high quality perception. Primarily, there are five benefits for food packaging in container glass market, namely: quality perception; aesthetic appeal; preferred taste; product visibility and resealability.

Quality & Inspection of Container

Quality assurance is indispensable to assure brand owner’s needs and efficiency, consumer safety, distribution and merchandising and packing are achieved. On the other hand, quality control incorporates the procedures, along with sampling and test methods and on-line inspection to assess and control the process conformity with the specification. The techniques applied can be defined as physical, chemical and visual.

Physical tests encompass checking tests for color, dimensional tolerances, thermal shock resistance, impact strength and internal pressure strength.

Chemical testing through flame photometry, spectrophotometry and X-ray fluorescence is used to assess finished glass and raw materials.

As far as visual tests are concerned, it is paramount that production be checked meticulously by planned procedures. Some of the defects include glass strands, cracks, foreign bodies, surface marks of various kinds and process material contamination from the process environment. As such, defects can be minor (with respect to appearance in spite of the container glass being functionally satisfactory); major (seriously hampering efficiency in packaging) and critical (endangering the consumer or preventing the use in packaging).

Arslan Khan is currently living in Delhi, working as a Senior Research Manager @ Fact.MR. He is a blogger with unique content each time.