Main Ingredients
• Silica Sand• Lime (from limestone), • Magnesium Oxide • Aluminum Oxide• Sodium Carbonate
(Soda Ash)
Gathering Resources
• Silica Sand: Gathered from everywhere in the world. Form of Quartz.
• Limestone: also found all over the world, but in big rocks.
• Magnesium Oxide: Taken from nature in the form of Periclase.
• Aluminum Oxide: Gathered from naturally reoccurring rocks called corundum.
• Soda Ash: Extracted from ashes of plants and produced from table salt and limestone from Solvay Process.
ManufacturingProduction of glass
• Made by: the mixing of Calcium Carbonate, Sand, and Sodium Carbonate (Waste Glass)
• Heated in a furnace at 2550° F• The molten glass then is then rolled/cut into “globs” - Globs are put into molds then molded by air. This process is called a
Parison
- The process of expanding the glass is called blowing- Final step of this process is annealing, which is the
reheating and gradual cooling
Three types of molding
• Extrusion- glass is in a tube shaped parison• Injection- inject the glass directly into a mold • Injection stretch- Glass is blown and stretched by a
metal rod at the same time • Parison is the the molten glass in the mold before it
takes the hollowness of the bottle
Process
http://wisedude.com/science_engineering/bottles.htm
Packaging
• Most Popular way they are packaged in bulk is called pallets.– Pallets usually contain between 1000 and 4000
containers each. – Carried out to the trucks by automatic machines.• Aka palletisers which arrange and stack container
– Other ways of packaging include boxes and hand sewn sacks.
Consumer Use
• Various Popular Products– Snapple– Arizona Iced Tea– Alcohol– Root Beer…ect.
• Cleaner and less dangerous chemically than plastic– However glass breaks
Marketing• Mature market business.
– Industry sales associated with population growth.• Geographical business.
– Product is heavy and large in volume, major raw materials (sand, soda ash and limestone)
– production facilities need to be close to their markets.• Glass furnace—100s of tons of glass• Factories run 24/7.
– +/- 3% change in production rates.• High costs
– The marketing challenge• predict and influence demand both in the short + long term
• High level of consumer acceptance and is perceived as a “premium” quality packaging format.
Recycling of Glass Bottles• Americans throw away
enough glass bottles ever two weeks to fill the, 1,350 foot towers of the world trade center
• This is the process of turning used glass, back into usable glass
• You have to separate glass by chemical composition, and sometimes color
Facts
• Most bottles and jars already contain 25% recycled glass
• Glass NEVER wears out, it lasts forever
• Recycling glass reduces pollution by 14-20%
What actually Happens
• Glass is sorted• Put in different colored
piles• Glass cleaned and
crushed in small pieces called cullet
• Cullet transported to plant and mixed with sand, soda ash and limestones
• After mixture is complete, it is then put in a furnace that reaches temp. of 2800
• Melted glass is dropped into a glass forming machine
• Mold is then removed, then glass is cooled and inspected.
Sites
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glass#Glass_ingredients
• http://www.consol.co.za/irj/go/km/docs/site/pages/gathering_raw_materials.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnesium_oxide
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corundum• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_carbona
te