The content of the presentation will cover the role of digital technologies in glass production, the integration of data, artificial intelligence, and digital twin concepts, as well as traceability, sustainability, energy management, and future trends and vision.

Production facilities in glass industry are capital intensive and require long investment cycles, while market and energy price have become volatile. Depending on market, glass producers are now facing complex choices in energy sources: using current fossil fuel as natural gas, oxy-gas, hydrogen and completing it by electrical boosting before going to full electric furnaces.

A side effect of reducing GHG emissions by electrical boosting, is the higher corrosion rate of material in contact with glass, especially in melting bath areas. Exposed to these trends, all glass industry (container, flat, specialty, insulation, reinforcement, and display) is adapting its industrial strategy to use their current furnaces in the best way and is considering which furnace technology will be used for the next two decades.

This is why SEFPRO CARE has developed and propose complete repair solutions to perform hot & cold repairs for any glass market, providing flexibility, reliability in management of industrial asset as are glass furnaces.

The purpose of this article is to give an overview of possibilities offered for hot and cold repairs, using shaped or unshaped products, which are illustrated with two feedbacks from repair work done on regenerator chamber and container glass furnace.

With the GIZAZ glassworks project in Qatar, Falorni Tech has fully expressed its engineering and construction capabilities. From the initial stages of the project, the glassworks faced challenges due to limited space in relation to production capacity. However, these constraints did not result in compromised solutions; instead, they led to the development of a modern facility that fully meets the customer's specifications and expectations.

In this presentation, we will provide an overview of the design criteria and technical solutions implemented, highlighting the various construction phases leading up to the startup of the plant.

With hot end sensing and robotics new possibilities for glass making are within reach. In addition, with Data Science and AI more new opportunities are unlocked. XPAR Vision continues to invest in these technologies.

During the presentation learnings will be shared and examples given. Based on these learnings it is concluded that combining AI and data driven KPI’s allow for setting new standards for glass manufacturing, defined by actionable data leading to improved forming process control and optimization. As such allowing for future-proofing glass making.

The glass industry needs a step-change in technology if it is to achieve net-zero. This involves high risk R&D at a large/industrially-relevant scale. Glass Futures is a not-for-profit research organisation, built by its members from across the global glass industry to do exactly this, at a Centre of Excellence being built in St Helens, UK. The remit of the organisation is to enable its members from across the glass supply chain and beyond to collaborate in areas which affect all parties, with a particular focus on decarbonisation of the glass-making process and its upstream and downstream activities.

At the heart of the new Glass Futures’ facility is a 30 tonnes/day pilot-scale glass furnace, due to be commissioned in spring 2025. The facility has been designed to enable the industry to develop and trial new technologies at an industrially relevant scale, without risk to their commercial manufacturing assets, thus providing increased confidence for manufacturers looking to invest in low-carbon technologies such as alternative fuels, CCUS technologies and new raw materials. As well as being capable of developing and proving technology, the facility allows global glass industry partners to benefit from extensive training opportunities.

In this presentation, the authors will provide an overview of the new Glass Futures facility and the initial programme of pilot-scale trials focusing around low-carbon energy sources (biofuels, electric boost, hydrogen) will be highlighted. In addition, some of the key research work conducted by Glass Futures and partners in this area will be discussed.

Batch and cullet melting represent the initial stages of the glass melting process. The stability of this process, influenced by factors such as pull, cullet level, glass color, raw material variations, rheological behavior, and the batch charger, is crucial for ensuring optimal glass quality in gas-fired furnaces. The potential instability necessitates continuous 24-hour monitoring and potential corrective control to minimize quality issues. Additionally, the increasing electric boosting levels resulting from the decarbonization process have the capacity to alter glass convection loops, displacing batch downstream in the process.

In cold top melting furnaces, the thickness of the batch plays a pivotal role in insulating the hot glass melt and minimizing heat loss. However, variations in pull and cullet can significantly impact batch thickness. Until now, there has been a lack of systems capable of measuring the actual batch thickness or height and incorporating this parameter into automatic model-based predictive furnace control.

This paper will present the latest developments and results for both gas-fired and cold top electric melters.

Glassmakers need sustainable solutions that reduce emissions, while upholding glass quality. Several technologies exist in the market at varying levels of readiness for decarbonization, but some are suitable for production than others. Hybrid melting is the most reliable solution to decarbonize glass making while still allowing for flexible production. It ensures that glassmakers can adapt to local energy market conditions and different business case situations over their equipment’s lifetime. This paper will present an analysis of Fives’ hybrid melting technology. It will also examine the impact of Fives’ revolutionary heat recovery and air preheating system to create further efficiency gains.

The glass moulding process using IS machines for jars and bottles is the cornerstone of container glass production. This high-speed operation demands precision, as even minor defects are identified by rigorous quality inspection systems. Compressed air and vacuum are crucial in shaping the glass gob, ensuring it fills the mould cavity completely by displacing air.

In glass factories, compressors and vacuum pumps are often the largest consumers of electrical power, aside from electric furnaces. In an era of heightened environmental consciousness and carbon footprint awareness, selecting energy-efficient compressors and pumps is critical to reducing CO2 emissions and optimizing energy consumption.

Sustainability extends beyond energy efficiency: with furnaces designed for a lifespan of up to 20 years, auxiliary equipment must also meet long-term durability and performance standards. High-quality machinery, backed by extended warranties and well-defined maintenance plans, significantly reduces downtime and costly repairs, supporting both operational efficiency and environmental goals.

The industry is increasingly prioritizing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) over low upfront costs. Investing in robust, energy-efficient equipment minimizes environmental impact, aligning economic benefits with ecological responsibility - a decisive shift for a sustainable future in glass manufacturing.

Artificial Intelligence is present in our everyday life. But what are the main benefits of AI in industry for real needs of glassmakers? Thanks to the standardization of communication protocols on a production line, the interoperability of robots allows an exchange of information. Thanks to deep learning techniques in intelligent inspection robots, it is now possible to anticipate production trends in addition to an accurate detection and categorization of defects. IRIS intelligent solutions can thus increase productivity by highly accurate defect identification, managing the settings optimization and integrating the production trends prediction. Decreasing the dependence on human factor is a key goal of IRIS AI-based strategic developments.

- energy saving and cost down through layout plan, building structure and construction, proper means of conveying
- valid solutions for conveying, storage, weighing, mixing and de-dusting, combined with robust equipment to reach stability and reliability
- visual production, automation and artificial intelligence

The glass industry is undergoing significant transformations to align with global sustainability goals, particularly in reducing the energy consumption and lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

This presentation examines the latest advancements in glass melting technology that meet these sustainability requirements. Key focus areas include the evolution of common furnace types with a shift towards to eco-friendly end fired furnaces, hybrid furnaces and super-hybrid furnaces.

These furnaces types demonstrate improved thermal efficiency and reduced emissions.

Additionally the implementation of hydrogen firing as alternative combustion medium will be explained.

These advancements meet today's environmental demands and secure a sustainable future for the glass industry.

For the first time in 5,000 years, glass furnace designers—like Stara Glass—are encountering a generation of glassmakers actively demanding innovative solutions. This shift highlights an urgent truth: the carbon footprint of glass production is no longer a marginal concern, but a central challenge that must be addressed swiftly and at scale.

However, a true technological revolution depends on infrastructure that is not yet fully in place—such as widespread renewable electrification or a continental hydrogen and CO₂ pipeline network. In this lecture, Stara Glass will present its latest innovation projects in advanced energy-saving technologies, hydrogen integration, carbon capture, and electrification. These efforts are paired with proposals for significant thermal and economic optimization of existing, proven solutions—because the future will demand both breakthrough and refinement.

One of the best known and most widely used processes in the production of hollow glass containers is the PB process and in particular the NNPB process.

The key NNPB process component is the plunger, which is responsible for forming the cavity and controlling the temperature as well as distributing the glass within the parison

The current NNPB plunger is subject to high rates of wear and tear and is directly responsible for product defects, thermal instability and limits the speed of the process.

The NNPB production cycle has a considerable impact in terms of wear not only on the plunger but also on the neck ring and its guide ring as they are heavily stressed.

The inner surface of the mold is also subject to wear and tear due to thermal variations and constant contact with the glass; the constant maintenance, which takes place through cleaning and polishing processes performed by a variety of methods, causes the volume of the mold itself to increase with consequent problems related to the increase in the amount of glass required to produce the same item

Thus, controls to monitor the wear status of the various components in order to assess their wear and tear and prevent the production of defective bottles become necessary

Luben Glass manufactures two machines, the Galaxy for neck ring and plunger and the LMS V1 for mold volume control, which allow efficient and precise automatic control of the three components analyzed above.

The two machines, an example of technology and automation, represent the flagship of the products Luben Glass uses for dimensional inspection of mechanical components