VIP Glass

The third strategic focus of Vetropack's 2030 Strategy is to press ahead with innovation, with the Innovation Centre in Austria the manifestation of these efforts. One of the reasons why this centre is located in Austria is that with VIP Glass, the world's first multi-trip bottle made from lightweight glass was launched on the market last year. Johann Eggerth, General Manager of Vetropack Austria is Head of the Innovation Centre and Daniel Egger has been responsible for the VIP Glass division since 2019.

In 2020, the stated goal was to establish structured processes in the VIP Glass division to develop a powerful team, to guarantee plant availability and to ensure delivery capability for the first pilot customer, Mohrenbrauerei brewery in Dornbirn.

In 2020, approximately 1.2 million brown 330 ml Mohrenbräu bottles have been hardened so far. The customer is very happy with the VIP Glass bottles and the acceptance is very high. In addition to Vetropack Straža, another plant, Kremsmünster, succeeded in qualifying to produce crude bottles for hardening in the VIP Glass process. The first production campaign for VIP Glass crude bottles took place in Kremsmünster in July 2020. It was possible to produce and harden some 500,000 bottles of very high quality with no problems.

A hot-end laser, which applies a data matrix code to the bottles, was also tested in Kremsmünster during the course of production. This is required to be able to guarantee complete traceability of VIP Glass bottles in the future. A separate project focuses on the development of a complete traceability solution for these lightweight glass bottles. The resulting findings can be used as a blueprint for the entire Group.

Questions for Daniel Egger, Head of VIP Glass

The aim was to establish structured processes in VIP Glass in 2020. Are we on track?

All in all, I am very happy with how VIP Glass developed last year. We managed to harden approximately 1.2 million Mohrenbräu bottles, conduct test campaigns to expand the product portfolio and ensure plant availability of the VIP Glass line. We are in the process of developing a powerful team where individual employees’ tasks and their respective objectives are clearly defined. This will form the basis of structured work and continuous development from the current pilot plant status to a fully industrial production operation in the future.

What is the advantage of having the data matrix code already applied to the bottles at the hot end?

Due to the high temperature of the glass container at the hot end, the quality of the data matrix code applied by the hot end laser is much better. According to our initial tests, the read rates rise to 99%. In comparison, a cold end laser only achieves a read rate of about 75 to 80%. The promising tests bring us significantly closer to our goal of full traceability for VIP Glass items along the entire manufacturing and supply chain.

What are the next steps for VIP Glass?

In the coming months, intensive work will be carried out to install the Siemens Energy Manager Pro, a certified solution for optimised and economical energy management, in the VIP Glass division. In addition, we will work on the expansion of our product portfolio in 2021, move the VIP Glass process to a fully industrial process and develop and implement a concept for the complete traceability of VIP Glass items. Things are all very exciting – watch this space.