Vetropack Improved Performance Glass entering a new phase

A focus on pressing ahead with innovation is part of Vetropack Group’s Strategy 2030. The open innovation strategy focuses, among other things, on further developing VIP Glass technology from a pilot process into a fully industrialised process.

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Vetropack Group’s Innovation Centre, founded at the Austrian site in Pöchlarn, is the manifestation of the company’s strategic drive for innovation. 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. 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.

The previous focus was on establishing structured processes in the VIP Glass division, developing a powerful team, guaranteeing plant availability and ensuring delivery capability for the first pilot customer, Mohrenbrauerei brewery in Dornbirn. The customer is very happy with the VIP Glass bottles and acceptance is very high. In addition to the Croatian glassworks Vetropack Straža, another plant, Kremsmünster in Austria, succeeded in qualifying to produce crude bottles for hardening in the VIP Glass process. In Kremsmünster, some 500,000 bottles of very high quality were produced and hardened without any problems during the first production campaign for VIP Glass crude bottles.

A hot-end laser, which applies a data matrix code to the bottles, was also tested 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 are to be used as a blueprint for the entire Group.