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A centenary is a very long time

to be working in any sector and industry. And to be not only working

in the industry, but being the forerunner and creator of – for example –

the IS (‘individual section’) machine for automatically manufacturing

glass containers in 1924 is even more incredible. In this article we take

a look at how Emhart Glass has developed over these past 100 years,

with the introduction of two new products to its vast range.

Emhart Glass:

100 YEARS IN CONTAINER

GLASS MACHINERY

ELEBRATING A CENTENARYEmhart Glass, the

leading supplier ofmachines, controls, and parts to theglass container industry worldwide,is celebrating its centenary year in2012. The company, in fact, datesback to 1912, when Hartford-Fairmont was founded in Hartford,Connecticut by pioneering engi-

C neers Bill Lorenz, William Honissand Karl Peiler. The company wascreated to market Peiler’s revolu-tionary design for the paddle-gobfeeder, which used gravity to auto-matically feed molten glass intomoulds. Its successors went on tobecome the industry standard forglass feeding. In 1924, the firm became

Hartford-Empire and patented the

IS (individual section) machine forautomatically manufacturing glasscontainers. This too became anindustry standard, quickly displac-ing rival technologies, and was con-tinuously developed and refinedover the following decades.Incredibly, the core technologiesdeveloped by Hartford-Empire forfeeding and glass-forming remainessentially unchanged to this day.

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Hartford-Empire developedquickly, selling and licensing itsmachines throughout the US andEurope. The 1940s saw the firm’sfirst moves into automated inspec-tion, as well as the first of manyacquisitions that would turn the com-pany into a major industrial group.Renaming itself Emhart and later

Emhart Glass, the firm built aEurope-wide sales and manufactur-ing operation from the 1950s on,with plants and branches inSwitzerland, Germany, Italy andthe United Kingdom. The acquisi-tion of Swedish manufacturerSundsvalls Verkstäder in 1952 wasan important milestone in theseglobalization efforts. During the1970s and 1980s, it was followedby the first sales and service opera-tions in the Far East. In 1987, thegroup transferred its headquartersto Switzerland.

In recent years, Emhart Glasshas launched NIS, the world’s firstcompletely servoelectric glass-making technology, and FlexIS,the glass industry’s first fully inte-grated control system. A ResearchCentre was built in Windsor in2007, including a fully functional

glass plant,and a state-of-the-art manu-facturing facili-

ty opened in Johor Bahru,Malaysia, in the following year.In 2011, Emhart Glass struck

a landmark joint venture withShandong Sanjin GlassMachinery Co., China’s undis-puted leader for glass machin-

ery. ‘I’m very proud to be part ofa company with such a long andimpressive history,” commentsMartin Jetter, Emhart Glass’President. “It’s humbling to lookback at what our predecessorsachieved – they had such brilliantideas, and they built up such astrong and enduring business too.Our challenge today is to live upto their legacy by serving our cus-tomers with new ways to improvethe technologies we’ve inherited –and to add to them with innova-tions of our own, for the benefitof our customers and the entireglass industry.”

ISIS WALL THICKNESS GAUGEEmhart Glass’ gauge option for

the ISIS Dimensional Gauge is anintegral part of its MiniLab GlassContainer Measurement System.This new option provides the abilityfor automated mould-correlatedwall thickness measurement of glasscontainers on a sampling basis. The Wall Thickness Gauge uses a

single non-contact chromatic sensorwith a 10�m spot size to measure thewall thickness of glass containersfrom 1 to 10mm with a repeatabilityof ±0.15mm. A servo-controlled lin-ear slide automatically keeps thechromatic sensor at optimal distancefrom the surface of round and non-round containers during the entiremeasurement sequence. Once installed and calibrated, the

Wall Thickness Gauge does notrequire any mechanical adjustment.When creating a job, the operatorsimply specifies the distance fromthe top or base of the container thedifferent wall thickness measure-ments should be performed. Up tonine locations can be specified, eachwith different diameter and min/maxlimit values. The ISIS elevator auto-matically positions the container infront of the sensor at the specifiedlocations. The wall thickness is mea-sured 360 degrees around the con-tainer at each location.The Wall Thickness Gauge is

available as option on new ISISmachines and as a field upgrade forany machine already in operation.

NEW GENERATION NECKRING MECHANISMEmhart Glass’ new Neck Ring

Mechanisms feature closing forcesincreased by 20 per cent, optimizedairflow for improved synchronisa-tion motion and a fine-thread screwfor greater T-nut clamping force.

The tapered pin assem-bly has been replacedwith a strong, standard-ised retaining ringassembly. The new design

offers higher clampingforce for the NeckRing Holder Arm, andopens up the possibil-ity of higher revertspeeds. It allows forbalanced opening ofright and left NeckRing Cylinders,leading to fewer fin-ish checks. The

increased stiffness also enablesimproved precision, and the unit asa whole is far easier to service. The Neck Ring Mechanism is

fully interchangeable with existingmechanisms. Old and new versionsof the mechanism can be operatedside by side on the same machine.However, many of the individualparts within the new mechanism arenot compatible with earlier versions.

The new mechanism has the partnumber 191-5149-11. It is fully com-patible with the existing Neck Ringnumbered 19-5149-9, the productionof which will be discontinued. A Quick Change version has also

been developed, offering the samefeature set. It will bear the part num-ber 191-5149-12 (replacing 191-5149-10) and will be launched inthe third quarter of 2012. ■

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EMHART GLASS SA

Hinterbergstrasse 22Postfach 2251

CH-6330 Cham 2Switzerland

www.emhartglass.com