Starting up the furnaces at our new plant

Until now, Vetropack Italia S.r.l. has produced glass packaging at Trezzano sul Naviglio in northern Italy. We are currently relocating production to our new state-of-the-art facility in Boffalora sopra Ticino, located 25 kilometres away. Vetropack has invested more than CHF 400 million in the new production site in order to stay ahead of rising demand in the Italian market and meet increased quality requirements. “The Italian market, with its many global brands, plays a major role in our strategy,” says Johann Reiter, CEO of the Vetropack Group.

Flexible and sustainable production

According to Vetropack, the new plant will not only boost production capacity by up to 70 percent compared to the Trezzano plant: at the same time, investments in smart technologies for the Boffalora project will also allow more production flexibility for items such as “semi-specials” – containers that differ from the norm, in smaller batches. Furthermore, the new site is designed to make production significantly more resource-efficient and sustainable: as far as possible, water used for production and exhaust heat from the melting furnaces are recycled through recirculation systems, and emissions are greatly reduced thanks to state-of-the-art filter systems. As the new site opens, the existing plant in Trezzano sul Naviglio is facing closure. Once the Boffalora sopra Ticino plant begins operating, it will become the sole Vetropack site in Italy. However, the company’s 301 employees will not have to fear for their jobs, because all staff members at the existing site have been offered a transfer. Despite a significant increase in production volume per employee, the current workforce will actually continue to grow due to the higher capacity: training on the new production systems for both new and existing employees began back in 2020.

Using energy with precision

Prior to heat-up, Vetropack conducted a “cold” acceptance inspection of the new furnaces in Boffalora, both outside and inside. The subsequent 24-hour test, also carried out “cold”, confirmed that the equipment on and around the furnaces is functioning optimally. The first furnace was fired up on 22 May, with the second furnace following a few weeks later. Initially, external burners are firing the furnaces. This process takes a total of 14 days: “The furnaces must be heated up from room temperature to 1,550 degrees Celsius in a precise and controlled manner. We follow a previously calculated heating curve to prevent the furnaces from sustaining any damage,” says Christoph Burgermeister, project manager at Vetropack. “Also, the refractory material expands due to the heating, so we have to continuously adjust the pressure pins in the steel structure during this step of the process.”

Once a temperature of approximately 1,050 degrees Celsius has been reached, the furnaces’ own burners are activated to raise their internal temperature to 1,550 degrees Celsius. Filling begins with waste glass cullet, which not only saves valuable resources but can also be melted down with less energy input than raw material. After two to three days, the cullet is supplemented by a mixture of primary raw materials and, finally, is heated for about 24 hours. Following this, the molten glass passes via the forehearth into the feeders; it is then cut into glass gobs and fed in sequence to the automatic glass container forming machines, which shape the gobs into containers.