Staying power

Innovator Michel Cornaz

Michel Cornaz has played an active part in the glass industry throughout his life – just like his brothers Raymond Cornaz (the father of Claude Cornaz) and Jean-Daniel Cornaz. After gaining his degree in chemical engineering from the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Michel Cornaz went to the USA in 1952. His intention was to spend a year working in the glass container industry and getting to know the latest process technologies. He started out at Emhart Glass Inc., a leading American manufacturer of production plants for the glass industry based at Hartford, Connecticut. 

Instead of the year he had originally planned, Michel Cornaz stayed in the USA for a full six years: at Emhart Glass Inc., he worked in development, production, and the sales force for production plants. He then moved to Zurich, where he took on responsibility for developing the company’s business activities in Europe and Asia. By the end of his career, Michel Cornaz had worked at Emhart Glass for no less than 42 years. In the last six years before he retired, from 1988 until 1994, he was President of the whole group of companies (known since 1998 as Bucher Emhart Glass). As well as supporting the evolution of Emhart Glass into an international organisation with seven sites, Michel Cornaz set up training centres and developed advisory services. As Chairman of Cornaz-AG Holding, he also guided the development of the Vetropack Group. 

In this function, together with his brothers Raymond and Jean-Daniel (who had joined Glashütte Bülach Ltd. and formed Vetropack Ltd in 1966), he steered the Vetropack Group’s eastward expansion – which was successfully implemented by Raymond and Jean-Daniel Cornaz. Michel Cornaz can draw on decades of experience in the international glass industry, and his knowledge of its evolution is virtually unique. And since day one, he has also followed the development – which began with a collaboration partnership between Vetropack and Bucher Emhart Glass.

The early days

“Vetropack and Emhart Glass launched the ‘Hard Glass’ research project back in 2011, without any major formalities,” he recalls. “From the earliest days, the aim was to produce weight-reduced, reusable brown beer bottles,” Michel Cornaz explains. To enable mass production, the researchers sought out ways of integrating the tempering process for the bottles into the production process. But because the bottles had to travel such a long distance from the production line to the annealing lehr, they did not reach a sufficiently high average temperature to allow further processing in the proper way. “Emhart‘s idea was to install a heatable feeder,” Michel Cornaz continues. “This device was intended to transport evenly preheated bottles into the annealing lehr for further processing.”

Perseverance pays of

Unfortunately, the research project was discontinued within Emhart Glass for cost reasons at that time. Michel Cornaz recalls that the company shied away from the large investment that it would have required. He regrets that the research project was not continued on a joint basis back then – but today, he is all the more pleased that Vetropack continued to pursue the project independently and invested in the advanced technology. He firmly believes that the earlier research project was key to paving the way for the innovative technology: “The practical experience gained from the project gave us the initial boost,” he notes.

“As with all inventions, of course, you also need people who are persistent and interested – in this case, people willing to investigate whether the existing annealing lehrs could be used.” Every step taken along the path – such as the results achieved, and the high quality of the smaller bottles and the lightweight glass – generated positive impetus and opened the way to the next stage of the journey. Michel Cornaz believes that this staying power is crucial: “There have always been people of vision in the glass industry. Whatever ideas they had, they would keep on trying them out – and they simply wouldn’t give up,” he recalls. In his view, this is how Vetropack has built up such a huge stock of know-how in recent years, and why the company is now benefiting from its expertise and its pioneering role as it responds to market demand for lighter and reusable glass containers. The 0.33-litre returnable bottle is now the standard solution for Austria’s brewing industry. In Michel Cornaz’s opinion, this is nothing short of a breakthrough. 

“Vetropack has earned my highest respect by successfully taking this step,” he comments. He’s visibly pleased about this success, and as he points out: “It encourages us to continue along this path, and to take the next steps by refining the method and integrating it into the process.” Because experience has certainly taught him one lesson: “You have to keep on trying things out!” That’s exactly what our colleagues at Vetropack Austria are focusing on: for example, Erich Jaquemar and his team have carried out in-depth tests on coordinating the design of the bottles and crates: the aim here is to reduce damaging effects throughout the value chain as the new lightweight bottles are circulated for re-use. And our colleagues at the Innovation Centre in Pöchlarn are continuing to develop production, one step at a time.