A WORLD BUILT ON INNOVATION AND STYLE
GLASS
WORLD.
AUTUMN 2012 • VOLUME 22
THIS ISSUE
WELCOME TO GLASSTEC 2012
Hall
11
HIGHLIGHTS
Ferro Russia Wins Awards and Builds Brands Page 4
Organic ink IMPROVEMENTS Page 7
Digital Printing Developments for Glass Page 8
Asian forehearth expansion Page 10
Glass World is produced by Ferro Corporation
+5%
www.ferro.com
8
6
/D
AUTUMN 2012 • Volume 22
Editor in Chief: Hans-Juergen Frischkorn,
Glass Systems Business Director
Editors: Jason Manning, Phil Maitland
Submit articles to: Phil Maitland, Ferro Corp.
Email: maitlandp@ferro.com
Ferro Russia Wins Awards
and Builds Brands with
Glass Enamels
Glass World is printed on recycled paper
Page 4
Designed by: Superdream
Phone: 01527 557 050
Email: have@superdream.co.uk
Foreword
CONTENTS
keeping up the pace
4
In our Spring edition, I wrote of the challenging times facing our markets in 2012, and as we go to press, the
uncertain economic conditions around the world are continuing, especially in Europe where governments
continue to grapple with strategies and actions to solve the ‘euro crisis’.
Ferro Improves
Organic Inks
Page 6
6
Digital Printing
Developments for Glass
With this background, I think the timing is good that we will have the opportunity to gather together for the
bi-annual Glasstec show in Dusseldorf at the end of October. This is the premier glass exhibition in the world
and it is our collective opportunity to showcase the best of our great Glass Industry and products, and to
stimulate the market.
New products
introduced by ferro
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+5%
+10%
Front cover image shows the Messe
complex in Dusseldorf, which will
once again be the home of Glasstec in
2012. Visit us at booth D68 in hall 11.
+15%
+20%
+25%
Asian forehearth
expansion
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As reported in previous Glass Worlds, we have invested heavily in development of improved organic inks for
both returnable and 1-way bottles, and glass tableware. The market is pushing more and more to replace
cadmium in decorative materials and organics is the best solution. However, the technology is not as userfriendly compared to the traditional glass enamels, and our development targets have been centred on
improving application and total cost of ownership. I’m delighted to report that our new products are now
formally approved by the major soft drink manufacturers.
Digital printing is also a significant R&D platform for us and we will be sharing our progress, with the
opportunity for customers to conduct trials at our pilot plant facilities in Frankfurt, Germany. We are taking a
number of innovative approaches and I’m excited by the opportunities this will create for the future.
Page 10
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The old adage is that ‘the best time to invest in new product development is during a slowdown’ and in our
Ferro Glass Systems business we have worked hard to follow this philosophy, challenging our global R&D teams
to bring new products to market faster and more efficiently.
Some of the results of our efforts will be on show at Glasstec, and I would like to highlight a couple of examples:
Page 10
USA Glass Plant
Expands Silver Paste
Manufacturing
There are bright spots, for examples in the world’s developing economies and in some parts of the
automotive sector – but there is no doubt that the general reduction in consumer confidence is holding back
economic growth.
In the flat glass industry, unfortunately, this is illustrated by recent news of plant idlings and significant lay-offs
through 2014 that have been announced by the major producers.
Page 8
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O
n behalf of Ferro Glass Systems, welcome to the Glasstec 2012 edition of Glass World that features
a number of stories showing how we help in the development of some well-known brands around
the world.
Ferro Today
I’m also delighted that our President and CEO, Jim Kirsch and our Vice President, Mike Murry will again both
be visiting the Show. This is further illustration of the importance Ferro gives to Glasstec, and I know they are
looking forward to meeting many of our customers and distributors.
Page 11
You are all very welcome to join the Ferro family at our booth in Hall 11. We look forward to seeing you!
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Hans-Juergen Frischkorn
Business Director, Glass Systems
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A WORLD BUILT ON INNOVATION AND STYLE
www.ferro.com
3
Ferro Russia Receives Awards
and Builds Brands with
Glass Enamels
Ferro originally
opened a
representative
office in Russia
in the late
1990’s, and we
incorporated
our own
wholly owned
legal entity as
Ferro Specialty
Materials LLC
in 2009.
We chose Saint Petersburg as our base, since which time the
business has gone from strength to strength by implementing
a clear vision of local Russia-based technical service backed
with local warehousing to provide fast reliable service of
quality products. Our Russian service team monitors the needs
of the market in order to initiate new Ferro developments,
and is supported when needed with experts from other Ferro
international sites.
Through developing close collaboration with glass manufacturers
and their customers all over Russia and FSU, we have been able
to support the end market with the development of their brands.
During Mir Stekla 2012 held in Moscow in June, Ferro LLC
received 2 awards in a competition organised by the Russian
Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SOEX). These awards
were based on our work to help develop the Old Miller beer
brand for Efes Rus brewery in Moscow (part of Efes Brewery
International N.V. and one of the largest brewers in Turkey,
Russia and Central Asia). Ferro was awarded ‘Diploma of First
degree’ for successful promotion of high quality goods, and
‘Diploma of Second Degree/Silver Medal’ for supply of product
with high consumer properties.
Our challenge was to develop an industrial application for
a family of smooth-touch imitation acid etch glass enamel
coatings, to mirror the appearance and properties of ‘real’ HF
acid etching of flint or coloured glass. A glass enamel coating
has a big advantage over traditional hydrofluoric acid (HF)
etching of glass because it is a much more environmentally
friendly product and process. Additionally, the product has high
application efficiency, and glass decorators can use existing
equipment to apply the product by wet electrostatic spraying
and existing decorating furnaces (lehrs) to fuse the product to
glass. The challenge was successfully met with our VNR system
of lead-free/cadmium-free enamels!
to ‘real’ HF-acid etching are that the range can be expanded
to provide colored matt and etch surface finishes, and a line of
screen-printable VNR-glass enamels can be supplied that are
totally compatible with our coatings….enhancing the design
possibilities for the brand owner.
From experience, we understand that matt glass enamel
coatings can be sensitive to application and firing conditions
e.g. furnace loading and coating thickness. That’s why our local
service team will offer the needed support to glass decorators,
helping optimise their process conditions for consistent quality.
Alexey Boldin, Ferro LLC Sales & Service Engineer for our Glass
Systems business says: ‘It is a happy co-incidence that Saint
Petersburg is the brewery capital of Russia. We have 5 plants
here including Baltica, which is one of the biggest in Europe.
Ferro LLC is ideally placed to work with the brand owners and
glass makers to create new designs and decorations. For future
business in this cost sensitive industry, it is important to have
material supplier, glass manufacturer and decorator close to
the brewery to minimise cost. In addition, our products satisfy
the exacting standards at competitive price demanded by the
end markets. For the future, we are looking to further reduce
decoration costs by developing enamel coatings and overprintable inks that can be fired in a single-fire process.’
Outside of the brewing industry in Russia, Ferro VNR glass
enamels are also being introduced for vodkas. For example, due
to adhesion issues with organic coatings in their washing and
filling lines, Tigroff Russian vodka has switched to a matt-black
glass enamel coating.
For the beer industry, it is essential that the decorative coatings
display a very high level of mechanical durability and scratch
resistance, to withstand the extreme filling line conditions
experienced during bottling. The beer industry uses a particularly
severe pasteurisation process cycle that involves immersion in
water at temperatures of 95oC after filling. Due to the adhesion
issues associated with applying organic coatings on top of the
hot-end and cold-end coatings typically used during the glass
bottle production process, organic coatings do not generally
meet the specifications demanded for beer bottle coatings.
Unlike organic coatings, glass enamel coatings can be applied on
top of hot end (HEC) and cold end (CEC) coatings. The adhesion
issue normally associated with organic coatings, where more
care (and extra cost) has to be taken regarding pre-treatment or
even burn-off of CEC, does not exist with glass enamels.
Finally, further value-adds for our VNR-product line compared
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A WORLD BUILT ON INNOVATION AND STYLE
www.ferro.com
5
Ferro Improves
Organic Inks
In recent years - driven initially by environmental, health and
safety factors and glass packaging legislation outlawing the
use of intentional additions of heavy metals – there has been
a growing trend toward the use of organic inks for decorating
bottles, drinking glasses and other tableware items. Lower
energy consumption, reduced glass bottle stress, and potential
for a wider range of colors and effects compared to traditional
glass enamels or ACL’s (applied ceramic labels), have been other
factors influencing this trend.
However, arguably the single biggest
factor influencing the move to organic
inks has been the need for a cadmiumfree red with a strong, bright color
tone – a technical challenge that so
far has been impossible to meet using
lead-free glass enamels combined
with ceramic pigments. This need has
been driven especially by the soft drink
multinationals, which have bright red
colors built into their brand ‘DNA’.
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Ferro has been actively engaged in responding to this need with
new products and there has been a constant improvement in
the performance of our organic inks over the years, especially
relating to chemical durability and glass adhesion. However, as
a generic class of products, organic inks have proven to be much
less user-friendly than glass enamel ACL’s, and more sensitive
to changes in application conditions. In particular, whereas
thermoplastic glass enamels are easily used on high speed,
multi-color automatic printing machines to produce 2,
4, or 6-color designs, production of
even 2-color designs where there is
a large overlap of colors can cause
problems for an organic ink printing
system. Consistent, efficient printing
of several overlapping organic inks is
difficult to achieve.
THE BIGGEST INFLUENCE
FOR THE MOVE TO
ORGANIC INKS IS a
cadmium-free red
with a strong, bright
color tone
A WORLD BUILT ON INNOVATION AND STYLE
For this reason, we have been working
on developing more user-friendly
over-printable organic inks, suitable for
both single trip and returnable bottle
markets – so that for example a raft of
white can be applied followed by an overprintable cadmium-free red logo design as
the second print, with a black as bar-code.
The latest generation of colors has
recently completed a mammoth series
of production trials over many months,
centred in the main areas of soft drink
bottle decoration in Latin America, Middle
East and Africa. Several batches of red,
white and black inks were used to produce
tens of thousands of bottles on high speed
fully automatic decorating lines to ensure
satisfactory printing performance and
consistent color tones. These decoration
trials were followed by exhaustive filling
line tests and washing tests to evaluate
both the chemical and mechanical
durability of the organic inks. The Ferro
inks withstood the severe banging and
abrasion experienced through the filling
lines – and in the case of returnable
bottles, the inks also survived the chemical
treatment and abrasion within the bottle
washing process. Finally, the finished
bottles were subjected to transportation
trials under extreme conditions.
Sean Weir, Global Applied Technology
Manager, Organics, based in Washington
PA, USA reports: ‘The inks passed all tests
‘with flying colors’, and are now formally
approved by the world’s leading soft
drink manufacturer for use on their nonreturnable glass bottles. Additionally, we
hope to receive approval for returnable
bottles soon. This was a true global team
effort and is the culmination of several
years R&D, and it means that all approved
bottle decorators will be able to use our
latest generation organic inks. Of course,
we will continue to work with the glass
decorators around the world to help with a
smooth introduction of our materials into
their plants.’
The current generation of HTP inks has
the added advantage of not requiring any
special pre-treatment to improve adhesion
for the returnable glass bottles market – a
significant cost saving.
Parallel to these efforts, and as reported
in the Spring 2012 Glass World, our R&D
team have also been developing a new
range of UV-hybrid organic inks that are
designed to combine the best properties of
UV- curable inks and HTP-inks. Our goal is
to capture the high opacity and excellent
adhesion of HTP systems, combined with
the over-printability and easy blending of
UV-cure inks.
The new printing system will deliver
the possibility to eliminate costly pretreatment, essential to improve the glass
adhesion of current UV-cure systems. Our
vision is to combine Ferro HTP, UV-cure
and RTP inks onto a single automatic high
speed print machine to create a lower cost,
more efficient, more user-friendly, higher
quality multi-print organic decoration.
And of course, these inks will be totally
compatible with our organic coatings.
Our first new products using this
innovative technology are on display at
Glasstec 2012.
The benefits of Ferro
SpecTruLite organic inks
• Lower energy consumption
• Reduced glass bottle stress
• Wider range of colors
and effects
• Heavy metal free
• Cadmium-free bright reds
www.ferro.com
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NEW PRODUCTS AND APPLICATIONS
Digital Printing
Developments
for Glass
New products introduced by ferro in
the last two years
benefits
FLAT GLASS
Low VOC medium systemsArchitectural
VOC levels ~ 120gms/litre. Satisfy current USA regulations for reductions in VOC
Appliance
Furniture
High Opaque /Appliance
High Durability Black
Screen printing remains an important
process for the decoration of automotive
and flat glass with either decorative or
functional coatings.
However – just as in many other
industrial applications – digital printing
is being adopted more widely in the
glass industry. Whilst it is at the start of
its ‘life-cycle’ for glass, we believe that
the process will become standard in the
industry over the next few years.
The challenge for glass is to create a
process that can handle inks that deliver
the properties required for automotive
and flat glass markets.
Whilst organic inks can be quite
easily handled through traditional
digital printing systems, they do
not generally meet the demanding
technical specifications required by
glass markets, especially the weathering
and mechanical resistance for outdoor
applications. Glass enamel ink systems
continue to be the option of choice for
automotive and architectural markets.
Even for indoor use, architects will often
specify the ceramic glass enamel option
due to their superior mechanical and
chemical resistance.
Also, pigmented inks for traditional inkjet printers need to be made with well
dispersed ultra-fine micronized particles,
to ensure that the print modules' nozzles
do not become blocked during printing….
And inks for digital application must
have a much lower viscosity than screenprinting inks.
Taken together, this poses a big challenge
to prepare ceramic glass enamel inks
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suitable to print digitally at high speeds
with good efficiency and low cost of
ownership.
Ferro was the leader in the tile industry
in developing a digital printing system
with efficient inks and our keramINKs
line continues as the market leader
today. Building on this background, our
GS R&D teams have been working on
a platform of digital print technology
improvements for glass, and at Glasstec
we will present the latest status on two
of the technologies we are pursuing:
•In co-operation with a German
consortium of engineering specialists,
we have produced prototypes of a new
digital jetting process that is designed
for low resolution applications where
high throughput and high opacity
prints are required. We believe this
process will be particularly suited to
applying simple designs and/or solid
obscuration bands for architectural
glass. A wide range of colored inks
have been specially developed for this
unique process, that we have named
Di-namINKs.
Our Di-namINKs are based on our
standard global series, System 140
and side ONE, and can be easily
applied digitally. We have a pilot plant
at our Frankfurt, Germany site to
demonstrate the technology and run
trials with customers.
•We are working with another unique
technology, created by Aurentum
GmbH that is centred on a laser
transfer process allowing specially
formulated inks – that we have
branded Di-LazINKs - to be transferred
A WORLD BUILT ON INNOVATION AND STYLE
digitally to glass. Our work to
commercialise the process for the
glass market is advancing well, and
we see a big potential especially for
automotive. High resolution at high
speed is possible. Our Di-LazINKs
with controlled rheology are coated
from a reservoir onto a continuously
circulating wafer that is then ‘zapped’
by a laser to transfer the inks digitally
onto the glass substrate. The machine
can be easily integrated into high speed
process lines.
The inks for both processes are based
on existing Ferro glass enamel powders
used for automotive, architectural
and appliance glass applications. This
means that the inks pass all technical
specifications required in those markets.
After application of either Di-namINKs
or Di-LazINKs, the glasses are dried and
fired in the usual way.
There is no doubt that digital decoration
has a role to play in the future glass
market as a non-contact printing process.
Our work on these NEW technologies
is designed to help the market increase
the pace toward adoption of digital
decoration as a standard process in the
industry. We want to capture the wellknown advantages that digital systems
offer, and try to eliminate some of the
disadvantages. Our goal is to reduce
the cost of ownership by developing
cost effective inks that can be applied
efficiently in high speed processes.
We believe that our work so far looks
promising and we are looking forward
to sharing this exciting future with
our customers.
Bismuth-free, cost-efficient, passes all appliance chemical durability and foodstuffs testing
Golden LustReflexArchitecturalGood chemical durability; limited scratch resistance
ContainerRecommended for inside IGU or laminated glass
KontrastPrintArchitecturalDual-contrasting-print surface 2 colors with perfect registration
View 2 different colors from each side of the glass
s1de ONEArchitecturalDurable decoration for outside surface of exterior glass. Enhances design potential
Nanofilm AB5 coatingApplianceHydrophobic protective coatings with excellent optical properties, scratch and chemical resistance
DisplaysDifficult to mark and easy to clean
Shower panels
Interior glass
Nanofilm ABW coatingApplianceHydrophobic protective coatings with excellent optical properties, scratch and chemical resistance
ArchitecturalDifficult to mark and easy to clean. Outstanding UVA durability
Printable AR coatingsSolar/Display/Lighting
Patternable; improved transmission; lower cost than PVD, CVD or dip-coat
System 140NAArchitecturalIndustry leading HMF enamels. High opacity, high chemical and mechanical durability
Pass GANA test specs for architectural glass
Automotive
Super fine-line silver pastes
Back-litesLine widths reduced to 150µ
Low E fine line silver pastes
Back-litesEnhances enamel firing range; prevents busbar under-firing
High resistant surface 4 Laminated windshields
black-band enamels
Passes 72 hour H2SO4 Toyota test; wide firing range
Low Bi anti-stick enamelsAutomotiveIndustry leading anti-stick, busbar hiding, chemical durability and opacity
Surface 2 black band enamelsLaminated windshieldsSingle-fire and pre-fire systems; lower cost processing; hides busbars and other functional coatings
CONTAINER PRODUCTS
89 Series SpecTruLite
Beverage bottlesExcellent adhesion to cold-end coated bottles; TWO-pack system with medium to high speed cure
Water-borne CoatingsCosmetic bottles
VNG 100 System
1-way beverage
100ppm MAX Pb+Cd; high gloss, high chemical resistance
bottles
Nickel-free black forehearth colors
BottlesEnvironment-friendly; concentrate/frit mixtures allow low feed rates for
Tableware
high intensity colors; reduced cost
Red forehearth colorsCosmetic bottles
Feeder frits for use with special glass tank formulations
88 Series SpecTruLite
Beverage bottles
Water-borne CoatingsCosmetic bottles
TWO-pack high reactive coating; excellent adhesion and scuff resistance; outstanding
in high speed decoration and filling lines
Kristal transparent HTP+
Beverage bottlesHigh gloss, transparent, scuff resistant
organic inksCosmetic bottles /
Giftware
Forehearth UVA
Beer bottlesUV-protection of bottle contents for extended shelf life
Cosmetic containers
www.ferro.com
9
Ferro India Builds Brands with
Forehearth Colors
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Additionally, we completed a key
customer-focused project with Carlex
Glass Company – a leading manufacturer
of high quality glass for the automotive
market - to review, modify and improve
our quality control methodology. Says
Michelle Burns, Glass Process Manager at
Ferro’s Washington, PA USA site: ‘Carlex
Glass is one of our major customers
and we worked closely with them to
improve quality control test methods
that more accurately reflect their
application and measurement processes.
New test methods were developed
A WORLD BUILT ON INNOVATION AND STYLE
We believe that our long term success will be determined by who we are and how we act.
Our core values apply equally to all interactions with customers, suppliers and colleagues
Europe
Ferro GmbH
Gutleutstrasse 215
Frankfurt am Main
Germany
• Trust is the foundation for our future
•D
elivering on our commitments is essential to our credibility
• Customer-centric thinking is the path to growth and success
• Continuous improvement sustains operational excellence
• A winning attitude will accelerate our success.
PRODUCTS
The technology can be used in a wide
range of forehearth configurations, from
relative small pull rates of 25 tonnes
per day up to the high pull rates of
~150 tonnes per day seen in the largest
beverage glass bottle furnaces.
dispersion and rheology control. The site
has also achieved safety improvements
while executing this project.
t +1 724 223 5900
f +1 724 228 3170
gs-americas@ferro.com
t +49 69 2711 60
f +49 69 2711 6368
gs-europe@ferro.com
Ferro - enhancing life through superior materials performance..
This means that a vast range of new
color possibilities are opened up for
premium brands – not only in the
cosmetic and perfumery market but
also for beverages such as liquors, beers,
mineral waters and wines, and for the
glass table-top segment.
USA Glass Plant Expands Silver
Paste Manufacturing
The Washington Pennsylvania,
USA site has completed an expansion
and upgrade of its conductive paste
manufacturing process. This project
was initiated to support significant
growth in volumes supplied to Ferro’s
tier 1 automotive glass customers
and to meet continuously elevated
customer requirements. We have
significantly improved this new process
through equipment upgrades and the
optimization of manufacturing process
variables. These improvements have
raised our finished product quality while
increasing our manufacturing capacity. Furthermore, batch-to-batch variation in
conductivity is reduced, with improved
Americas
Ferro Glass & Color Corporation
West Wylie Avenue
Washington PA
USA
Our 5,000-plus employees work in 26 countries, speak more than 15 languages and bring
a wealth of knowledge and cultural perspective to our offices, laboratories and plant
facilities every day. While we learn and benefit from the unique experiences that arise
from our diversity, we also share one common set of values and operating tenets that we
call Win from Within.
electronics, COLOR
& GLASS materials
These manufacturers are recognising the
potential of forehearth coloration to add
value and to help deliver stand-out shelf
appeal to premium brands. Critically, the
technology has the ability to provide
cost-effective coloration in-the-glass
with more flexibility, at potentially lower
cost than tank coloration due to the fast
color change-over times. And of course,
special color tones, such as black, grey,
turquoise blues and earthy green shades
can be achieved without the need to
make expensive purges of complete
tanks of glass when moving in and out
of color!
Regional Glass Systems Headquarters
With over 5000 employees and an annual turnover in 2011 of around $2.2bn,
Ferro has substantial manufacturing capabilities in the United States, Europe, Asia and
Latin America.
and qualified by a customer-supplier
team to assure proper correlation to
viscosity measurements, screen tension,
assessment of screen wear and many
other screen-printing application criteria.’
With the successful completion of
this quality improvement project and
capacity expansion, we have not only
received customer recognition for these
accomplishments, but are positioned well
to support additional growth and provide
higher levels of product consistency to
all of our conductive paste customers.
If you would like more information on
Ferro conductive paste products and
services, please contact your local Ferro
representative.
Polymer and Ceramic
Engineered Materials
There is no doubt that consumers in
Asia are becoming more and more
sophisticated and demanding! Ferro
India is playing its own part in helping
to build brands in the beverage and
cosmetic market segments, through
the introduction of forehearth coloring
technology to a number of the leading
glass manufacturers in India and
Sri Lanka.
Brij Kaul, Ferro India’s Sales Manager
based in Pune is excited about the
future: ‘We have been promoting the
advantages of forehearth coloring in
India for many years based on our
positive experiences in other parts of
the world. We have worked closely
with colleagues in USA and Australia to
provide the expert service needed to
convince the market that this
technology is really sustainable and
can be a tremendous value-add. The
emergence of an affluent Indian
middle-class has provided the needed
stimulus for the market and I believe the
timing is right for the market to grow
significantly. Famous brands such as VAT
69, Antiquity, Black Dog, Bacardi, Calvin
Klein and Nivea are all now using our
forehearth colors’.
Ferro Today
Conductive metal pastes and
powders; high-performance
polishing materials; specialty
dielectrics; electronics packaging
materials.
Glazes, enamels, pigments and
colors; frits; specialty ceramics
and glasses
Polymer specialty materials;
engineered plastic compounds;
liquid color dispersions and
gelcoats.
Pigments and colors, frits, inks and
enamels.
High-potency pharmaceutical
active ingredients; high-purity,
low-endotoxin carbohydrates
END-USE APPLICATIONS
Solar cells; touch-sensitive
displays; lenses; semiconductor
wafers; capacitors.
Automotive, architectural
and container glass; roof tiles;
dinnerware; paint and plastics;
holloware; appliances; electronics
packaging
Asia Pacific
Ferro Japan KK,
21 Kasuminosato
Ami-Machi, Inashiki-Gun
Ibaraki Pref.
300-0315 Japan
t +81-29-889-2144
f +81-29-889-2490
gs-asia@ferro.com
Automotive parts; construction
materials; vinyl flooring, siding
and wall coverings; packaging;
household cleaners; personal care
products; tools and appliances
Ceramic tile; appliances; hot
water heaters; cookware;
industrial products.
Pharmaceuticals and
biopharmaceuticals
www.ferro.com
© Copyright Ferro 2012.
Ferro reserves the right to alter specifications.
Tsukuba, Japan
Colditz, Germany
Washington, PA, USA
www.ferro.com
11
a world built on performance and style
Automotive Architectural Appliance Furniture Laser Marking Containers Tableware
For outstanding glass color and coating technologies - both decorative
and functional - Ferro are global market leaders.
Enhancing life through superior materials performance.
www.ferro.com