Process

The three main steps

1 - Melting The raw materials - mainly sand - are mixed then heated in a furnace to a temperature of about 1,500°C. They melt to form molten glass. Recycled glass, collected mainly in bottle banks, is also used as a raw material. 2 - Manufacturing The molten glass is transferred to the manufacturing machines. Drops of glass, known as gobs, pass through two moulds one after the other. The first one, called a "shaping" mould, gives the bottle or jar its overall shape. The second, "finishing" mould gives it its final shape. The bottles and jars then undergo surface treatment and pass through what is called a "reheating" kiln, to improve their quality even more. 3 - Sorting and packaging The glass is then inspected, packed and shipped. Bottles and jars are subjected to a large number of quality checks, some of which are visual, others electronic. A permanent record of results and statistics is kept on computers.