Methods for controlling a converter for converting glass tubes to glass articles include preparing condition sets including settings for a plurality of process parameters, operating the converter to produce glass articles, measuring attributes of the glass articles, operating the converter at each of the condition sets, associating each glass article with a condition set used to produce the glass article and the attributes measured, developing operational models from the attributes measured and the condition sets, determining run settings for each of the plurality of process parameters based on the operational models, and operating the converter with each of the process parameters set to the run settings determined from the operational models.

The present invention provides a method for evaluating a processing deterioration level of a medical glass container, including (a) a step of imaging a surface of a medical glass container molded from a borosilicate glass tube to obtain an image, and (b) a step of analyzing a contrast of the image. The method is particularly useful to evaluate the amount of alkali substances which are deposited on the inner side surface of a medical glass container.

A glass tube for pharmaceutical containers is provided. The tube has an inner surface at an inner diameter, an outer surface with an outer diameter, a first end defining a first closed end, a second end defining a first closed end, a first location 400 mm from the first end, a first intermediate location 15 mm from the first end, and a ventilation hole at a first vicinity. The first vicinity is between the first intermediate location and the first location. The glass tube can have a ratio of an integrated Na.sub.2F.sup.+ signal to an integrated .sup.30Si.sup.+ signal of at least 0.10, where the integrated Na.sub.2F.sup.+ signal and the integrated .sup.30Si.sup.+ signal are integrated over a depth of 100 nm. The glass tube can have a ratio between a fluorescence emission determined at a first vicinity and a fluorescence emission determined at a middle section of at least 0.6.

Methods for producing glass articles from laminated glass tubing include introducing the glass tubing to a converter. The glass tubing includes a core layer under tensile stress, an outer clad layer under, and an inner clad layer. The methods include forming a feature the glass article at a working end of the laminated glass tubing and separating a glass article from the working end of the laminated glass tubing, which may expose the core layer under tensile stress at the working end of the glass tubing. The method further comprises remediating the exposed portion of the core layer by completely enclosing the core layer in a clad layer. Systems for re-cladding the exposed portion of the core layer as well as glass articles made using the systems and methods are also disclosed.

A system for producing articles from glass tube includes a converter having a base with a plurality of processing stations and a turret moveable relative to the base. The turret indexes a plurality of holders for holding the glass tubes successively through the processing stations. The system further includes a thermal imaging system that includes a thermal imager coupled to the turret for movement with the turret. The thermal imaging system may also include a mirror coupled to the thermal imager and positioned to reflect infrared light from one of the plurality of holders to the thermal imager. The thermal imaging system may measure one or more characteristics of the glass tube during the conversion process. Processes for controlling the converter using the thermal imaging system to measure one or more process variables are also disclosed.

A system for producing articles from glass tube includes a converter having a base with a plurality of processing stations and a turret moveable relative to the base. The turret indexes a plurality of holders for holding the glass tubes successively through the processing stations. The system further includes a thermal imaging system that includes a thermal imager coupled to the turret for movement with the turret. The thermal imaging system may also include a mirror coupled to the thermal imager and positioned to reflect infrared light from one of the plurality of holders to the thermal imager. The thermal imaging system may measure one or more characteristics of the glass tube during the conversion process. Processes for controlling the converter using the thermal imaging system to measure one or more process variables are also disclosed.

A glass container is provided that includes a tube, a circular bottom, and a longitudinal axis. A curved glass heel extends from an outer end the bottom to the first end of the tube. The two-dimensional distance h(x,y) between a contact plane and the outer surface. The two-dimensional distance is measured in a direction parallel to the axis. The slope magnitude of the outer surface at the given position x,y is given by
√{square root over ((dh/dx).sup.2+(dh/dy).sup.2)}.
The 75% quantile of values that have been determined for the term
√{square root over ((dh/dx).sup.2+(dh/dy).sup.2)}×d1/h(xy).sub.delta
for all given positions x,y within a circular area having a radius of 0.4×d2/2 and that correspond to the centre is less than 4100 μm/mm. The adjacent positions x,y increase stepwise by 200 μm, and h(x,y).sub.delta=h(x,y).sub.max−h(x,y).sub.min, h(x,y).sub.max is a maximum value for h(x,y) and h(x,y).sub.min is a minimum value for h(x,y) being determined in that circular area.

Systems for producing articles from glass tube include a converter having a base with a plurality of processing stations and a turret moveable relative to the base. The turret indexes a plurality of holders for holding the glass tubes successively through the processing stations. The systems further include a gas flow system or a suction system for producing a flow of gas through the glass tube during one or more heating, forming, separating or piercing operations. The flow of gas through the glass tube produced by the gas flow system or suction system may be sufficient to evacuate or purge volatile constituents of the glass from the glass tube and/or pierce a meniscus formed on the glass tube during separation, thereby reducing the Surface Hydrolytic Response (SHR) of the interior surface of the glass tube and articles made therefrom.

A glass container for packaging a pharmaceutical composition including a glass tube with a first end and a second end, the glass tube having a wall thickness d.sub.w and an outer diameter d.sub.c, a glass bottom with an outer area, the glass bottom closes the glass tube at the first end, and a curved glass heel extending from the outer area of the glass bottom to the first end of the glass tube. The curved glass heel is defined by an outer radius r.sub.o, an inner radius r.sub.i, and a thickness of the glass d.sub.h in the curved glass heel and:
[100×(d.sub.h.sup.3×r.sub.i)/(d.sub.w ×d.sub.c.sup.2)]+(4.4 mm.sup.2/d.sub.c)>0.55 mm.

A method for manufacturing a glass tube is disclosed that includes the step of forming a through hole in a tube wall of a glass tube with two ends including a first end and a second end, each having an opening, near the first end. The method further includes the step of forming a sealed portion by performing thermal processing on a predetermined portion of the glass tube between the first end and the through hole after the formation of the through hole.