METHOD OF MANUFACTURING A SET OF MASS-PRODUCED GLASS CONTAINERS, RAW MATERIAL COMPOSITION, AND SET OF RESULTING MASS-PRODUCED GLASS CONTAINERS

Abstract

The invention relates to a method of manufacturing a set of mass-produced glass containers, a raw material composition, and a set of resulting mass-produced glass containers, wherein the method comprises obtaining successive batches of raw material including, in a certain percentage of at least 80% by weight, a mixture of, for the most part, predominantly transparent pieces of recovered post-consumer glass and with a heterogeneous and variable chromatic composition in successive batches, melting the successive batches of raw material, and automatically manufacturing the set of predominantly transparent mass-produced containers with an identical shape, automatically detecting and rejecting the manufactured containers exhibiting dimensional and/or safety defects causing alterations in the shape and/or geometry of the container above predefined tolerances, ignoring the chromatic and/or aesthetic manufacturing defects, and filling all the containers from the set of non-rejected mass-produced containers with the same content and labeling with an identical label.

Claims

1. A method of manufacturing a set of mass-produced containers with an identical shape, the method comprising: obtaining successive batches of raw material for glass manufacture, with each batch comprising, in a certain percentage, a mixture of pieces of recovered glass, for the most part predominantly transparent; melting the successive batches of raw material; automatically manufacturing, from successive batches of molten raw material, the set of predominantly transparent mass-produced containers by an automatic compression and/or blow molding process; automatically detecting and rejecting the manufactured containers exhibiting manufacturing defects above predefined tolerances; filling all the containers from the set of non-rejected mass-produced containers with identical product and labelling with an identical label; the recovered glass of the mixture of pieces of recovered glass is post-consumer glass with a heterogeneous chromatic composition, different in successive batches, and constituting at least 80% by weight of the batches of raw material, such that different manufactured containers from the set of mass-produced containers have a different visible light absorption pattern, being predominantly transparent containers with a noticeably different color and/or color intensity; and only those dimensional and/or safety manufacturing defects causing alterations in the shape and/or geometry of the container are automatically detected and rejected, ignoring the chromatic and/or aesthetic manufacturing defects.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein the mixture of pieces of recovered glass constitutes at least 90% or 95% by weight of the batches of raw material.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the different batches of raw material lack color additives other than those contained in the pieces of recovered glass.

4. The method according to claim 1, wherein the mixture of chromatically heterogeneous pieces of post-consumer glass comprises a mixture of pieces of predominantly transparent colorless glass in a first percentage, and of pieces of predominantly transparent colored glass in a second percentage, and/or of pieces of hardly transparent colored glass in a third percentage, with the first percentage and the second and/or third percentages being variable between different batches of raw material, with maximum variations of at least 10% or of at least 15% between different batches.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the predominantly transparent glass is one that lets more than 75% of the incident visible light pass therethrough, and/or the hardly transparent glass is one that lets equal to or less than 75% of the incident visible light pass therethrough.

6. The method according to claim 5, wherein the sum of the second percentage and of the third percentage represents at least 20% of the total weight of the mixture of pieces of recovered glass.

7. The method according to claim 5, wherein the pieces of colored glass comprise pieces of glass with different shades of green, with different shades of brown and optionally different shades of blue, in variable proportions in successive batches.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the raw material contains bubble precursor particles, and/or the temperature of the molten material and/or of the molds is selected to generate flaws visible to the naked eye in the manufactured containers.

9. A raw material composition for the manufacture of a set of mass-produced predominantly transparent glass containers, all with an identical shape, content, and labelling, wherein the composition comprises successive batches of raw material, each batch of raw material comprising, in a certain percentage, a mixture of pieces of recovered glass, for the most part predominantly transparent; and the recovered glass of the mixture of pieces of recovered glass is post-consumer glass with a heterogeneous chromatic composition, different in successive batches and constituting at least 80% by weight of the batches of raw material, such that different manufactured containers from the set of mass-produced containers have a different visible light absorption pattern, being predominantly transparent containers with a noticeably different color and/or color intensity.

10. A set of mass-produced glass containers, all with an identical shape, content, and labelling, according to claim 1, wherein different containers from the set of mass-produced containers have a different visible light absorption pattern causing a noticeable difference in color and/or a noticeable difference in color intensity.

11. The set of mass-produced glass containers according to claim 10, wherein the predominantly transparent containers let at least 75% of the visible light pass therethrough.

12. The set of mass-produced glass containers according to claim 10, wherein the noticeable difference in color between different containers from the set of mass-produced containers is determined by a difference of at least 16 nm, or preferably of at least 20 nm or 25 nm, in the wavelength of the predominant color of a visible white light after passing through the container.

13. The set of mass-produced glass containers according to claim 10, wherein the noticeable difference in color intensity between different containers from the set of mass-produced containers is at least 20% color saturation in the wavelength of the predominant color of a visible white light after passing through the container, or preferably of least 30%.

14. The set of mass-produced glass containers according to claim 10, wherein the containers from the set of mass-produced containers comprise noticeable cosmetic defects in the glass that are different from one another.

15. The set of mass-produced glass containers according to claim 14, wherein the noticeable cosmetic defects are selected from bubbles, scratches, corrugations, or roughness on the surface generating noticeable optical aberrations.

Description

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

[0067] FIG. 1 shows a schematic elevational view of three containers, in the form of bottles, constituting the set of mass-produced containers, the three containers having an identical shape, size, content, and labeling but differing in color, depicted by means of a different hatching, and also differing in that they include different noticeable aesthetic defects. In this example, the container on the left includes a number of bubbles and some scratches, the container in the middle includes fewer bubbles and other different scratches, and the container on the right does not include any bubbles or scratches.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF AN EMBODIMENT

[0068] The embodiments described below are non-limiting illustrations of the present invention.

[0069] The containers from the proposed set of mass-produced glass containers all have an identical shape, content, and labeling.

[0070] Each of said mass-produced containers from the set is a predominantly transparent colored container.

[0071] Predominantly transparent containers are those in which the specular transmission of visible light therethrough predominates over other phenomena such as the diffuse transmission and the reflection of visible light.

[0072] Preferably, predominantly transparent containers are those which let at least 60%, or preferably at least 75% of the visible light pass therethrough.

[0073] Said predominantly transparent containers will furthermore be colored containers when the absorption of the visible light traversing the container is not homogeneous in different visible light frequency ranges, following a visible light absorption pattern. For example, if the glass constituting the container absorbs predominantly those wavelengths corresponding to the color blue, the white light traversing said container will have a yellowish color, because red and green light will predominate, and their mixture will produce a yellowish color.

[0074] Different containers from the set of mass-produced containers have a different visible light absorption pattern causing a noticeable difference in color and/or a noticeable difference in color intensity. In other words, the set of containers has at least two containers with an identical shape, content, and labeling but with a different color of glass, for example one container being a green color and another container being a turquoise color.

[0075] Preferably, the noticeable difference in color between different containers from the set of mass-produced containers is also understood to be determined by a difference of at least 16 nm, or preferably of at least 20 nm or 25 nm, in the predominant color of a visible white light after passing therethrough.

[0076] By way of example, it is provided that between a clearly blue color, defined between 450 nm and 470 nm, and a clearly green color, defined between 510 nm and 530 nm, there are at least two intermediate colors.

[0077] The visible light spectrum consists of 400 nm, from 380 nm to 780 nm, so a difference of 16 nm represents a division of the entire visible spectrum into twenty-six chromatic subdivisions, which are sufficiently different from one another to be distinguished by a user with the naked eye.

[0078] This means that it is possible to define, for example, seven main colors corresponding to red (from 780 nm and to around 668 nm), orange (around 620 nm), yellow (around 572 nm), green (around 524 nm), turquoise (around 476 nm), blue (around 444 nm), and violet (from 380 to around 396 nm). This classification allows two additional colors to be intercalated between each of these seven main colors, with jumps of 16 nm.

[0079] The predominant colors in the predominantly transparent glass bottles are the colors comprised between green and blue, although there are also reddish and brown colors.

[0080] The color brown is typically defined as a mixture of red light with a small amount of green light, and also optionally with very little blue. The color red is defined as a color with a dominant wavelength measuring between 780 nm and about 630 nm.

[0081] Therefore, the pieces of glass of a selected color are those the color of which is within the aforementioned range or, in the case of brown, contains a mixture of colors within the mentioned ranges.

[0082] Therefore, between the color green and the color blue there will be other noticeably different colors with jumps of at least 16 nm between them. In this example, there will be at least one green defined around 508 nm, and one green defined around 492 nm (emerald and aquamarine) between green and turquoise, and there will be at least one blue of 460 nm (cerulean) between turquoise and blue. According to the present invention, the set will include at least two containers the color of which exhibits a difference of at least 16 nm, or preferably nm or 25 nm, the color of these containers being in several of said chromatic subdivisions.

[0083] In addition to being defined by wavelength, the color can also be defined by the intensity of said color. A noticeable difference in color intensity between different containers from the set of mass-produced containers is considered to be a difference of at least 20% color saturation of a visible white light after passing therethrough, and preferably 30%.

[0084] A 100% saturation corresponds to colors of maximum intensity, and as saturation is reduced, the color turns grayish and dull. The images on gray scale have a 0% saturation. For example, the color khaki is a green color with a low color saturation.

[0085] By combining noticeable differences in color with differences of at least 16 nm between them, and noticeable differences in color intensity with differences of at least 20% between them, many different colors can be achieved.

[0086] By way of example, there is proposed a list of chromatic variations with their own name, and they can be distinguished from one another as a result of the aforementioned noticeable differences:

[0087] chocolate, brown, chestnut, brick red, cherry, red, vermilion, coral, magenta, salmon, orange, ochre, yellow, lime green, grass green, olive green, algae green, emerald green, aquamarine green, turquoise, cyan, cerulean blue, blue, navy blue, indigo, purple, violet, lilac, amethyst, eggplant, mauve, lavender, fuchsia, pink, straw, gray.

[0088] Therefore, the present invention proposes, for example, two containers with an identical shape, content, and labeling but the glass of which has an olive green color in one case and a turquoise color in the other case.

[0089] The chromatic diversity in the containers with an identical shape, size, content, and labeling allows said set of mass-produced containers to be manufactured using heterogeneous predominantly transparent recovered post-consumer glass with varied coloring, in a certain percentage greater than 80% or even greater than 90%.

[0090] According to one embodiment, the percentage of recycled post-consumer glass can be more than 95% or even reach 100%.

[0091] It is also proposed that at least two containers from the set of mass-produced containers include noticeable cosmetic defects in the glass that are different from one another.

[0092] Said noticeable cosmetic defects will preferably be selected from bubbles, scratches, corrugations, or roughness on the surface generating noticeable optical aberrations.

[0093] It will be understood that for an aesthetic flaw to be noticeable, it must have a certain size. For example, the bubbles must have a diameter of at least 2 mm, the scratches a length of at least 4 mm, and the corrugations or roughness on the surface will cause optical aberrations producing a deviation of at least 2 mm on a straight line observed through said container.

[0094] All this allows the percentage of rejection due to aesthetic manufacturing defects to be reduced, even to zero, reducing costs and the ecological impact caused by the manufacture.

[0095] The recovered post-consumer glass used for the manufacture of the set of containers object of the present invention may consist, by at least 90%, of pieces of predominantly transparent recovered glass, i.e., with a transparency equal to or greater than 70%, and with a heterogeneous coloring, i.e., pieces of glass with different distinguishable colors will be mixed, for example, with different greenish, and/or bluish, and/or brownish colors. In other words, different pieces of glass from the mixture of pieces of glass traversed by a white light will offer a light with a different predominant wavelength.

[0096] It is also proposed that the mass-produced containers lack color additives in addition to those present in the recovered post-consumer glass, the color and shade of the mass-produced containers being the result of the mixture of the color and shade of the pieces of recovered glass used in their manufacture.