Zignago Vetro has expanded its capacity at its Portogruaro, near Venice, Italy, plant to meet increased demand for glass containers.
The expansion involved building a new greenfield production area on the company site, including hall construction and required infrastructure. As part of the construction of the production area, Zignago Vetro has optimised its production sectors from melting to packaging according to the procedures.
It has installed a regenerative end-fired furnace, supplied by Nikolaus Sorg. The furnace will provide low energy consumption values as well as NOx emissions at the lowest technical level. Zignago Vetro is a European manufacturer of cosmetics and perfume containers as well as a producer of food packaging and special bottles for wines, oils and spirits, among others.
The group has production plants in Italy, France and Poland. In order to be able to use cullet to a greater extent, Zignago Vetro plans to operate its own cullet processing system. To meet the increasing demand for glass containers, Zignago Vetro has expanded its capacity at Portogruaro in flint, Georgia’s green or dark green glass. Sorg has also supplied the complete heating system (including emergency heating) as well as the control and SCADA system. The heating is done with gas. Alternatively, the heating is provided with heavy oil. The waste gas rail is intended for the later connection of an emission control system. The furnace is also equipped with a melting booster and a barrier booster as well as a refiner and throat booster, which leads to a higher melting capacity. Its glass conditioning system consists of a Sorg STW working end and two Sorg 340S tandem forehearths in F-shape (pictured). This type of tandem forehearth provides flexibility and is therefore very easy to install. Each of the forehearths is equipped with a stirrer system and supplies the IS tandem machines with glass.
The batch charging system was supplied by EME and is done via two IRD dog houses by means of two EME-NEND S2 screw chargers. This type of batch charger is characterised by a completely sealed doghouse, which eliminates the uncontrolled entry of false air and reduces dust formation. The EME-NEND S chargers enable an optimal batch distribution in the glass melting and minimise wear to the screw, which ensures an increased lifetime.
The new melting plant is designed so that the melting capacity can be extended during the first furnace repair. The construction of the furnace was carried out by SKS Iberica, the installation of the equipment parts by Sorg. In the middle of October 2018 the steel construction started and after a period of 42 days for the refractory assembly the plant was heated up as planned on February 5, 2019. The production handover took place on February 22, 2019. With the start of production, the glass quality has exceeded the expectations and the energy consumption as well as the CO2 emissions were lower than predicted.
