Glass containers have some known and unquestioned advantages: they are natural, hygienic, impermeable, durable and also aesthetically fashionable and pleasing. However, this no longer seems enough and strong competition from alternative materials such as PET and cans, in terms of costs and lightness, has pushed the glass container industry more and more to go beyond the limits inherent to the actual productive process. While maintaining the characteristics of stability and resistance, the production of lighter glass containers introduces some important benefits: Reduced consumption of raw materials; less thermal and compressed air energy used in the process; reduced costs related to the transport, moving and stocking of the containers and, if we also consider an additional increase in the percentage of recycled raw materials, the important reduction in environmental impact can be appreciated ina bout 15% savings in CO2 emissions. While maintaining quality, efficiency, speed and operational costs, container weight reduction can be formally achieved by means of improved control of process parameters, mainly with timing and temperature distribution, during gob forming and in the steps of loading, preforming, reheating and forming.
