Good manual swabbing often was, and still is, described as an "art" but in today's high productivity glass industry with the never-ending struggle to increase quality and flexibility while reducing costs one can no longer accept an "art" in such a vital area as the glass forming machine. There have been several attempts in the past to eliminate or at least reduce manual swabbing, some with little or no success and some with only a partial success. SG Alternatives have developed new mould coatings aimed at resolving this long-standing problem and give more stability to the complex process of glass forming. The firm has also developed a new series of alloys for glass moulds that are easy to machine while giving superior characteristics specific for the glass forming process. Both of these new developments are described here.
