Glass Melting Technology: A Technical and Economic ... - OSTI

Glass Melting Technology:
A Technical and Economic Assessment
Executive Summary
Basic understanding of melting technology and knowledge of industry economics is
essential if the glass manufacturing process is to be advanced to conserve energy, protect
environmental quality, and secure capital investment. This study unravels the
complexities of the glassmaking process in all segments of the industry. Glass
manufacturers, managers and administrators, scientists and engineers, and policy makers
will find this report a ready reference for further study. Government agencies will
understand how best to support glass manufacturing and apply appropriate regulations to
the industry. Materials and equipment vendors can identify present and future needs to
better serve glass manufactures. Educators and students in higher education can profit
from past research and development to design pre-proprietary research. Collectively,
these groups will be equipped to mold a more viable future for the US glass industry that
employs over 148,000 workers and produces 20 percent of the 100 million tons of glass
produced worldwide.
Current glass melting technology, based on continuous furnace design initially developed
in the mid 19th century by the Siemens Brothers in Germany, has evolved in response to
manufacturing requirements. But few revolutionary changes to this basic technology have
occurred because such changes involve considerable financial and technical risks that no
single glass corporation can reasonably undertake. Development of melting techniques is
also hampered by the industry’s peculiar characteristic of being segmented into the
sectors of container, flat, fiber and specialty glasses, with those segments further divided
within themselves. Reaching consensus on melting technology is difficult, but a
cooperative research and development effort by all glass manufacturers, with government
support of funding and practical regulatory standards, could result in a glass melting
technology that would answer the major challenges posed by energy usage,
environmental regulations and costly capital investment.
The industry experienced a noticeable overall compound annual growth rate (+0.8
percent) between 1997 and 2001. However, growth has slowed in the past several years
and has suffered from general decline in the US economy. Plant over-capacity,
increasing foreign trade and imports, capital intensiveness, rising costs for environmental
compliance, increasing international competition, and substitution by aluminum and
plastics have also challenged the US glass industry. Most manufacturers expect a short
(one-to- two–year) payback for capital investments in established businesses, resulting in
smaller evolutionary steps to improve the melting process. New manufacturing facilities
have difficulty attracting capital investment because glassmaking is a capital intensive
process and because rate of return on investment is low. Established glass businesses
struggle to earn consistent rates of return on corporate cost of capital and have little
financial flexibility to promote research and development.
A national and international survey of over 75 glassmaking corporations and academic
research institutions, an extensive analysis of technical literature published and patents
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