According to the European wish (Directive 94/62/CE) to encourage the reuse of glass containers, an ever increasing percentage of glass bottles are returnable on the North European market. In other words, the bottler takes increasing responsibility for bottles after use. The bottler therefore, deals with the washing of bottles, filling, labelling and storing. The bottles are then put back into the distribution circuit for a new cycle of use. Since the glass which forms the bottles is a brittle material, its potentially very high mechanical resistance is weakened by the presence of defects, which seldom occur in the mass of the glass but frequently found on its surface. This article aims at developing a measuring method and apparatus to quantify scuffing.
