S African glass packaging manufacturer Consol Glass has invested R320M in a facility at its Clayville pant in Midrand, extending the factory's production capacity by almost 40%. The project includes a 320 tonne furnace, increasing capacity to 860/tpd (from 540/tpd). The plant was commissioned using technology from OI, which has a skills & technology sharing agreemnt with Consol. Local engineers are facilitating the front end design & implementation. The project is expected to improve production by cullet processing driven by environmental commitments, hot bottle inspection to reduce the time taken to address defects, increased quality inspection through advances made in non-contact laser technology & more flexibility in bottle manufacture. Plans are also being made to commission a cullet processing plant on the Clayville site to recycle waste glass.
