Bottero and Tiama have formed an independent company called GlassFORM.ai with the goal to develop solutions for process automation.

The joint venture based in Rovereto, Trento, Italy is the next step of the strategic plan of the two companies, which have been cooperating for several years, finding a fit between Bottero’s process knowledge and Tiama’s sensor expertise.

Today’s glass market is increasingly driven by the need of higher production efficiency, reduced environmental impact and increased overall safety for operators.

In this scenario, know-how is becoming a challenge: the industry is losing experienced people while new technologies require the development of specific competencies.

Bottero and Tiama believe that automation built on data processing is the key to answer to such emerging needs.

GlassFORM.ai will:

  • provide solutions to automatically manage the forming process according to the production targets
  • contain environmental impacts through energy saving, light weighing and re-source optimisation
  • reduce exposure of operators to machine adjustments via automatic controls
  • compensate the loss in process know-how leveraging on the deployment of Artificial Intelligence technologies

The connections with Trentino Sviluppo (the agency of Provincia Autonoma di Trento devoted to promote a sustainable development in Trentino area) and the Center for Digital Industry of FBK (Fondazione Bruno Kessler - a top Research In-stitute active in the fields of scientific, technological and human sciences) in the framework of the “Manifattura Project”, are a plus for establishing stable relationships with local industries and research centres, with the aim to identify common R&D projects and joint development activities.

All GlassFORM.ai solutions are thought and developed to be universally applied, open to all IS machines and sensors in the market.

The starting point of the GlassFORM.ai development portfolio will be based on products and solutions already available, where edge technologies (i.e. big data and machine learning) have been successfully implemented, exploiting the results achieved in other industrial segments.

Examples of the first solutions soon available are the automatic management of gob forming operations and the integration of cold/hot end data to optimally drive process stability and accuracy.

Benoit Burin Des Roziers, Tiama CEO, said: “According to our discussions with all our Customers, the automatization of the glass containers process is becoming a key priority to meet all the current challenges. Creating an independent co-enterprise with Bottero to provide universal and plug&play solutions appeared to us obvious long time ago.

"Tiama is happy to transform long discussions in reality with GlassFORM.ai.

"This industry trend is obvious in many segments and Tiama feels extremely committed to con-tribute to deliver very competitive solutions to all its customers. Our Glass Containers segment cannot be competitive without such solutions, and we want to contribute strongly."

Marco Tecchio, Bottero and GlassFORM.ai CEO, said: “Automation is today of paramount importance in the glass processing industry and Bottero products have always been ahead with innovative solutions leveraging machine learning and artificial intelligence.

"This JV with Tiama is our next strategic step in order to fully automatise the glass forming process.

"Thanks to Tiama leadership in the inspection and quality control systems and our in-depth knowledge in IS machine and forming process, GlassFORM.ai will be a leading player in our industry, committed to deliver the best solutions for our customers."