Canada’s MMAAZZ Technology division has partnered with the Spanish testing facility, CTM Centre Tecnologic, to extend the life of reusable glass bottles through the reduction of ‘scuffing’ on the bottling line.
Global bottling and packaging companies are focused on sustainable packaging such as reusable glass, both to drive profitability and reduce their environmental footprint.
However, the industry is lacking a scientific measure as to how processing the bottles impacts the lifespan of reusable glass.
“While we have likely all seen signs of scuffing on bottles, the white rings on the shoulders and heels, it is a much larger issue in Europe than here in North America,” says Pablo Asiron, EVP, Global Sales for MMAAZZ.
“Europe has very strict scuffing guidelines for glass, and bottles are removed from the line when they have visible scuffing marks. Some studies have concluded that bottle life has been reduced up to eight years due to scuffing.”
The MMAAZZ project received the prestigious EUREKA designation, being one of only a handful in Canada to do so.
“MMAAZZ was the first and is still the only company in the world that measures the impact received by a bottle in IPS (standard units set by AGR) and now we are moving our products again to untouched territory by being the first and only company to quantify the amount of scuffing that a filling line inflicts on a bottle,” states Asiron.
Dr. Giselle Ramirez of CTM Centre Tecnologic comments: “From what we have seen of the MMAAZZ sensor products thus far, the company is certainly a welcome addition to our group.
"The main objective of this project is to develop a scientifically proven methodology to reproduce and measure the level of scuffing that a container receives on a filling line. The ultimate goal is to measure the reduction on the life of the container due to scuffing, as well as propose solutions to reduce it.”
