US-12623945-B2 - Method of automatic mass production of glass containers, obtained glass containers and mold for obtaining same

Abstract

The invention relates to a method of automatic mass production of glass containers with texture which comprises producing a mold including a texture of non-parametric three-dimensional motifs ( 5 ) by means of protuberances, with said motifs being irregular, non-geometric, and non-figurative and being irregularly distributed; manufacturing glass containers with non-parametric texture bas-relief motifs covering and concealing potential aesthetic manufacturing defects by means of an automatic process of molten glass compression and/or blow molding; automatically detecting and rejecting the containers having manufacturing dimensional and/or safety defects.

Inventors

• JOKIN ARREGUI LETAMENDI

Assignees

• DSIGNTANK, SL

Dates

Publication Date

20260512

Application Date

20210730

Priority Date

20200731

Claims (4)

1. 1 . A glass container resulting from automatic mass production comprising: an outer surface including at least one region with texture, each region with texture including a texture obtained by molding formed by irregular, non-geometric, non-figurative, and non-parametric three-dimensional, bas-relief motifs irregularly distributed over the region with texture covering and concealing potential aesthetic manufacturing defects causing visible marks in the glass container; the non-parametric bas-relief motifs are reproductions of aesthetic manufacturing defects, the bas-relief motifs being irregularly distributed over the region with texture covering and concealing aesthetic manufacturing defects causing visible marks in the glass container.
2. 2 . The container according to claim 1 , wherein the region with texture include, between the non-parametric bas-relief motifs, unaltered areas devoid of bas-reliefs exposed in regards the surrounding bas-relief motifs; and the container further includes a paper label, screen printing, and/or stamping attached to or applied on the unaltered areas of at least a part of the region with texture of the outer surface of the container.
3. 3 . The container according to claim 1 , wherein the unaltered areas of the outer surface of the container represent at least 10% or at least 15% of the surface of the region with texture.
4. 4 . The container according to claim 1 wherein the non-parametric bas-relief motifs are defined by: local ripples or depressions with an irregular edge and depth on the outer surface of the container which produce variations in the thickness of the glass; and/or reproductions of aesthetic manufacturing defects defined by scores or scratches generating channels with an irregular edge and depth on the outer surface of the container; and/or reproductions of aesthetic manufacturing defects defined by bubbles or holes generating local voids with an irregular edge and depth on the outer surface of the container.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to the application of a non-parametric bas-relief texture in the automatic manufacture of molded glass containers. Said texture is obtained by molding whereby it will be possible to reproduce series of containers automatically and industrially with the same texture on their outer surface and is compatible with the functionalities of the areas considered to be susceptible to labeling or decoration. In the present case, the texture is proposed to have a natural, non-geometric, non-parametric, and non-figurative appearance and is arranged randomly on at least one region of the outer surface of the container. The texture motifs can reproduce any type of typical surface irregularities and defects of molded glass, such as for example scratches, pockets, ripples, hammered surface, orange peel, bubbles, or a combination of the foregoing. These motifs are particularly provided bas-relief and, in any case, without detriment to the areas considered susceptible to decoration or labeling of the container in any of the standard industrial labeling and decoration processes. STATE OF THE ART The technique of compressing and/or blowing a molten glass parison inside a mold, the inner molding surface of which defines the geometry of the outer surface of the container to be manufactured, is used for the most part in the automatic, industrial, mass manufacture of glass containers. If a texture is included on said inner molding surface, all the resulting containers will have said texture. This process is usually performed in a completely automatic manner. Said technique of industrialized manufacture by molten glass compression and/or blowing always produces a percentage of containers with manufacturing defects, which are detected and rejected, and subsequently remelted as recycled raw material. Despite said recycling, the rejected containers significantly reduce manufacturing efficiency. In the industry today, between 15% and 35% of the bottles produced are usually rejected for presenting different kinds of defects, which makes the resulting product more expensive and increases contaminating emissions and, accordingly, the carbon footprint associated with each marketed container. Some manufacturing defects are defects which affect product safety, where the container has critical defects and affect the integrity required for the container. Other manufacturing defects are dimensional manufacturing defects producing alterations of the shape and/or geometry of the glass container above predefined tolerances and affecting the functionality of the container. For example, if the opening does not have a size within the expected tolerances, it can cause an imperfect or defective closure of the container with the cover, or if the base of the container is irregular it will hinder the container from standing upright. Other shape-related deformations can also hinder container automatic handling, packaging, labeling, screen printing, and/or stamping operations, which also represents a problem that affects their functionality. However, many other defects are simple aesthetic manufacturing defects producing visible marks and/or optical aberrations in the glass container. These aesthetic manufacturing defects affect the outer surface of the container but do not affect the functionality thereof, as the correct containment of their content, their safety and proper automatic handling, packaging, labeling, screen printing, and/or stamping of the containers with aesthetic defects are not affected, even though these containers are also rejected. Those merely aesthetic defects are the cause of a high percentage of rejected containers, between 5% and 15% in the industry today, so a reduction or even the complete elimination of rejected containers due to merely aesthetic defects represents a large increase in the efficacy of manufacturing processes. Aesthetic manufacturing defects have many possible causes, for example an incorrect molten glass and/or mold temperature setting, which can cause thermal shock or incorrect or non-uniform cooling of the glass, which usually produces ripples on the surface thereof, or they can be caused by impurities existing in the glass, or by flaws existing in the molds, or by incorrect handling of the container before its complete cooling, producing all types of visible marks, such as scratches, bubbles, etc. These aesthetic manufacturing defects, which occasionally appear on the outer surface of containers, always have, due to their random origin, an irregular non-parametric, non-geometric, and non-figurative shape and are randomly distributed on the outer surface. Molds are typically manufactured by reproducing the geometry of a parametric three-dimensional virtual model. The parametric three-dimensional virtual model defines the outer surface of the container, the surfaces of which are defined by parametric functions, i.e., said surfaces correspond to a more or less complex