VIDRALA

“Glass, a great challenge for industry” 

VIDRALA produces more than 8 billion glass containers a year to move a little closer to the world we want to live in: committed, healthy, environmentally friendly and sustainable.

Since 1965, it has been working to incorporate the latest technological developments in the production of packaging so as to contribute to society.

Glass has been linked to mankind since its origins. Along with ceramics, glass is the oldest and most widely used material for preserving and storing products thanks to its qualities.

Learning how to manufacture it properly has always been a major challenge for the industry.

The collaboration between VIDRALA and TECNALIA addresses a very common problem: the appearance of bubbles in glass containers.

Too many bubbles can be an indicator of a lack of temperature in the furnace. “A poorly regulated furnace increases energy consumption and production costs,” according to Soraya Villa, Head of Operations Data Systems, VIDRALA.

“In search of a solution, TECNALIA’s full technological potential and VIDRALA’s experience in glass manufacturing have been combined”.

We have managed to create a tailor-made system to detect bubbles based on Deep learning.

This is an artificial intelligence system that is able to differentiate bubbles from etchings and engravings on bottles or other components on containers of different shapes, sizes and colours.

“It is a unique technological solution in the sector that has now become part of VIDRALA’s production lines to provide an immediate and objective qualitative leap in bubble detection”, states Soraya.

It also allows us to calibrate the furnaces even better to control the production process, fine-tune the quality of the products and reduce energy consumption, which benefits companies and society as a whole.