Owens-brockway Glass Container Inc.

Owens-illinois Plastic Products Inc.

Owens-brockway Plastic Products Inc.

Rexam Prescription Products Inc.

Owens-illinois Prescription Products Inc.

Owens-illinois Healthcare Packaging Inc.

Owens-brockway Glass Conatiner Inc.

Rexam Healthcare Packaging Inc.

Roger P Smith

Jessica Rose Bryant

Anatoly Solunin

Chris Delbert Anderson

Oleg Feygenson

Thomas J Krall

Zhongming Wang

Scott Weil

Michael J Whitton

Diana Darvish

Nikolay Taratin

Douglas Laib

Scott P Cooper

Terence John Clark

Susan L Smith

Kenneth S Bloom

Carol Ann Click

Earnest E Bliss, Iii

Olivier Dangmann

Stephen Barton

Michael D Norton

Shawn Eric Kellogg

Casey L Ingle

Kent A Gearhart

Rebecca Mullen

Anthony R Caracciolo

Stephen Daniel Barton

Shane T Rashley

Igor Kachko

Kirk Holmes

Brad Malcolm

Steven Will

Guenther Josef Mlynar

Manfred Robert Romstöck

Thomas G Green

Karin Gabriela Bastarrachea

Philip J Rausch

Daniel L Newsom

Phyllis A Cresswell

Louis Osika

Jeffery S Lugar

Jeffrey S Lugar

Randy Ernsthausen

Vladimir Vasikyev

Phillip J Rausch

Vladimir Vasilyev

Igoris Misiucenko

Chris Anderson

Chris D Anderson

Jessica R Bryant

Terence J Clark

Scott Cooper

A bulk material handling method includes: a) receiving and pneumatically conveying bulk material via pressurized dilute phase, dense phase, and/or hybrid dilute/dense phase, and/or vacuum drawn conveyance into bulk material containers; b) storing the bulk material in the containers; c) dispensing the bulk material from the containers into a bulk material transporter; d) transporting the transporter from the containers to a bulk material transmitting vessel; and e) discharging the bulk material from the transporter into the transmitting vessel, including releasing the bulk material from the transporter into the transmitting vessel, and pneumatically transmitting the bulk material out of the transmitting vessel to downstream bulk material processing equipment. Discharging also may include rejecting the bulk material from the transporter to a waste container. A related system, subsystems, and apparatuses are also disclosed.

Bulk material handling methods, systems, subsystems, and apparatuses

According to an aspect of the disclosure, a glass manufacturing system includes a hot-end subsystem, including: a submerged combustion melter that melts feedstock to produce molten glass; a stiller that receives the molten glass from the submerged combustion melter and that includes a stilling tank to still the molten glass and that is configured to control outflow of the stilled molten glass to effectively decouple viscosity of the molten glass from the flow rate of the molten glass and thereby control finer molten glass levels; and a finer that is mechanically decoupled from the stiller, and that receives and fines the stilled molten glass to produce fined molten glass. Many other aspects of the system are also disclosed and claimed.

Glass manufacturing

A method of fining glass is disclosed that includes flowing a molten glass bath through a fining chamber. The molten glass bath has an undercurrent that flows beneath a skimmer that is partially submerged in the molten glass bath. One or more fining agents are introduced into the undercurrent of the molten glass bath directly beneath the skimmer from a dissolvable fining material component. In this way, the fining agent(s) may selectively target the gas bubbles drawn under the skimmer within the undercurrent of the molten glass for removal. The method may be employed to fine molten gas produced in a submerged combustion melter. A fining vessel for fining molten glass is also disclosed that includes a housing, a skimmer, and a dissolvable fining material component disposed directly beneath the skimmer.

Selective chemical fining of small bubbles in glass

A method of fining glass is disclosed that includes flowing a molten glass bath through a fining chamber. The molten glass bath has an undercurrent that flows beneath a skimmer that is partially submerged in the molten glass bath. One or more fining agents are introduced into the undercurrent of the molten glass bath directly beneath the skimmer from a carrier gas. In this way, the fining agent(s) may selectively target the gas bubbles drawn under the skimmer within the undercurrent of the molten glass for removal. The method may be employed to fine molten gas produced in a submerged combustion melter. A fining vessel for fining molten glass is also disclosed.

A method for tracking containers. The method includes manufacturing containers, including forming the containers and serializing them with machine-readable codes. The method further includes using the machine-readable codes to store data associated with the containers, and supplying the containers to a customer. The method still further comprises receiving from the customer, data obtained from customer-readings of the machine-readable codes; and receiving from one or more other locations in a distribution chain in which the containers travel, data obtained from readings of the machine-readable codes at those locations. The method still further comprises comparing the data from the customer-readings and other readings of the machine-readable codes across product brands, product distribution channels, and/or container types, and providing the data to the customer. In at least some embodiments, the method further comprises receiving from the customer a compensation for the containers, for example, a per-refill compensation.

Method and system for tracking containers

A method of fining glass is disclosed that includes flowing a molten glass bath through a fining chamber. The molten glass bath has an undercurrent that flows beneath a skimmer that is partially submerged in the molten glass bath. One or more fining agents are introduced into the undercurrent of the molten glass bath directly beneath the skimmer from a dissolvable fining material component. In this way, the fining agent(s) may selectively target the gas bubbles drawn under the skimmer within the undercurrent of the molten glass for removal. The method may be employed to fine molten gas produced in a submerged combustion melter. A fining vessel for fining molten glass is also disclosed.

A product includes a container, a photosensitive material carried by the container and responsive to ultraviolet light, and a UV protector carried by the container to protect the photosensitive material from exposure to UV light. A method of producing a food or beverage container includes applying a photochromic material to a food or beverage container that is responsive to ultraviolet (UV) light so as to darken upon exposure thereto, and protecting at least a portion of the photochromic material from exposure to UV light.

Product and package with a photosensitive use-evident feature

A system and method for use in authenticating one or both of a container and a product packaged therein. The method comprises obtaining images of each of two codes carried by a container system comprising the container. The method further comprises determining, for each image, a contrast ratio between one or more elements of the code in the image and the background of the code. The method still further comprises determining the authenticity of one or both of the container and the product packaged therein based at least in part on the contrast ratios for each image, and therefore, each code.

Authentication of a container and/or product packaged therein

A method for tracking containers. The method includes manufacturing containers, including forming the containers and serializing them with machine-readable codes. The method further includes using the machine-readable codes to store data associated with the containers, and supplying the containers to a customer. The method still further comprises receiving from the customer, data obtained from customer-readings of the machine-readable codes; and receiving from one or more the locations in a distribution chain in which the containers travel, data obtained from readings of the machine-readable codes at those locations. The method still further comprises comparing the data from the customer-readings and other readings or the machine-readable codes across product brands, product distribution channels, and/or container types, and providing the data to the customer. In at least some embodiments, the method further comprises receiving from the customer a compensation for the containers, for example, a per-refill compensation.

A package includes a container, a closure coupled to the container, a flaccid loop, and a medal coupled to the flaccid loop. The container may include a wall and the medal retained to the wall by container material of integral one-piece construction with the wall and extending over at least a portion of the medal.

Container with a medal

A tamper-evident product and related methods of production. A container includes a neck, and a tamper-evidencing component separate from the container and carried by the neck of the container in direct contact with a corresponding portion of the container neck. The component is composed of material that has higher thermal conductivity than that of a material of the container so as to concentrate heat in the corresponding portion of the container neck. The neck is thermally responsive to application of heat pursuant to tampering with the product by at least one of the following responses: an irreversible change in visual appearance of the corresponding portion of the container neck, or fracture of the container neck at the corresponding portion of the container neck.

Container having a tamper-indicating component

A product includes a container, and an indicator carried inside the container, and including an air-reactive material and a protective material on the air-reactive material, and having a first visible characteristic with the protective material, and a second visible characteristic when exposed to air without the protective material. A package including the product, and a method for making the package are also disclosed.

Container having a use indicator

A soda-lime-silica glass container and related methods of manufacturing. A black-strikable glass composition having a base glass portion and a latent colorant portion is prepared. The base glass portion includes soda-lime-silica glass materials and one or more blue colorant materials, and the latent colorant portion includes cuprous oxide (CuO), stannous oxide (SnO), bismuth oxide (BiO), and carbon (C). Glass containers may be formed from the black-strikable glass composition, and these glass containers may be heated to a temperature greater than 600 degrees Celsius to strike black therein. The glass containers formed from the black-strikable glass composition may be inspected&#x2014;before or after striking&#x2014;by infrared inspection equipment.

Inspectable black glass containers

A product includes a bottle, and an indicator that is carried in a relief in an interior surface of at least one of a shoulder of the bottle or a neck of the bottle, and that is adapted, upon contact with air, irreversibly to change a characteristic of the indicator that is visible from outside of the bottle to indicate to a user that the product has been used. A package including the product, and a method for making the package are also disclosed.

A package for multi-instance photosensitive authentication includes a container, and a photochromic material non-removably carried by the container and irreversibly changeable upon exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light. The package also includes a UV protector carried over the photochromic material to protect the photochromic material from premature exposure to the UV light, and having multiple portions that are removable to expose multiple portions of the photochromic material to UV light and are irreplaceable once removed.

Package for multi-instance photosensitive authentication

Growing community of inventors

Perrysburg, OH, United States of America

Roger P Smith