How Glass Bottles are Made - Page 11


Here is one of the most amazing machines in modern industry. Entirely automatic in operation, it produces 72 finished bottles every minute. You can see them on the conveyor, leaving the machine and on their way be annealed in the lehr.
absolute timing to make it work. There are up to a dozen sets of moulds in the circumference of one of the machines. Each set of moulds has to receive its proper allotment of molten glass, press it and transfer it to the companion mould to be blown and discharged on to a conveyor. When it is realized that these machines make as high as seventy-two bottles a minute, it is easy to realize that precise timing is the essence of the operation. It should also be realized that with a machine of this intricate nature, once started it should be kept in constant operation for a considerable period of time. Hence the necessity for a continuous supply of molten glass and the continuous furnace.
This close-up of the above machine shows the transfer of a partially formed bottle from the blank mould to the blow mould on the left. This will immediately close over the bottle, compressed air will be applied, and the bottle blown into final shape.