Reducing Glass Etching During Bottle Washing

By Bob Shewmake and M. Graham Coors brewing Company, Golden, Colorado, USA., DiverseyLever, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA. Paper presented at the World Brewing Congress 2000, Orlando, Florida, USA.

Abstract
Scuffing of refillable glass bottles reduces consumer appeal and increases production expense through glass replacement costs. This paper discusses how Coors, Golden introduced new additive technology from DiverseyLever into their bottle washing operation and compared the results with bottles processed with the standard cleaning solution. The test was conducted in a production environ-ment for a period of six months, processing approximately one mil-lion cases of bottles. Sample bottles were weighed to the milligram and then processed through the washer and the cleaning solution for a total of thirty cycles. After each ten cycles through the solution, the sample bottles were again weighed. The sample bottles processed through the Divobrite Integra solution showed a 50% decrease in loss of mass. Such a reduction in bottle degradation results in less scuffing and would therefore increase the useful life and the aesthetic appeal of the bottle. The Coors results would indicate a significant impact for bot-tlers who utilize returnable bottles. Because this new technology is a bottle washing detergent, it suc-cessfully replaced the previously used additives, providing effective detergency and scale control at a competitive cost.
Keywords: scuffing, etching, bottlewashing, glass corrosion  

Sintesis
El rayado de botellas de vidrio retornables reduce la atracci�n del cliente e incrementa los gastos de producci�n al aumentar el costo de reemplazo de botellas de vidrio. Este documento explica como Coors, Golden introdujo una tec-nolog�a con nuevos aditivos de DiverseyLever para la operaci�n del lavado de botellas y compar� los resultados con las botellas proce-sadas con la soluci�n de limpieza est�ndar. La prueba se condujo en un ambiente de producci�n por un per�odo de seis meses, donde se procesaron aproximadamente un mill�n de cajas de botellas. Las botellas de muestra fueron pesadas hasta los miligramos y luego fueron procesadas en la lavadora con la soluci�n limpiadora por un total de treinta ciclos. Despu�s de cada diez ciclos en la soluci�n limpiadora, las botellas de muestra fueron pesadas otra vez. Las botellas de muestra procesadas con la soluci�n Divobrite Integra mostraron una reducci�n del 50% en la p�rdida de masa. Tal reducci�n en la degradaci�n de la botella resulta en menos rayado y por lo tanto aumenta la vida �til y la apariencia est�tica de la botella. Los resultados de la Coors podr�an indicar un impacto sig-nificativo para embotelladores que usan botellas retornables. Debido a que esta nueva tecnolog�a es un detergente para lavado de botellas, ha reemplazado exitosamente los aditivos usados anteri-ormente, produciendo una limpieza efectiva y un control de escala a una costo competitivo.