Giorgio Minestrini from Stara Glass won the award for best presentation at the recently-held Furnace Solutions event
During the recently-held Furnace solutions event, an engineer from Stara Glass received an award for his presentation – which was judged to be the best because it highlighted a problem and potential solutions.
Giorgio Minestrini from Stara Glass won the award for best presentation at the recently-held Furnace Solutions event. Minestrini won the Michael Garvey Award for his paper Primary Techniques for NOx containment for a More Sustainable Glass Industry. Minestrini said: “I would like to dedicate this award to all of us in the glass scientific community because I think that no one can work alone and thanks to the work of all of us the glass industry can achieve higher and higher results.”
The Furnace Solutions event is organised by the UK Society of Glass Technology’s Melting Technical Committee (MTC). MTC Chairman Nigel Longshaw said: “It was a paper that stood out because it highlighted a problem and potential solutions but he was honest enough to say there are other solutions available. We’re keen on these types of problem-solving papers rather than a paper that tries to sell us something.”
A total of 87 people attended the two-day event held in Lucideon, Stoke-on-Trent 6 and 7 June. Visitors came from Japan, the US and Costa Rica as well as several European countries and included glassmakers, glass technology suppliers and associations. They had the chance to listen to seven papers on the opening Training Day and eight conference papers on day two.
Longshaw added: “It has been a stimulating two days. Everybody has enjoyed it and everybody has got something from it. One of the things that was said was that the industry should be sending young engineers on these training courses and not people in their late 40s and older. Young people need to know the history of the technology but are not being exposed to it. That can only be led from the top. Young people should be encouraged to learn from the people here who have had the experience of working in the glass industry for years.”
Conference papers were presented by Sefpro, Stara Glass, Glass Service (Czech Repubilc), Air Products, Luft Und Thermotechnik Bayreuth, FIC UK, Sorg and Ametek Land.
Glassmakers attending included Stolzle Flaconnage, Nippon Electric Glass, Ardagh, Bormioli Luigi, Vicesa and Guardian Industries.