Cracking the glass code: Lightweighting tech for Diageo’s Johnnie Walker bottle uncovered

10 Nov 2021 --- Three major glass industry players are set to begin virtual trials on a coating technology they say could enable lightweighting while retaining 100% strength and shape in glass bottles.

Dassault Systèmes, Ardagh Group and Exxergy will join forces in January 2022 to investigate the technology’s applicability on Diageo’s Johnnie Walker bottle. If successful, they claim it could prove pivotal in reducing glass production’s environmental footprint. 

The trial will research and develop a new external coating for the Johnnie Walker bottle to reduce the micro-cracks in the glass surface, which will allow the glass to be much lighter while maintaining its strength.

Luxembourg-based Ardagh Group, a global supplier in glass packaging solutions, will work with German consulting firm Exxergy to research and develop the coatings. 

Meanwhile, French software company Dassault Systèmes will provide contract research services using its solutions from Biovia – a chemical, materials and bioscience research subsidiary – to create a nanoscale virtual twin of the coatings, simulate their interaction with the surface of the glass, and test their efficacy. 

Lightweighting the glass sector’s footprint 
Glass lightweighting is one of the solutions for reducing the glass sector’s carbon emissions impact in both the manufacturing of the bottle and transportation of the finished goods. 

Glass production takes a heavy toll on energy consumption globally. A 2019 study on life cycle assessment databases found that despite glass’ high recycling rates, glass beverage bottles have a higher environmental impact than plastic ones. 

This impact is due, in part, to the weight and space used in transporting products globally. Additionally, the heat used in melting down sand to produce glass is immense. According to the International Energy Agency, the container and flat glass industries emit over 60 megatons of carbon emissions per year – more than the annual emissions of Portugal. The coating will work to lightweight glass by covering micro-cracks on the surface.

Finding a method of lightweighting glass while maintaining its strength and shape properties could be a “major breakthrough” for virtual twin technology in supporting the environmental sustainability ambitions of the glass industry and enabling the decarbonization of the sector as a whole, says the collaboration. 

Coating over the cracks 
While details of how the coating technology works have not yet been revealed, all three members of the collaboration are expressing excitement about the project's potential for boosting digitalization in industry and cutting glass material usage. 

Florence Verzelen, executive vice president, industry, marketing and sustainability at Dassault Systèmes, says there is a growing urgency to change industry’s ways of production and consumption. “We need to rethink everything and dare to imagine the boldest [environmental] sustainability initiatives,” she comments. 

“Using Dassault Systèmes’ virtual twin technology, companies can design and simulate radically different new sustainable materials, products and processes in record time. They can be right, but also sustainable the first time.” 

A virtual twin is a real-time digital representation of a product or process used to model and predict behavior before physical trials. This representation further reduces the materials needed in traditional testing. 

John Sadlier, chief sustainability officer at Ardagh Group, comments: “Ardagh Group has pioneered the lightweighting of glass and as a leading global supplier of infinitely recyclable, sustainable metal and glass packaging, we have a responsibility to respond to the sustainability challenges we all face.” 

“Together with our customers and supply chain partners, we are eager to explore the potential of digitalization to drive new and innovative lightweighting solutions.”

Earlier in the year, Diageo revealed its involvement in a successful pilot project to pioneer the lowest carbon footprint glass bottles “ever produced” for a Scotch whisky brand.

In related news, AB InBev unveiled what it claims to be the world’s lightest longneck glass beer bottle for commercial production.

By Louis Gore-Langton