Development of organic-inorganic coatings for strength-preserving of glassbottles

An amino-epoxy-silane based coating system (GAMAL) for glass surfaces was d eveloped, which can efficiently protect bottles from the damages of a bottl ing plant. Testing bottles with a ramp pressure tester show an identical va lue of about (40 +/- 4) bar for conventionally hot- and cold-end coated bot tles and bottles coated with the developed organic-inorganic composite (GAM AL) system. After already 2 min of wet line-simulation testing, all species of a conventionally coated probe fall short of the critical limit of 16 ba r, whereas bottles coated with GAMAL (thickness about 7 pm) show a value of (21 +/- 3) bar. Coating is possible by dip and spray application on cold o r hot (80 degreesC) substrates, the coating is cured at 120 degreesC for 5 to 10 min. Additional functions such as colour or UV protection can be adde d easily, without reduction of the protection potential. The low content of carbon (about 0.5 g per 11 soft drink bottle) should not disturb the recyc ling process of such coated bottles.