A research and development center will be the centerpiece of a new facility at the Owens-Illinois, Inc. global headquarters in Perrysburg, Ohio. Melting and forming glass; product innovation and prototyping are core priorities.
A research and development center capable of melting and forming glass in a small-scale manufacturing environment will be the centerpiece of a new facility at the Owens-Illinois, Inc., (NYSE: OI) global headquarters in Perrysburg, Ohio. This new R&D center, which O-I announced today, will help advance new concepts and qualify emerging technologies that could revolutionize glass melting and forming.
In the future, the center will include the ability to prototype product innovations, like the company’s recently launched VersaFlow jar—part of the Versa platform of food packages—and the Vortex bottle.
This R&D center is one component of O-I’s plans to invest in process and product innovation efforts. Today’s announcement reflects a three-year, 35 million USD investment. Since 2008, investments exceeding 30 million USD have yielded more than 25,000 square feet of research and development training laboratories in the glass container industry, and spurred the release of next generation manufacturing and inspection equipment.
O-I plans to break ground on the 18,000 square-foot facility in the fourth quarter of 2012, and targets completion in late 2013. The facility will be funded, in part, by a 3 million USD grant offer from the Ohio Third Frontier Commission, which O-I announced in June 2012. The center will result in the creation of 45 jobs in basic sciences, engineering and technical disciplines over several years.