Project Details

Arglass, an American firm born to disrupt the traditional glass industry, is a joint venture partnership between Japan-based Nihon Yamamura Glass Co., Ltd and Cambium Arglass. They contracted with Evans General Contractors on the design-build, turn-key delivery, of their first U.S. glass container plant located on approximately 75 acres in Valdosta, Georgia. This campus project featured a 437,940 sf multi-level manufacturing facility, a 10,626 sf rail-served multi-level mezzanine batch plant with silos, and a 300 sf single-story gatehouse. Along with the design and construction of these 3 buildings, Evans also provided the installation oversight for the following systems: an elevated hot end melting furnace, all cold end equipment, process conveyance and sorting systems between batch plant and manufacturing facility, GA Power 115KV substation, oxygen plant, central process water plant, pelletizing, and packaging lines, as well as integration of RTO.

The manufacturing facility features a 95’ tall production hall that houses a 20’ elevated Oxy-fuel furnace and glass molds, quality control and inspection areas, sorting and palletizing areas for glass bottles, a decoration and storage building, and office area for production and sales staff. The design coordination with multiple process equipment providers from across the globe, including Germany and Switzerland, was facilitated by Evans in order to ensure the manufacturing facility was designed and built to meet the dynamic requirements needed.

Connected to the manufacturing facility via a covered elevated conveyor bridge spanning 75’ above plant level is the fully automated batch plant that includes a basement for the collection of raw materials. These materials are accepted from a dedicated rail spur with direct access to the CSX main line or via tractor dumps from over the road trucks and transported in hoppers through bucket elevators to silos located within the batch plant. Future expansion to double the production from both the rail and over the road trucks was provided in the design by way of additional hopper pits.

Both inbound and outbound trucking enter through fully automated gate systems with ability to be weighed and inspected using the scale installed onsite. Employee access to the 24-7 facility utilizes card reader access with automated gate arms that allow for quick employee shift changes.

In terms of sustainability, Evans designed a closed loop industrial water system to process and cool water used in the plant. Above ground storage tanks were designed and built for the process water, which allowed for water recycling through a series of under slab trenches that collected process water throughout the facility. The plant uses 100% recycled water consumption and 82% less NOx emissions than other regional glass plants.

This project not only signifies the first new glass plant to be built in America in a generation, but its existence reduces the need to import glass bottles from overseas glass plants and incorporates the latest glass forming technology and cutting-edge environmental controls for a reduced environmental footprint. Daily capacity is 365 metric tons with the capability of producing and automatically packaging up to six different high-quality glass container designs simultaneously or up to 265 million units of glass products a year.