Glaston Bavelloni is a 65-year old company that specializes in glass processing machinery and tools. Through continuous innovation, it has maintained its market position. In response to increasing rare earth element prices, which are important components in glass processing, Glaston Bavelloni developed new polishing wheels called XtraShine that do not require rare earth elements and provide savings for customers.

1. Developments
Glaston Bavelloni: 79
quality, innovation
and eco-sustainability
We all speak about
experience, but not
many companies
can say that they
have more than
50 years of history
– let alone 65! In
this article,
Glaston Bavelloni
gives us an idea of
how the company
has been able to
maintain and grow
its market position
and
competitiveness
over the years,
thanks to
continuous
improvement and
innovation of its
products, along
with the ability to
respond and
anticipate clients’
and market needs.

2. Glaston Bavelloni:
quality, innovation
and eco-sustainability
T
HE COMPANY AND ITS
80 PRODUCTION
During its 65-year history, Glaston
Bavelloni has invested considerably in
R&D activities dedicated to technologies for the
glass industry, by designing and manufacturing
innovative products that contribute strongly in
strengthening its expertise in the field, and that
are a benchmark for tool manufacturers today.
Each and every tool is engineered to operate
perfectly with the machine it is dedicated to,
either Bavelloni brand or other manufacturers’,
with the purpose of obtaining the finishing
required by customers.
This strategy has driven continuous improve-
ment and innovation of tools, aiming at higher
productivity and quality of finished products a very sensitive issue for the glass industry,
thanks to the winning machine/tool combination. which has seriously troubled glass processors in
The experience of Glaston Bavelloni in the the last months: the conitunously increasing
diamond tooling field goes back to 1946, when prices of Rare Earth.
the company Z. Bavelloni pioneered the produc-
tion of diamond tools for metal working first, Rare Earth
followed by rapidly expanding to the glass Rare Earth is used in many industrial applica-
industry. A few years later, the company entered tions and markets: electronic goods, automo-
the flat glass processing machine sector. tive, weapon systems, and glass of course, to the
The successful experience built up in the extent that many Governments consider Rare
design of machinery and tooling integration Earth as a strategic resource.
makes Glaston Bavelloni a unique and reliable Rare Earth came under the spotlight after
partner for improvement of production efficien- China, which produces 95 per cent of the world’s
cy and costs reduction, supporting customer total output, started to reduce exports. The official
through the entire product life cycle. explanation given to production cuts is the safe-
Competitiveness and market position are guard of the environment since Rare Earth extrac-
reinforced by a comprehensive product portfo- tion has a severe environmental impact. The
lio which covers a wide range of applications, Asian Giant has tight regulations on its own pol-
and capability of responding to customers’ luting Rare Earth sector as part of a programme to
needs in full. Glaston Bavelloni’s product range clean up mines. Many expect China’s Rare Earth
features the widest commercial programme for production to fall, as a result.
diamond and polishing tools available in the mar- A gravity-defying leap in Rare Earth quota-
ket today. tions caused fears for the cost of components.
Strategy revision process carried on in the Industrial operators were in shock after witness-
macro-economic environment of the last years, ing the price of Cerium Oxide jumping 700 per
marked by uncertainty and increased complexi- cent in 18 months amid falling supplies.
ty, boosted Glaston Bavelloni’s aim in finding
and providing new solutions in favour of cus- Cerium Oxide
tomers, sticking to the Bavelloni brand’s tradi- Cerium Oxide is traditionally used in the
tional key values of quality, innovation and cus- glass industry in the form of liquid slurry made
tomer orientation. by mixing cerium oxide powder and water to
obtain optimum polishing quality. It is the most
IDENTIFYING SOLUTIONS IN RESPONSE efficient polishing material for glass and, as
TO MARKET NEEDS known, customers have to equip machines with
The attention to identify solutions for market ad-hoc cerium water tanks, provide regular
needs encouraged Glaston Bavelloni to consider machine clean up and cerium slurry waste treat-
Glass-Technology International 1/2012
w w w . g l a s s o n l i n e . c o m

3. ment, which imply compliance with complex engineered to be used without
and costly activities due to increasingly strin- traditional cerium slurry, under 81
gent labour and environmental regulations. low working pressure and with the
Moreover, Cerium Oxide is used as a main use of water only. XtraShine works on
component in the production of cerium impreg- both straight line and double edging
nated wheels on the market today. machines, in the last polishing station, in the
As a final consequence, the rise in raw mate- place of felt wheels or rubber cerium wheels.
rial costs forced operational costs of glass XtraShine has been conceived to combine an
processors up, who reacted looking for alterna- unrivalled polishing quality, extraordinary lifes-
tive solutions with other polishing materials pan with very attractive pricing. Technicians and
such as chromium and manganese oxides, iron customers who used XtraShine over the long
oxide, less performing and safer compared to engineering and testing phase, have expressed
CEO2, or low cost polishing wheels which com- their satisfaction and defined the wheel as a real
promise the quality of the final products. breakthrough in polishing applications.
Several glass processors have already
XtraShine and ExtraEdge replaced liquid cerium solution and convention-
Glaston Bavelloni has focused its efforts in al rubber cerium wheels with XtraShine, with
developing a more efficient solution aiming at a the consequent benefit of significant savings.
superior polishing quality at a reasonable cost, If used as per recommended parameters,
without depending on the Rare Earth price trend XtraShine delivers brilliant mirror finish, consis-
and worrying about environmental issues. tent quality throughout its working life, to satisfy
Quality, innovation and eco-sustainability high-end quality requirements and most demand-
were the values around which Glaston Bavelloni ing customers. Moreover, it requires only short
built XtraShine, the new polishing wheel intro- break-in time, resists glazing and does not
duced at Vitrum 2011 in Milan, in combination require redressing. It comes with a rigid plastic
with the new range of straight line machines backing hub with central bores of 70 millimetres,
Hiyon, and the double edging line XtraEdge. with other bore dimensions as per request.
The XtraShine wheel is a proprietary unique Potential savings for end users are easily
composition of various compounds and agents, understandable, taking into account Cerium
Oxide prices. Moreover, XtraShine avoids the
need for a number of costly activities such as
stock, slurry preparation and machine cleanup,
which involve costs and resources that a
company might use to reinforce its compet-
itive position via innovative and eco-
friendly solutions. ■
Glaston Italy Spa - Bavelloni
Via Milano 93
22070 Bregnano (CO) - Italy
Tel: +39 – 031 – 728311
Fax: +39 – 031 – 7286358
E-mail: info.italy@glaston.net
www.glaston.net