The glass making process uses state of the art equipment to cool and shape molten glass into a desired form. This process starts out at the batch house, where raw materials arrive via truck or rail, are carefully inspected, and then elevated into the proper storage silos. The raw materials are weighed and sent to the mixer, which is located just above the furnace. Cullet, or recycled glass, is introduced to the mixture and composes 15% to 55% of the batch. The batch mixture is then transported by either a horizontal conveyor belt or monorail train to the furnace.

The furnace consists of three main parts: the melter, the refiner, and the forehearth. The batch is fed into the furnace at the same rate as it is pulled out of the feeder. As it travels through the furnace at an average temperature of more than 2,300 degrees, its depth of around 4 or 5 ft must be maintained to within 0.01 of an inch. Furnaces can range in size from 450 to more than 1,400 square feet of melter surface. With the help of gravity, the molten glass flows through the refiner out along the forehearth, where it is carefully cooled to a temperature and desired viscosity before reaching the feeder.

Once to this position, the molten glass flows through a hole in the bottom of the feeder. The amount of molten glass allowed through the feeder is controlled by a ceramic plunger, which is timed with a shearing device that cuts the glass flow as it exits the feeder. The shearing creates a specific amount of molten glass, known as a gob, which will be formed into individual containers. The gob now travels down to the Individual Section Machine (I.S. machine).

Each machine can have anywhere from 4 to 20 sections, each capable of producing 1 to 4 bottles simultaneously. The gob drops into the blank side mould, which produces a hollow and partially formed container, known as a parison. From here, manufactures have three different types of forming processes to choose from, depending on the type of container being produced.

The three processes are Blow & Blow, Wide Mouth Press & Blow, and Narrow Neck Press & Blow. During the Blow & Blow process, compressed air forces the molten gob into a partially formed container in the black side of the forming machine. the Press & Blow processes use a metal plunger to shape the gob, allowing for manufactures to increase the overall productivity and reduce weight and variations in the thickness of beer and beverage bottles. The parison is now inverted over to the blow mould, where compressed air blows the container into it's final shape.

Once released from the moulds, the bottles then cross the cooling plate where the temperature drops to around 900 degrees. They are then loaded into the annealing lehr, which brings the temperature back up to near melting point, then slowly reduces the temperature to below 900 degrees. This process, along with hot and cold end sprays, relieves stresses caused by the rapid cooling and produces stronger, more shock resistant containers.

While traveling on to their final destination, the containers pass through a number of instruments which optically and physically test the containers for defects. The rejected bottles are sent back as cullet, ready to start the process all over again. The remaining bottles continue on their journey to their eager customers.