Ring Swabbing is one of the most difficult jobs on an I.S. machine. In the days of slow running 5 & 6 section machines, the lubrication of rings was reasonably straightforward.

Now in the new millennium, with most of the large glass companies standardizing on 10 & 12 section -- double/triple and quad gob machines, the task of swabbing rings on these very fast running machines has become infinitely more difficult.

The degree of accuracy with which you can swab the inside rings on a triple or quad is very limited indeed. To make this task easier on modern machines with electronic timing, a swab cycle has been introduced.

This allows the operator to go through the swabbing cycle without the gob coming into the blank. A lot of glass plants do not use this facility for swabbing blanks/baffles but do use the swab cycle for more accurate ring lubrication. This factor, along with the widespread use of cupro-alloy rings, has brought about a change in the way glass companies are looking at ring swabbing products.

To accommodate the changes taking place in the glass industry, specifically ring swabbing, TOTAL's research and development staff have developed various ring dopes for many different processes.

Click on the product name for the Technical Data Sheet. Click on the "MSDS" link in the product description for the MSDS sheet. Both sheets are pdf files. If needed, download the Acrobat reader software here.