Clearview National April 2016 - Issue 173 | Page 120

MACHINERY

EXPAND AND GROW WARM EDGE PRODUCTION
»»WESTCOUNTRY GLASS, PART OF
the Cornwall Glass Group, has made its
largest investment in 37 years of trading. The
insulated glass (IG) sealed unit manufacturer,
previously located in Saltash, has now
relocated to its new factory in Plymouth.
The new building is four times the size of its
previous site.
The new factory was officially opened by
Lord Mayor of Plymouth, Councillor Dr John
Mahony, who cut the opening ribbon with
Westcountry Glass company director, Mark
Norcliffe.
The new building houses a range of
state-of-the-art equipment including a new
toughening plant and CNC processor, an
AG-Series Gapless Forced Connection Glass
Tempering Furnace, an Intermac CNC
Master 33, automated concertina racks and
two new jumbo Intermac cutting tables; one
for laminated glass and the other for float
(monolithic) glass.
In addition, there is a new Bystronic IG
Line with first production on Thermobar
Warm Edge Spacer from Thermoseal Group.

This line will produce up to 2700 x 5000mm
size units, double and triple glazed.
An investment approaching £5million has
been allocated to this ambitious project, with
the anticipation over the next 24 months of
creating an additional 40 jobs to add to the
Group’s current total workforce of 240.
Much time, effort and research was spent
visiting machinery manufacturers in Romania,
Italy, Spain, Ireland, China, along with
visiting many like-minded and kindly UK

glass processors and IG manufacturers, before
the key purchasing decisions were made. The
whole project was planned and implemented
over a tight but momentum fuelled 12-month
period.
Aside from this milestone investment,
the Group’s other two major manufacturing
sites (St Austell, Cornwall and Highbridge,
Somerset) have made substantial investments
in Waterjet cutting, Straight Line Edgers
processing and Sealed Unit Lines.
Louise Oldham, marketing manager at
the Cornwall Glass and Glazing Group, said:
“Thermoseal Group is our preferred and
trusted partner in all matters IGU related,
our close relationship with Colin Cook, our
regional sales manager from Thermoseal,
is much valued and we look forward to
developing the relationship for many years to
come, continuing to use and promote a very
wide portfolio of products.”
Company Director, Mark Norcliffe, said,
“The new expansion will see Westcountry
Glass’ delivery routes go up the M5 corridor
and across the M4.”

Earning ‘responsible
sourcing’ certification

»»GUARDIAN INDUSTRIES
UK Ltd has earned the coveted
BES 6001 accreditation for
its responsible sourcing of
materials.
The Building Research
Establishments (BRE) BES 6001
certification assesses how well
companies operate within
strict standards of supply chain
management and environmental and
social responsibility when managing
relationships with suppliers.

Specifically, it acknowledges
the “Responsible Sourcing of
Construction Products.”
Guardian secured accreditation
in late December 2015.
“Having the BES 6001
certification not only shows
Guardian to be a responsible
company that cares for the
environment,” noted Steven
Scrivens, marketing manager for
Guardian Glass UK & Ireland,
“but it also helps it to stand out
amongst its competitors.
“We worked with both British
Glass and with BRE to help them
to better understand the glass
and glazing industry and how
the standard could be applied to
address this construction product
in the supply chain.”

120 » APR 2016 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M

Various sustainability
assessment methodologies,
including the BRE Environmental
Assessment Method (BREEAM)
recognise responsible sourcing,
which counts toward the credits
required to assess the code level
of a building. BREEAM is the
leading and most widely used
environmental assessment method
for buildings and communities.
It sets the standard for best
practice in sustainable design and
has become the de facto measure
used to describe a building’s
environmental performance.
Architects and specifiers ask for
this accreditation as they apply for
the buildings they develop to be
assessed by BREEAM. Having BES
6001-accredited building products

provides additional credits that
are necessary to achieve the
higher levels of performance.
A higher BREEAM score also
can make their building more
marketable.

‘stand out amongst
competitors’
The BES standard requires an
organisation to demonstrate good
management of transport impacts,
greenhouse gas emissions, and the
impact on employment and the
local community. And the holder
also must show that it engages
with its own supply-chain partners
to deliver sustainable policies of
their own.