Clearview National June 2016 - Issue 175 | Page 63
GLASS&SEALEDUNITS
£1.5 MILLION INVESTMENT PROGRAMME
»»GLASSOLUTIONS HAS
strengthened its position as one of the
UK’s leading glass tougheners with the
completion of its £1.5 million capacityboosting investment programme at its Dudley
factory.
As one of the company’s two specialist
toughening plants, the Dudley factory serves
domestic sealed unit customers across England
and Wales with the full range of toughened
Planitherm low-e and float glass products.
Following this latest investment programme
to increase production efficiency and enhance
product quality, the plant is ideally placed
to serve the growing demand for toughened
products with an additional 50% capacity.
The plant investment programme is
the largest in the factory’s 18 years under
Glassolutions ownership, and focused on three
key areas. Firstly, a new automated Hegla glass
loader ensures the plant’s cutting tables are fed
more quickly and reliably with the 20m2 float
glass sheets which are delivered daily.
Once cut to size, a new LISEC vertical
compact grinding machine ensures the glass
is precision arrissed, after which the glass is
fed into a new Firejet furnace. These largely
automated processes reduce the need for
manual handling to provide a safer working
environment for personnel and higher
consistency of product.
The new furnace toughens glass sheets in a
super-efficient way, taking just a few minutes
to transform the glass into a permanently
toughened product. In addition to being
environmentally superior to the machine it
replaced, thanks to 30% less energy usage, the
new furnace enables the company to maintain
higher quality levels with a lower risk of glass
imperfections and fewer re-makes.
Adam Taylor, Head of Marketing at
Glassolutions said: “Our investment is a
sign of our confidence in the strength of
the UK toughened glass market, and it’s
fantastic to have the new plant up and
running only a few months after the green
light was given. The plant is now superbly
equipped and this has enabled us to set
ourselves ambitious quality and delivery
reliability targets to ensure we continue
to lead the domestic toughened glass
market.”
Glassolutions is the UK’s lar gest processor
and toughener of the Planitherm series of
glass products which are extensively used in
the manufacture of domestic sealed units,
and key to achieving the highest Window
Energy Ratings (WERs). In addition to
its Dudley plant, the company produces
toughened glass products for the domestic
market at Portsmouth, and manufactures
sealed units at plants in Motherwell,
Coventry, Canterbury and Peterborough.
www.glassolutions.co.uk
glass craft
performance & quality sealed in
Kitemark® Licence
No. KM 574876
BSI accredited sealed units with Integral Blinds
Call us today for a competitive quote
Glasscraft Unit 1 Navigation Park Lockside Rd Leeds LS10 1EP
t. 0113 271 1400 f. 0113 271 1405 e. [email protected]
www.glasscraftglass.com
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