Glass Articles
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Andy Cocker, director at Kent-based Slenderline Glass, discusses the opportunities presented by conservation areas using its range of heritage sealed units. Businesses look to expand into new markets to increase their revenue streams and win new business. Despite the growing number of products specifically designed to meet the needs of the sector, many businesses hesitate to explore conservation areas because...
As glass becomes more prolific in the built environment, Phil Brown, European regulatory marketing manager at Pilkington UK, discusses how sunlight exposure can cause the colours of fabrics, paints and other materials to fade over time – and outlines what measures glaziers can take to help prevent it. The growing accessibility of advanced glazing with thermal insulation and solar control...
Phil Brown, European regulatory marketing manager at Pilkington UK, explains how a European standard changes the best practice approach to specifying glass in lifts. Glass lifts can create an eye-catching focal point in modern building designs. As well as providing a panoramic view, they must, of course, meet essential functional demands such as safety and loadbearing capability. A new British...
Chris Alderson, managing director of Edgetech, explains how automation is already changing the way fenestration businesses operate. We’re living through the rise of the machines. There were 1.9 million industrial robots in the world in 2014, according to US think-tank the Brookings Institute. By 2020, that’s expected to have risen to almost 3 million. Everywhere you look, businesses and industries...
Mackenzie Glass acquired Pilkington Bristol from NSG on December 1, 2017. Glass Times editor Nathan Bushell met the managing directors of both firms, and Cornwall Glass and Glazing, to discuss the route to partnership. The acquisition of Pilkington Bristol by Mackenzie Glass at the end of last year wasn’t a straightforward deal for either party, especially since the merchanting business...
Dave Broxton MD argues that industry needs to step up and set its own course in addressing the skills gap. At the start of this year the government faced growing pressure to implement a radical rethink of its apprenticeships strategy after a 27% fall in the number taking up trainee posts in the last quarter of 2017. The apprenticeships levy...
On the back of a year that saw Thermoseal win numerous awards – including Export Champion of the Year in the Amazon Growing Business Awards, the Queen’s Award for Enterprise (International Trade 2017), and the Derek Bonnard Award for Excellence at the G-Awards – head of marketing and communications Samantha Hill discusses the company’s current export business plans. Manufacturing and...
Laminate glass has grown in popularity in recent years, thanks to its security credentials and design flexibility. Glass Times editor Nathan Bushell visited Unilam Machinery’s directors David Hargrave and Nolan Millard to discuss the opportunities for glass processing companies. Unilam is no stranger to laminated glass, having been a major supplier of resins and laminate glass products since the 1980s....
Phil Brown, European regulatory marketing manager at Pilkington UK, discusses the facts behind self-cleaning glass. It was 16 years ago that Pilkington Activ became the first commercially available self-cleaning glass. Since then, we’ve sold more than 10 million square metres of it, which is enough to cover the football pitch at Wembley 1,380 times. The advanced glass is popular for...
Dave Broxton MD argues that the UK’s regional commercial markets continue to offer significant areas of opportunity. The market for commercial office fit out has been on a firmly upward trajectory. Strong growth rates were associated with high levels of demand, which, in turn, saw activity reach record high levels in regional markets alongside the capital. This has wiped away...
Despite the recent surge in interest in development and use of laminated glass, be it manufactured using foils or liquid composites, laminated glass itself is not a new invention, as Chris Davis, composites manager at Kommerling, explains. The first laminated glass was, like so many inventions and discoveries, an accident; working in his laboratory in 1903, French chemist Edouard Benedictus...
Phil Savage, head of UK processing sales at Pilkington UK, outlines the opportunities for supplying advanced glazing as UK cities expand and grow taller. Skylines across the UK are in flux: London is being redefined with an abundance of new and ambitious building projects; and in 2016, it was reported that 436 towers of 20 floors or more were in...
While the three owners at Onlevel might seem like a rather odd bunch, Gary Dean explains the philosophy of the unorthodox start-up. When I decided to take that leap to create my own company with two other former business leaders in Europe it did raise some eyebrows. Some certainly thought I was mad to leave the safe world of the...
Glass Times reports on how Cornwall Glass is closing the skills gap through a training partnership with Exeter College. At a round table event hosted by Bohle in London last year. discussion covered a myriad of different topics from product innovation to Brexit – but the one that delegates returned to time and time again was the skills gap. It...
With the myriad of glass types available now, it is often confusing what to choose in terms of safety, thermal and solar performance and balancing cost with the benefits on offer for overhead glazing. Richard Burgess, managing director of Lonsdale Metal Company, shares his experience. Above all, safety is the critical factor in overhead glazing and the summary below summarises...
An IGU might be an essential part of a window, door or conservatory but actually, the flat glass industry is a quite distinct sector, with glass far more than just another component. A new exhibition plans to reflect that. Glass Times reports. It was just over a decade ago that replacement windows were brought under the auspices of the Building...
As another year draws to a close, those in the glass and glazing industry will be looking ahead to 2018 and the trends they need to be aware of. From new energy-saving products to investment in training, manufacturers and suppliers will have a number of opportunities and challenges to embrace. Phil Brown, European regulatory marketing manager at Pilkington UK, shares...
The skills gap has been cited as the major threat to productivity in the glass processing sector. Dave Broxton discusses the part that suppliers can play in addressing it. More than two out of three employers are being affected by a shortage of skilled workers, with three out of five reporting that the skills gap is impacting negatively on productivity....
After more than 30 years in the industry Gary Dean left the corporate warmth of an international business and set out on his own. One year on he tells Glass Times about his past, his present and his visions for the future. I have been around the glass industry all my life. My dad started as an apprentice glass cutter...
2017 has been a standout year for Slenderline Glass, according to director Andy Cocker. If it wasn’t enough for Slenderline to now account for 50% of our parent group’s total production, we needed to increase the size of our manufacturing facility and invest in new machinery to keep up with the incredible demand. Launched as a stand-alone business by parent...